My thinking on this topic has been influenced and informed by so many people, and I am grateful to all of them. First, I have to acknowledge my clients—especially the early ones—who went through some difficult markets with me, and whose questions and concerns set me on this ongoing intellectual quest. Ultimately, the ideas you hold in your hand were prompted by them.

I am grateful, in particular, to my friend Patrick Foster, who was an ongoing sounding board as I wrestled with these ideas. It was in conversation with him, in fact, that my central idea for allocating across goals found its genesis. In a similar vein, I am immensely indebted to Jean Brunel. My first submission to the Journal of Wealth Management was admittedly a mess, and I am grateful that he saw through its flaws to find the value in its core idea. Rather than rejecting that submission—and promptly ending my research career—he let me revise it until it was up to par. I am honored that he agreed to write the forward. In addition, Mr. Brunel has been an ongoing source of encouragement and ideas. This book would not be possible without him.

I am grateful to those who reviewed and commented on the early manuscript of this book, namely Sasha Lund, who offered helpful comments and early editing; Gregg Robins, for his comments and encouragement; Laurent Bernut, for his insights into publishing; Michael Finke, for his suggestions and direction on topics; and Sanjiv Das for his encouragement (and his own research into the topic).

Finally, I am grateful to those who saw value in the project: my editors at Wiley, Kevin Harreld and Susan Cerra, and my copyeditor, Cheryl Ferguson.

No doubt, I have missed some key people; you have my apologies!

I am genuinely excited about the ongoing research on this topic. I am excited to keep all of these conversations going, and I am excited to open new ones with new friends.