See your finances clearly for the first time Most people have no idea what their full financial picture really looks like. An Asset Map shows it all in one clear visual so you can make confident, informed decisions about your future. See your full picture today: app.asset-map.com/i/c-NwxeJB…

Three mistakes quietly destroy more wealth than almost anything else. 🥚 Too many eggs in one basket. A handful of stocks shouldn’t determine your financial future. 🔮 Trying to predict the future. No one consistently knows what the market will do next. 👉 Self-inflicted mistakes. High taxes. Poor account placement. High transaction costs and expense ratios. Panic selling. Chasing performance. These are often the most expensive mistakes of all. When someone asks us to review their portfolio, we almost always find at least one of these and sometimes all three. The good news? None of them requires a crystal ball to fix. They just require a disciplined, Evidence-Based investment philosophy. None of them requires a crystal ball to fix. They just require a disciplined, Evidence-Based investment philosophy.

MOST STOCKS DON’T DO WHAT INVESTORS THINK THEY DO. We remember Apple. Amazon. NVIDIA. We forget about the thousands of companies that disappeared, got acquired, struggled, or simply failed to keep up with the market. Dimensional looked at individual U.S. stocks going back to 1927. Over 20-year periods, only a little more than 1 in 5 stocks survived AND outperformed the market. Think about that. Finding a company that survives for 20 years isn’t enough. It also has to outperform everything else you could have owned. That’s a very high bar. Diversification means you don’t have to know ahead of time which few companies will clear it. You can own them before you know their names. Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors, CRSP and Compustat data, 1927–2020. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Your kids will learn your money habits long before they learn your money advice. They hear how you talk about bills. They watch what happens when the check comes. They notice whether every purchase turns into an argument. They see whether you give, enjoy what you have, or always act like there is never enough. By the time you sit them down to teach them about a Roth IRA, they have been taking notes for years.

On August 2, 2018, Apple became the first $1 trillion company. Most people think the lesson is that you should have picked Apple. We think the lesson is exactly the opposite. Almost no one predicted Apple would become the world’s first trillion-dollar company. In the 1980s, it nearly faded into irrelevance. In the 1990s, many believed it would go bankrupt. In the 2000s, critics said the iPod couldn’t last. In the 2010s, they claimed smartphone growth was over. But investors who owned the market via super-diversification, which comes with the Evidence Wealth philosophy, didn’t have to know. They already owned Apple, along with thousands of other companies. As Apple’s innovation created more value, the market naturally increased its weight in their portfolio. No crystal ball. No stock-picking genius. Just the power of free-market capitalism at work. That’s why we believe in owning 6,000 to 10,000 companies around the world. You don’t have to identify tomorrow’s biggest winner. You simply have to own the system that continually creates them. Evidence over emotion. Ownership over prediction. You don’t have to be smarter than capitalism. You simply have to own it.

Most money fights don’t start with a number. They start with: “Wait, you did what?” The vacation. The credit card. The money sent to the kids. The retirement date. No couple agrees on every money decision. Better to have that conversation before the money gets spent.

When you hit the beach in retirement, how much of your investments should be in stocks vs. bonds? As retirement begins, many investors instinctively shift heavily into bonds. That feels safer, but over the long run, it can come with a surprisingly high cost. In one 37-year comparison, a 100% stock portfolio finished with roughly 10× the ending value of a 100% bond portfolio.* Even after the 2008 financial crisis, the portfolios with higher stock allocations still ended with more wealth for investors who stayed the course. That doesn’t mean everyone should own 100% stocks. A smarter approach is often a two-bucket strategy: Bond Bucket: Hold several years of planned retirement withdrawals in short-term, high-quality bonds or cash equivalents. This provides dependable income and helps you avoid selling stocks during market declines. Stock Bucket: Keep the remainder invested for long-term growth. When markets perform well, replenish the bond bucket by harvesting gains and rebalancing. During downturns, spend from the bond bucket and give your stocks time to recover. This disciplined approach can reduce the emotional stress of market volatility while helping address one of retirement’s greatest risks: outliving your money. Want to learn more? We explain this strategy in Evidence Wealth. Get your FREE pdf version jmwhiddon.com Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Source: Evidence Wealth

Financial misinformation I see all the time: 1. “Your money is locked in retirement accounts.” (There are multiple ways to access it early if needed.) 2. “You should carry a balance on your credit card.” (No. Interest doesn’t help your credit. Paying in full does.) 3. “All debt is bad.” (The right debt, used wisely, can be a tool.) 4. “Renting is throwing money away.” (Housing is a lifestyle decision, not just an investment.) 5. “You don’t need an emergency fund. Just invest it.” (Liquidity is what keeps a plan from falling apart.) 6. High income = wealthy.” (Wealth is what you keep, not what you earn.) Good planning starts with better assumptions. Educational only. Not financial advice.

The point of investing is not to build a statement you are afraid to spend from. What good is a plan that only works if you keep postponing the life it was supposed to fund? Save. Invest. Protect against what can hurt you. Then use money on the people, places, and causes that matter

U.S. stocks beat international stocks in 11 of the past 15 years. That can make global diversification feel unnecessary. But from 2001 through 2010, non-U.S. stocks outperformed in 7 of 10 calendar years. Over the full 25-year period, they led 44% of the time. Nobody knows where the next stretch of market leadership will come from. Own the world before you know which part of it will lead. Source: Dimensional, 2001–2025 (Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns)

One of the costliest sentences in retirement planning: “We’ll figure it out later.” Later is when the tax bill shows up. Later is when one spouse gets sick. Later is when the market falls and you still need cash. Later is when the job ends earlier than expected. The best time to decide where your income will come from is while you still have options.

