Hello Reader, What's the worst financial advice you've ever received? The worst financial advice I got was when a real estate agent tried to convince me to increase my house budget by 20% โjust to see what I thought about those types of houses.โ I thought I could afford a $275,000 house and he took me to houses that were listed at $300,000+ because โI needed to know what a little bit more could get me.โ This was during the housing boom in the mid-2000s. He said that because I had a good job...
12 days agoย โขย 2 min read
Hello Reader, Do you know about the TACO trade strategy? It stands for Trump Always Chickens Out and it was created by a Financial Times journalist. The name is a joke but the idea has seeds of truth to it. Here's the strategy in a nutshell - ignore Trump on tariffs because he's going to back down. It really only matters if you're an options trader, because options contracts can expire before the tariffs get reversed or reduced, but regular investors can just wait things out... which is good...
19 days agoย โขย 1 min read
Hello Reader, Has summer unofficially started for you yet? If you have kids, especially in the southern half of the U.S., chances are you have. I'm both jealous of the early start to summer but also happy we don't start out schools in mid-August! Do you have any fun plans for the summer? (View this email as a webpage) ๐ข Earning points & miles without a credit card Earning miles and points to get inexpensive travel is great but most of it relies on getting a welcome bonus from a credit card....
26 days agoย โขย 1 min read
Hello Reader, A little bit story time today... I want to share my biggest investing mistake and it's one that experts warn you about all the time. No, I didn't try to time the market. No, I didn't take on more risk than I should have. No, I didn't try to day trade NVIDIA or anything else. It was simpler than that. (View this email as a webpage) ๐ข My biggest investing mistake Do you remember how panicked everyone was during the pandemic? Overflowing hospitals, people were dying, and the stock...
about 1 month agoย โขย 1 min read
Greetings Reader, As of market close yesterday, the S&P 500 was back to where it started on the year (actually, up 18 points, or 0.31%). For those who kept their regular investment contributions, you benefited from the volatility because of the tariff shenanigans. Speaking of... the U.S. and China have put a 90-day pause on the tariff war. That's why the stock market soared earlier in the week and now we're back where we started. All the more reason to remember that you need to invest early...
about 1 month agoย โขย 1 min read
Greetings Reader, Last week, at Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting, legendary investor Warren Buffett announced he was going to retire at 94 years old. 94! As the old adage goes, "if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life." (View this email as a webpage) ๐ฆ Retirement is a lie In the last twenty or so years, the big shift in our thinking about work and retirement has been that of "early retirement." It seems more appealing that trading the best forty years of...
about 2 months agoย โขย 1 min read
Greetings Reader, I recently saw a Reddit thread in which someone lost ALL of their Chipotle reward points because they hadn't used their account to make a purchase in 6 months. Absolutely brutal. Four burritos gone! (and in this economy, that's real money!) I talked about it briefly on IG but the lesson is clear - don't hold onto reward points. They don't go up in value. More below... (and a resource to help you understand the biggest programs) (View this email as a webpage) ๐ฆ Never ever...
about 2 months agoย โขย 1 min read
Greetings Reader, You can win at gambling if you have an edge. The same is true for day trading. You can do it if you have an edge. Prime example: the casino always wins because there's a house edge built into every game being played there. The reality is that the only edge you have when it comes to investing is your time horizon. You have to wait long enough for the market to go up. Sometimes that happens quickly. Sometimes it takes a few years or more. Unless you're that trader who made $70...
2 months agoย โขย 1 min read
Greetings Reader, It's Spring Break for us this week and we spent it with our good college friends and their kids at Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg and then Colonial Williamsburg. I've been to Williamsburg a few times (mostly golf trips) and visiting Colonial Williamsburg was a lot of fun. It was amazing to walk through so much history, some of the same buildings are our Founding Fathers. If you've never been, you should consider it. It's a lot of fun! (View this email as a webpage) ๐ Don't...
2 months agoย โขย 1 min read