Investments

The Move to Vanguard

The Move to Vanguard… Bye, Bye TD Ameritrade!

35 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Product and Service Reviews / /

If you’ve delved into the FIRE community even slightly, you’re probably already familiar with the shrine that is Vanguard.  The Vanguard Group is an investment/brokerage firm out of Pennsylvania that manages over $4 trillion in assets. Eh, who cares?  All the big brokerages manage big dollar assets like that. True, but Vanguard’s different from the other firms out there in that Vanguard is structured as a mutual company. What that means is that it’s a private company where the owners are actually […]

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Is Rule 72(t) the Escape Tool for Me

Is Rule 72(t) the Escape Tool for Me?

12 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Spending, Taxes and Financial Planning / /

Rule 72(t).  The name sounds as boring as 401(k).  And it should because it’s from the same place – the Internal Revenue Code. Both are part of the tax law that the IRS gets to govern. Coincidentally, both Rule 72(t) and 401(k) plans are pertinent to this post. I recently wrote a post about our FIRE plans titled The Roth IRA Conversion Ladder Dilemma.  I talked about how we plan on using the ladder to access our tax-deferred accounts earlier than

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The Roth IRA Conversion Ladder Dilemma

The Roth IRA Conversion Ladder Dilemma

13 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Spending, Taxes and Financial Planning / /

I’ve been a bit moody the past couple of weeks.  I’ve been focusing a lot on trying to pinpoint our exact retirement date and I’ve been struggling.  The problem all stems from the Roth IRA Conversion Ladder we plan to do. First off, if you’re on the path to FIRE (Financial Independence/Retire Early) and you’re not familiar with how a Roth IRA Conversion Ladder works, this could be important to you. It’s not the end-all-be-all solution, but the ladder is

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What to Do with Your Money Right Now

6 Comments / Debt, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving / /

We’re in an interesting cycle of the economy right now.  Things are looking good, which helps boost the value of your money.  When it comes to investments, stock prices and property values are generally up. And if you’re selling, that’s a good thing.  Retirees and folks selling their houses or some of their stock investments are partying it up during these times. However, if you’re still in the wealth-building phase of your life, this isn’t as exciting.  Sure, it makes

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Property Management Companies – Why I’m Firing Mine

11 Comments / Real Estate, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments / /

Ah, property management companies – the answer to anyone wanting to get into real estate without the headaches, right? The thought makes sense.  Rental properties are a great way to help diversify your investment portfolio and earn a solid cash flow. The only problem… managing the properties. Now, some folks like the idea of running the operation and handling any repairs themselves.  The good news is that they tend to make more money on their properties every month since they’re

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The 10 Commandments for Kids and Money

10 Comments / Kids, Debt, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving, Self-Employment / /

When it comes to kids and money, we all want to ensure that they’ve got the greatest chance to succeed in life. We can push our kids to be smart and learn in school.  We can teach them to be good to other kids and to share. We can help them to understand that they should respect others.  We can show them good manners and how to be polite. But what about the money side of the formula?  Isn’t that

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The 10 Best Financial Podcasts

The 10 Best Financial Podcasts

24 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Motivation, Saving / /

The 10 Best Financial Podcasts???  Aren’t podcasts for nerds?  Who in the heck would listen to people droning on and on for an hour talk show?! A couple years ago, that’s what I was thinking.  Then about a year ago, I canceled my Sirius XM radio subscription and learned something… local radio sucks.  Maybe that’s not the case for all areas, but where I live in Ohio, it’s horrendous. So I was stuck. Fine, I decided, I’ll give these “podcasts”

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The HSA Benefits Just Keep Rolling In

8 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Health and Fitness, Investments, Saving / /

I’ve written about Health Savings Accounts (HSA) before and how they are one the best retirement plans you can get your hands on.  In fact, it might be THE best account out there.  I thought I knew all the HSA benefits I could get out of this account, but in this post, I’ll tell you about a new one I learned about. If you’re not familiar with an HSA, it’s a medical savings account that’s paired with a high-deductible medical

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What I’m Doing With My Money Right Now

6 Comments / Saving, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Investments, Real Estate / /

I’m pretty excited to see that our net worth has grown over $70,000 in just three months since I wrote the post $1 Million Net Worth… Now What?.  It’s great to see my money continuing to grow, but there’s still a downside to it. Most of the money is tied up in the stock market right now and it’s a bull market right now. No one has a crystal ball to tell us if this is only the beginning.  The

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Why I Like Overdrawing My Checking Account

Why I Like Overdrawing My Checking Account

14 Comments / Saving, Debt, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments / /

Once upon I time, a young man we’ll randomly call “Jim” was in college and barely had a dollar to his name… Ok, fine – that young man was me – dang it, you ruin everything!  Anyway, like a good number of college students, overdrawing my checking account wasn’t too uncommon. In fact, it actually wasn’t uncommon for me to blow out my balance on a periodic basis for a year or so after graduating college as well. Eventually, though, I started to

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