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“Imagine that you visit your doctor, who tells you that you have only 5-10 years to live. You won’t ever feel sick, but you will have no notice of the moment of your death. What will you do in the time you have remaining? Will you change your life and how will you do it?”

Life planning takes a holistic look at what you truly value. And for most people, their life is more important than their money. Only after exploring your life goals can you structure your finances to help you realize your dreams.

Your investments should be working for you, appreciating more than inflation to become an engine of growth that pays you money and provides some measure of financial freedom.

All assets are not equal. Some investments appreciate better on average than others.

My youngest is a first-year student at the University of Virginia. My coauthor Matthew’s youngest child was born only a month ago. There is no such thing as saving too early.

No one approaches financial planning with the goal of paying more taxes. Tax management, like all financial planning, is based on the premise that small changes made over time can achieve big goals.

Retirement planning is even more crucial for women than for men.

Identity theft is becoming distressingly common as personal information becomes easier to swipe.

Excellent advisors communicate clearly exactly how bad the markets have been and can be.

There isn’t a better time to invest than today. Getting started can be intimidating, but these simple steps will help you through your first few years of investing.

To safeguard your money, you must be able to extricate yourself from any bad investment quickly. Of course, the companies that sell mistakes don’t want you to be able to do that, so they use financial hooks to hold your money captive.

You have a critical part to play in financial planning. Certain responsibilities cannot be delegated to others.

Crazy volatile markets push people toward irrational investment schemes. Know how to avoid them in order to safeguard your money.

I was recently asked if investors should trust their financial advisors. And my short answer, you may be surprised to hear, was no. Your financial advisor should not also have custody of your investments.

A year ago when the markets were all setting new highs, people were asking what they should do with their retirement portfolio. I answered, “Rebalance.” Now that the market is setting new lows, I get the same question, and my response hasn’t changed.

Certain assumptions such as maximum safe withdrawal rate are critical in order not to compromise a long and successful retirement.

Avoid debt and don’t burden your family with any expenses after you are gone.

If you’re like most of today’s college graduates, you may find yourself ill prepared for the real world of financial responsibility. You never saw how your parents lived when they were first married and struggling. Consequently, you may be basing your after-school expectations on an upper-middle-class lifestyle. Here is my financial advice for those of you learning to live on your own.

One of the asset classes that we use to build diversified portfolios consists of hard asset stocks.

Portfolio construction begins with the most basic allocation between investments that offer a greater chance of appreciation (stocks) and those that provide portfolio stability (bonds).

When you give to charity, you make an investment. By doing a little homework, you can be sure your gift makes the best possible return on investment. While giving is its own reward, giving wisely seems to double that reward.

Without a financial plan, your investments are controlling your dreams, not the other way around. You need a blueprint for your financial dreams to come true. That blueprint in sound financial planning is called an Investment Policy Statement (IPS).

Financial planning is the process of aligning your financial choices with your life passions. Values transcend the cash and the numbers.

Every six years you delay saving and investing you cut in half the lifestyle you will have in retirement.

Poor families with children will subsidize millionaire seniors.

Running a small business requires financial balance. Here are ten rules.

Each year since 1994 the Heritage Foundation has used a systematic, empirical measurement of economic freedom in countries throughout the world.

You can learn a lot about financial management from snapping turtles.