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Frugaltopia
"It's Not About the Money" - Interview with Brent Kessel
Joelle Hann
2009-07-11
I thought it would be appropriate for a site dedicated to frugal living to hear a few words from someone who spends his days and nights advising people on their money–and helping them to use it better.
Financial planner Brent Kessel is the C.E.O. of Abacus Portfolios and President and co-founder of Abacus Wealth Partners. I met him at the Yoga Journal conference in New York in May, where he was presenting at the 2-day “business of yoga” workshop.
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Los Angeles Times
Physician aims to be philanthropist
Kelly Barron
2009-06-28
Scott Reiter wants to fund his own charity. But he's spending too much money, [Brent Kessel] a planner says.
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Los Angeles Times
Tips for green investing in 2009
By David Pierson and Edward Silver
2009-01-04
In these dismal times, is it financially smart to do the
environmentally right thing? Here's advice on navigating a sector fraught with risks.
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Kiplinger's Personal Finance
Books for a Bear Market
By Bob Frick, Senior Editor
2008-12-01
Experts analyze what happened and what your options are now.
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Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine
What to Expect Now That the Rescue Plan Passed
By Bob Frick, Senior Editor, Kiplinger's Personal Finance
2008-10-04
We're not out of the woods yet, so get debt under control and don't make crazy investment decisions.
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New York Times
Memo to the Uneasy Investor: Be Strong
by Ron Lieber
September 13, 2008
It's pretty hard to stick with a long-term plan for your money when the financial world seems to be unraveling around you.
You were probably already uneasy about home prices, job stability and inflation. Then the government took over Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers scrambled for a buyer and the stock of Washington Mutual fell below $3 amid concerns
about its own shaky standing and that's just in the last week.
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Green Money Journal
Sustainable Investing 2.0
by Brent Kessel
September, 2008
I've been a yogi by dawn and a Certified Financial Planner by day for fourteen years. I've worked with people with hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as people who are a hundred thousand in debt. I've counseled captains of industry who are driven to ever-higher levels of success and social activists one paycheck from eviction.
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Richmond Times-Dispatch
Which kind of giver best describes your style?
by Robin Farmer
August 04, 2008
People who donate money come in different types. Your type dictates how you handle money, from saving, spending or giving it away, say Brent Kessel, CEO of Abacus Portfolios and president and co-founder of Abacus Wealth Partners.
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Los Angeles Times
Taking a 401(k) loan? Do the math first
by Kathy Kristof
August 3, 2008
Borrowing could cost you in the long run, so be sure to calculate the consequences. Experts warn that taking money out of your 401(k) account while you're still working can cost you dearly later on.Nancy and Charles Powell ignored that advice and borrowed money from his 401(k) plan. Years later, they're retired and have no regrets.
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San Jose Mercury News
'Tremendous' Opportunity Seen in Municipal Bonds
by Kathy Kristof
August 03, 2008
State and local governments' woes send yields higher--along with risks. The municipal bond market has had a rough ride in the past six months, but that could mean now is a good time to invest in the sector.
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The Registered Rep.
RECESSION-PROOF YOUR CLIENTS
By Raymond James
June 1, 2008
Small-business owners are well aware of today's harsh economic realities. How could they not be? Some
companies - especially those in real estate and construction - are already feeling the pinch of a slowing economy and rising energy and gas costs. Still, most entrepreneurs are optimistic about their ability to weather the storm.
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Free Money Finance
Introducing the (Financial) Archetypes
April 11, 2008
No matter who you are, you come to your financial life with remarkably unique life experiences, all of which have conditioned you to respond to money in particular and sometimes peculiar ways. Your life experiences caused you to develop certain financial beliefs and habits and to avoid others. The good news is that you are not alone!
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U.S. News & World Report
Mixing Meditation, Yoga, and Money Management
By Kimberly Palmer
March 18, 2008
Brent Kessel, cofounder of investment firm Abacus Portfolios, isn't your typical money manager. He wakes up around 5 a.m. to meditate for 45 minutes and then practices yoga for an hour and a half before making his way to his desk. In his new book, It's Not About the Money ™: Unlock Your Money Type to Achieve Spiritual and Financial Abundance, Kessel, 40, combines his wealth management expertise with his yoga and meditation practice...
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U.S. News & World Report
Inside Brent Kessel's 'Wanting Mind'
By Kimberly Palmer
April 9, 2008
The wealth manager, yogi, and author shares how he overcomes his own spending impulses.
