Student Loans

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A focus of mine in financial planning is student loans. Recently, a few headlines regarding that subject got my attention, so I wanted to focus on this pervading element of many young adults and their financial situation today:

  • Read: Student Loan Hero was founded in 2012 as an unbiased solution to organize, manage, and repay your student loans. As every student loan borrower is in a different financial situation and no “one size fits all” solution is possible, their goal is to help borrowers understand their student loans and make intelligent repayment decisions. This helpful article outlines their answers to 20 of the most googled questions regarding student loans. 
  • Listen: Joshua Sheats from Radical Personal Finance conducted two interviews with Jay Fleischman, a bankruptcy attorney who specializes in student loans. In Radical Strategies, they cover strategies for dealing with loans that will give flexibility with your repayment plans, what to do if you’re in default on a loan, and whether it’s possible to get out of a student loan with bankruptcy. In Here’s What You Need To Do, Joshua and Jay tackle the process of analysis. Jay gives a step-by-step action plan for what you need to do in order to analyze your options. 
  • Watch: This video from Market Watch, featuring Rohit Chopra, highlights a variety of ways to approach your student loans, including income-driven repayment plans, how to qualify for student loan forgiveness, graduated and extended repayment plans, and when to challenge your student loan company.

Services Spotlight: Loan Buddy is a new financial technology platform with a focus on providing solutions for advisors who are student loan planning for their clients. It allows me to provide a better student loan analysis for clients. Current clients can ask about it at your next meeting!

If you find the information provided valuable, please pass this email along to your family and friends! Better yet, recommend them to subscribe to this monthly newsletter by signing up on our website!

You can click on the links below to access this month’s resources. Thanks for reading, listening, and watching!

Financial Organization, Goals, and Planning

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Now that it is finally spring in most parts of the country, I wanted to focus on spring cleaning this month, highlighting some resources to help you organize your finances:

  • Read: Many couples blame their marriage problems on disagreements and an inability to see eye to eye. Marriage counseling is a great option for couples who need to learn how to better communicate, but it might not solve the problem that caused a disagreement in the first place, especially if the problem involves money. So because money is a leading cause of stress in relationships, couples may want to consider money counseling before heading to a marriage counselor. Click here to read more.
  • Listen: In this podcast conversation between Financial Mentor Todd Tresidder and Farnoosh Torabi, they discuss money, relationships, and financial goals. These aspects of life have long-term financial implications, and they’re much easier to accomplish when both spouses/partners are working together.
  • Watch: Are you unsure of all that a financial planner can do for you with regard to an organizational overview of your financial situation, future needs, and risk tolerance? This video outlines the value of having a financial planner, who will help you achieve short and long term financial goals.

Free Services Spotlight:

  • Vertex42: Since 2003, Vertex42 has been creating professionally designed spreadsheet templates for business, personal, home, and educational use. Their collection of financial calculators include some of the most powerful and user-friendly debt reduction and money management tools you can find.
  • Personal Capital: The Personal Capital dashboard gives you everything you need to gauge, monitor and optimize your financial holdings. Link all of your external financial accounts and get immediate access to a comprehensive view of all your accounts.

*Both of these services are free and great for the do-it-yourselfer; clientele of Bona Fide Finance have access to more robust software tools as part of our business practice.

If you find the information provided valuable, please pass this email along to your family and friends! Better yet, recommend them to subscribe to this monthly newsletter by signing up on our website!

You can click on the links below to access this month’s resources. Thanks for reading, listening, and watching!

Alternative Investing

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This month, I’m highlighting alternative investing. The following resources focus on three different ways in which you can explore this concept and its possible utilization in your own investment portfolio:

  • Read: Real estate has long been used as an investment tool. If you’re considering it for your own portfolio (whether direct ownership, partnerships, or REITs), check out this overview article.
  • Listen: Joshua Sheats interviews Kirk Chisholm in this podcast, which goes into great depth of alternative investing. In Kirk’s own words, “We take a step beyond the current industry definition and use it to describe assets or investments such as physical real estate, tax liens, physical gold and silver, structured settlements, horses, livestock, farmland, timberland, and more.”
  • Watch: Simon Cunningham, founder of Lending Memo, provides a brief overview of peer-to-peer lending. In short, it is the large scale lending of money between people online. In this video, he outlines this concept in detail, highlighting how it differs for borrowers and investors.

