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.

Things still happened in the winter that wasn't.

We were able to Dig(in) for World Cup ski races, slide by with some pond hockey games and forget how to drive in those infrequent snowstorms. Preparing for the winter that wasn't meant that we might have bought unnecessary snowblowers or Yak Tracks. But the winter that wasn't has me thinking about other things that weren't.

In an election year, there is never a shortage of questions on how whatever happens in the political realm will affect the financial one.

For instance, if the candidate you despise wins, do you need to pull out of the market? Or if the party you don't prefer takes hold of the House and Senate, what will happen to issues like taxes, the environment, Social Security and the deficit? What if your party does win, which investments should you buy?

Elections matter for policy reasons. Policy decisions can influence corporate profits. Corporate profits are a key ingredient in identifying which companies have potential. And companies' value comes down to some mix of current results and future potential. So how do you consider what this upcoming election will mean for stocks?

It was my senior year in college and I was on a roll. I had unlimited energy and continued to take on responsibilities. I was working, volunteering, studying, and going to class. But I couldn't do it all. At least not well.

And I didn't.

That was transformative for me. To quote Thich Nhat Hanh, "Many of us have been running all our lives. Practice stopping."

I was talking with a client who was 10 minutes into his first pickleball lesson when he went back for a shot, fell flat on his back and broke said back. An inauspicious beginning to a sport that is supposed to be easy for everyone. But because it is sacrilege to speak ill of pickleball, I will instead apply to financial planning some lessons that I learned from the University of Utah's U Health "Do's and Don'ts of Pickleball Safety."

Every New Year's, my wife and I independently pick a word that we want to be a touchstone for ourselves for the coming year. Since I keep a daily journal, I often refer to it as I think about my day. I have chosen different words based on what was happening in my life — awareness, attention, gratitude, enthusiasm, et al.

I don't wish to pick a word for you, but let's explore the many facets of a particular word in our financial lives: want.

Ever talk to chronologically gifted people (seniors, in other words) in your life who want to stay in their house as long as they can? Great. Love the concept. But you know who may not love this idea? Everyone else in your life and, drum roll please, eventually you.

Please sit down as I break the news to you.

I want to encourage you to be as selfish as you possibly can.

How can I encourage that?