Left Hand Writes Blog
"Left Hand Writes" is here! Join me on this exciting journey as I blend financial expertise with humor and insight. With over 20 years of experience as a financial advisor, I'm ready to demystify complex topics and make finance enjoyable for you. Expect entertaining and educational content delivered bi-weekly, straight from my lab of pen and pad. Your participation is key, so comment, share, troll, and send me your questions. Let's embark on this adventure together, redefining the way we think about finance, one blog post at a time!
Got Muffins?
September 27th, 2024 [7 min. read]
By Drew W. Boyer, CFP®
On the flight back from the Future Proof Festival last week, I couldn’t help but think about the amount of fun, vision, and hustle I had just witnessed and taken part in. It’s an electric event with access to just about anyone in my industry and where one’s dreams can become realized. My mind then went to two people I’ve read extensively about, that share/shared the same energy being released. Both of these people seemingly figured out how to prolifically and purposely live/lived four lifetimes in one.
Theordore Roosevelt
Jessie Itzler
I’m not sure how much sleep they require/required, but guessing less than the ‘normal’ person. Natural energy level? Off the charts. What else made/makes them unique? Curiosity, creative thinking, and then the act of DOING.
Why We Serve Everyday Heroes
September 13th, 2024 [6 min. read]
By Drew W. Boyer, CFP®
There are a few moments in one’s life that something happens so dramatically and publicly, that you remember it for the rest of your life. For my grandparents, the end of WWII. For my parents, it was JFK’s assassination. For me, it was 9/11.
I still remember it like it was yesterday. Cloudless, clear blue skies, and a radiant sun on a beautiful fall day. I had come downstairs around 8:30 to eat breakfast, before heading off to my college job, and turned on the TV. Within minutes, at 8:46am, there were reports that one of the twin towers was billowing smoke from an unknown reason. Then reports started coming in claiming a plane had caused it. Shortly after, live on TV, the second plane had struck at 9:03am. This was no accident...
Two Broken Bones and a Glass of Lemonade Later...
August 30th, 2024 [4 min. read]
By Drew W. Boyer, CFP®
This past weekend, while waiting on my youngest daughter to get out of her Saturday choir practice, I stared down at my left arm. When you’ve been wearing something for most of your life, it’s easy to overlook it and forget it’s there. For me, it’s two 6+ inches scar-lines covering two metal plates for the two bones I broke back in 9th grade during noon rec.
It had all started with a normal basketball game after lunch: the ones where you eat your food quick and run into the gym to do your best impression of your favorite NBA-er...
Want to Get Ahead? Focus on Low-Risk, High-Reward.
August 16th, 2024 [5 min. read]
By Drew W. Boyer, CFP®
After heading out this past weekend on a Sunday morning bike ride down, I had the idea of how to achieve similar risk v. reward activities.
My usual low-risk bike path down and back to the Horseshoe with the high reward of fresh air and exercise, took an unexpected turn when I got stung on the forehead halfway through. Did I stop? Nope. I kept going because the ice pack and baking soda were at home and it needed to wait. Perseverance in any situation pays.
This $5 Gift That Changed My Life
August 2nd, 2024 [3 min. read]
By Drew W. Boyer, CFP®
Sometime after college, when I was struggling to figure out the real world and make a living for myself, my mom gifted me a small figurine with two words inscribed on it.
Now, this was after I had been gifted a ‘you owe us’ loan statement, post-graduation to pay back all the money I had borrowed in college to get by. Most of that bill was for a truck to get back and forth to work. I’ve always held a job since age 16, so working during school was a foregone conclusion. They did, so I did. The result? I only left college with a debt of less than $25,000.
Compared to the horror stories today, I consider myself fortunate to have been:
a. taught how to work hard, and
b. paid off all my bad debt.
How do I Summer?
July 19th, 2024 [3 min. read]
By Drew W. Boyer, CFP®
Summer brings the excitement of warm, sunny skies, no school for the kids, pool time, BBQs, and vacation for the family.
Just having returned from our annual trek across the pond to visit my wife’s family in Europe and some bonus sightseeing in Paris pre-Olympics, my ‘handy’ (German for ‘cell phone’) is full of memories to look back on years from now. No matter the cost of time and money, it makes my heart full knowing we’re investing it back into our families and celebrating the human connection in-person, rather than over video. It means so much more.
What's in Your Backpack?
July 5th, 2024 [3 min. read]
By Drew W. Boyer, CFP®
As I was packing for my family vacation, I had my luggage out and my backpack side-by-side. Pondering for a moment, these questions came to me to ask of you:
Do you plan out your vacations? Of course! You need to get plane tickets, rental cars, event tickets, and definitely a hotel or Airbnb.
