An educational resource for people who want to invest wisely—without unnecessary complexity or “secret strategies.” The site breaks down the mechanics of investing: index funds, dividend-paying stocks, tax optimization, retirement accounts, and real estate as an investment vehicle.
The 3-month rule comes from an era when jobs lasted decades and layoffs were rare. For white-collar professionals, 6-12 months of expenses is the real target.
There are actually two different five-year rules — one for contributions, one for conversions. Conflate them and you'll pay 10% penalty on what you thought was tax-free.
Will. Healthcare proxy. Durable power of attorney. Nothing else is strictly required at 40, and skipping these three is how families end up in court for two years.
Car insurance caps at $300,000. Homeowner's caps at $500,000. One serious accident with a doctor can generate a $3 million judgment. Umbrella covers the gap for $300/year.
Whole life is insurance wrapped in an investment wrapped in a commission structure. It pays the agent 80% of first-year premium. The returns average 2-4%.
$500,000 in 20-year term for a healthy 40-year-old is $25 per month. The whole-life version is $400. The $375 difference invested in VTSAX beats the insurance payout.
Gold returned 1.4% per year for 30 years. The S&P returned 10.6%. Gold's purpose isn't return — it's specific correlation behavior in a handful of bad decades.
IBIT charges 0.12% and lives in your brokerage. Self-custody means a hardware wallet and being your own bank. Both have failure modes worth thinking through.
Bitcoin might go to $500,000 or $0 — the honest answer is nobody knows. At 1-5% of portfolio, either outcome is survivable. At 30%, the bad case is career-ending.
A 2022 study tracked investors who checked portfolios daily vs. quarterly. The daily checkers traded 4x more and earned 2% less annually. The news made them worse.
Loss aversion. Recency bias. Overconfidence. The psychology research identifies 17 biases that cost investors money. Most are impossible to see in yourself.
Miss the 10 best days in any 20-year window: your return drops 50%. Seven of those 10 best days happened within two weeks of the 10 worst. You can't selectively miss one.