I liked this from The Next Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and Sarah Stanley Fallaw: WANTED: Household CFO Description: The role of Household CFO is to ensure his/her household is building wealth in order to ultimately achieve financial independence. The Household CFO will oversee the household’s budgeting and financial planning. He/she will be required to create, manage,…
Ben Carlson
The Amazons of the Fund World
The Wall Street Journal had a headline that got a bunch of finance people in a tizzy yesterday: What?! The father of index funds is worried about…index funds?! People need to settle down and read the actual article. But before I get to this story let’s look at a cool graph about Amazon Prime you can…
The Biggest Myth in Retirement Savings
Congress passed the Revenue of Act of 1978 to lower tax brackets on individuals. Within that act, there was a short 900-word section 401(k) which was added with the intent of limiting executive compensation (Narrator: It did not have that effect). Ted Benna, an insurance company consultant at the time, realized this part of the…
Animal Spirits Episode 57: Passive Income
On this week’s Animal Spirits with Michael & Ben we discuss: Why monetizing content is so difficult. Why passive income is a myth for most people. Are we sellouts for taking on sponsors for the show? Is it even possible to sell out in 2018? Michael Douglas, Jake the Snake Roberts & Andre the Giant….
The Stock Market Doesn’t Care About You
“The stock doesn’t know you own it.” – Adam Smith (aka George Goodman) Yesterday wasn’t a great day for workers at General Motors. Here’s the news via Bloomberg: General Motors Co. will cut more than 14,000 salaried staff and factory workers and close seven factories worldwide by the end of next year, part of a sweeping realignment…
When Cash Outperforms Everything
U.S. stocks were up double-digits well into 2018 and sailing along nicely until a funny thing happened — they stopped going up and went the opposite direction as they are wont to do. The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) is now down around 20 basis points on the year. Not only have stocks struggled…
If You Want to Be Happy…
I read The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World a few months ago and what struck me most about his story was not Edison’s unbelievable accomplishments and inventions, but the stories that paint him as a really bad person. By all accounts, he could be a terrible in the way…
Ben’s Holiday Spending Tips
Some random thoughts as we head into one of the busiest spending seasons of the year… Take advantage of credit card sign-up bonuses. The credit card companies are notorious for changing up their rewards systems over time but if you can take advantage of a one-time sign-up bonus it’s basically free money. The majority of these…
Animal Spirits Episode 56: How to Ask the Right Questions
This week’s Animal Spirits with Michael & Ben is presented by J.P. Morgan Asset Management: We discuss: A history of the 401k. Why pensions were never as prevalent as most people assume. Why cashing out your 401k is a bad idea. The pros & cons of multi-factor investing. Competition in factor investing. If market cap…
Surveying the Damage in Stocks
Stocks are getting massacred. Absolutely slaughtered. Pounded into submission. Markets are in turmoil. Investors are panicked, shellshocked and dare I say, jittery. These are some of the words and phrases you hear bandied about when stocks are in the midst of a freefall. Fun times. Let’s take a look at the numbers to see how…