Services spotlight: We just started using Capitect, a tracking tool that provides real-time rates of return on the performance of your investment portfolio (for all accounts linked with this platform). If you’re a current client, you can expect to learn more at your next scheduled meeting. This is intended as an internal product for current clients, but if you would like to use it directly, please send us an email and we can help you set it up for your personal use.

For those interested, here is the market commentary for the first quarter of 2018.

If you find the information provided valuable, please pass this email along to your family and friends! Better yet, recommend them to subscribe to this monthly newsletter by signing up on our website!

You can click on the links below to access this month’s resources. Thanks for reading, listening, and watching!

Investing

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This month, I’d like to highlight the following, with a theme of investing. Firstly, I want to share Bona Fide’s Investment Philosophy, upon which these recommended resources build:

  • Read: Dimensional has a concise recap on Recent Market Volatility. I echo their advice: by adhering to a well-thought-out investment plan, ideally agreed upon in advance of periods of volatility, investors may be better able to remain calm during periods of short-term uncertainty.
  • Listen: In this Money For the Rest of Us podcast by David Stein, he discusses what it takes to be a value investor, educating the listener on what drives the long-term performance of stocks, what the qualities are of skilled value managers, and what risk is. 
  • Watch: Is compound interest the greatest invention the world has ever seen? Watch this brief video to increase your understanding of how compound interest works in the realm of investing, and to garner Albert Einstein’s own thoughts on it!

If you find the information provided valuable, please pass this email along to your family and friends! Better yet, recommend them to subscribe to this monthly newsletter by signing up on our website!

You can click on the links below to access this month’s resources. Thanks for reading, listening, and watching!

Financial Independence and Early Retirement

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This month, I’d like to emphasize the processes one would go through if he or she wants to retire early (and by early I don’t just mean at age 62.5!). Enjoy the following pieces on this topic:

  • Read: Early Retirement Extreme is, well, an extreme look at retiring early. Jacob Lund Fisker wrote a book of the same title and has a plethora of information on his website, including this article on Can I Retire Young? In sum: the main question you should ask yourself is thus not whether you have enough money, but rather whether you can envision yourself living an unconventional life outside the boxes that most others live in. Can you be happy without doing what everybody else is doing?
  • Listen: The Shocking Truth About Life After Financial Independence is a podcast interview between Financial Mentor Todd Tresidder and Tess Vigeland, former host of NPR’s Marketplace Money. They discuss what stands on the other side of your career and how to embrace the risk and uncertainty, living life as an adventure. 
  • Watch: This 26-minute video of Peter Adeney (from Mr. Money Mustache, who retired at the age of 30) highlights 3 facts about money that helps the viewer understand what best to do with it to be able to retire early.

If you find the information provided valuable, please pass this email along to your family and friends! Better yet, recommend them to subscribe to this monthly newsletter by signing up on our website!

You can click on the links below to access this month’s resources. Thanks for reading, listening, and watching!

Tax Time

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Happy New Year!

As we begin 2018, I’d like to highlight the following to consider in preparing your 2017 taxes:

  • Read: This 2-page brief gives a summary of the new tax bill (the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act) and how to consider its implications for you and your family. 
  • Listen: Are you a do-it-yourself-er when it comes to your own taxes? Listen to Joshua Sheats explain the structure of the IRS form 1040 and how to fill it out.
  • Watch: The average tax refund is around $3,000. If you find yourself sitting on a pile of cash courtesy of your 1040, resist the urge to treat it like play money. Instead, put the windfall to work for you using these recommendations.

If you find the information provided valuable, please pass this email along to your family and friends! Better yet, recommend them to subscribe to this monthly newsletter by signing up on our website!

You can click on the links below to access this month’s resources. Thanks for reading, listening, and watching!

