Investing

Given the recent volatility in the market, I’ve been realizing that passive income is an incredibly effective hedge against a recession, if and when it comes. If I lost my job, even a small passive income stream could give me the extra month or two I need to find a new one during a recession.

Last week I wrote about the different types of diversification. To put it simply, there's quite a few. It can be exceedingly complex trying to figure out the best way to find a portfolio balanced for growth and security. Luckily, there are a couple of free tools that can make everything much, much easier.

Because investing is so vital and so confusing, most people decide to hire an investment advisor instead of doing the work themselves. Investment advisors serve a vital role, but depending on the way they are compensated, they can also seriously harm the long term performance of a portfolio. Today, I will take a deep look into what financial advisors do, how they are compensated, and a selection of other tools and resources that can help with financial planning and investments.

It takes a big pot of money to retire early. And if you want to have a nice lifestyle as well, it takes millions to safely retire early. But, if you are smart about your taxes, you can reduce those numbers significantly. Here's the smartest ways to keep your income taxes low for FIRE.

As you make more money, the need to access credit at a low rate becomes even more important. So how can a high income earner improve their credit score as quickly as possible?

As many of you know, I am a marketer at a startup. That’s one of many reasons why I write about startups and equity compensation all the time. Like, maybe too much, but I digress. Although I love my job, someday I’d like to leave the startup world to be an entrepreneur. My problem is that I don’t have any genius ideas for a business. I am just into entrepreneurship, finance, and finding efficiencies. So where does that leave me? Enter the search fund.

The Bitcoin bubble of 2017 has popped and the crypto market is undoubtedly in the middle of another brutal bear market with no end in sight. Bitcoin has seen this situation before and many supporters will argue that this is all part of a predictable pattern. But that’s hardly enough to solace investors who are currently experiencing an 85% drawdown from all-time-high prices.

Everyone wants a low risk, high reward investment. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing in the public markets, but there are ways that I can increase my chances of making a profitable investment, and decrease the risk at the same time. It’s not low risk, high reward, but it’s definitely close!

It’s easy to get discouraged by investing. With interest rates hovering at 3-5%, even modest retirement budgets require well over a million dollars in investments to work properly (e.g., $1,000,000 x 3% = $30,000). Many people get discouraged because they don’t have much saved now, but the truth is that the most important thing in any retirement plan is making repetitive, reliable recurring investments.

A search fund is similar to a private equity fund. Investors sponsor the search for and potential purchase of a small to medium sized business, to eventually be run by those who are searching for the business.

I'm not sure what's wrong with me exactly, but when I see EVERYONE agreeing on something, I always want to disagree. So i’ll say it: I don’t think a recession is imminent.

How much do I need to make from my passive income streams to #fatFIRE (retiring early without extreme frugality)? Here’s my plan, and my own #fatfire retirement calculator.

With the current expansion nearing its tenth year, it's actually possible that someone could have already worked a third of their professional career knowing nothing but expansion. I figured it might be interesting to describe the experience of a recession for all of those that have never known one, and provide some tips to soften the blows.

I’ve repeatedly seen two narratives told over and over again. First of all, debt is bad. Second, although debt is bad, having a mortgage is alright because it acts like a forced savings plan, slowly enabling borrowers to build wealth. But can't the “forced savings plan” idea can be extended beyond simply mortgage debt, if executed intelligently with low interest, short term debt?

The more that I learn, the more I think about investing and how I can be more effective with my portfolio. As the stock market has begun to falter, this has come to the forefront of my mind. Every day I find myself wondering how I can be more diversified and therefore more insulated from the everyday ups and downs of each market.

Life is expensive, and that can make it really hard to save. With rent, cell phones, cars, healthcare, food, childcare, vacations and thousands of other little costs, it’s not unusual for someone to have 80-90% of their income disappear into the ether. Lately, I’ve been thinking about ways I can try to turn at least some of those recurring payments into recurring investments, or at least mitigate them so I don’t lose so much of my income to recurring expenses each month.

HELOCs and refinancing aren't the only options for accessing the equity in a home. This week, I take a close look at a third option. 

We may not know when the next recession will come, but one thing's for certain: it's easier to plan for it BEFORE it begins, when times are still good. Here's my plan.

How much do I need to retire? I made this easy calculator to find out.

Portfolio Visualizer is a comprehensive suite of investment analysis tools that you used to have to pay thousands of dollars for, but thanks to the interwebs, is now free. Here’s what you can do with it.