Over the weekend I spoke to a friend who graduated from physical therapy school earlier this year. He didn’t have any help with school expenses and graduated with $160,000 in student loans. To his benefit, he’s pretty frugal and has a good natural sense about money. However, $160,000 is a really big number and it has him worried. He’s been asking himself if he’s going to be able to be okay with that amount of debt and whether the right decision is to pay down the debt as quickly as possible or if he should save for retirement as well.
Invest
Why You Need a Financial Plan Before Investing
4 minute read
Financial planning includes investment planning, but investing is not financial planning. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about what a financial planner does. It still surprises me how many people I speak to who think of a financial planner as being synonymous with an investment portfolio manager. This is not the case. A financial planner who provides comprehensive wealth management services provides both financial planning and investment portfolio management, but investing is just part of the service. A financial plan needs to be in place to direct and guide the portfolio.
Why Buy Stocks?
4 minute read
Over the past couple of weeks, a lot of people have been asking me about this stock or that cryptocurrency, what I think of them, and whether I think they’ll do well going forward. I think that most of these people probably read an article(s) or saw something on TV about the thing that they asked me about and then either bought it or wanted me to confirm what they heard before they bought it.
How Much is a $1 Million Retirement Portfolio Really Worth?
4 minute read
I want to retire with $1 million.
5 Reasons Why You Should Not Use an Advisor 529 Savings Plan
5 minute read
Finding a way to pay for at least part of a child’s or grandchild’s college education is a goal of many parents and grandparents. Unfortunately, the fast rising costs of college can make achieving this goal difficult. According to finaid.org, college education expenses are inflating at an average of 8% per year1.
How Much Impact Does the President Have on the Stock Market?
4 minute read
I don’t need to tell you how contentious this election season has been. Personally, I can’t wait to stop seeing all of the political ads and I’d rather have a different topic to have to make small talk about. People on both sides of the political spectrum often become worried about how the result of the election will impact their investment portfolio. No matter what side you’re on, if the other side wins, then you think it’s going to be doomsday for your retirement dreams. So, how much impact does the President have on the stock market? A lot less than most people think.
Why Should We Practice Portfolio Diversification?
5 minute read
If you owned a fruit stand and you only sold oranges, then you would be in a bad spot if a hurricane wiped out all of the orange groves that you get your fruit from. However, if you sold a bunch of different fruits alongside oranges like bananas, apples, and berries, then you would still be able to make money when you couldn’t get oranges to sell. You could also use different fruit suppliers so that if something were to happen to the fruit crops in one place you would still be able to get fruit to sell from one of your other suppliers. This is a simple example of the concept of diversification.
You Need Permission to Play
3 minute read
“Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.” – Warren Buffett
Please Quit Taking Investing Advice From Celebrities
4 minute read
Please stop relying on financial advice and investment tips from celebrities.
Investing In Individual Stocks
5 minute read
Lately, quite a few people have been mentioning to me that they’ve purchased individual stocks sometime during the past couple of months on the back-end of the fastest plunge into a bear market in US history. I think a lot of people used the famous Warren Buffet quote of “be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful” as an excuse to justify this. However, I’m not sure that they’ve heard the stories of evidence-based investing yet.
