Wealth with Intention

Post-Divorce Tip: Update Your Passwords

If you grew up with a sibling, you likely learned about conflicts of interest the hard way. I remember one instance where my mom said we could split the last Oreo cookie and my brother gave me the half without the cream filling – I was mortified. In situations like that, you can see how easy it is for a decision maker to prioritize themselves over the other person. Technically there’s a number of ways to half a cookie, but finding a fair split is another matter.

When it comes to financial advisors, consumers are tasked with choosing someone who will treat them fairly and an important part of this is understanding inherent conflicts of interest.  

There are many, many titles in this industry: money coaches, financial consultants, advisors, brokers, planners, wealth managers, and so on. And since there aren’t legal requirements associated with using these terms, it can get confusing. To help sort it out, advisors have started to identify themselves by their pay structure rather than the...

Balance is a principle that works almost everywhere it is applied. A balanced nutritional program beats an unbalanced one. A balanced week beats a frantic one. Portfolios are no different, though the reason is more specific than the analogy suggests.

Diversifying across style, geography, and asset class has historically reduced volatility. That is not just a statistic on a page. A smoother ride is what makes it possible to stay buckled in when markets get rough, which is exactly where the consistency principle does its work. Balance, consistency, and courage are not three separate ideas. Balance is what makes the other two survivable, and the overview of all three principles covers how they connect.

The short answer

A balanced portfolio is not a hedge against being wrong. It is an admission, built into the structure of the portfolio itself, that nobody knows which asset class will lead next. Diversification does not improve your forecast. It removes your need for one.

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Courage is the principle people picture wrong. It sounds like a bold move made at the bottom of a crash. In practice, it is almost always the opposite: sitting still while every instinct you have argues for action.

A historical perspective helps inform and guide investment decisions, and I have written about how that pairs with the investing principle of consistency. But perspective alone is not enough. Holding a disciplined position through uncertainty and fear takes something more, and that is where courage comes in. It is one of three principles we come back to constantly, and the overview of all three explains how they connect.

The short answer

Courage in investing is the willingness to keep following your plan when the market gives you every reason not to. It is rarely dramatic. It usually means continuing contributions during a decline, rebalancing toward what has fallen, and declining to move to cash because the news is loud.

• From 1980 through 2025, the S&P 500 fell by an a
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Consistency is the least glamorous principle of investing and the one that does the most work. Staying invested through a downturn is not passivity. It is a decision, and for anyone with a meaningful portfolio, it is usually the highest-value decision you will make all year.

When you listen to financial news commentators, markets can feel capricious and arbitrary. Over the short term, that is fairly accurate. Over the long term, a handful of universal principles tend to govern results, and they guide every wealth management and investment decision we make at Intentional Wealth Partners.

The short answer

Investors who stay invested through volatility have historically captured returns that investors who move to cash do not. Over the 30 years from 1996 through 2025, an investor who missed just the 10 best days in the S&P 500 Index would have seen their return cut in half. Missing the 30 best days would have reduced the return by 84%. The best days cluster tightly around the worst ones...

Updated September 2026 with current contribution limits and SECURE 2.0 changes.

You may be familiar with the retirement plans available to employees, but there is a lot of confusion about retirement plans for the self-employed and for business owners. The great news is that if you are self-employed or own a business, you can create retirement plans for yourself and any employees you have. Offering a plan can even benefit your business by attracting quality people who are in it with you for the long haul.

Either way, a huge advantage of having a retirement plan is that you can begin saving for the future. The earlier you start saving, the better, but there is by no means a "wrong" time to start investing or contributing to a plan.

Choosing a plan is one piece of a bigger picture. If you are also wondering how your retirement savings fit alongside your business, your taxes, and your exit plans, take a look at our post on whether business owners need both an accountant and a financial ...

By Leah Hadley, AFC®, CDFA®. Last updated September 2026.

Many people are surprised to learn that their 401(k) or 403(b) may include a second way to invest. Alongside the standard menu of funds your employer picked, some plans offer what is called a self-directed brokerage window. It is easy to miss, and most participants never open it.

Whether it is worth using depends on what you want it to do for you. This post explains what it is, three ways it can help, and the costs and risks to weigh before you decide.

Whether you are a relatively new investor or you've been at it for a while, market swings are not for the faint of heart. Yes, it's common knowledge that what goes up, must come down. However, even if you view market volatility as a regular occurrence, it can be tough to handle when you're watching your account balance drop.

While there's no fool-proof way to handle the ups and downs of the stock market, the following common-sense investor tips can help.

6 Investor Tips to Help You Stay the Course

• Don't put your eggs all in one basket
• Focus on the big picture
• Look before you leap
• There is a silver lining to market volatility if you look for it
• Temper your optimism
• Don't stick your head in the sand

Investor Tip #1: Don't put your eggs all in one basket

Diversifying your investment portfolio is one of the key ways you can handle market volatility. Because asset classes often perform differently under different market conditions, spreading your assets across a variety of different types...

By Leah Hadley, AFC®, CDFA®. Last updated September 2026 with the current IRS limits.

Whether you're starting a new job that offers retirement savings options, or you're looking into managing your investments yourself, it's easy to get overwhelmed. If investment lingo feels too far beyond your wheelhouse, learning the difference between a Roth IRA and a 401(k) is a good place to start. Let's work through what each account is, how to use it, and the pros and cons of each. Spoiler alert. Some people are eligible to use both.

Roth IRA vs. 401(k) at a Glance

By Leah Hadley, AFC®, CDFA®. Last updated September 2026.

Building wealth is rarely about one dramatic move. It's about a series of small decisions that compound, quietly, over years.

That is the idea behind a financial tip of the day. Instead of overhauling your entire financial life in a weekend, you pick up one habit at a time until the habits do the heavy lifting for you.

Below are 30 of them. None require a finance degree. Most take under an hour to set up. Read through, pick the two or three that hit closest to home, and start there.

Automate What You Can (Tips 1 to 5)

Willpower is a finite resource. Systems aren't. Every decision you can move to autopilot is a decision you don't have to make again.

Tip #1...