unsolicited advice on health, happiness and how to not be a dummy with finances
I’ve talked about the Rule of 72 before, but I’ve never devoted an entire article to it. If you’re unfamiliar, or even if you’re not, I guess, the Rule of 72 is a calculation to quickly see how many years it will take for your money to double at a given annual rate of return.
Wait, this is fun. Don’t go away. Continue reading “Rule of 72- Doubling Your Money with Math”
Literally no one has ever asked me what the difference is between a Roth IRA and a Traditional IRA. I’m not great at the economics of supply and demand so I’m going to write an article about it. Understanding the difference between these two accounts is like eating broccoli. Only like three people in the continental United States like broccoli, but it’s important to eat it for reasons nobody is sure about.
It’s important to know the difference between the various IRAs because you’re supposed to be putting money into your retirement accounts. If you were doing that, then you’d eventually want to know which retirement account you should put your money in.
IRA is short for India Red Ale. It’s like an India Pale Ale except it’s less hoppy and it’s red. IRA also stands for Individual Retirement Account, if you’re a nerd. Continue reading “Traditional vs. Roth vs. India Red Ale- Which IRA is Right For You?”
The stock market is in free fall, the housing market is slowing down, and Dana White is threatening to make a welterweight title fight at UFC 235 with or without Tyron Woodley, despite Tyron being the four-time defending champ who defended the belt in September. Madness. Yes sir and/or ma’am, it looks like the world is ending.
In the grand scheme of things the stock market isn’t in free fall but has merely stepped off a small curb. That kind of level-headed approach won’t move any papers, so free-fall it is. How are we all feeling about the stock market’s recent decline? I feel great. At one point we had personally lost at least $50,000 from December 3rd-December 24th. Wait. Son of a… Continue reading “Oh, Man! The Stock Market is Going Down. Wait, Yeah it’s Going Down”
“This is my article. I’m reading you my article,” Mr. Burrito Bowl.
“Oh…sounds great, honey.”
Such is life.
Listen, kids. Saving money is hard no matter how you slice it. I don’t really know what that saying is supposed to mean. Sayings are weird.
It’s a mental drain to think of your hard earned dollars just being socked away for some day thirty years down the road. We live in a culture where we don’t even earn our paycheck before we spend it and we for sure don’t earn it and let it sit there for a few decades.
A few of us know that saving money is important, but it’s just so hard. There’s a mental shift we need to make to motivate ourselves to save part of our paycheck.
Mrs. Burrito Bowl and I are about three years into this whole money saving cult of financial independence and there’s a counterintuitive idea that’s really helped us: Saving half your paycheck is mentally easier than saving $100. Continue reading “If You Just Save a Little Bit, It’s Not Really Worth It. Ya Know?”
Investment fees are pretty bad. I’m not going to lie to you about that. I initially planned on asking a hypothetical question about whether or not they were a big deal, but they are. They are a big deal. They are such a big deal I don’t even want to waste time asking how your week was. We just don’t have time for that. If your portfolio is being charged a few percentage points per year, you could be losing out on over a million dollars over the course of your life. Continue reading “How Investment Fees Are Decimating Your Portfolio”
I have a good friend who we’ll call Eric because his name is Eric. It’s his real name, not even a made up name to protect his identity. He once said I can feel free to share his social security number so I don’t think he’ll care about me using his real name in my article about the 4% rule. He might have been joking about that, but I don’t like to assume things.
Unfortunately, I can’t remember his social security number so we’ll just have to make due with his first name.
Eric was lamenting the fact that retirement was simply not in the cards for our generation. Continue reading “The 4% Rule- How To Know When You’ve Reached Financial Independence”
