Blog

House vs Home

Are you house-focused or home-focused?

Seasons of Life

Have you planned for every season of your life?

Corporate Name Change

What’s in a name?

How’s Your Blood Pressure?

How do you really know that you're financially healthy? Are you relying on machine outcomes or manual outcomes?

Perspective

It’s important to look back for a perspective, but don’t get stuck in the past – Move forward. If you don’t, you’re moving backward.

Giving & Receiving Gratitude

May I share a forty-year-old story of gratitude? 

A Thanksgiving Message

Mark’s thoughts for this Thanksgiving

Recycled Advice

Are you getting tired of the same old advice like I am without an explanation as to the ‘how’?

A Message for Men* (*Women too)

Life – It’s a numbers game. What are your numbers?

Does your Financial Plan have Cataracts?

You may be surprised to know that we test you for things you’re not even thinking about today.

Bill Audits

YIKES! Don’t assume the numbers are always correct. You wouldn’t want this surprise.

Bridges vs. Commodities

What do the old Wettstein’s Appliance, Jack Robbinson’s, and Ray Hudson’s Chevrolet have in common? 

The Power of Trade-Offs: A Reflection on Choices and Impact

Trade-offs. Would you like to know ours?

The Trade-Off, Trade-Up, Trade-In or No Trade

How are car purchases made – emotions or math?

Trade-Offs, Your Biggest Asset

Are you worth less than your car? Ouch! Let’s do the math.

The Death Trade-Off

Do you win by having a boatload of money at death or by dying penniless? 

Making Money vs Trading an Asset

Are you working hard or working smart?

What Will Annoy Mark Bertrang Today? A Lot About Money!

You’ve already paid for the flight. Now, you also have to pay for the seat?

Are You Giving?

Are you embracing the power of Thankfulness?

10-Year Warranty

When do you call a repairman in retirement?

Peer Pressure

We all want to be in the cool group of kids, right?

The Bank

Do you deposit or rent your money?

The Effects of Influencers

Do you limit your life’s view through a toilet roll tube?

FAITH

If you are a person of faith, then you realize there is an additional element to consider with your money. How might faith play into your resources?

Pensions

Mistakes can be made. Don’t make them with a pension.

Legal, Contracts, Your Attorney

What contracts exist in your life?

Don’t Be a Bird

Are you chasing or are you being chased?

Social Security Questions

Could you be making a 30-year mistake?

Health Insurance Agent

How healthy is your medical insurance plan?

Disability Insurance Agent

If you can’t work, the money stops. Now what?

Crazy Cousin Carl

We all have one. Who is your “Crazy Cousin Carl”?

Umbrella Liability Protection

Want to see a goofy photo of Mark?

Automobile Insurance

How does your auto insurance affect your financial life?

Homeowner’s Insurance

How does your homeowner’s insurance agent factor into your overall financial life?

Introduction – The Financialoscopy Twenty-Five Cards

Money, Wealth, and Rate of Return?  Is that the only thing?

How Do I Get My Money To Last?

Don’t be forced to return to work.

0% - Financing - Really?!?

What might a 0% loan cost you?

Meat, Potatoes & Beer

Dietary Requirements for a healthy financial life; what are yours?

What is your Plan B?

You are your greatest asset. Your health is paramount to that asset. If that asset for you or your spouse is lost or diminishes, what is your Plan B?

Bottom Line, It Depends

Should you finance your car? It’s not as simple as Dave Ramsey would have you believe.

Are you “Health” prepared?

How are you preparing for yourself and for your spouse?

Annual Returns Gone Bad

Do you want to buy into this Kick-Butt investment?  Probably not, once you see the actual returns.

What is Good Service?

What did you learn the last time you went out to eat?

Expanded Searches

So much content! It's now easier to find what you’re looking for on the Financialoscopy website. 

Garbage In, Garbage Out

Yes, you are what you ‘eat’; but you are also what you ‘think’.

Why I am so thankful for you

We did the numbers and this is what we discovered.

Wine & Money

The complexity of a fine wine is similar to the complexity of understanding money. In either case, sour grapes are problematic. 

