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“Dynamic” analysis considers changes people make in response to external stimuli. Economically, when people have more money to spend, the confident consumer tends to purchase more merchandise and services. Companies prosper, profits rise, and taxes are paid on those profits. At the same time, hiring takes place, and more taxpayers are created. Concurrently, businesses are started and expanded, and the Treasury gets a share of all the new prosperity.

“Crisis” is one the most abused words in the English language today, being haphazardly applied to whatever political disagreement of the day, the national debt, our failing “public” educational system, border security, the increasing national drug problem, trade wars, and on and on. When everything is called a crisis, nothing gets treated appropriately as a crisis. Is student loan debt a crisis?

Ubiquitous “gloom and doom” predictions are designed to get our attention. One of the oldest sayings in media is that “if it bleeds, it leads.” Good news is boring, optimism is uninteresting, and satisfaction is unacceptable to political candidates aspiring to replace incumbents at all levels of government.

When advising older investors, it is essential to discover the true objectives of their investments. Things are not always exactly what they seem on the surface. The purpose of having a thorough discovery process is to individualize financial advice. This is not possible on a short phone call, so our goal on the radio is to tell people what can be done, rather than what to do.

Is it possible to invest in the Marijuana Industry, despite it being illegal at the Federal level? It is, and a couple of new ETFs make it easier than ever and diversify your risk across multiple companies at the same time.

Most Americans have woefully little retirement savings. Congress repeatedly indicates a willingness to encourage saving for retirement, while at the same time testing the political climate for raising taxes. These concepts cannot peacefully co-exist.

The Van Wie Financial Hour radio program and blog are devoted to the furtherance of financial literacy. Every week we present current events and news to the audience, but we also explain concepts and practices in personal financial topics. We like to believe that our small contribution to literacy makes a difference.

We envisioned the Van Wie Financial Hour radio show over four years ago. The format for the Van Wie Financial Hour had to be a live, call-in show encouraging listeners to participate. Content had to be current, and it had to be educational. Over the years we have taken calls on a wide variety of topics. The most memorable calls were those which could never be reproduced by doing a pre-recorded radio monologue.

Trillion Dollar annual deficits and the rising national debt have become commonplace, but elected officials in Washington, D.C. don’t seem to care. Spending is a nonpartisan problem, as Republicans and Democrats are equally guilty.