Words of Candor

Selecting a Bank – Family Budgeting

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / November 23rd, 2020

When Jackie and I sat down to talk about joining our bank accounts, we flipped a coin to decide whose bank we would stick with. I lost, so we merged all of our money into Jackie’s bank. Of course, in hindsight I can see how silly this is.

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Spend Up Spend Down – Family Budgeting

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / November 16th, 2020

Who doesn’t love credit cards? They give you the opportunity to carry a balance while also rewarding you for your spending, providing cash back and points. Credit cards are meant to encourage you to extend yourself though. Carrying a balance from month to month will only increase the total amount you pay in interest. And even if you’re someone who pays your credit card off each month, studies show you’re still spending an average of 18 to 20 percent more than you would if you used cash or a debit card. Psychology shows us we feel differently about seeing a checking account going down versus watching the balance of your credit card increase.

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Starting a New Job

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By Matthew Marcoux, CFP® / November 9th, 2020

Starting a new job is always exciting, but it can also be overwhelming, especially as you page through a hundred pages about employee benefits. There are so many choices to make, and we often focus most of our attention on things like retirement plans and health insurance. Truthfully, there are so many other benefits companies can provide, like matching contributions, a health savings account, life insurance, and prepaid legal.

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Teaching Children – Family Meetings

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / November 2nd, 2020

Do you have family meetings in your house? Dedicated time each week or month to discuss events, changes, or money? My parents sat my sister and me down regularly for family meetings, even discussing finances with us. Admittedly, I remember my own loathing during these meetings, wishing I was somewhere else, but as an adult I recognize how influential those meetings were on my own relationship with money.

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Teaching Children – Give, Save, Spend

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / October 26th, 2020

At nearly four years old, my daughter is a bit young for assigned chores that will earn her money, but when the time comes, my wife and I plan to give her an opportunity to do just that.

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Teaching Children the Value of Money

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / October 19th, 2020

Years ago I wrote an article about making “cents” for your child’s future (catchy, I know) in an effort to provide practical tips on how to talk with your kids about money and budgeting. Back then though, I didn’t actually have kids. Now, two children later, I’m gaining much more insight into how to introduce these topics in our household.

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Keeping Up with The Joneses

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By Matthew Marcoux, CFP® / September 14th, 2020

We are all guilty of comparing ourselves to others, and it’s especially easy to do so based on how we share our lives through social media. A quick scroll on your phone will convince you everyone you know is happy, prosperous, and confident. But is that reality? The truth is, we all have our own internal struggles, and we are all trying to do the best we can in our own circumstances.

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What is Your Financial Mt Everest?

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / September 7th, 2020

Imagine summiting Mount Everest, and how much would be required of you to make that happen. Verne Harnish, who wrote Scaling Up, said, “Those who do it create a plan. Prepared with a set of rules and a passion for the journey, along the way, they aim for a series of camps or stop points. Then it’s a matter of focusing on the next day and, more important, the first and subsequent steps, making adjustments along the way as the mountain conditions dictate. Those who have made this personal journey suggest that it’s ultimately about staying acutely aware as you push to take just one more calculated step.”

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Over/Under Estimate Goals

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By Matthew Marcoux, CFP® / August 31st, 2020

Bill Gates once said, “most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” How true is that? So many of us set goals each January for what we want to achieve in a year, and often find ourselves off track a few months later. I know this has been a year full of countless surprises, causing many of us to veer off the course we initially set out on. Still, you have the power to take control of the rest of the year.

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Routine Sets You Free

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / August 24th, 2020

Routine sets you free. I read those words in a book that suggested routine is the driving force behind efficiency. I’ve always believed this to be true, but reaffirmations are often important when we’re searching for self-motivation.

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Simplify, Not Simpler

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / August 17th, 2020

Einstein once said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

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Growth Through Creativity

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By Matthew Marcoux, CFP® / August 10th, 2020

In my previous blog post, I discussed how we leverage team work to ensure a successful experience for our clients. Another one of our core values is creativity.

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Core Values Explained

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By Matthew Marcoux, CFP® / August 3rd, 2020

This year, John and I diligently read through a book called Traction, and found ourselves driven to better serve our clients by applying the principles we read about.

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The CandorPath Way

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / July 27th, 2020

What is the CandorPath way? It’s taking the time to really get to know you before we advise you on how to reach your goals.

