One of our favorite bloggers, Seth Godin, recently wrote about a topic that he’s rarely mentioned in his daily blog and more than a dozen books: money. It’s a topic that is near and dear to us.

This recent post is worth the 60-second read to help you think about what money means to you. Seth says, “before there’s money, there’s a story,” which is precisely the reason that the first thing we want to know when meeting a future client is “what’s your story?”

Our personal stories often have a huge impact on how we feel about money. How we feel about money can have an enormous impact on our outlook on the future.

We want to understand your story so that we can build a long term investment plan that gives you confidence in your future—A plan that can stop you from worrying about the money and help create a better story for the future.

It’s not just at the beginning that we want to know your story; we know they evolve and take new paths. We strive to get regular updates. If you have lots to share, we’d love to hear it (314-448-4023)!

We’re looking forward to hearing your latest update!

For years we have used books to tell our philosophical story. If investors want to know what the academic evidence says about investing, we have more than a dozen different options in stock.

Larry Swedroe, who sat down to discuss his latest book with Matt recently (view the video here), has written 14 books over the past 16 years. Our collection ranges from simplistic to highly technical, but one thing is missing: a book we’ve penned ourselves.

That’s about to change!

I’m excited to tell you that I’ve been working on a book for the last five months. We can’t say much more at this point, but have no fear: it won’t be long, it won’t be boring, and it won’t be something that’s been done before. Most importantly, it will help others Take the long view!

Watch this blog and our social media channels for details as we share more over the coming months.

How’s your billion dollar bracket doing?

You’ve likely heard about Warren Buffett’s recent NCAA basketball tournament challenge: build the perfect NCAA bracket and you could win $1 billion. Some may think Warren is crazy, but he knows that the odds of picking the perfect bracket are similar to that of picking the next great stock or fund manger—not good.

While it might be fun to wager $20 and watch the games, managing your money is far from a game. Just as Warren used the evidence to make this safe bet (there are 9.2 quintillion different potential bracket combinations), we also use the evidence to keep the odds on your side when investing.

What’s the latest on the challenge? It was over after the second day of play. Read more about the results here.