Opinion Piece
The Regret Tracker: The Most Important Financial Dashboard You’re Missing
Tom West explores how regret can serve as an overlooked guide for making better financial and life decisions.
Financial plans typically measure assets, income, spending, and investment performance—but they rarely measure regret. In this article, Tom West examines how reflecting on missed opportunities, delayed decisions, and choices that no longer align with personal priorities can provide valuable insight for building a more meaningful financial and retirement plan.
Read the Full ArticleJuly 24 2026
I have a confession as a financial advisor: Goals are overrated.
When a new client signs on, they get prompted for their goals on a discovery form. Those responses tend to fall into two categories.
1. They provide specifics: time frames, risk/reward, hopeful goal, outcomes to be avoided, etc., OR
2. Something meh that is vague aspiration like:
- I want to retire comfortably (who doesn’t?).
- I want to spend more time with my family (nice but not helpful for planning).
- I want to leave a legacy (such as…?).
- I want to be independent (are you being controlled by another entity right now?).
In my experience, every one of these general goals is admirable in a way, but rarely sufficient to get people to change their behavior. Sometimes I sense the tyranny of routine, or death by autopilot, or an ossification from the familiar.
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