What if I told you there was a way to instantly increase your investment returns with just a few minutes of work per year? What if I also told you that, not only is this method still useful during periods of market decline, it actually becomes more effective when the […]
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Penalty Free Early Access To Your Retirement Funds
As long-time readers probably know, 401(k)s are, by far, my favorite investment accounts. When it comes to allocating your investment funds, I believe dedicating money to a 401(k) with employer match should take priority over all other options. Most of the people in my life know about my affinity towards 401(k)s (I […]
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Monthly Financial Update – April 1, 2018
The Monthly Financial Update gives our readers an inside look at the allocation and performance of our personal portfolio. At the beginning of each month, we share a snapshot of our investments and highlight their performance over the previous month. In addition, we compute our progress towards achieving our retirement […]
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The Basics: Compound Growth
In the previous installment of “The Basics” series, we presented a step-by-step guide on how to set up your first investment account. Hopefully, that post will help some of the investment beginners out there conquer their fears and open an account to begin investing. For this new entry, I decided […]
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Best Strategy To Erase Debt, For Good
Debt. It gives us spending flexibility by providing the resources to purchase big-ticket items we’d otherwise be unable to afford. It allows us to delay payment on purchases and to spread the total amount owed into smaller sums, paid overtime. The process for accessing debt can be as easy as […]
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The Basics: Setting Up An Investment Account
By now, it’s pretty obvious that I believe investing is vitally important to your future financial success. As you’ve also probably gleaned from my writings, the stock market is, by far, my favorite investment option. I’ve broken down the investment account hierarchy, mapped out a surprisingly simple investment strategy, declared […]
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Why Saving Money In The Bank Will Leave You Broke (Part 2)
In Part 1, we discussed the role inflation plays in the deterioration of wealth over time. As we demonstrated, when money is not growing at a faster rate than that of inflation, its purchasing power will be continually diminished. Because bank accounts yield growth rates much lower than inflation, leaving […]
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Pre-Tax Investments (Not Roth) Are The Best Choice For Building Wealth
(Though it’s not required, it may be helpful to read my previous post about progressive taxes, before diving into this post.) The classic pre-tax (e.g. Traditional IRAs and 401(k)s) vs. Roth comparison usually goes something like this… AssumptionsInitial Investment = $10,000Tax Rate = 25%Total Investment Return = 900% (i.e. 10x) […]
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Monthly Financial Update – March 1, 2018
The Monthly Financial Update gives our readers an inside look at the allocation and performance of our personal portfolio. At the beginning of each month, we share a snapshot of our investments and highlight their performance over the previous month. In addition, we compute our progress towards achieving our retirement […]
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Your Taxes May Be Lower Than You Think
I recently had a discussion (debate) with a friend of mine comparing the benefits of pre-tax investments to those of Roth investments. I argued that, while there are many cases where Roth investing would be more advantageous/practical for the average person, pre-tax is usually the best choice mathematically. I presented […]
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