Randall Davey, CAP® Financial Advisor  December 2024  Introduction Since 1928, some conscionable investors resisted owning shares of stock in morally questionable, unethical or harmful businesses. Religious groups particularly avoided purveyors of tobacco products, alcohol, and gaming. For most of the 20th century, stocks in these kinds of businesses were called ‘sin stocks.’i  In time, adult entertainment and armament companies were ...

Garrett Gunderson, What Would the Rockefellers Do? How the Wealthy Get and Stay That Way, and How You Can Too, Rip Water LLC, 2016. This is an excellent expose on cash value life insurance. Gunderson’s implodes myths, exposes nuances to the ‘buy term and invest the difference’ narrative, while offering an in-depth analysis of dividend paying, mutually owned whole life insurance. He ...

 If you research whole life insurance on the internet, in .51 seconds you can get over 747,000,000 hits (as of June 3, 2021) and run face-first into a sea of unfamiliar terminology. Consider the jargon:  Hint: Many of these words are not synonyms. Not all 747,000,000 articles are talking about the same animal. Descriptions of Universal Life do not necessarily ...

 I lie. Some days more than others, but I lie. I do not like it. I am not proud of it, but I must admit it: I lie. I lie daily, from early morning ‘til I pillow my head at night. I do not intend to. I do not want to, but I do. My lying is intermittent, unpredictable, and ...

 I needed a business development officer and he needed work. I had enough money to hire him, and he agreed to the salary. I wanted him to introduce me to key strategic partners and he was a serial networking machine. It was an arrangement made in heaven. Though we didn’t know diddly about each other, we seemed to click. We ...

 At the beginning of my third-grade year, Ms. Gertrude Smallshaw established her authority by thundering on the first day of school, “No talking in my classroom.” Then she talked for the rest of the period and even asked us to respond to questions. At the time I didn’t understand the “no talking rule,” especially when she violated it. In retrospect, ...

 Dr. Tim Stearman, leader, pastor, storyteller, conference speaker, humorist and friend, says, “If you really want to listen well, rely on your eyes.” His sermon-in-a-sentence convicts me and helps me. Here are a few of his salient points:  When you listen with your eyes,  Tim went on to say that sometimes listening is simply keeping one’s mouth shut when:  “Yet, ...

 When I was a wee lad, one, if not both of my parents would put me to bed at night and the ritual was always the same. They knelt with me by my bed, taught me to fold my hands, bow my head and pray after them a classic children’s prayer dating to the 18th century.  “Now I lay me ...

 Sooner or later, somewhere, at some place with someone, you are bound to experience a badly bruised or broken relationship. Best friends quit speaking; families leave churches; individuals quit jobs; married couples separate or divorce to cope with, or in response to, irreconcilable differences.  There are those who grieve broken relationships yet feel they have invested too much to throw ...

 What is a declaration? By definition, it is the beginning of a state or condition. Think, for example, of a declaration of war. It is an admission of intent to initiate engagement with another nation through violence. The declaration informs thinking (strategy) and action (military engagement).  How do declarations work in our daily lives? Consider this case study.  Case Study ...