Whole Life Policy Loans

How can money be in two places at the same time?

Does your plan have teeth?

Will your plan come tumbling down?

Small Print

Do you read all of the small print?

Expiration Dates

Yeah, money is important; but what about “life” time? 

Mark’s Index Cards

We all have to work with the cards dealt to us in life.  How will you play your hand?

Whole Life Adaptability

Let me show you how to “plug in” to Whole Life Adaptability. 

Let’s build your Accountability Successes

To build your successes, you first need to be accountable to yourself; are you?

Slow and Purposeful

It’s time to pop the cork!

Don’t Leave your fruit on the vine.

How do you squeeze the most “juice” out of life?

Art and the Science of Math

Do you live in a world with a calculator in one hand and your life in another?

Your Song of Significance

A generation from now, will someone remember your Song of Significance? 

The Flight Delay Effect

So, you think that your retirement plans are set?

What does the Financialoscopy team do?

We have a poop emoji stamp and we know how to use it!

Social Security Small Print

Have you actually read your annual Social Security Statement?

Don’t Trust Me

Do you verify what’s being said?

How do banks make money?

With higher interest rates everywhere, let’s visit again on how banks make money.

The Dumb Tax

Let’s discuss the rush of dumb dopamine.

Glove-Up

“Oh No, It’s the glove!”

M&Ms

What happens when there’s a mistake made in the operating room?

When Can I Get Out?

Are you trapped in a job you can’t wait to get out of?

Gratitude

What unexpected gifts do you receive from gratitude?

Actuarial Science

Could you die with too much money or live with too little?

Mark’s Favorite Swear Word

What word do you mumble under your breath? 

Wantrepreneur

Self-Employment is not the same as Entrepreneurship. 

Pupil Dilation

Be like Huey Lewis – “The future is so bright you just have to wear shades.”

Pizza and Your Financial Life

Frozen, Home Delivery, Take-n-Bake, or from Scratch?  If your financial life were a pizza, what would it be?

Be A Leader

What does it take to be a leader?

The Three-Legged Stool Lie

How did reality change what my college courses taught? 

Like Toilet Paper, Projections are Good for a One-Time Use

What do toilet paper and projections have in common?

How Do You Show Up?

Some people show up ready, some don’t, which are you?

What are the odds?

Do you ever feel like you’re playing traffic roulette?

After Claiming Your Independence

Life takes more than simply claiming your independence.

Lessons from the Sprinkler Dudes

Are missed adjustments burning you financially? 

Financial Battle Deployment

What’s your battle plan?

Self-Honesty

Can you handle the truth?

Immediate Annuities

What exactly IS an Immediate Annuity?

Family CEO

Organize your family budget like a corporation and run it like a business.

Is your Goose Cooked?

People spend all their time worrying about their golden eggs and little time planning for what happens if the goose stops laying those precious eggs.

The One Thing

How can you make your life easier and more focused with just one question?

Building Your Happiness

Is your happiness centered upon numbers?

Accountability Coaches

If you could achieve success by doing it on your own, wouldn’t you have done it by yourself already?

Do you check your statements?

This almost cost me six dollars.

I know what I’m doing

Sometimes the obvious isn’t that obvious.

Free Stuff

Help us deliver Free Stuff.

Real & Not Real

Are all permanent life insurance policies actually permanent? 

Retirement Toner Cartridges

What do you do when your retirement toner cartridges are on empty?

Bank Failure

What are Bank Reserve Requirements? 

Stop, Drop, & Roll

Don’t be scammed! 

Strings Attached

Some of your largest assets, have strings attached.

Working or Not Working?

Here are two important questions to ask yourself.

Cash or Loan?

You either PAY interest or PASS-UP interest.

Weather on Wall Street

What does the ‘wind-chill’ and ‘heat index’ have to do with Wall Street?

Lessons from an Uber’s backseat

This is what I learned from several recent trips from the backseat of an Uber.

Average or Sequential

What ANNUALIZED rate of return are you receiving?

Words Mean Things

Do you really need wealth management?

Blood Money

What do you do when the machine breaks?