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Los Angeles Times
Investors: Take a deep breath amid the storm
By Kathy M. Kristof
March 18, 2008
Amid a crashing U.S. dollar, a roller-coaster stock market, a massive takeover of one of the nation's largest brokerage firms and an economy teetering on the brink of recession, what's an individual investor to do? What should you expect in today's troubling market? Are there wise moves to make now? Some questions and answers:
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Los Angeles Times
Tough problem: What to do with a $1.7-million nest egg?
By Kelly Barron
March 16, 2008
Judy and Steve Haibach had never dreamed they'd wind up as middle-class millionaires. Now they don't know what to do with the $1.7 million they've squirreled away for their retirement.
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Yoga Journal
Om Money Column
by Brent Kessel
February 2008
I'm in credit card debt again--just months after taking out a loan from my parents to pay it all off! I'm working and don't spend on a lavish lifestyle. Why can't I seem to get a handle on my finances?
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Investment News
Firm finds nirvana as its focus on the new-age market pays off
by Charles Paikert
January 28, 2008
Many financial planners and wealth managers describe their practices as holistic, but few place advertisements in such publications as Shambhala Sun, Yoga Journal and the Buddhist magazine Tricycle. Abacus Wealth Partners LLC is one firm that does, and its focus on a spiritually oriented market appears to have paid off for the Philadelphia- and Los Angeles-based fee-only advisory firm.
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Yoga Journal
Om Money Column
by Brent Kessel
December 2007
I don't want to support tobacco companies or environmental polluters, but my broker claims that socially responsible investing will cost me. How can I persuade my broker to make investments that align with my values?
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Yoga Journal
Om Money Column
by Brent Kessel
October 2007
I feel uncomfortable about having money when people in the world are suffering. And I feel bad about having more money than my friends. What should I do?
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Los Angeles Times
An Option: Immediate Annuities
By Kathy M. Kristof
Sometimes, you want the security of regularly scheduled payments for a specified period or the rest of your life.
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Journal of Financial Planning
Between the Issues: Advising Worried and Anxious Clients
by Brent Kessel
Many financial planners have noticed that clients have been more anxious over the last few months than at any time since 2003, when the last bear market ended. The war in the Middle East, the prospect of bird flu spreading to the United States, an inverted interest rate yield curve, and the continuing threat of terrorism are all fueling client concerns about the economy, and more importantly, about their own financial security.
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Green Money Journal
Sustainable Asset Management
By Brent Kessel, CFP
How two of the country's top financial planning and money management companies marry their clients' needs for personal financial contentment with a mission to make a positive impact on society.
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RusselWild.com
Lighten Up: Moving to a smaller place isn't a step backward;it's a chance to do more with less
With home prices at record highs in most parts of the country, have you asked yourself lately if it makes sense to be clinging to the big old place you've lived in for years? Ever since the kids moved out it has seemed awfully empty.
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BusinessWeek
Emerging Markets: Microfinance Draws Mega Players
By Keith Epstein
July 16, 2007
Hedge Funds, VCs, and other big investors are seeing the huge profit potential in tiny loans.
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Seattle Times
New Model In Microfinance Profitability
By Kristi Heim
June 4, 2007
During a recent visit to the U.S. from India, Vikram Akula walked into a downtown restaurant to talk to a group of well-heeled Seattle philanthropists about how they could help end poverty.
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Los Angeles Times
Small-stock investors sticking it out
By Tom Petruno and Kathy M. Kristof, Times Staff Writers
March 2, 2007
Individuals may be better able to handle stocks' wild swings because they have much less at stake than during the dot-com boom.
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Los Angeles Times
Pinch: Frugality can add up to a vacation
By Jerry Hirsch
February 28, 2007
You have to pay the mortgage, taxes and car payments, and that can leave little for a grand tour of Europe or a fancy cruise. But with discipline and diligence, families can save for that trip of their dreams. Financial advisers say that it takes a plan, and the sooner you get started, the sooner you will be on that trip. Here are 10 tips to help make the dream a reality.
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Financial Planning
New-Wave Annuities
By Donald Jay Korn
February 1, 2007
From reduced-risk participation in the stock market to longevity insurance, planners have an expanding array of annuities to meet client needs.
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Morningstar
One Way to a National Presence
by David J. Drucker
January 19, 2006
After starting the Philadelphia firm of Sherman Financial in 1987, Spencer Sherman needed more. Drawn to the life planning movement, Sherman met George Kinder (by many accounts, the "father" of life planning) in the late 1990s, and he bought Kinder's advisory practice in 2000 when it was Kinder's desire was to focus more fully on teaching and writing. In one of Kinder's 1999 training sessions, Sherman met Brent Kessel, who had birthed Abacus Wealth Management in 1996 in Los Angeles.
