Welcome back to our “ABCs of Behavioral Biases.” We issued our introductory piece back in mid-August, and will continue with the multi-part series about how our brains work while “on money”. 

Equifax, one of the three credit monitoring services, admitted recently that hackers gained access to the sensitive identify and financial information in their database for 143 million people (44% of the U.S. population). The hackers exploited a website weakness from mid-May to July. Equifax learned of the intrusion on July 29th but did not disclose the information to the public until 40 days later on September 7th. The credit breach is about as bad as you could expect a breach to be. Much of the data acquired is timeless information that could be used for years.

The argument about which party is better for stock returns has been going on for decades. Leading up to the 2016 presidential election, the argument was made that the stock market does better with a Democratic president than a Republican president. After the election and the subsequent stock market rise, the argument has been made that Donald Trump as president will be great for U.S. stocks. In fact, the Trump administration has taken much of the credit for the great returns thus far in 2017.

The middle of summer is when parents and students start to stress about their college choices—and finances as well.

First, a clarification: This is an article about the “how” that makes a person, couple, or family wealthy. That is, how do people go from having a little money to having a lot? This article is not about what being wealthy means to you or, in other words, how much money would make you wealthy. We’ll save that philosophical discussion for another article.

How do we become wealthy? Our clients often ask this of us, naturally, as their financial advisors. Sometimes they’re surprised to hear us not say, “Save more,” “Don’t accrue too much debt,” or “Put your investments here or there,” as a first course of action. Of course, long-term savings of at least 10–­15% of your income starting at a young age, combined with a decent investment plan left untouched for long periods of time, will inevitably produce substantial amounts of wealth. However, if you really want to get ahead, invest in yourself—and keep investing in yourself!

During one of my few quiet moments after the kids were asleep, I came across a TV show about lottery winners and what they did with their winnings. As I watched, I saw the winners tour massive new vacation and second homes, consider luxury purchases, and struggle with their new realities.