The Library

Written pieces on investing and financial planning.

Latest

October 30, 2026 Cash Management How much cash you need, where it should sit, and what you keep after tax. 3 min read → October 23, 2026 Average Annual Stock Price Movement How much the average stock moves in a year, why a drop needs a bigger gain to recover, and how to tell signal from noise when a price falls. 4 min read → October 6, 2026 Donor-Advised Funds What they are, who they fit, when to use one, and how to give through one. 4 min read →

Where to start

Start with the path closest to where you are.

If you read only one How a Portfolio Is Built Theory for the frame. Fundamentals for the engine. The plan for the purpose. 18 min read →

Building

The wealth is being built.

Complex

The wealth is growing. So are taxes, complexity, and the difference planning ahead can make for the estate.

Legacy

Tax and estate planning currently and through generations become a priority.

Learning how we invest

How we decide what to own.

This year

2026 figures The Tax Numbers The numbers change every year. The map does not. In season · Year-End Execution Year-End Planning The decisions that close on December 31, and the ones that can wait.

On Investing

the lenses, read in order. They are how we decide what to own

Moats

What makes a business durable, and what erodes it.

What a Moat Is The advantages that let a business keep earning, and how to recognize them. 5 min read → The Direction of a Moat Whether an advantage is widening or narrowing, and why that matters more than its size today. 4 min read → Pricing Power What it costs to use, and why the numbers look their best while it is being spent. 6 min read →

Fundamentals

Margins, growth, and returns on capital. What the numbers say, and where they can mislead.

Fundamentals What the numbers say, and what is already priced in. 12 min read →

III

Management & Capital Allocation

The people you trust with your capital, and what they do with the cash.

Evaluating Management The jockey and the horse. What management decides on your behalf, and how to read the people running a business. 5 min read → Capital Allocation Reinvest, acquire, pay down debt, pay a dividend, or buy back shares. What each choice signals, and how to judge a record of them. 6 min read →

Price, Value & Expectations

What it's worth, what it costs, and what the crowd already assumes.

Price and Value A price is a claim about the future in one number. Buying judges that claim as well as the business, and nothing is cheap on its own. 4 min read →

Risk

Why a falling price is rarely the real danger.

Risk and Volatility Why a falling price and a permanent loss are different things. 5 min read → Average Annual Stock Price Movement How much the average stock moves in a year, why a drop needs a bigger gain to recover, and how to tell signal from noise when a price falls. 4 min read →

Temperament

The hardest part of investing is holding.

Patience Where the return from holding comes from, and the situations where patience becomes a mistake. 5 min read →

VII

Portfolios

How a family holds its wealth: funds, indexes, managers, and how the pieces fit together.

How a Portfolio Is Built Asset allocation, what to own it through, and why simple usually wins. 18 min read →

On Planning

the areas. Fitting the money to the life

Foundations

Getting the base right before anything is built on top of it.

The One-Page Financial Plan Why the money matters, where you stand, what it has to do, and the next few moves, on one page. 3 min read → The Fiduciary Difference What a fiduciary duty requires, how it differs from Regulation Best Interest, and the incentives created by different compensation arrangements. 5 min read → Cash Management How much cash you need, where it should sit, and what you keep after tax. 3 min read →

Retirement Income

Turning a lifetime of savings into a paycheck that lasts.

Retirement Income Planning The shift from building wealth to drawing on it. Sequence, withdrawal order, and the questions the first years raise. 6 min read → Sequence-of-Returns Risk Why the order returns arrive in matters once money is coming out, and what reduces it. 5 min read → When to Claim Social Security What each claiming age does to your benefit, and what to weigh. 5 min read →

III

Equity Compensation & Concentrated Wealth

RSUs, options, and concentrated stock.

Concentrated Wealth The opportunity and the exposure of being paid in equity, and how to think about concentration you did not exactly choose. 4 min read →

Tax Planning

Keeping more of what the portfolio earns.

Planning for Taxes Location, timing, and patience. How structure can leave more compounding in the account over a lifetime. 9 min read → The Tax Numbers The numbers change every year. The map does not. 3 min read → Year-End Planning The decisions that close on December 31, and the ones that can wait. 5 min read → Donor-Advised Funds What they are, who they fit, when to use one, and how to give through one. 4 min read →

Business Owners

When the largest asset is the thing you built.

Financial Planning for Business Owners Planning for business owners whose largest asset is the company itself. 12 min read →

Estate & Legacy

What outlasts you, and who it is for.

Estate Planning The structure, the conversation, and the intent behind passing wealth well, coordinated with your attorney and CPA. 11 min read → Estate Planning When the Estate Is Large Above the exemption, the tools that move growth out early, and when to leave it alone. 7 min read →

Educational content only — not personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Companies and investors named in these essays illustrate a way of thinking and are not recommendations; the firm may or may not hold any security mentioned. The firm does not provide tax preparation or legal services.