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LA Times
New rules ease tax burden for heirs of a 401(k)
By Kathy M. Kristof
September 17, 2006
Thanks to the power of payroll deductions, average 401(k) balances now top $100,000 for people who have had accounts for six years or more. For those who don't live long enough to exhaust their savings in retirement, these accounts are increasingly a valuable asset to be passed on to heirs. The problem with inherited 401(k) assets has been the tax code.
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NAPFA
Understanding Asset-Class Investing
Brent Kessel and Jeffrey Harwood
December 12, 2005
The purpose of this paper is to explain the investment methodology called Asset Class Investing, which was developed by numerous academics and investment managers over the last several decades, and which is employed by Abacus Financial Planning & Asset Management. This paper will demonstrate how at any given level of risk, there is an Asset Class Portfolio that delivers higher returns than most investors have historically earned.
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JewishJournal.com
Don't Stress About Your Stock Portfolio
by Russell Wild
July 29, 2005
Back in the go-go years of the stock market, when it seemed that everyone was getting rich, a certain recently retired rabbi started buying shares in a handful of high-flying Internet stocks. The shares skyrocketed. The man bought more. Within no time, he became a millionaire many times over. Well, we don't have to tell you what happened next. The bear market came, and stock selling for hundreds of dollars a share began selling for pennies.
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Chicago Tribune
Retirees: Consider Downsizing
By Marilyn Kennedy Melia, Special to the Tribune
Published August 31, 2003
More money, lower living costs, fewer maintenance hassles. This is the tantalizing prescription for simpler living many experts have expected retirees to widely embrace. Downsizing. It's a term that has worked its way into the common parlance to describe the act of moving from an expensive home to a less costly, often smaller one.
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Financial Planning
PowerPoint Overkill Some financial planners are foregoing slick presentations for lower-tech alternatives.
By Russell Wild
July 1, 2003
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In 1984, Microsoft created PowerPoint. And that's when things got really interesting. From that moment on, any mere mortal with a laptop could instantly create a world of lights and colors, diagrams and arrows, headings, subheadings, and bullet points. This new technology was rapidly embraced byevery professional group under the sun.
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New York Spirit
The Dharma of the Dollar
by Russell Wild
August/September 2003
Well, that's Pink Floyd's attitude; not to mention Donald Trump's, Ayn Rand's, Anna Nicole Smith's, and the editors of Forbes magazine.
Well, to be honest, that's just about everybody's attitude. After all, money is power. Money is pride. Money can make a difference between life and death.
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Yoga Journal
The Yoga of Money
By Alan Reder
March/April 2003
Yoga's ethical precepts teach us to tell the truth and do no harm, but few realize that these teachings can also help us to manage our money.
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BusinessWeek
FINDING YOUR GOLF HOME
By Ellen Hoffman
October 30, 2001
How to make sure you have the green to finance your fairway dream
A decade ago, Buzz Pelland decided that when he reached 52, he would "do something different" with his life. Now he's 52, and he's doing it.
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Wired
Mutually Exclusive
by Andrew Marks
August 12, 2000
It can be tough choosing between a stock portfolio's upside potential and a mutual fund's low-risk diversification and management. So why choose? Netfolio.com, based in New York, lets you build your own fund from preexisting templates and throws in premium financial advice for good measure.
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Los Angeles Times
So Where Does the Little Guy Turn?
By Liz Pulliam Weston, Times Staff Writer,
July 9, 1999
You just started saving for retirement and you want to make sure you're on track. Or you have a small portfolio of investments and you wonder if you're taking the appropriate amount of risk. Surely, with all the financial planners out there these days, it shouldn't be hard to find someone to give you objective advice. It shouldn't be, but it often is.
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MSN
Reality Check: We make 90 grand a year and don't have any money!
By Melanie J. Mavrides
1999
These California twentysomethings have good jobs and aren't big spenders. So why, they wonder, are they living month to month with so little in savings?
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BusinessWeek
BETTER PLAN NOW FOR NEXT YEAR
by Mike McNamee
November 6, 1997
After the hoopla over last summer's Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, taxpayers woke up to an unhappy fact: The reform won't do much for this year's bill. True, Congress made the biggest cut--lower rates on capital gains--effective at once.
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