People who sell a business for eight figures are so rare that their friends and neighbors usually haven't done it either. When the biggest financial event of your life arrives, there may be no one at the dinner table who has been through it.
When you look at the strong market we have experienced since 2009, it’s hard to imagine a market like those we hear about in the past. It can seem like another lifetime.
Interest rates have been going UP. As of September 15, 2026, the 10-year Treasury yield had climbed from around 4% at the start of the year to roughly 5% — mortgage rates had gone from 6% to 7% right along with it, and inflation had crept from 2.4% to 3.4%. Watching those numbers climb, I keep asking the same thing: how far can rates rise before something gives?
There's an old saying on Wall Street that stocks “climb a wall of worry.” I've written about it here before — more than once — and in my 32nd year as an investment advisor I've watched markets climb some impressive walls: the Asian Financial Crisis, the dot-com bust, 9/11, the Great Recession, a global pandemic. But I'll be honest with you… the wall in front of us right now may be the best evidence of that old saying I've seen in my entire career.
The past twelve months have been the busiest since I founded the firm in 2010. In that time I have been deliberate about how the firm grows, and even more deliberate about who I would trust with the families we serve. So, I am excited to announce that I have brought on Clayton Johnson, another wealth advisor, to help take this firm to the next level.
Here's the uncomfortable truth about investing: nearly everything that moves your account balance day-to-day is completely outside your control. The Federal Reserve's next rate decision. Geopolitical flare-ups. Whether the market decides this quarter's earnings were good enough. Even the weather—droughts, hurricanes, freezes—can swing commodity prices and equity sectors in ways no amount of research will predict.