Patience is not a skill or an inherent ability. It’s a practice, one that does not necessarily develop with age or wisdom. Successful investing takes patience because as you extend your investment horizon, your chances of success increase. You can’t expect good results in the short-term, but you can expect excellent results 10-20 years out…
I’m grateful to work for a high-quality employer that appreciates my contributions and pays me a reliable paycheck 26 times a year. The retirement plan is best I’ve seen anywhere. The healthcare plan is first-rate — our family never worries about coverage or costs. It’s challenging work, and I occasionally even feel like I’m making…
Are you thinking about what financial goals to set this year? According to a motivational flyer in my office, 71% of Americans make resolutions, but only 8% succeed. Put me in that 8%. This year, I’d like to lose about 15 pounds. I also ate a lot of chocolate last week. With setting financial goals,…
Mortgage interest rates have increased in recent years due to inflation the Federal Reserve. Using a HELOC to invest is far less tempting today than it was a few years ago. The big banks are still eager to lend money, but they’ve raised their lending standards and rates since the banking crisis of 2007-2009. After…
I’m excited to present a guest post this week from a prolific YouTuber named Ryan Scribner. Ryan talks about investing and personal finance on his YouTube channel, where he’s amassed a following of nearly 500,000 subscribers. He also runs the blog Investing Simple where he shares reviews and investing tips for beginner investors. When he…
A week after graduating from college, I flew to London and spent the summer riding trains and sleeping in hostels around Europe. Two things became clear that summer. I had no interest in more formal education, and I wanted to travel a lot more. The fastest way to travel again was to find a decent-paying…
One of my biggest failures as a parent and personal finance aficionado was waiting seven years after our first child was born to finish our estate plan. It seems that doing an estate plan is more prone to procrastination than most other grown-up checklist items, even vasectomies. (Be sure to answer the two survey questions…
A retirement goal is meaningless without a plan to get there. As I get closer to my retirement age goal, I’m as interested in detailed projections as I am saving and investing strategies. All to ensure I can retire at 55. Spreadsheets are fantastic tools to model financials and make pretty charts. I use custom…
I started learning how to invest in dividend stocks in 1995 when my uncle gifted me one share of Chevron stock for my 20th birthday. Since then, I’ve built a portfolio of 50+ stocks in my that pays me more than $7,000 every year. Dividend stocks are only one portion of my overall investment strategy….
Part of what I love about being a money blogger is learning about innovative startups and investment platforms. Last year, I came across one that was particularly interesting and mentioned it in a post about alternative investment ideas. Today, I’m digging deeper with this Masterworks review. It’s an investment platform that enables investors to profit…
RealtyMogul is a Los Angeles-based real estate crowdfunding platform that connects individual investors to professionally managed commercial real estate deals on a modern investment platform. The company offers non-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs), private investment offerings, and 1031 exchanges all under one roof. It’s suitable for both accredited (~millionaires) and non-accredited (assets <$1 million)…
Now that we’ve sold the condo and the mortgage is gone, we’re down to one debt in our family, our primary mortgage. What irks me about owning a home with a mortgage is that I need to have a full-time job to cover the payment. No duh, right? That’s a typical situation. But I look…
Over the years, I’ve been indebted numerous times for one reason or another — mostly car loans and a few mortgages, but a few personal loans too. After college, my parents lent me $5,500 to buy a used Mazda. The interest rate was better than a traditional car loan, so I was grateful to take…
A few months back, I had a conversation with a woman from a well-known advocacy organization for retirees and the elderly. One part of the organization’s mission is to promote financial security among its membership base. However, the organization seemed to be targeting a younger audience, where I met the representative. So I asked her…