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The value of real financial advice

It starts with the simple things, but not easy things. Asking questions. Listening more than we talk. Acting as a news filter to separate the valuable from the useless.

Five years ago, I was taking care of clients and writing the Sketch Guy column at the New York Times. My family and I were settling into our new home in Park City, Utah. Things were good. Then, I got what you might call an "interesting proposition."
Looking back, I see that crossing paths with the

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