Personal Responsibility

Do you act differently when no one is watching you?

Crypto, VHS Tapes, & Retirement

Will a 2023 retirement plan be ready for 2033, 2043 or 2053 retirement?

A Financialoscopy Christmas Card

Merry Christmas from the Financialoscopy Family!

Testing for Normal

What’s normal?

A Thanksgiving Day-Retirement Comparison

How is your turkey cooked?

Unmarried Wealth Gap

Living together?  If you want to get ahead financially, perhaps you should get married.

Macro vs Micro

Who is the advisor to your advisors?

No Free Lunch

Today, I want to discuss how there really is no “free” lunch.

Why? - Mortality and Morbidity

I believe that if you are growing; you are growing, and one of the ways to do that is to make sure that you are fully engaged, both mentally and physically.  

Product Vs. Strategy

Would you like to see the safest way that you can lose your money?

Preparation Mondays

Why I love Mondays

Don’t Open Your Statements, Yet.

Before you open up your 3rd Quarter IRA, 401K, Roth, or other investment statements, it's important to Stop and Read this blog first. 

Perspective

What would you do for the rest of your life, if you could choose anything?

It’s a Long and Winding Road

The market may be a moving target, but our team is here for you. Financial concerns, that's our job. Your job is to live your life!

Embrace the Goofy

People take themselves way too seriously.  The first time I ever attended a financial services’ conference in the last 1980’s, I said to myself – “These people look like a roomful of funeral directors”. 

Equifinality and Multifinality

Are you planning for a singular finish or unlimited futures?

More than Just a Number

Are you a person….or only a number?

Make Change(s)

Quick!  Whose face is on the dime or the fifty-dollar bill?  This story may surprise you.

Retirement Income Calculations

A basic overview of the math involved to figure out how much you need at the start of your retirement. 

The Ziploc Bag Life

Are you living a "Ziploc bag" life?

What’s your personal blood supply?

What’s your personal blood supply?

Numbers & Emotions

Numbers, rates-of-return and psychological losses

They call me Coach!

It’s not the big leagues, so we focus on the fundamentals. 

Going Solo

It’s tough to go it alone.

How Do You Roll?

How Do You Roll?

Is the Market Crap?

Here is an email that I just received from a client.

Unsettling Quarterly Investment Statements

What can we say about the Second Quarter of this year?

The Financialoscopy Lab

Have you driven by our office lately?

Continuing Education

It seems to be that time of the year where it’s all about continuing education. What am I doing about mine?

Rainy Days & Mondays

What's your extended forecast?

The Current Market: Verbs, Adjectives or Nouns

When you think of the current market, are you thinking about Verbs, Adjectives or Nouns?

Going to the Doctor

Do you enjoy going to the doctor?

RULES

You believe you can automatically do whatever you want to do, but here’s the problem: there are always rules to abide by.

T.U.M.S.

Have the current financial markets caused you to reach for a bottle of Tums?  Perhaps that’s just what you may need.

There’s NO DEAL in Term Life

What’s the deal when Company “A” charges one price and Company “B” charges a different price, let’s say a lesser amount, for what appears to be exactly the very same thing, say term life insurance?

Portfolio Pizza Pie

How many ingredients does it take to make a portfolio pizza pie?

The Stealth Bomber

You can’t see it.  You can’t hear it. It’s not on your radar.  But there it is, overhead and it’s dropping its payload on your life.  It’s the stealth Bomber of inflation. 

Just because you qualify….

Yesterday, I qualified to take Social Security Benefits early; here’s why I didn’t.

Not your Dad’s Retirement

Wow, my dad is 89-years old this week.  He’s been retired longer than he worked and he’s still rocking it.  That takes planning, saving, patience and discipline. 

90% chance of NOT crashing

Have you calculated the fuel needed for your flight on a trip called retirement, even with headwinds?

A One-Trick Pony

Life is a circus. 

What are YOU worth?

If your house burns to the ground tonight, the insurance company already knows how much they’re on the hook for.  If your car is totaled in an accident today, the insurance company already knows how much they’re going to pay out….and in each case, not a dime more.  You cannot be over insured. Whether it’s your home, your car or you, each has a predetermined insurable value.

