Personal Finance

Wealth Is The Stuff You Can’t See

Life spans continue to grow in the United States and the United Kingdom, although the pace is relatively slow. Between 1960 and 2014, average life expectancies have risen 13% and 14%, respectively, in two of the wealthiest countries in the world. That works out to an increase of just 0.2% per year, slow but steady…

What Should I Do With My Inheritance?

A reader asks: My wife and I recently had a retirement and inheritance discussion with her parents. During our conversation it was mentioned how much they plan to leave for inheritance. We’re already on track to retire in our early 60s. However, I’m curious if I should try to incorporate the additional inheritance, it’s a…

7 Things to Buy When You Have Kids (That No One Tells You About)

When people find out you’re having a baby people are more than happy to tell you everything you need to buy (and exactly how to be a parent). Despite getting plenty of advice from pretty much every other parent I know before I had kids, there are some things that slipped through the cracks. Here’s…

Financial Superpowers

While trying to boil down the many reasons for Warren Buffett’s long-term success, Alan Greenspan once told the Oracle, “Warren, it strikes me that if you did nothing else you never sell. That is, if you can grit your teeth through and just disregard short-term declines in the market or even long-term declines in the…

How Compounding Works in the Stock Market

If you only followed the daily swings in the market it may not feel like stocks are going gangbusters in 2019. The average daily gain for the S&P 500 this year is up just 0.19% (the median is 0.14%). There have only been 9 daily gains in excess of 1% this year (with 3 down days…

How Hard is it to Become a 401(k) Millionaire?

The current retirement system leaves much to be desired. There are a decent number of people taking advantage of tax-deferred savings vehicles but it’s a fairly small number that ever reaches millionaire status in these accounts. In Fidelity’s defined contribution plan, there are roughly 157,000 people who have saved at least $1 million in their 401(k). There…