Build Financial Independence, Escape the 9-to-5, and Live Your Boldest Dreams
Morgan Housel has spent thousands of hours reading about investing.
As a former columnist for the Wall Street Journal and The Motley Fool, he’s spent more than a decade reading, interviewing, thinking and writing about how to manage money.
And he’s come to a simple conclusion: less is more.
Doing nothing is often the best course of action.
[Read more…]
This week, former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy and I answer five questions about investing, retirement, insurance, travel and selling an expensive car.
Eliana is 25 and makes $63,000 per year, plus a little extra from freelance work. She holds $95,000 in cash, $67,000 in retirement investments, and no debt. She doesn’t necessarily hold early retirement as a goal, but she’d like the option to access her funds before she’s 59-and-a-half.
She asks two questions: First, she’s been spreading her money between a Roth IRA, pre-tax 403b, and taxable brokerage account to spread her risk. Should she not contribute so much to the taxable account?
She’s also paying $88 per month for a $25,000 life insurance policy for her mother, who is 57 years old. She likes the peace-of-mind that comes with knowing it’ll be there to cover funeral expenses, if needed. But she recognizes that there’s a huge opportunity cost that comes from paying for such an expensive plan. Should she drop it?
[Read more…]
Photo Credit: Nancy Medwell
In the 1970’s, a woman named Vicki Robin teamed up with a man named Joe Dominguez.
They came from different backgrounds: she was an Ivy League graduate with a comfortable upbringing; he was raised in Spanish Harlem on “welfare cheese.”
But they shared one common thread: a commitment to financial independence, not just as a money management strategy, but as a philosophy on life.
Vicki and Joe became partners in both work and life. They united over a definition of “FI” that expanded beyond paying your bills through your savings and investments. They saw FI as a lifestyle that exists in three dimensions:
[Read more…]
Tony lives in Chicago, where the returns on rental properties are so-so. He’s thinking about investing in Indianapolis, where he consistently finds rental properties with cap rates that are greater than 8 percent. Should he invest locally, so that he can get a primary residence mortgage and keep a closer eye on the space? Or should he invest out-of-state, where the returns are stronger?
[Read more…]
After Liz Thames graduated from college, she couldn’t find a job.
“Nowhere would hire me,” Thames says. “I had what I thought was this nice resume, and I sent out over 50 applications. Nowhere called me back.”
She took a temporary job at a document-scanning agency, then joined Americorps to serve as a full-time volunteer in a low-income neighborhood in Brooklyn. She lived on a stipend of $10,000 annually, plus food stamps and a transit pass.
She saved $2,000 from her $10,000 stipend, while paying rent in New York.
To say that Thames is a natural saver is an understatement.
[Read more…]
Roger Whitney, age 51, calls himself The Retirement Answer Man. As a financial planner, investment analyst and podcast host, he focuses on helping Baby Boomers craft a traditional (past-age-60) retirement.
Today, he joins me to answer two questions that come in from our community.
Our first question is from Emily, who says:
“I’m trying to help my mom decide if she should retire.”
“My dad was a CPA and then a CFO, making great money, until 16 years ago when he was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimers. My mom never took care of their finances before, or knew anything them … she took a few years to get everything in order, but during that time, they burnt through their retirement savings.”
Their house sold in fall 2009, for just enough money to cover their mortgage balance and keep another $75,000 to invest.
Once upon a time, in southern California in 1994, there lived a man named William Bengen.
He read many claims, widespread at the time, that said that since the markets return at least 7-9 percent compounding rates on average, retirees could withdraw and spend 7 percent of their portfolio.
William had a hunch that this was misguided. He decided to prove it.
He looked at 30-year timespans in U.S. history, starting from 1926. The first timespan ranged from 1926 to 1955. The second timespan ranged from 1927 to 1956. And so forth.
He assumed that the retiree held 50 percent stocks, in the form of an S&P 500 Index, and 50 percent bonds, in the form of intermediate-term government bonds.
Then he asked two questions:
[Read more…]
Questions — I get questions! Today, I’m tackling four queries about real estate investing that come from the audience. Here are the details:
Sam says:
I work full-time and I’m not handy, so I definitely need a property manager. I’ve found an amazing property management company, but they only serve a small, specific neighborhood. Should I buy a property in this neighborhood so that I can use this fantastic property management company?
My friend and financial expert Farnoosh Torabi joins me to answer a relationship & money question from a listener named Janice.⠀⠀
⠀⠀
Janice is engaged, and she calls to ask: Should she get married?⠀⠀
⠀⠀
She earns double what her fiancé makes. She has no debt except her mortgage. Her retirement accounts are well-funded.
He makes half of her salary. He’s carrying $20,000 in credit card and student loan debt. He has two children from a previous marriage and pays 25 percent of his income to child support. He has zero retirement savings other than his state-funded teachers pension.
Stacy and her boyfriend would like to downsize to one vehicle. But they’re collectively $14,500 underwater on their car loans.
Stacy owes $11,000 on her car, but its trade-in value is $7,200. She’s paying a 12.74% interest rate and her payoff date is 2021.
Her boyfriend is in worse shape. He owes $18,500 on his vehicle, but its trade-in value is $7,800. He’s paying a 21.5% interest rate and his payoff date is 2022.
Theoretically, they could sell Stacy’s car to a private party, and she could pay off the rest of her loan. But the boyfriend’s car is not in great shape, and probably won’t survive for the next couple of years. And neither of them have found better refinancing deals.
What should Stacy and her boyfriend do?
