We are all paying more for pretty much everything. If you want to buy a house, mortgage rates are up over 70% in the last six months, and the S&P 500, the primary metric for the ‘stock market’, recently entered […]
How Much are Your Investments Costing You?
You’re paying fees to invest. Even if you don’t think you’re paying fees to invest, you are still paying fees to invest. All mutual funds and all exchange traded funds (ETFs) have management fees called expense ratios. It is okay […]
Risks: Debt, Income, Housing & Inflation
Following up from my last post, I want to cover the potential risks that could affect everyone for the rest of 2021 and into 2022 regarding the economy and financial markets. Overall, the biggest risks fall into four areas: Debt, […]
You Made Money in Stocks, Now What?
It is no secret that there has been a massive surge of retail investors buying stocks during the pandemic. Between ‘meme’ stocks, a ‘YOLO’ (You Only Live Once) / FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) environment, massive government spending, stimulus checks, […]
Can one change in your retirement planning save you over $100,000?
What would you do with an extra $100,000 during retirement? What could you do? – Travel more – Pay for grandchildren to go to college – Buy a ‘Dream’ car – Give more to charity – Pay for a large […]
Should You Hurry to Buy a House or Refinance with Mortgage Rates at Historic Lows?
Buy a house or not? Refinance your mortgage or not? Millions of American families are facing these questions right now. Right now, thanks in large part to the Federal Reserve, mortgage rates are at all-time lows AND will likely stay […]
How Should You Invest?
Over the last two weeks, I’ve covered a bunch of topics on investing and saving for retirement including investment options, investing fees, saving for retirement, and the size of a retirement nest egg. Today, I’ll close out investing for a […]
The Two Sides of Investing Fees
For everyone that owns mutual funds or exchange traded funds (ETFs), there are costs associated with owning them, and they are not equal. Even if people are aware of the fees they are paying, they are likely unaware of the […]
How Much Do You Really Need to Retire?
Guess what? There is no magic ‘one size fits all’ number or thumbrule for everyone to retire. You can find tons of articles (here, here, here, and here) that tell you how much you need to retire. They will say […]
How Should You Save For Retirement?
In the last post, I covered how fees can eat into your returns, especially over the long-term. Today, I’ll cover contributions to retirement accounts. With retirement savings, we have to dig a little deeper because of the different options […]