Social Security-The Back Story

Are you ready for old age public assistance?

Plan for one, when planning for two.

Can two live as cheaply as one?

How are you measuring?

When is a 7-point buck bigger than a 12-point buck?

Don’t be a Rotten Tomato!

If you’re green, you’re still growing.  If you’re ripe, you begin to rot.

Stacking Wood

You stack wood for winter.  What do you stack-up for retirement?  Money.

The safest way to great returns.

How do banks earn money on your money?

Join the Financialoscopy Team!

We have an awesome opening. Help us find the awesome person to fill it.

How do you like your coffee?

Recently I passed a Starbucks drive-through near our local mall and counted fifteen cars in line to get a cup of coffee.  I can’t imagine waiting twenty minutes or longer for a cup of joe. Would you wait that long? 

The Tortoise and The Hare

Are you a speedy, funny bunny or a slow and steady turtle as you try to win the wealth accumulation race?

Traffic Circles

If you always do, what you’ve always done; you’ll probably always get what you’ve always gotten.

The Covid-19 Question

Here’s an unsettling question you need to ask your spouse now.

Do you have “a guy”?

How often have you screwed things up by doing them yourself?

Will you love me tomorrow?

What happens when the going gets rough?  Will you still love us tomorrow? 

Heat Index, Wind Chill, & Inflation

When meteorologists give their forecasts, they often refer to the “real-feel” temperatures.  If the summer temperature is eighty-five, the humidity might make the real-feel temperature – ninety-three and when the winter thermometer drops to ten-degrees with a strong north wind, the real-feel temperature might be five-below.  Did you know there’s also a “real-feel” measurement of your current dollars from the past or the future?  Unfortunately, just like weather forecasting, the “real-feel” isn’t a “good-feel”. 

Required, Regular Maintenance

My car dashboard tells me when I need an oil change. My home thermostat tells me when to change the air filter in my furnace. Heck, my stomach tells me when to eat. How do you take care of your regular, financial maintenance?

Let’s Talk Duds!

Do you learn from your mistakes, from the duds in your life?

Kaboom!

What does it take to blow-up, what you thought was the perfect financial plan?

More than Money

What Non-Financial Assets are you passing down to your children?

365 Thank-Yous

It’s simple; but it isn’t easy; yet it’s well worth the task. 

Life Insurance Amnesia

When did you last audit your life insurance portfolio?

401(k) – A History Lesson

What do you really know about 401(k)s?

What’s your burn?

You’ve heard the old saying – No Pain, No Gain.  You need to feel the burn.  In fact, if you want to get into shape there’s actually a burn boot camp in our local community.  But, what about your financial health.  What’s your burn there? 

Financial Patches

How often to do you swear at your computer, if only under your breath?

Financial Independence

Our country just celebrated our national independence.  When will you celebrate your ‘financial’ independence?

Do the numbers lie?

Would you take this bet? I can mathematically prove that a six percent annualized rate of return
can beat a ten percent annualized rate of return.

Inheritances

Too many people expect an inheritance to give them financial stability.  Don’t count on it.

What’s Your Strategy?

Recently, I was watching my oldest daughter as she ran track for her high school team.  As I talked with her about the race, I remember participating in track, running the race for myself and my team.  Track seems like a really straight forward sport; the fastest, furthest or highest wins.  But the reality is there is a lot of training and strategy that goes into each track meet.  That got me thinking, “What is your strategy?”

Uncomfortable Perspective

Some years ago, while enjoying lunch with my church pastor, I asked this question: “Do you ever think about how you’re going to die?”  The reply was somewhat startling.

Retirement Buckets

There’s a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza.  Here’s a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, a hole!

Behavioral Economics

Do you know what your natural human tendencies are?

Are you nuts?

Have you ever watched a squirrel hide a stash of nuts?  They’re not as smart as you might want to believe.

Life Insurance on Kids?

Why would anyone buy life insurance on their kids?

Discipline

During the past year, this is what I’ve learned about vaccination and discipline. 

