November is National Diabetes Awareness Month. The most significant mental hurdle before leaving my full-time career was health insurance. My former employer offered excellent healthcare benefits at an affordable cost. Leaving meant giving up the low-cost benefit but keeping the insurance through COBRA. Our 2023 health insurance plan is the same as when I was…
Curious about VCX? Read this instead. Fundrise is a Washington, D.C.-based real estate and alternative assets platform enabling non-accredited investors to invest in high-quality real estate and pre-IPO startups. The company is one of the most innovative in the real estate space, leveraging technology and systems to streamline regulatory filings and make the investing experience…
The stock market has its stomach-churning moments. Dedicating a portion of your portfolio to investing outside of the stock market can help put your mind at ease when the market gets inevitably uncomfortable. In the new interest rate and lower inflation environment, safe investments that were unattractive for years now provide solid returns and diversify…
Retirement is a fuzzy line these days. It seems increasingly rare for older people to cross the threshold from career worker to retiree on a single day and remain retired indefinitely. My Dad did that. So did a few of my extended family members and former coworkers. But when I ask retirement-aged people about their…
EquityMultiple is a real estate crowdfunding platform that connects accredited investors to high-quality, pre-vetted commercial real estate investment opportunities. The company partners with experienced lenders and real estate companies around the United States to source deals for its platform investors. It thoroughly vets each sponsor and proposed market opportunity, seeking attractive risk-adjusted target returns for…
My best-performing investment ever is a managed mutual fund called the Fidelity OTC Portfolio (FOCPX). It’s up more than 1,100% since I’ve owned it. I wish I could say I’m brilliant at evaluating mutual fund managers and picking funds. But I only own this fund because my first employer, back in 1998, offered it as…
Redwood Materials is a sustainable materials company laying the groundwork for electric vehicle (EV) battery recycling in the U.S. As EVs increase in numbers over the next few decades, many electric cars will reach their end-of-life. When they do, the raw materials contained within the batteries will retain much of their value. High-demand metals (e.g.,…
Yep, I’ve been writing this blog for 10 years. But instead of rewriting what’s already been written, I want to focus on today and the future. Today’s post is a personal update about my current situation and how my life and business are moving toward closer alignment with “the why” of the early retirement goal…
Today’s article is a guest post from a young entrepreneur named Preston Yadegar. Preston has built an online platform called the Shareholder Vote Exchange (SVE) to empower individual investors to generate additional income from their existing stock holdings by selling their shareholder voting rights. When you own a stock, each share represents a vote during…
There’s a recurring “success” story in real estate investing. It goes something like this. A young person reads Rich Dad Poor Dad. Inspired, they buy their first rental property with little to no money down and start earning cash flow. They replicate this investment strategy a few more times in the next year, proudly investing with…
The future value (FV) formula is a Finance 101 and retirement planning staple that allows us to estimate what current assets will be worth at a future date. It’s one of the baseline formulas that let us build more complex personal financial models using elaborate spreadsheets or more sophisticated tools like Boldin and ProjectionLab. Future…
A former coworker once told me how happy he was with his financial advisor. He’s made me A LOT of money! It wasn’t an appropriate time for me to ask the obvious follow-up questions: define a lot? or what are his fees? Financial advisors play a critical role for many, like my former coworker, who…
My parents were born and raised in the south hills of Pittsburgh. They attended the same high school but didn’t start dating until five years after graduation when they were in a wedding party together. Dad was a high school teacher on the other side of town. He wanted a shorter commute, a big yard,…
Inflation is destroying wealth and making food so expensive. The Fed keeps raising interest rates — how can the housing market survive it? The 16th largest U.S. bank failed a few months back. Then the 14th largest bank failed! The COVID-19 pandemic happened. That sucked. Now there’s a stupid war in Eastern Europe. The stock…
This Arrived Homes review was last updated on 02/17/2023. Arrived Homes is a real estate crowdfunding platform allowing non-accredited investors (all U.S.-based investors 18 and up) to own shares of single-family and vacation rentals. Arrived uses real estate crowdfunding laws to simplify the investor experience and broaden access to a Buffett-approved asset class with no…
Common advice from life coaches and career gurus is to build a career you love so much you don’t want to retire. I appreciate this advice and wish I’d followed it more in my 20s and early 30s. But genuinely loving what you do is a rare privilege. Most people don’t love their jobs, let…
Early retirement is a loaded phrase that ignites internet skepticism. We can partly blame the mainstream financial media for picking up stories about “early retirees” that run six and seven-figure businesses. Inconsistent messaging among early retirement bloggers doesn’t help, and I suspect the phrase is tossed around liberally on YouTube and TikTok. The FIRE crowd…
When I lost my job in 2017, my former employer didn’t have the means to pay me a severance. Our family had emergency savings, but our multiple income streams kept us afloat. Five years earlier, a job loss would have been much worse. But since I saved and invested while times were good, I could enjoy…
Risk-free government Treasury yields have risen dramatically over the past year. The increase was a direct result of the Federal Reserve rate increases that started in 2022. Higher short-term yields are good for retirees and give us multiple options to earn risk-free returns on idle cash while maintaining liquidity. But the fast pace of the…
I spent the summer of 1996 tending the 13th street beach stand just off the boardwalk in Ocean City, MD. Beachgoers came to me for rentable beach chairs, umbrellas, and bodyboards. On a good day, I’d sell about $500 and receive 20% as pay. It was an excellent summer gig compared to the $7.77 that…
The Atlantic writer Derek Thompson wrote an article about the best career advice he’s come across that “might be marginally useful.” Your Career Is Just One-Eighth of Your Life was applicable to my situation back in September 2022 when I was approaching my career departure date, and it’s still relevant today as a self-employed blogger….