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What is a Financial Advisor?

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / July 20th, 2020

Investopedia defines a financial advisor as someone who “provides financial advice or guidance to customers for compensation. Financial advisors can provide many services, such as investment management, tax planning, and estate planning. Increasingly, financial advisors are providing a range of services from portfolio management to insurance products as a one-stop-shop.”

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Contentment or Fear

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / July 20th, 2020

With the uncertainty of our current circumstances, it’s impossible not to experience some level of fear. And while we can’t prevent feeling it, we can prevent it from controlling us.

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The End Game

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / July 13th, 2020

Recently I sat down with some clients who own their own business, and let me know they were working on outsourcing and automating a number of things within their business so they could take a step back. Then they asked, “Now what?”

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Married Money

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / July 6th, 2020

You’ve married the person you want to share your life with. So how do you share your finances?

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Credit Cards versus Cash

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / June 29th, 2020

There is an enormous amount of research concerning the psychology of money, and to me, the most fascinating research surrounds our spending habits, in particular how they change between using cash versus credit cards.

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Day Trading Emotions

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / June 22nd, 2020

The current world circumstances are greatly impacting the news and market, and it’s easy to allow the negativity to infiltrate your thoughts and daily routine, disrupting what truly matters.

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Getting In & Getting Out

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By Matthew Marcoux, CFP® / June 15th, 2020

We are often asked the same question by many clients during times of extreme market volatility.

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Estate Planning

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / June 8th, 2020

We are often asked, “When should we start estate planning?” The answer is, if you’re even thinking about the need for estate planning, it’s time to begin.

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Fight or Flight

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / June 1st, 2020

We all possess a fight or flight response to stress. Its origins are primal; the lives of our ancestors often depended on their ability to react logically in duress.

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What we do

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By Matthew Marcoux, CFP® / May 25th, 2020

Like all good financial advisors, we work hard to facilitate thoughtful dialogue, listen carefully, broaden perspectives, and act as financial therapists, all in an effort to come up with smart financial strategies to optimize your money.

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Fiduciary

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By Matthew Marcoux, CFP® / May 19th, 2020

At least once a year we meet with our clients to talk about everything BUT finances. Why? Because the better we know you, the better we can support you.

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5 Thoughts during a financial downturn

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By Matthew Marcoux, CFP® / April 20th, 2020

Almost two months into this extraordinary pandemic, and I am more thankful than ever for an infrastructure that allows us to continue with business as usual here at CandorPath. In these past weeks, we have been reiterating these five points to all of our clients:

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Wealth ethic & work ethic

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / April 13th, 2020

A recent article shined a light on how Warren Buffet prioritized wealth ethic over work ethic. Intrigued, I came to understand that wealth ethic pertains to the idea that the pursuit of money over the importance of enjoying how you are making money is no longer the priority. We would all love to make a living by following our true passion, but it often seems too difficult to do. Minda Zetlin explains that “one of the main reasons passion-seeking has gotten such a bad reputation is the presumption that there’s only one passion out there for each of us, and that whatever it is may not always translate to something you can do for a living.” But is that really true?

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Discipline creates margin

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / April 6th, 2020

We often talk with those who are in the “build wealth” phase of life about the importance of establishing good financial discipline. When you are at the beginning of this phase, looking years ahead to retirement, it’s difficult to really appreciate how much the extra money going toward your retirement plan or current debt will benefit you, but the rewards of your good habits will only compound over time, multiplying your wealth. There is no shortage of examples of millionaires who attained their wealth through hard work and financial discipline.

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Money perspective matters

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / March 31st, 2020

More than ever, we should be searching for contentment with what we have, as focusing on what we can’t control only brings unnecessary stress.

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3 things to consider right now

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By Matthew Marcoux, CFP® / March 30th, 2020

You already know how important dollar cost averaging and re-balancing is to long term financial success, so I won’t go into either of those. During our time in quarantine though, I do want to give you 3 other components of financial success to think about.

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Argue with Reality

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By John Kennedy, CFP® / March 29th, 2020

If you argue with reality, you will lose 100% of the time. What an “aha” moment I had when a client shared that statement with me. We’ve spent so much of our recent time talking with people about this phase of economic uncertainty, but I was never able to simplify my thoughts the way that statement did for me.

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