I need more money

Being rich won't solve your problems.

Why save when rates are so low?

With interest rates so low, does it still make sense to keep a pile of cash on hand for emergencies?

Retirement - “Not From, but To”

So, you have a bucket list; then what?

April Fools!

Don’t let the joke be on you.

What is a Financialoscopy®?

We test diagnose and treat.

Divorce & Social Security

Can you claim your Ex’s Social Security benefits?

Ready to Retire?

How will you know if you’re ready for retirement?

Planning & Practicing Priorities

Are you an amateur or a pro?

A Plan or An Account

Is your retirement strategy fragile or solid?

Why do I need a review?

You can’t get to where you’re going, unless you know where you are.

How much should I save?

When is enough money, enough money?

Weathering two decades of disasters

How do you prepare your portfolio for the unexpected?

Resolved: Hire a Coach

Become financially fit

A Covid-19 Victim or Victor?

Are you a Covid-19 Victim or are you a Covid-19 Victor?

87 is the New 65

Here’s a retirement age perspective

Do Presidential Elections predict Market Returns?

Is a Republican or a Democrat best for the White House?

Who is in your front seat?

Who is in your front seat?

Is there an app, for that?

Can you really “Do it yourself?”

35 years of unemployment

You’re fired.  Now enjoy life!

A Two or 42-percenter

It’s said that the top one percent of income earners do something the other ninety-nine percent don’t; but did you know that you have the option to become a two percenter to potentially increase your wealth?

The Tax Gap

The IRA is missing 15% of taxes due.

Four Retirement Risks

It’s more than just a ‘number’.

Risk Aversion

What does risk aversion and long-term damage have in common?

Retirement Planning Myths

Can some Retirement misconceptions hold you back?

Simple Retirement Planning

Is there a simple retirement planning formula?

Who Is Your Trusted Contact?

Investment firms have a new client service requirement.  It’s important to act upon it.

Millennial Financial Basics

The future comes quickly for Millennials

Social Security at Age 62?

When should you take Social Security – 62, 65, full retirement age or at age 70?

The Market & Quarterly Statements

Up, down, Up; now what?

Palladium

Dealing in precious metals 

Your Independence Day

The fireworks should be shot off when you’re independent, not during the journey

Your financial life as a $100 bill

Stop chasing returns.  Do the smart thing.

Are you average?

Why would you plan your life success on averages?

Pandemic & Predictability

Discovering predictability during a pandemic.

Memorial Day Reflections

A true American Commemoration

Soap and Uncertainty

Planning for Uncertainty

What is Peniaphobia?

Do you fear the loss of money?

Financial Plans Don’t Work

Why charts, graphs and projections miss the point.

Negativity & Safe Money

Pandemics and Diversification 

Pull!

Fighting the knee-jerk reaction

April Fools

This is no joke

Invisible Enemy

A perspective from history

I've been here before

Coronavirus: Mark’s view

Retirement Risks

Have you identified these potential retiring planning concerns?

7 Principles of Prosperity

Do you have a Prosperity Mindset?

Fraud Risk Meter

Are you at risk for fraud?

What’s Normal?

Normal, Average, Mathematical Mean – They don’t really exist

Financial Flexibility

Don’t set your financial life in stone, because life happens.

The Forest for the Fees

Commodity or a specialty item. What’s the real cost?

Planning & Practicing Priorities

What’s your accountability?

Why save when rates are so low?

With interest rates so low, does it still make sense to keep a pile of cash on hand for emergencies?

The Talk

When should you have the money talk?

Hoarding is not a virtue

What are the dangers of overspending?

What’s your home’s financial atmosphere?

Money – What we do verses what we say.

The Power of Hope

Have you had retirement planning set-backs?

Example, more important than words

What examples are you setting for your children?

Ready to retire?

How can you know if you’re ready to retire?

Pre-decisions

When it comes to spending, are you in control or out of control?

Habits of Thrift

It’s where your dollars are going, not where your dollars have gone.

The American Dream is Alive and Well

Is the American Dream still alive?

Plan like a pessimist, live like an optimist

Are you an optimist or a pessimist?

