It turns out that some of the techniques that the brain uses to learn, decide and act efficiently can lead us astray.

There’s an interesting oft-cited statistic that most working families spend more time planning their annual vacation then they spend on their finances. Why not hand off your financial planning to a professional?

But unbeknownst to her, my daughter gave me the best Father’s Day present that any financial advisor could ask for, when, upon glancing at the back of the Business section of the newspaper that I was reading, she asked, “Daddy, what are all those funny looking charts?”

Because of its massive size and unique internal and external structure, it serves as a home and water source for multiple other species in its ecosystem. But this fascinating plant also offers some powerful “investment portfolio” lessons.

Ideally, we want our investments to own all the teams in the tournament because what we expect to happen might not actually happen.

At its core, the concept of rebalancing is simple. Start with a target percentage allocation of each asset in a portfolio, and as asset values change, periodically make trades so that the portfolio doesn’t drift too far from those targets.