Oftentimes we are our own worst enemies. This is especially true in investing. In today’s episode, we are going to detail how one investor cost himself thousands of dollars by engaging in actions that he knew he shouldn’t do.
Tune in to learn what mistakes he made, and how you can avoid costing yourself in the future.
Last week we talked about the Essentials of Asset Location; basically, what investments we should put in different account types. In today’s episode, we go through a real life example of how very poor asset location ended up costing investors thousands (and in one case hundreds of thousands) on their tax bill.
Tune in to learn from their mistake and not end up with a nasty tax surprise.
Benjamin Franklin was right on the money (pun intended) when he said the only guarantees in life are death and taxes. As frustrating as taxes are, especially after you retire, there is a way to make them lighter using asset location. If you don’t know much about asset location, it is probably because it is so esoteric many financial advisors don’t even bother with it. Instead, they focus on asset allocation. While that is important, a large part of your…
I recently completed a “bucket list” item of mine by getting quoted in the print edition of the Wall Street Journal (my favorite paper). Here’s how it happened: A reporter emailed asking “What would you tell people they should avoid doing (financially) in the new year?”
We’ve all heard the adage “buy low, sell high” when it comes to stocks. But with the stock market reaching new highs repeatedly, you may be wondering whether or not it’s a good idea to invest right now, which is a completely valid question. Investing by my definition should be a strategic, long-term endeavor. So when we talk about investing in today’s episode, we are NOT talking about money that you’ll need in the next 3 months, 1 year, or…
Earlier today, the famous fraudster Bernie Madoff died in his jail cell. Here’s a quick synopsis for those of you who aren’t familiar: Madoff pretended to be an investment advisor, while he was actually running the world’s largest Ponzi Scheme. He would tell his investors that he ran a very sophisticated options strategy, wouldn’t ever divulge details of the strategy, and told all of his clients that his investments (and their money) were generating double digit returns, while never having…
The coronavirus fears have continued their effect on the stock market. Just today, the US stock market is down around 7.6%. And the markets are down around 19% from their all time highs earlier this year. Naturally, this leads lots of us to ask, “what should we do now?” I was actually talking to one of my favorite, and smartest, clients earlier today. She didn’t want to sell her investments. And she wasn’t happy with just holding on to what…
Yesterday was the memorial services for Kobe Bryant. It was full of very powerful and emotional speeches and tributes. My favorite came from Shaquille O’Neal, who was teammates with Kobe early on in his career. Shaq was quoting a philosophy that Kobe had shared with him, and here’s what Shaq said: Everything negative, all pressures and challenges, is all an opportunity to rise. Shaq and Kobe discussed this in reference to basketball, but it can apply to all areas of…
Did you see what the Pope was up to earlier this week? It’s been all over the news, and it’s kind of been hard to ignore. The Pope was making his way through a crowd, and a woman touched him (not unusual). But it escalated when she actually held on to the Pope’s hand and wouldn’t let go, at which point the Pope gave this woman’s hand a slight slap to get her to release her hand. Here’s the video:…
You’ve just started a new job – Congrats! The human resources department has probably handed you a stack of paperwork as big as a college textbook, and there’s a pretty good chance you haven’t looked through every single thing that they handed you. One of those documents was probably the investment options that you have in your 401K. Maybe you looked at it, got overwhelmed, and just ignored it. Or maybe you just picked an option and haven’t thought much…