Should Millennials Use Roboadvisors?

For whom would a robo-advisor be a good choice?

There are only a couple of situations where I think that robo-investors (I really call them robo-investors, as they’re not robo-advisors, such as myfinancialanswers.com) are appropriate for a millennial:

You are absolutely, positively, never going to rebalance your portfolio, and you want to put money into something and completely forget about it. I still would rather see someone invest in a low-cost target date fund, such as Vanguard’s target date funds, than see someone pay over the top for a robo-investor.

You have … Read the article

How to Spring Clean Your Finances

  1. Why is it important to check in with your finances quarterly or biannually?
I’m a fan of bucketing your check ins with your finances:
  • Monthly: Check your checking and credit card accounts. What you’re looking for are a couple of things. First, you want to make sure that you’re not spending beyond your budget, which I recommend making on a monthly basis. Second, you want to check to make sure that there are no unrecognized charges or transactions in these accounts. While you have limited liability on them, particularly with credit
… Read the article

Why Should You Think About Updating Your Will During the Coronavirus Pandemic?

Generally speaking, people are afraid to face their own mortality. We have a psychological trait called optimism bias that is often very beneficial – it’s what helps us to believe in a brighter future and to wake up in the morning and go to work. If we didn’t have optimism bias, we’d sink into depression and live like Eeyores.
However, optimism bias also causes us to not believe that we could ever get hurt or to die. How many teenagers and young adults do you know who think that they are indestructible?
… Read the article

Do Not Shortcut Your Retirement Planning Efforts

When it comes to success, there are no shortcuts.
–Bo Bennett

I recently read an article extolling how easy it was to get started on the journey to financial independence.

I’m sure the author is a good person and well meaning. He seems to be smart and motivated, having earned a CPA in 2018.

Some of the advice is good, such as answering the question why about your financial goals and looking to reduce your unnecessary spending to tighten your budget.

However, some of it was quite short-sighted.

The crux … Read the article

Do Not Rely on a Rule of Thumb to Retire

It’s kind of a rule of thumb for me to self-doubt going into any kind of project.
–Heath Ledger

When we made the decision to retire early, we went through a lot of analysis on whether or not we would have enough cash flow from our rental properties to meet our living expenses, as well as coming up with a very detailed contingency plan for what actions we would take in the event of realizing negative tail risk in early retirement. Fortunately, from a financial perspective (not from a life … Read the article