So you're in your 40s or 30s and you've had a steady job for over a decade or two. Or even better, you're in your 20s and have a job with benefits and sort of, kind of, maybe figured out what you might want to do with your life for the next few years. That's all well and good, but what are you doing for your retirement savings? Do you know what your contribution amount is and if there's a matching plan at the company you work for? It seems ridiculous and a little crazy to start thinking about this stuff when you're in your 20s but it's not at all. You need to know the contribution limits for 2019. To give you perspective, here are the average retirement savings for the following age groups: Age 32-37: $31,644 Age 38-43: $67,270 Age 44-49: $81,347 Age 50-55: $124,831 Age 56-61: $163,577 That's not even close to getting the job done. The reality is people aren't saving nearly enough to have a comfortable retirement, if one at all. Knowing what …
Investing
5 Simple Ways to Become a Better Investor
Look, let's face it, from the get-go we're told over and over we're better off letting someone else manage our investments. It's too complicated they said. It's too time-consuming they said. Why would you spend time on investing when a "professional" can do the job for you? But come on. They mostly don't know any better than you and even when they do, they swindle you without remorse. And hell, even 99% of mutual funds underperform the market. What are the chances your genius financial advisor is going to do better? Mine certainly didn't before I got rid of him. Sure, it takes a lot of work to learn when you're starting from scratch as I did. But I'm telling you it's so worth it. For example, take today. The market plunged almost 3% and everyone is freaking out about a recession. Four years ago I would've freaked out and sold everything. Now, I'm honestly a little relieved. I know every time the media thinks the market is headed into bear territory it pretty much …
8 Lessons Learned from Tony Robbin’s Money: Master the Game
Trying to become financially literate seems just about hopeless sometimes, doesn’t it? You begin to speak with a financial advisor and as soon as their mouth opens, your head starts spinning and you become even more overwhelmed than you were 5 minutes ago thinking about this stuff. To make it even worse, over 90% of active managers have lost to the market in the last 15 years. And about 66% percent of large-cap active managers failed to top the S&P 500 index in 2016. So how the heck are you supposed to hold your own?! But what if I told you, all it took was a little curiosity just to get started in the right direction. There’s no pressure, only in that, you’re reading the right material. The first book I ever read on personal finance was Tony Robbins’ Money Master the Game. Because it reads at a 5th-grade level, with a little patience, I was able to understand everything in the book even with zero background or previous knowledge about managing my finances. I …
The Best Beginner’s Guide: ETFs vs Mutual Funds
When you're just getting started with investing in the stock market, typically the first investment vehicles you're going to look at are mutual funds and ETFs. You see them advertised all over brokerage sites and you have somewhat of a clue mutual funds contain more than just one stock of a company. But really, you don't know what is the difference between a mutual fund and an ETF. Are mutual funds better than ETFs? Why are mutual funds more expensive than ETFs? It's good to learn this stuff before you speak with your financial advisor because before you know it they could have you invested in a mutual fund with over 2% in fees. Mutual funds: Two classifications for Mutual Funds: Open-ended funds: These are the mutual funds you'll almost certainly only come across as an average investor. In open-ended funds, the purchase and the sale of the mutual fund shares occur directly between an investor …
The Best Investor of All-Time You Never Heard of
Chances are, you never heard of Dr. Herbert Wertheim. And why would you? He's an optometrist who lives in Florida. And he's 79 years old. Not that there's anything wrong with being old, but if you haven't heard of him by now, let's be real you most likely never would have. Except, he recently burst onto the scene when he was first featured in an article on Forbes back in February earlier this year. He didn't make it to Forbes because he was some slick, lucky hedge-fund manager that took a huge bet on something that paid off. He was just a regular guy from humble beginnings. He didn't really seem to have a knack for anything when he was younger. He even got into a bit of trouble getting accused of truancy (skipping school) by his parents. Instead of being severely punished in court, he was given the offer to either join the U.S. Navy or the state reformatory (prison). Wertheim chose the Navy and it was all blue skies from there. When he arrived, he was presented with …
The Best 3 Money Moves to Make in Your 20s
Okay, I'm gonna make this short and sweet since it's pretty self-explanatory once you read the 3 things. No need to fluff it up. When you get your first job, you have no clue what to do with your finances. You never heard of a 401k or an IRA, have no idea how taxes work, but you somehow managed to land a job. Congrats. But now what? You never learned in school what you're supposed to do with your money once you weirdly start getting compensated for your work unlike the last 23 or so years of your life. And yea, learning how to walk is really damn hard but you're not paid for it so I'm counting those years too. Your first paycheck comes in the mail, because you didn't set up direct deposit in time, and now you think "Oh sweet I'm gonna go to like 5 concerts now." And before you know it, you'll be $5k in debt before you even knew what hit you. Related posts: The Best Investing Books to get Rich The 9 Best Things to Research Before Investing in a Mutual …
The Best Investing Books to get Rich
Do you ever feel like you have no idea where to start? When you first begin trying to learn even what a stock is and how to figure out which one to buy, it's overwhelming. You sit there and endlessly Google and come up with 10 conflicting answers. It's nearly impossible to tell what's right and what's wrong. Well, you came to the right place. Through trial and error, I've been able to decipher which books are great for beginners and which ones are complete crap. The 10 listed below are the ones that helped me on my journey to not have to rely on a financial advisor for pathetic returns on my investments. Check them out below. Related posts: The 9 Best Things to Research Before Investing in a Mutual Fund Which Mutual Funds to Invest in for 2019 Investing for Beginners Is $1 Million Enough to Retire? 71% of People Don't Realize They are Paying Fees in Their 401k Plan: Here's How to Take Action The 10 …
