• Columnists

Michael P. Egan, CFP®, partner, Egan, Berger & Weiner, LLC

COLUMN = RETIREMENT

A founding partner of Egan, Berger & Weiner, LLC Michael Egan has 24 years of experience in the financial services industry. He has been a mutual fund analyst, and an accountant and financial planner.

A graduate of George Washington University with a degree in Finance, Egan hosted a weekly radio show on financial planning in the Washington market. He has also been a presenter on retirement planning for Fairfax County Public School’s Adult and Community Education. Egan is an active member of the Financial Planning Association.

The son of Irish immigrants, Egan grew up in Connecticut, and moved to Northern Virginia in 1990. He remains an avid New England sports fan, and roots passionately for the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics and UCONN Huskies.

To contact Egan, send him an email at megan@ebwllc.com. For more information about Egan, Berger & Weiner, LLC, visit www.ebwfinancialnews.com.

You don’t go into a field that requires cracking people’s heads open or operating on something as delicate as the spinal cord unless you are comfortable with taking risks.”

– Dr. Ben Carson

To follow, without halt, one aim: There’s the secret of success.”

– Anna Pavlova

Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now.”

– Jack Kerouac

I can’t go back to yesterday—because I was a different person then.”

– Lewis Carroll

Things don’t change. You change your way of looking, that’s all.”

– Carlos Castaneda

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

– Thomas Edison

It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.”

– Alfred Adler

Success is about finding a livelihood that brings joy, self-sufficiency, and a sense of contributing.”

– Anita Roddick

Who cares if my glass is half empty or half full; I still have something to drink.”

– Optimism rules

We are not meant to resolve all contradictions, but to live with them and rise above them.”

– William Blake

The person who makes a success of living is the one who see his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication.”

– Cecil B. DeMille

Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.”

– Benjamin Disraeli

A person who learns to juggle six balls will be more skilled than the person who never tries to juggle more than three.”

– Marilyn vos Savant

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.”

– Steve Jobs, Apple, Inc.

Do not say, ‘why were the former days better than these,’ for it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”

– Ecclesiastes, 7:10

Do you believe it is important to give back some portion of your wealth to support charitable causes?”

– Steven Schussler

No longer talk at all about the kind of man a good man ought to be, but be such.”

– Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

The mind is everything. What you think, you become.”

– Buddha

Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love.”

– Jalaluddin Rumi

A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.”

– Bob Dylan

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”

– Jimi Hendrix

Whosoever knows how to fight well is not angry. Whosoever knows how to conquer enemies does not fight them.”

– Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.”

– Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., U.S. Supreme Court justice

If you would create something,
 you must be something.”

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he’ll quickly learn how to chew it.“


– Roy Ash, co-founder of Litton Industries

Speaking more than one language is no longer just an asset in today’s job market; it is a requirement.”

– Tom Adams, CEO, Rosetta Stone

Challenge is a dragon with a gift in its mouth. Tame the dragon and the gift is yours.”

– Noela Evans

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

– T.S. Eliot

Remove those ‘I want you to like me’ stickers from your forehead
and, instead, place them where they truly will do the most good—on your mirror.”

– Susan Jeffers

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

– Charles R. Swindoll

I don’t do very well without fear. There needs to be a part of me saying, ‘That’s going to fail,’ so I can prove myself wrong.”

– Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe

You take your life in your own hands, and what happens?
 A terrible thing: no one to blame.”

– Erica Jong

Sometimes the dreams that come true are the dreams you never even knew you had.”

– Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones

Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

– Christopher Robin to Pooh

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”

– Magical

Entrepreneurs need to search purposefully for the sources of innovation that indicate opportunities for success.”

– Peter F. Drucker

As each woman realizes her power, she transforms the world.”

– Patrice Wynne, WomanSpirit Sourcebook

The fixity of a habit is generally in direct proportion to its absurdity.”

– Marcel Proust

Don’t follow, lead. Don’t copy, create. Don’t start, finish. Don’t sit still, move. Don’t fit in, stand out. Don’t sit quietly, speak up. (Not all the time, sure, but more often.)”

– Seth Godin

The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.”

– Andrew Carnegie

Women once had the goal of being Superwoman; I think most of us now simply strive to have a super day.”

– Author, Activist Lee Woodruff

Persist and persevere, and you will find most things that are attainable, possible.”

– Lord Chesterfield

I’m not afraid of storms,
for I’m learning to sail my ship.”

– Louisa May Alcott

The great use of life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.”

– William James

You must have chaos within you, to create a dancing star.”

– Frederic Nietzsche

Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make Me Feel Important.’ Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.”

– Mary Kay Ash

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”

– Anais Nin

What is the point of having free will if one cannot occasionally spit in the eye of destiny?”

– Jim Butcher, White Night

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

– T.S. Eliot

With ordinary talents and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.”

– Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton