Category: Investing

Why Paying Down Debt Aggressively Was the Worst Financial Decision I’ve Ever Made

This weeks guest post is written by Matthew White with White and McGowan. Their firm is unique in that they handle financial planning exclusively for physicians and dentists. Equally distinguishing, is that Blake McGowan is not only a financial advisor with the firm, but he’s also a practicing physician. You can read Matthew and Blake’s story here at KevinMD.com to see how the two came together to form White and McGowan more than five years ago. The firms’ vision aligns […]

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What You Need to Know about Fundrise and DiversyFund

crowdfunded

Today’s guest post comes from Fred Leamnson of Money With a Purpose for the Money Mix website. I met Fred briefly at FinCon, and we’ve communicated several times since then. His well-written posts have landed on The Sunday Best several times now. Fred is an advocate for those dealing with opioid addiction, the effects of which have greatly impacted his family. He devotes an entire section of his website to overcoming adversity. I respect his willingness to share his son’s […]

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7 comments

Life Goal: To Lose a Million Dollars

In the Great Recession, I lost tens of thousands of dollars. I was just a few years into my anesthesia career and hadn’t had a lot of time to build up my investment accounts. I had been maxing out a SEP-IRA and setting aside a bit of cash, but that was about it. The backdoor Roth didn’t exist, I didn’t have an HSA, and I wouldn’t start a taxable account until after the market had started to rebound in 2010. […]

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Top 5 Lessons from Sports on How to Be Better With Money

Minnesota Hall of Fame

Alright sports fans, listen up! Dr. James Turner has been listening to more than his share of SportsCenter, and believe it or not, he’s learned a thing or two about how to be better with money in the process. You see, the keys to success that apply to one discipline often translate to numerous other endeavors. Do you think Shaquille O’Neil was more successful on or off the hardwood court? It may be true that one thing led to another, […]

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Managing Risk With Fixed Income: How to Buy Zero Coupon Bonds

bond choices

Today’s guest post on the mechanics of selecting and purchasing U.S. Treasury bonds comes courtesy of the man behind Reaching the Crest. His blog has been dormant for quite some time now. I think he’s been too busy taking a deep dive into the investing world to create new content of his own! As you will read several times, he is a member of my fatFIRE Facebook group, a community I created for readers interested in a bigger budget style […]

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7 Risks of Real Estate Investing

San_Fransisco_Seven_Sisters

Real Estate investment often project rosy returns. 8% to 12% or more is not an uncommon expectation in crowdfunded and other real estate investment opportunities. These strong returns, however, are far from guaranteed. If they were a sure thing, there’d be little reason to invest in anything else. I do, of course, invest in other asset classes. Diversity is a good thing; it’s a good way to spread your risk around. It’s not just investment real estate that comes with […]

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529 Plans: What You Need to Know About College Savings Plans

529 Plan MN

Happy 5/29 Day!   Shortly after our children were born, we started 529 plans to get a head start on college savings. Before they could walk or talk, these lucky kids had thousands of dollars invested in a tax-advantaged account with many years for that money to compound before they might need it.   I say “lucky” because the vast majority of kids don’t have a 529 plan. Greater than 97% of families in the United States don’t use them, […]

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An Early Retiree Creates and Shares His Investment Policy Statement

SIS_IPS

Today’s guest post is from Robert @ Stop Ironing Shirts.  He recently declared early retirement from a 15 year career in finance.  Robert struggled with walking away from career paying $300,000+, an income level only achieved after ten plus years of on the job training after his undergraduate degree. He is married to a veterinarian who hung up her white coat a couple of years ago, and he recently recapped the process of giving his early retirement notice, sharing people’s […]

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What to Do with Suboptimal Assets in Your Portfolio

Kids receiving gifts

If you’ve got an ideal investment portfolio and you’re perfectly content with your asset allocation (the percentage of stocks and bonds),  your asset location (where those funds are located, ideally in the most tax-efficient manner) and the choice of assets you hold, this post is not for you. If, on the other hand, you are human and have made less than optimal choices in the past, or someone made them for you, I’d like to share some strategies you can […]

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8 comments

12 Ways to Simplify Your Taxable Brokerage Account

My taxable account might be my favorite account. It holds about half of our retirement assets, is immediately available, and is more flexible than any other account we own. When I first opened one, I didn’t have a guide like this. I bought actively managed, tax-inefficient funds. I didn’t know what tax loss harvesting was. It was far from optimal, but at least I was saving and investing the leftover money after maximizing all of my tax-advantaged options rather than […]

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Don’t Forget To Do a Risk-Benefit Analysis When Investing

Risk_Benefit_analysis

A comment I see not infrequently on the forums and Facebook Groups I haunt goes something like this: “If you want $100,000 in retirement income, you don’t need $2.5 Million invested. Just invest $1 Million in crowdfunded / syndicated real estate and you can have $100,000 a year.” While it’s true that you can earn 10% and more in these deals, it’s also true that you can break even or lose money. The 4% rule (of thumb) is based on […]

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The Long-Term Cost of Investing in the Wrong Index Fund

RYSYX

Not all index funds are created equally. While they may follow similar indices in a similar manner, the costs involved can vary greatly. If you’ve invested in a simple three-fund portfolio or a variation with a quality, low-cost firm, you’ve probably got costs of well under a tenth of a percent. Would you believe there are companies chargin more than 1% per year for an S&P 500 fund? It’s true, and you can find them from big names like Wells […]

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Create Your Own Comprehensive Financial Plan

If you’d like to create a comprehensive financial plan, I can think of three good options. One: Work with a vetted fiduciary, fee-only financial advisor. You should come out with a sound plan, some understanding of what goes into the plan, and it will probably set you back a few thousand dollars. Two: Go it alone. Read books and blogs to learn everything you can about investment management, debt management, appropriate insurance, asset protection, etc… It will likely take the […]

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6 comments

How to Avoid FOMO When Investing

FOMO road

With all this FOMO talk lately, you might mistake me for a millennial. FOMO! YOLO! See you at the Fyre Festival with all of my influencer friends! Or not. I’m a Gen-Xer, which is more of a ROLO generation. Not an acronym; it’s just the yummy chocolate and caramel candy that was among the far fewer options back when I was growing up. You could find a roll next to the Whatchamacallits. To be honest, I think of the rhyming […]

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7 Guidelines for Adding New Asset Classes to Your Portfolio

I know some intelligent people who invest in only one asset class. The VTSAX portfolio is well diversified, but is only diversified among the stocks of U.S.-based companies. Historically, the one-fund portfolio has performed well, with the occasional 30% to 50% drop. Don’t like the sound of that last part? You may want to consider adding an asseet class. The classic three fund portfolio gives you three asset classes, and a four fund portfolio (with the addition of Real Estate […]

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When Your Income Becomes Your Enemy

Sedona Mansion

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the question “How do you get rich?” You might envision someone winning the lottery or receiving a large inheritance, but the most common and likely response is something along the lines of “make a lot of money.” If you want to be wealthy, and don’t have a rich uncle or 1 in 100 million luck, you’re best off working hard and earning a boatload of money. Of course, earning […]

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Five Things That Need to be Said About Passive Income

Passive Income

Today’s Saturday Selection from Dr. Peter Kim is one of my favorites. It speaks to the truth about passive income, specifically the fact that “passive” can be a bit of a misnomer, particularly early on. My favorite form of passive income is the return I receive in both capital appreciation and dividends from my index fund investments. That’s about as passive as it gets. I also earn some passive income from investments in crowdfunded real estate deals. These are mostly […]

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