Every couple has a CFO. Sometimes both people know it. Most of the time, one spouse just slowly takes it on. They know the passwords. The bills. The taxes. The advisor. What each account is for. That is fine until it is not. A financial plan is not complete until either spouse can step in and keep the household moving.

ENOUGH John Bogle once shared a great story. At a party hosted by a billionaire hedge fund manager, Kurt Vonnegut told Joseph Heller that their host had made more money in a single day than Heller had made from Catch-22 in its entire history. Heller replied: “Yes, but I have something he will never have. Enough.” That’s a powerful question. What is “enough” for you? Enough for retirement. Enough to care for your family. Enough to give generously. Enough to live with peace of mind. Most people have never stopped to define it. That’s one reason I like Asset-Map. It helps turn abstract goals into something visible and concrete. If you want more financial clarity, start with a map. jmwhiddon.com

YOUR HOUSE ISN’T THE STOCK MARKET From 1996 through 2025, $161,100 grew to roughly: $3.1 million in stocks $515,000 in housing That doesn’t make real estate a bad investment. A house can be a great asset. It gives you a place to live, stability, and the chance for appreciation. But stocks are ownership in businesses. Businesses that sell products, provide services, innovate and earn profits. Your house can build wealth. Historically, stocks have done a lot more of the heavy lifting. Source: Hartford Funds. Stock returns: S&P 500 Total Return Index via Morningstar. Housing: Average Sales Price of Houses Sold for the U.S. via Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED). Data through 12/31/25. (Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns)

The biggest myth about financial advisors is that we spend most of our days talking about the stock market. We don't. The conversations that matter most are about life's biggest transitions. -Buying a first home -Changing careers -Having kids -Divorce -Serious illness -Selling businesses -Aging parents -Inheritances Markets create volatility. Life creates decisions. That's why investment management is only part of the job. Investment management answers: "How should I invest my money?" Financial planning answers: "How do I make wise financial decisions for every season of my life?" Portfolios exist to serve lives. Lives don't exist to serve portfolios.

Carl Jung was once asked what makes people happy. His answers were remarkably simple: Good health. Strong relationships. Beauty in art and nature. Meaningful work and a reasonable standard of living. A faith or philosophy strong enough to carry you through life’s difficulties. Notice what didn’t make the list? Being rich. Money can support several of these things. It can provide freedom, security and opportunity. But money is a tool for a good life, not the definition of one. Build wealth. Just don’t confuse it with being wealthy.

WHY NOT JUST OWN THE BIGGEST STOCKS? NVIDIA. Apple. Amazon. It’s easy to look at companies like these and wonder why you need to own much else. But by the time a company becomes one of the 10 largest stocks in the U.S., it has usually already had an incredible run. From 1927–2024, companies that eventually entered the Top 10 outperformed the market by an average of: 27.2% per year in the 3 years before 20.3% per year in the 5 years before 12.0% per year in the 10 years before After they entered the Top 10? 3 years after: +0.3% 5 years after: -1.7% 10 years after: -1.8% Those numbers are relative to the market, so this doesn’t mean the stocks lost money or suddenly became bad companies. It means the outperformance was mostly gone. A great company can still be a great company. But that’s different from being a great investment at today’s price. By the time everyone knows it’s a winner, a lot of that success is already reflected in the price. Source: Dimensional Fund Advisors, using data from CRSP. Compared with the S&P 500 Index. In USD. 1927–2024. (Past performance is not a guarantee of future returns)

WHO CONTROLS CONGRESS? Presidential elections get most of the attention. But investors worry about Congress too. Will stocks do better with Republicans in control? Democrats? A divided Congress? Go back to 1926 and look at the chart. The market has climbed under Republican control. It has climbed under Democratic control. And it has climbed when control was mixed. There have been rough stretches under all three. There have also been great markets under all three. Nearly a century of data has not shown party control of Congress to be a reliable signal for making investment decisions. That doesn’t mean Congress is irrelevant. Taxes, spending and regulation can absolutely affect businesses and industries. But the market is processing a lot more than what happens in Washington. Interest rates. Earnings. Innovation. Oil prices. Foreign affairs. Consumer behavior. Millions of businesses and investors making decisions every day. Trying to turn the balance of power in Congress into a market-timing strategy is asking a lot from one piece of information. Vote however you want. I just wouldn’t build an investment strategy around who controls Congress. Chart adapted from Dimensional Fund Advisors LP. Source: S&P data © 2026 S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.

With The Odyssey back in the conversation, I’ve been thinking about a passage from Evidence Wealth. The Sirens didn’t destroy ships with force. They sang. They didn’t pull sailors off course. The sailors steered themselves there. Odysseus understood that there would come a moment when the song made changing direction feel perfectly sensible. So he decided ahead of time. His crew filled their ears with wax. He had them tie him to the mast. He was still allowed to hear the Sirens. He just wasn’t allowed to take the wheel. Investors face a version of this all the time. The story changes: “Cash is safer.” “Everyone is making money over there.” “This time is different.” “You have to do something.” The pressure is real precisely because the story can sound so reasonable in the moment. A good investment plan is a safeguard against the version of you who will eventually want to abandon it. Decide which stories you’ll trust before the Sirens start singing.

The US stock market has spent roughly 85% of its history climbing. You will never hear that from the media. Why is that? Simple answer: Money. FEAR generates clicks = greater advertising $. The evidence suggests staying invested has been the better strategy. (Past performance is no guarantee of future results)