Stop trying to avoid risk, start managing it

Risk – Is it in control of you or are you in control of it?

The Path to Money Maturity

How do I instill money maturity in my children?

Why past performance does not predict future results

Investing is like Monday morning quarterbacking. 

Mortgage Choice – Economic or Emotional?

30 Year, 15 Year or pay the mortgage off early?

Money – Great tool, lousy goal.

Is money the root of all evil?

What’s on your wish list?

How does thriftiness affect your wish list?

Learn life, as you work

How a young person should approach work.

Make Hard Decisions Now

Make hard decisions now or have them made for you later.

Financial flexibility is important, as you age

Retirement is not the finish line. Done properly, it can be just another starting line for the next phase of your life.

Lies vs. Truth

You can’t get something for nothing.

The Sweet Spot

You are not an institution.  You are a human being.

How much money do I need to save?

When is enough, enough?

Advice for Young Adults

Make your parents proud.

Build your physical house on a solid financial foundation

Thinking about buying a bigger house?

The Law of Diminishing Intent

Put past failures behind you.  Begin today.

Will you be AUDITED?

What are the chances that you might face an IRS audit?

Stop Loss

Are there times during a market decline, when you simply wish to stop the loss?

The Easy Way, may be the worst way.

401(k)s and debt is not the answer.

Financial Organization

For yourself and for your family, Organize your finances.

Market Facts & Feelings

Will the market bounce back or continue to tumble?

Surges & Slumps

Surges and slumps, that has been the nature of the stock market this past year.

Market Frustration

Market Volatility and Low Returns

Diversify Your Diversificatiion

Diversification is more than just investments.

Saving Money

How do you save now, for later?

FOCUS

Stop trying to do everything at once.

Living with Less

Does Money buy Happiness?

The Moment of Trust

Sometimes, you simply need to do the hard thing.

Insurance Poor

Courage

It’s time to make a decision.

Givers, Takers & the Others

Don’t let your children live like Cain and Abel.

Five Retirement Wants

Centering around your future retirement freedoms.

When Better is Worse

Let’s talk about your emergency / opportunity fund.

Contentment

The Secret to Financial Success

Convenience – Not always an advantage

Planning quickly doesn’t always provide the results you may get, if you simply took the time to proceed thoughtfully.

“Buying your first house? Plan First.”

Are you really ready to buy your first house?

Beneficiary designations, too important to forget

Who is going to get your money at death?  Are you sure?

Begin with the end in mind

What is your money for, anyway?

Work Attitude Gratitudes

Putting the right attitude 'into' your job to help you receive the right gratitude 'from' your job.

Do you have more money smarts than a doctor?

Wealth is often created by behavior and instinct.  It’s not always how much you earn.

The Three M's

Three words to create a better quality of life in retirement.

The Inverted Bell Curve

Are you an average investor?

Baby Food Investing

Do you have the stomach to invest in the Stock Market?

BitCoin

The Unregulated Cybercurrency

Charts and Graphs

The stock market.  Short-term it’s hard to predict.

I'm Pre-Approved!

A pre-approval letter rarely is.

The World is FLAT

Do you have realistic stock market expectations?

11,479% Return

How to win at the lottery.

The Saving's Diet

Doing an inventory is better than budgeting.

Expectations

Unrealistic Retirement Expectations

Eat a Live Frog

Work-Life Balance

Don't be an Idiot

Who do you have holding your financial ladder?

Irrational Behavior

Why Richard Thaler won the Nobel Prize in Economics.

Happy Anniversary

A three decade prospective on the financial world.

Kid Costs

The cost of having a child.

An Outhouse Lesson

A lesson on frugality

Anal Retentiveness

The Life Insurance Contract: The importance of details.

More than a Smile

Dentistry is a lot like financial planning.

Get It Now!

Perhaps putting off the purchase you can’t afford now, can bring you more long‐term happiness.

The default tax plan

If you don’t plan your estate, the government has a taxable default plan for you.

Taxes, Always

If you believe in the possibility of a future “Flat Tax”, dream on!

Credit Check

Checking the “credit” smoke detectors