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Early Retirement Portfolio Asset Allocation Update, Mid 2015

Here's a mid-year update on my investment portfolio holdings for 2015. This includes tax-deferred accounts like 401(k)s and taxable brokerage holdings, but excludes things like physical property and cash reserves (emergency fund). The purpose of … [Read the rest]

The Most Important Factor To Maximize In Your Portfolio

When it comes to constructing an investment portfolio for yourself, there are many things you could tweak and maximize. Obviously, you can look back at historical data and maximum past annual returns while minimizing volatility. For some, this … [Read the rest]

Liquidating My LendingClub Loans Using Folio Investing

I recently finished liquidating the remaining loans in my $5,000 LendingClub P2P portfolio, but due to a unfortunate crash I lost many of my notes and screenshots. I can still share the most important parts like my final results and selling … [Read the rest]

Financial Freedom and The Parable of the Mexican Fisherman

In the rush of our everyday lives, it's easy to lose sight of the real reasons why we work and toil every day. Money is a tool, not the end. I've seen several versions of this parable in various books and blog posts (like here and here), but … [Read the rest]

The True Value of a Real, Human Financial Advisor

The hot buzzword right now is "FinTech", where technology will help us manage our finances more and efficiently than before. But I've also been tracking the reasons why working with a human advisor can be worth the money and time spent. As I've … [Read the rest]

Big Data Knows If You’re Comparison Shopping… Or Not

One of the few benefits of getting older is that my car insurance premiums are much lower today than in my 20s. But is that low rate caused by insurance companies knowing that I recently switched high-speed internet and refinanced my mortgage … [Read the rest]

All-Clad VIP Factory Sales: Limited-Time Discounts on Lifetime Cookware

All-Clad cookware is known to be very high quality, but also quite expensive. If you cook often, then the prices aren't so bad when you consider that the stainless steel pans will essentially last forever (skip the non-stick stuff). Frugal home … [Read the rest]

Your Financial Plan & The Importance of Getting Started

I'm currently reading The One-Page Financial Plan by Carl Richards, who also writes for the New York Times. Given the title, I thought it would be a quick read but it turns out to cover a variety of topics over its 200+ pages. So far, I like … [Read the rest]

Dynamic Withdrawal Rates: Increase Spending Flexibility, Improve Portfolio Sustainability

The WSJ has a nice introduction to dynamic withdrawal methods and managing your portfolio in retirement. They outline a few of the more popular variations - Adjusted 4%, Floor-and-Ceiling, and Guardrail. I like learning about dynamic strategies … [Read the rest]

Vanguard’s Low-Cost Funds Winning, Low-Cost Portfolio Management Next?

Catching up on articles, I saw that Financial Times has an intriguing profile of Vanguard. If you're not a hardcore Boglehead, you will likely discover some new bits about this company started by Jack Bogle and pioneered index fund investing. (I'd … [Read the rest]

DietBet.com Update: My Weight Loss Profit Breakdown

Back in early February 2015, I wrote about and started participating in a weight loss challenge at DietBet.com. As the picture above indicates, a group of folks (strangers or friends) agree on a weight loss goal, put money into a community pot, and … [Read the rest]

The Opposite of Spoiled Book Review: Kids and Money

Here's my one-sentence review of the book The Opposite of Spoiled: Raising Kids Who Are Grounded, Generous, and Smart About Money by Ron Lieber. If you have kids and feel it is important to teach them about money, then you need to read this book. … [Read the rest]