"Little by little, a little becomes a lot...plus compounding interest!" - paraphrasing a Tanzanian proverb You get your first 401(k) statement that you threw a couple pebbles into and it essentially says you know, "well thanks for playing, but you still have pretty much nothing", right? (02:19)And the great thing, unlike the crow with his little pebbles, the pebbles that we're using those amounts grow on themselves. (02:46)Every dollar that you put in grows on the next dollar and the next...

New information can lead to making new and different decisions! Jimmy replied, "Well, I'm not going to have to sell for some time since I only put a small amount down, I still have plenty leftover to buy food and pay my taxes. In fact, the extra that I invested has actually done quite well." (2:00)Paying off your mortgage was taught to us as a positive going back to the Great Depression kind of mentality. (02:41)For most people though their home is one of their biggest, if not the biggest,...

Trying to increase wealth rapidly may find you lost in the thicket. Take the time tested path! So if you are a hare, you likely don't need a shortcut to win the race. And if you're young, you are likely already a hare. (02:21) Trying rapidly to increase your wealth through market timing or dealing in some kind of a speculative security or things like maybe cryptocurrency, it may find you in the thicket just like the rabbit. (02:31) Being young means that you have time on your side....

Find balance between work (saving) and play (spending). The earlier you start, the easier it is! The traditional fable promotes working hard but did you know that most ants die within a few weeks to a few years? What a waste! (02:18) When you're young, saving early is like putting away a few pieces of food every day in early spring for the other grasshopper. (02:39) Quote for the episode: "If you have a savings plan put together for you when you're young, you might be very pleasantly...

Just because it made sense then, doesn't mean it makes sense now! Re-evaluate! So it's one thing to do something, and quite another to understand why you do it. (02:14) And while some of these actions may have made sense at some point in time, or were taught to us to make sense in some situations, that doesn't mean they necessarily still make sense for us today. (02:24) Regular evaluation is what makes us more intentional, what makes us more purposeful with our actions. (02:35) Quote for the...

It's one thing to say a task should be done but it's a different matter to actually do it! But in the midst of the rejoicing over the good fortune, an old mouse rose and said, "I will say that the plan of the young mouse is very good. But let me ask one question, who will bell the cat?" (02:59) "...if you actually go out with that bell, more times than not, it's not as hard or as scary as you may think." (04:13) Quote for the episode: More times than not it's not a scary cat with giant...

Recapping the 9 episodes that reframe our investment mindset to ease financial anxiety! The worst 15 year period in the market over that same period of time going back to 1970, positive 3.7%, same exact index, different time period, very different result. (06:04) Uncertainty on the other hand, we talked about how it does historically show a high correlation with volatility: financial crisis of 2008, COVID in 2020, the uncertainty period was the drop. Once there was more perceived certainty, a...

Is the financial advice you're receiving worth it? Goal statement: I now better understand how advice versus fees for that advice can separately affect my situation. (02:13) Pensions are mostly a thing of the past and Social Security is not going to replace your six figure salary that you and your spouse have. You are now responsible for your own retirement in this society. (04:26) When they came out then, so Vanguard, this low fee, low cost company, when they came out and said their...

If we learn about normal fluctuations ahead of time, then we'll be better prepared to cope with those inevitable market downs. Goal statement: "I now better understand how much up and down is normal for investments so I'm better prepared to not freak out when it does." (01:50) ...he [Dr. Markowitz] could now mathematically mix together what should produce the most return for the level of risk someone was willing to take, which is fantastic, right? (06:14) So when you get to a year with this...

When you hear news about "the market", how much is actually applicable to your investments? Goal statement: I better understand what they mean when they say 'the market', and how that actually relates to my investments. (01:42) When you hear about the market on TV, most people's reaction is either "Oh no", when it does, something bad when it goes down or "Great! Yes", when it goes up. However, they are not talking about your specific investment. (03:10) We could break this down, in fact,...

A bit more savings is almost always possible and what that means for your future self! Goal statement: I better understand how impactful it can be to consistently push my savings just a little bit further. (01:58) If your kid gets sick and needed a medicine costing $100 a month, you would figure out a way to afford that right? That means that you can also figure out a way to pay yourself another $100 a month. (06:43) So when we take that original $100 a month scenario, and we do the same...

Just how "every dog has its day", every area of the market has its time in the lead, and how to emotionally deal. So one thing to remember is that most returns are due to what area of the market, what box, so to speak, your fund may be in. (06:10) Rebalancing is basically taking the areas that did well, and selling them, and putting those funds into other areas that did not do well and buying them. (06:59) I would again not recommend somebody trying to manage individual pieces and do this...

