Most of us need to work to support ourselves and our lifestyles.

We cash a check and use the money to pay for things we need today or to cover anticipated future needs. But the question to ask yourself is: Does your money support your values or does money dictate them?

There is a saying in philanthropy that one should give their time (committing hours to volunteerism), treasure (making donations to causes) and talent (determining your unique gifts and using them to foster causes important to you).

I would like to think all I listen to in my car is highly technical financial planning topics I can then dispense to you in more relatable terms.

But the truth is, sometimes I just want to rock out. So here are some financial ideas we can learn from my playlist.

Love summer, hate winter. Love dogs, hate cats. Love the Vikings, hate the Packers.

Almost nothing is all good or all bad, yet we often feel a need to cast things as one or the other. This is lazy thinking. A skier might love aspects of winter, who doesn’t love cuddling a purring kitten and believe it or not, certain people from Wisconsin find highly unlikely redeemable features in the Packers.

This binary thinking is problematic in finance because it makes us overconfident in an unknowable world. Let me give you an example.

Accredited Investors Wealth Management® has been recognized as one of the 2024 Best RIAs to Work For by Financial Planning.

I use a navigation app when I am trying to get somewhere because it often takes me on routes that I would not have uncovered myself: It might guide me to less traveled streets, but they are nonetheless roads.

Famous economist John Kenneth Galbraith once opined: “The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.”

This Taurus recently attended our local financial planning association’s conference and was very interested in what a panel of economists had to say.

I love reading religious books from all religions.

The lessons I receive from them have provided context for how I think about money and helped me explore important questions with our clients. So here are some religious ideas with a secular approach to financial planning.

Years ago, Gwyneth Paltrow famously referred to the ending of her marriage to Chris Martin as a “conscious uncoupling.” She wrote in an article for Vogue that she wanted to “be a family, even though [they] were not a couple.” It appears to have turned out OK for Gwyneth and Chris, and the concept may be similarly applied to your financial future.

One of comedian Jack Handey’s Deep Thoughts is: “A good way to threaten somebody is to light a stick of dynamite. Then you call the guy and hold the burning fuse up to the phone. ‘Hear that?’ you say. ‘That’s dynamite, baby.’”

Stock market volatility will likely escalate while the Fed wrestles with rate cuts, the U.S. faces a significant presidential election and unemployment creeps up as inflation creeps down. In this climate, the real question is how you don’t blow up your own portfolio.

The easy answer is to think like a true investor, not a speculator.

Some of the best financial planning advice is in T.S. Eliot's poem "East Coker."

The question about whether Joe Biden should step aside in his quest for a second presidential term is interesting because the result of the election won't necessarily indicate the soundness of the decision.

Regardless of the outcome in November, there is no way of knowing whether it would have been different with another candidate, in spite of what the experts will espouse.

We look at results and conclude the decision we made was sound or unsound. But results are never guaranteed, so the process for making our decision matters more than the results. A good outcome with a bad process is simply luck. Your goal should be to increase the chances of making a good decision.

"I'm really not interested in this." "She makes all the decisions." "I trust him." "I don't even want to know what's going on." "She earned it, so she decides what we do with it."

If you have ever uttered any of these words, or at least thought of them, then this column is for you.

Do you view your money as a soup or a salad? Do you slurp it or pick at it?

In other words, do you view your savings, investments and debt as one big thing, or do you have separate accounts in your mind for the different categories?

If I were to give a graduation speech, It would go like this:

Welcome, graduates. I would like to prepare you for this next stage of life with some counsel you might not want to hear.

I was talking to a friend who asked, "How do you know when you have enough?" It's no surprise this question frequently comes up in planning.

But it's not the right question. If you are asking if you have enough: You don't.

Having enough is not an amount. It is a perspective. We create money stories and lose ourselves in them. Others dictate these stories to us, but we translate them into our own language. Understanding those languages can help us move forward.

The founder of behavioral finance, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, recently passed away. His work has made a huge difference in helping me understand how emotions can interfere with more rational decision making.

It hasn't stopped me from, at times, making nonsensical financial decisions of my own, but it has helped me pause so I can minimize them. Here are some behaviors or biases we all probably share.

Plenty of us worry we've messed up our kids about money, or are anxious we don't see eye to eye with our significant others on all money issues, or fear we've made stupid money decisions at times.

Well, quit worrying, stop being anxious and have no fear: You most certainly messed up your kids, torqued off your partner and made dumb, dare I say horrible, money choices. Those aren't problems. The problem is when you don't think you have money issues. There is a word for that: delusional.

One of the best things about walking our dog early in the mornings is being alone with my thoughts.

On a recent morning, one of my favorite quotes by journalist Sydney Harris popped into my head: "Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable."

I love the Minnesota Twins almost as much as I love financial planning.

And it's no wonder: The two are remarkably related. Whether a sports fan or not, there are similarities between putting together a team and organizing your financial life.