Torn

By Mitch Custenborder | December 10, 2021

Making decisions can be hard. Pivotal moments in life.  The right answer isn’t clear.  The pros and cons seem to neutralize. Yet, usually our intuition leads us one way or the other.  This is where friends…

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We Have Met The Enemy, And He Is Us

By Mitch Custenborder | November 19, 2021

Maybe you remember the Walt Kelly cartoon from 1971 about pollution: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” Most speed bumps in life I can trace back to my own transgressions. Forgive my golf…

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The Great Resignation – More Like, The Great Transition

By Mitch Custenborder | November 5, 2021

“The Great Resignation is real.”  I recently went for a walk with a close friend, and he used this line in reference to people leaving his current employer.  It resonated as the conversations I’ve had in…

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Delivery

By Mitch Custenborder | September 24, 2021

Broker dealers and banks have discovered that lots of people will make their financial services decisions based on their online experience – “how is my information delivered to me?” is ultimately the question being asked.  The…

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Defining Simplicity

By Mitch Custenborder | July 30, 2021

Simplicity is a concept that most agree is worth integrating in our lives. I’ve never heard someone say, “I’d really like to complicate my life more.”  But, I’ve heard plenty say, “It’d sure be nice to…

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One Thing At A Time

By Mitch Custenborder | July 16, 2021

A boss in my early 20s said to me once in passing: “One thing at a time, right?” Who knows what preoccupied me.  But do I ever remember feeling called out.  He put his finger right…

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10 Traits Of Happy Investors

By Mitch Custenborder | June 18, 2021

1. They don’t secretly demonize or idolize money.  A happy investor recognizes two sides of the same coin: that they could want all the money or resist money.  Either way, they’ll be caught in the same…

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Experience, Knowledge, Tradition

By Mitch Custenborder | June 10, 2021

All three contribute to how we get closer to knowing something as true and making something actionable. If either three stand alone, though, it’s a wobbly stool.  Nothing to self-correct or check and balance. Experience alone…

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Diversification And My Morning Run

By Mitch Custenborder | May 27, 2021

There’s common chatter amongst financial advisors and investment professionals about how often we need to defend diversification. Quite frequently, diversification will be out-performed by plenty of benchmarks. It’s the untimely market declines and the counter-intuitive amount…

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Tension: Clarity vs Unknown

By Mitch Custenborder | May 20, 2021

To state an obvious: there’s tension between making plans and embracing the unknown. Making plans gives us clarity, the plans energize us, and the plans give a ‘why’ to our day-to-day.  These plans dictate where and…

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