Overview: Estate planning documents are often viewed as static documents that are written once and then safely stored. To provide the most value, estate planning documents should be updated as laws change and life events occur.

Four Areas of Estate Planning
Many people assume estate planning documents are strictly financial in nature. In reality, having such documents in place also expresses an individual’s personal instructions regarding health care preferences, family care and cherished belongings. The following are all part of the estate planning process.

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Overview: Personal finance and investments are among the most complicated topics facing young adults. Following is advice for young adults in the key areas of saving money, paying off debt, purchasing a home, buying insurance and investing.

1. Saving

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Overview: Wealth counselor and psychotherapist Marilyn Wechter discusses how family wealth can affect parents and children in different ways. Marilyn also touches on the subject of how family members can begin repairing damaged relationships and change the meaning of money throughout the family dynamic.

Q: What is the most common issue you see affluent families facing today?

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Overview: Bill Schultheis wrote the first edition of The Coffeehouse Investor in 1998, and ever since he has been educating investors about the importance of following his book’s edict — how to build wealth, ignore Wall Street and get on with your life. The third edition of his book, The New Coffeehouse Investor, was published in 2009. In this Q&A, Bill shares his Coffeehouse principles as well his thoughts on the current climate for investors, the importance of being disciplined and where he likes to go for his perfect cup of java.

If someone read The Coffeehouse Investor when it was originally published, what new messages and stories would they get from The New Coffeehouse Investor?
In many ways, they get the same successful, straightforward message that was originally introduced to readers in 1998. The three investment principles highlighted in the book are timeless: 1) Save for a rainy day (develop a long-term financial plan; 2) Don’t put all your eggs in one basket (diversify among asset classes); and 3) There is no such thing as a free lunch (capture the entire return of each asset class through low-cost index funds).

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