No, that is not a rhetorical question. I was having lunch the other day with my co-worker Jill. Jill is an exceptional young woman. Jill’s parents divorced when she was young, so she grew up in a broken home. That did not stand in the way of her excelling in school. She went on to earn a BA in Psychology from one of the best state universities in the country. She is also considering going back to graduate school for […]
Many people dream of reaching early retirement. Few people, however, are willing to do what it takes to make it a reality. In most cases, to reach early retirement, a person must live differently from how the masses live. People generally don’t want to be viewed as being different from their fellows. The masses are living for the day, spending most of what they earn, landing in debt, and are in denial about their personal […]
It is common to read about how young people are not saving enough for retirement. While it is always better to start early, they still have many decades to correct their financial mishaps. The real concern is for people who are age 50 or older and do not have enough saved to support their current standard of living in retirement. What could this population do to secure their retirement? If you are age 50 and […]
In the world of personal finance, having an emergency fund always seems to be a popular topic. The reason for that is that it is important to have cash on hand. You never know when you will need to access cash due to an emergency. When it comes to the topic of having an emergency fund, there are many different schools of thought about why you need cash and where to keep the money. The general rule of […]
Have you ever considered separating the money that you plan on drawing down during your retirement based on the phases of your retirement? A common approach is to allocate different piles of money in separate buckets based on when you plan on using the money. The Bucket Approach was made popular by Raymond J. Lucia, CFP as the result of his book Buckets of Money. The theory is based on building a diversified portfolio and […]
After what seemed like many months of debate, tax reform has been passed into law for 2018. This is not a political blog, so I will not be sharing my opinion on any of these changes. The purpose of this post is to just share some of the highlights that will be useful for people who are interested in reaching financial independence. This post does not cover every change. The bill is more than 1,000 […]
I have been on the journey toward financial independence for a long time. I started saving and investing to reach financial independence at age 20. When I decided that I wanted to become wealthy, I knew that I needed to be educated on how to turn this goal into a reality. While at college, I studied Business Management. Even though I tried to take as many finance classes as possible, I did not learn much […]
As an individual, it is important to know where you stand as an investor. To succeed, you need to know your goals. For most individual investors, their goal is to be able to fund their retirement expenses or even to be able to retire early. Other goals might be paying for a child’s education, starting a business, or building a dream house. To reach those goals, there is a simple path for an investor to […]
Should you plan on working until age 70? This suggestion has been surfacing in the mainstream financial media. It is perfectly fine to work until age 70 or beyond. It should not, however, be the age that your retirement planning is based upon. Some people like to work. It gives them purpose. Work adds structure to the day. For many people, it is their identity. Their job is who they are. Even if you truly […]
Everyone should have a written financial plan. A written financial plan is a document that assists you to focus on what you want to achieve when it comes to your personal finances. A written financial plan is a living document that should be amended as time goes on. A written financial plan is a useful tool for everyone. It does not matter if you are a new college graduate (Age 21-28) entering the workforce, a Millennial or Gen-Xer […]