Lifestyle Design & Financial Planning

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This month, I’d like to highlight the theme of lifestyle design, a concept that weighs heavily on ordering your financial situation accordingly:

  • Read: This article from Seeking Alpha focuses on the work of Tim Ferriss, author of such books as “The Four Hour Work Week” and “Tools of Titans”. Ferriss encourages folks to move from an annual thinking and total costs to monthly cash-flow. What is your ideal lifestyle in exact detail, and how much does it cost per month?
  • Listen: Joshua Sheats interviewed Jake Desyllas, author of “Job Free” in this podcast, which focuses on distilling all the plans and strategies you can use to design your ideal financial freedom plan into a clear, simple framework.
  • Watch: A double-dip on Tim Ferriss this month: check out this 30 minute interview between Mark Frauenfelder of the 2014 Bay Area Maker Faire and Tim on his own experiments in lifestyle design, including dancing, learning languages, working out, and stoicism.

If you find the information provided valuable, please pass this email along to your family and friends! Better yet, recommend them to subscribe to this monthly newsletter by signing up on our website!

You can click on the links below to access this month’s resources. Thanks for reading, listening, and watching!

Happiness and Budgeting

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As we enter into the holiday season this month, I thought it prudent to touch on giving versus getting, experiences versus things, and why sticking to a budget always makes sense:

  • Read: This article from Todd Curtis of YNAB  highlights how the thoughtful pursuit of things you want in life can turn into the mindless pursuit of simply getting. *The referenced Verizon video can be found here
  • Listen: Elizabeth Dunn, author of the book “Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending”, discusses her research on the increase of happiness when our money is spent on experiences rather than things. Meb Faber conducts this interview here.
  • Watch: For a touch of humor, please enjoy this brief SNL skit featuring Steve Martin and Amy Poehler: “Don’t Buy Stuff You Can’t Afford”

Services spotlight: Bona Fide Finance utilizes Right Capital, a software piece designed to give you the full spectrum of your finances and its projections into the future. My favorite features are the account aggregation and client portal; I offer this to all of my clients who contract ongoing services.

If you find the information provided valuable, please pass this email along to your family and friends! Better yet, recommend them to subscribe to this monthly newsletter by signing up on our website!

You can click on the links below to access this month’s resources. Thanks for reading, listening, and watching!

Radical Personal Finance

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September’s theme is de-risking your life:

  • Read: There is a plethora of resources and additional information based on the podcast interview recommended below, in this show notes page from Radical Personal Finance. I recommend bookmarking this article and utilizing the recommended resources.
  • Listen: In this interview from Radical Personal Finance’s Joshua Sheets and Justin Carroll (from the Complete Privacy and Security Podcast), talk about real, actionable ways in which you can become more secure and protect your privacy.
  • Watch: “When you are aware, you will make better decisions.” Continuing this month’s theme, Jesse Mecham from YNAB briefly discusses the habits of transformation that can assist you with making the best decisions for your finances.

If you find the information provided valuable, please pass this email along to your family and friends! Better yet, recommend them to subscribe to this monthly newsletter by signing up on our website!

You can click on the links below to access this month’s resources. Thanks for reading, listening, and watching!

Housing Costs and Your Mortgage

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I hope you all had a fun and safe 4th of July! 

As summer is often seen as the prime time to buy or sell a house, I’d like to highlight the following on the theme of your home mortgage and buying a house:

  • Read: Robert Schiller from the NY Times penned this article which is helpful for understanding housing costs (especially when adjusting for inflation).
  • Listen: This podcast–What Drives Home Prices–from JD Stein discusses what investment return you should expect for your home and what leads to housing booms and busts. Additionally, in this interview with Casey Fleming (author of The Loan Guide), Joshua Sheats discusses how to get the best possible mortgage
  • Watch: While everyone’s financial goals will look a little different in this area, Jesse Mecham gives a brief synopsis of how to pay that mortgage off more quickly.

If you find the information provided valuable, please pass this email along to your family and friends! Better yet, recommend them to subscribe to this monthly newsletter by signing up on our website!

You can click on the links below to access this month’s resources. Thanks for reading, listening, and watching!