How TV and movies give us negative perceptions about advisors and investments. Goal statements: "I recognize what can greatly affect many people's perceptions of investments." (01:33) They've heard of people losing everything in the movies. They haven't heard of people missing out on retirement by being too conservative in the movies, though. (04:42) And think about how you may have gotten to where your mindset is today. It didn't just pop up out of the blue, it developed to where it is...

How could these diametrically opposed groups that are influencing basically every aspect of public policy not cause the stock market to play favorites? When it comes to the stock market, though it historically doesn't really care one way or another what political party is in office. (03:33) What the stock market tends to be influenced by more than anything, though, is the certainty versus uncertainty factors that we've brought up a number of times. (05:07) But based on each individual...

Set your expectations for how often downs do occur and hold it together when emotions run high. ...declines are normal and you should absolutely expect them to happen and mentality and emotionally prepare for that to occur. (02:55) Remember recoveries whether they take six months, 12 months, 18 months, that's also normal. (04:55) Finally, this is why we have talked about diversification before, so not owning just one or a few individual stocks, but rather having a professional advisor or at...

What do you want your investments to do for you and are they on track to do it? So if my investments are doing good, that means they're on track to having the fuel that I need to get me to the goal that I'm trying to reach. (05:47) This is why I say investments are far less important in the grand scheme of things than planning. The planning is what gives you clarity, and the planning is what makes things possible. (06:18) So if you don't have the desire or the ability to properly compare and...

Getting married? Important topics to cover during the engagement phase! So you both need to have some idea goals wise of what direction that you're going in. (07:45) Going deeper into that about how you're looking at your finances, when you guys are, you know, starting on your journey to have a life together, you're one family, and you know, having one family, it's important to look at things and goals jointly because they are joint. (12:59) You know there are things that money has touched...

Recapping all 7 ways to Set Your Compass for the New Year - you've learned the ropes, now set sail! If we just have one giant, 'I want to build a ship' bucket, it's hard to see where all that money is going to for the various elements we're going to need. (06:31) if you are more intentional about setting money aside ahead of time, you can add a lot more happiness to your life on a daily basis as well. (09:17) What parts are worth insuring? Hull of the ship, very very important. One of the...

Spoiler alert: it doesn't mean having a bunch of accounts in a bunch of different places, making your life really difficult. So diversifying means that you're using a variety of different holdings across a variety of different areas. (04:24) ...this is why when we spread things out, we're doing this because we don't want all of our investments to be dependent on how one area of the market happens to perform. (06:22) If you have two people putting together separate first aid kits, "Hey, Bob,...

What parts of this ship are actually worth insuring? ...from what I've many times seen, people tend to not insure for all the catastrophes that they should. They may insure their iPhone, but not their lives, for example. (05:29) Disability insurance on the other hand, because you are actually much more likely to be disabled than you are to die as a young person, it can be a little bit more [expensive]. But again, you can kind of tailor it any way you want. (06:38) And the line that I always...

When to be more conservative, when to be more aggressive, and how to do so in a more balanced spread out way. Paying yourself first and separating out your goals is all well and good but if you're using inappropriate types of investments for certain goals, they may take much longer to achieve or even worse, perhaps you may never achieve them at all. (01:41) Sure, we don't want to be reckless in the ocean and sink to the bottom of the sea but at the end of the day, we also have to get to where...

Intentionally setting money aside for things you love ahead of time, can add a lot more happiness to your life! The goal really for today's episode is for you to think of ways to easily do more of the things you love without the anxiety that tends to come with it. (01:36) Money blocking is basically a term I came up with to describe intentionally setting aside or blocking money for certain items that make your life more enjoyable on a more daily basis. (02:25) With money blocking, what you...

A favorite concept on organizing where you're saving to make goals easier to see and even more importantly, easier to achieve! If we have just one giant, 'I want to build a ship bucket', it's hard to see where all that money's actually going to go for the various elements that we're going to need. (02:09) The goal for this bucket [short term] is to keep what you have more than anything else, including growth or interest. (02:56) The next bucket is an intermediate term bucket. And for young...

We need our ship to actually sail us to where we want it to go; the thing is, ships aren't free! So the goal for today's episode then is for you to be inspired to see how much you're currently saving towards you, towards yourself and if needed or possible, increase it so you can be on a faster pace to reach those goals. (01:33) So how much should you pay yourself every month? "How much am I worth?" I'd say the minimum is 5% of your gross income. (02:39) So what this says is that 36% of your...

Get your list of goals for this New Year to find out where you both want your ship to sail. Goals are to give you a better chance of achieving something more quickly than you otherwise would have without goals. (04:50) What makes each of you happy now? (06:04) What would make you happier? (07:15) What keeps you up at night? (08:41) Quote for the episode: "So goals overall can be things to add to your happiness, or things that can also stop detracting from your happiness." (10:08) Securities...