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Sep 7, 20227 min read
Failure Is An Option
You may or may not know this about me, but I’m a huge movie buff. I love a good story, and the escape of a big screen blockbuster is one...
Jul 20, 20228 min read
Dear Bear Market Investors
When I was a freshman in high school, I decided to play football with the 9th grade team. I’ll admit now that I was doing it for personal...
Apr 20, 20226 min read
Inflation, Inflation, Inflation
Inflation, Inflation, Inflation. It’s all that people in finance seem to be discussing these days. Like watching a car accident caught on...
Mar 15, 202213 min read
Annuities: The Four-Letter Word of Finance
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to go headfirst into a topic that is extremely polarizing in the financial world–Annuities. In the...
Feb 23, 20229 min read
The Next 30 Years
“Let’s play old guys versus young guys,” I said to the group. I always like to watch the younger guys’ eyes light up when I utter this...
Nov 17, 20203 min read
Comfortably Uncomfortable
My first football practice in high school was nothing like a traditional football practice. There were no helmets or pads. No one was...
Nov 10, 20204 min read
2020 Jazz: Financial Plans Need Flexibility
Want to have a good laugh? I recently took a few moments to review my personal and investing goals for 2020. That’s right—I actually set...
Oct 6, 20204 min read
The Peril of Market Timing
The coronavirus is still very much with us, as is much of the economic dislocation created by the resulting lockdowns. An interesting...
Sep 14, 20204 min read
Process Is Paramount
Over the holiday weekend, I took up an activity that I hadn’t done in years. I worked on a jigsaw puzzle. The puzzle, a 600-piece global...
Jun 12, 20187 min read
Dear Retirement Investor, What If You’re Wrong?
Over the last several weeks, it has been a whirlwind of headlines from the financial media. Despite some very encouraging fundamentals in...
Apr 19, 20176 min read
The Problem With Tomorrow
I read a great article recently that was attributed to Jim Rohn, where he stated, “The problem with waiting until tomorrow—to do...
Nov 23, 20165 min read
Trump is President-Elect…Now What?
Believe it or not, this will be my second crack at writing this article. After seeing the outrageous reactions that came from the...
Oct 27, 20168 min read
Trump Vs. Clinton on Taxes
<img decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-692 lazyload" src="https://michaelhbaker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/shutt...
Sep 9, 20164 min read
Can a Financial Planning Movie Win an Academy Award?
Is it possible for financial planning themes to be at the center of a critically acclaimed film? Most would say, “Not likely.” However,...
Jul 12, 201615 min read
5 Ways to Ruin Your Retirement
A special note from 2020–There is no shortage of opinions when it comes to how to prepare and plan for retirement. While I believe that...
Feb 10, 20166 min read
How to Stay Focused When the Stock Market Throws a Tantrum
The world of investing hasn’t been much fun since May/June of 2015. Last year, the stock market experienced its first real correction in...
Nov 23, 20159 min read
Should Your Kids Inherit Your IRA?
It is often reported in the financial media that Boomers are under-saving for their retirement years, and a significant portion of...
Oct 27, 20154 min read
Are You Lost in a Sea of Information?
One of the most difficult things about the internet is the constant deluge of information. I heard it said very recently that one of the...
Jul 10, 20159 min read
7 Reasons Why Clients Fail At Retirement
Retirement: The land of hopes and dreams and peace and quiet and blissful adventures, right? For the Baby Boomer generation, retirement...
May 26, 20156 min read
Can Your Retirement Survive a Low Return Environment?
What kind of retirement income can you expect if the stock market doesn’t produce the types of returns you’re anticipating? It’s no...
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