Do you get up early to make your flight? 5am flight to Florida, no problem! Monday to Friday 5am wake-up for fitness, I’ll pass…
Patience is your Superpower.
June 17th, 2024 [4 min. read]
By Drew W. Boyer, CFP®
Welcome to the summer grilling season.
Men everywhere wait for this moment all year to sit back, sip a cold one, and do our part cooking at least once a week.
I’m a reformed gas griller that went all-in on a smoker two Father’s Days ago. Why?
My Dad recommended it, and my little brother seconded it, but with the caveat the learning curve will make you curse the first few times. Ok, what the heck…
Tend your Garden.
May 31st, 2024 [4 min. read]
By Drew W. Boyer, CFP®
Back in 2020, extraordinary things happened.
People being stuck at home looked around and asked themselves, ‘what now?’ Their zoom attire resembled mullets (business on top, party on the bottom), they created neighborhood ‘bubbles’ for their children to play in and driveway happy hours, and finished all their honey to-do lists. We had all the time in the world to decide ‘what now?’ and how you spent it said a lot about you.
You Only Need Four Hobbies.
May 17th, 2024 [5 min. read]
By Drew W. Boyer, CFP®
You only need four hobbies.
For you recent grads out there: LIFE is a great balancing act.
Dr. Seuss’s ‘Oh the Places You’ll Go’ sums it up perfectly. Forget the money kids- you can always make more of that. Time is the number most valuable asset, followed by experience. Pondering this, I read one of those Insta-articles that lists ‘regrets on someone’s death bed.’
Financial Advisors aren’t in the Emergency Business.
May 5th, 2024 [5 min. read]
By Drew W. Boyer, CFP®
At Boyer Financial Group, our slogan is: ‘We Serve Everyday Heroes’. That means first responders - the people you don’t want to meet while they’re on duty, but are glad they’re ready to respond and make your bad day have a better outcome. Just like any insurance: hate to pay it, but glad when you have it.
Hip Hop x Finance
April 12th, 2024 [3 min. read]
By Drew W. Boyer, CFP®
I grew up during the golden age of hip-hop.
Before it became commercialized, face tattoos, and turned rap entrepreneurs into billionaires.
Hip-hop has been the soundtrack throughout my life- especially from my teens to early adulthood. My generation witnessed its evolution from the 80’s gold chains, breakdancing, and boomboxes, to the early 90’s hardcore rap wars, and the over-the-top rap videos and lifestyles of late the 90’s.
Just like rappers, I’ve made my fair share of bad money mistakes.
Saving Through Taxation
March 22nd, 2024 [4 min. read]
By Drew W. Boyer, CFP®
At first glance, you might be thinking of social security where private employees are required to pay into it through employment taxes. Public employees have a similar tax in the form of pensions from their salaries. If you’re working, you’re paying into one or the other.
But this isn’t a required federal tax or state pension- this is a self-tax.
What’s Your Adult GPA?
March 8th, 2024 [3 min. read]
By Drew W. Boyer, CFP®
If you’re winning at
this game called adulthood, you’re probably working on your taxes right now… and hoping for a big refund. If you’ve done this a few times before, you may even know they’re due: April 15th (a helpful reminder). This is something you must do every year, but hey, at least it’s only once.
There’s another task you should be working on every month to win at adulthood: Your Adult GPA.
Travel Is the Best Investment.
February 16th, 2024 [4 min. read]
By Drew W. Boyer, CFP®
It’s February. The only thing different this year is we get an extra day. Great- one more day for the winter blah.
I don’t know about you, but the past few weekends have been spent dreaming about summer vacation to escape this and look forward to trips away, if even a picnic down the street in the green grass, birds chirping, and the leaves swaying in the breeze. With each day though, you can see the sunrise a bit earlier and the sunset a bit later. Spring is coming- hang in there y’all!
What was your Childhood Net Worth?
January 24th, 2024 [3 min. read]
By Drew W. Boyer, CFP®
Baseball cards, comic books, and cassettes.
Every holiday we get our family together, my mom says, "she always knew I'd end up doing something with money." So true. I can vividly remember back in my childhood when my net worth was sports cards, comic books, and my music collection. I felt richer every time I was able to save up, or trade, and add more to my collection. To this day, I still have them all stored in my college-era black chest box along with all my other adolescent memories for my kids to look through. But alas, too many cards and comics were made and now their value is maybe what was printed on the cover or card pack. Perhaps they can make a comeback someday, but cassette tapes?
Fuhgeddaboudit.