The point of the headline is to distinguish what kind of investor you are. Do you follow storylines as described in the media headlines, or do you rely upon numbers and data to build your wealth and achieve financial independence?

Warren Buffett has made this point clearly by stating that in the short term, the stock market is a voting machine (governed by emotions and trading strategies) and in the long term is a counting machine as you count your wealth derived from investing in profitable and growing companies. Buffet’s approach takes time and patience to achieve. Patience, however, is in...

"Money makes money. And the money that money makes, makes more money.”¹ This quote by Benjamin Franklin is referencing the power of compound interest. Albert Einstein extolled the wealth-building virtues of compound interest as well. He is reputed as saying he considered it to be man’s greatest invention and the eighth wonder of the world.²

A much simpler way to describe compound interest is that it is an excellent way to watch your investments grow exponentially over time.

Compound interest means that you begin to earn interest on the interest you receive, which multiplies your investments at an accelerating rate. For example, if you have...

"After 38 years of marriage, I was blindsided when my husband asked me for a divorce," says Patricia, 61. "I didn’t see it coming and was shocked at how fast and efficiently he left the life we had built together."

Like many women of Patricia’s generation, she had made the decision to stay home and raise their children while her husband worked. As a lawyer, he had provided well for his family. Patricia knew that they had savings and were set to retire in the next few years.

However, as she’d taken a back seat in the financial planning discussions, she wasn’t 100% sure what their assets were. She just knew that their house was paid for and that they had investments of...