The stock market has been all over the news in the past week or so because of the craziness surrounding GameStop stock. For a new investor, events like this do nothing except provide extra stress. The volatility of the market is already a stressful thing for new investors, without mentioning confusing market forces. Even worse, most explanations include so much technical jargon that it only adds to the confusion. So what can us regular investors…
Primarily, I invest in index funds. I was fascinated and scared of investing when I started learning about personal finance. I didn’t want to lose the money that I worked hard to save. My first experience with stocks went poorly and so I didn’t do any more investing for a great while. But then my aunt (who is very close to retiring early) gave me a copy of The Simple Path to Wealth and my investing…
This post goes out to my friend, who knows who he is, since I failed to convince him to fund his Roth IRA recently. For young people early in their career like him, the compound interest from time in the market is the most powerful investment tool at their disposal. So I’ve decided to write an entire post just for him, to convince him to fully fund his Roth IRA for 2020 and 2021 instead…
I graduated with a Master’s degree last month, which I reflect on here. My wife had graduated with a Master’s degree in May of 2019. The median grad student took out $54,500 in student loans to attend grad school at public universities like the ones that we graduated from. However, the two of us did not bring over $100,000 in graduate student loans into our marriage. In fact, we were both able to use assistantships…
Lifestyle inflation is the basis of the phrase “more money, more problems.” It means that as your income increases, so does the cost of your lifestyle. So instead of becoming more wealthy when you get a raise, instead you accumulate more stuff/more payments on stuff. It’s the driver behind buying too much house, a fancier car (that you don’t need), a boat, or any number of “luxuries” that are supposed to make life more pleasurable.…