All About Your Benjamins™

https://youtu.be/hIXyJ_BAD9I

Most Americans are behind on their savings for retirement and many are left to tackle their saving, planning, and investing for retirement on their own. While there are plenty of blog posts, podcasts, and articles to give people fractions of the information they need to have a chance to navigate the retirement savings waters, there are few books written in a way that actually help readers put it all together. That was until Ben Carlson dropped Everything You Need To Know About Saving For Retirement earlier this year.

Ben is the author of the blog A Wealth Of Common Sense, the Director of Institutional Asset Management at Ritholtz Wealth Management, co-host of the podcast Animal Spirits, and one of my favorite bloggers. I was lucky to snag a little bit of his time to record this bonus episode of AAYB too discuss some of my favorite sections of his book.

If you plan on retiring one day or know someone who would, then I highly recommend you grab a copy of the book--link down below.

Everything You Need To Know About Saving For Retirement

A Wealth Of Common Sense

Disclaimer: Nothing on this blog should be considered advice, or recommendations. If you have questions pertaining to your individual situation you should consult your financial advisor. For all of the disclaimers, please see my disclaimers page.

https://youtu.be/rCMtPu8y5l4

The WSJ: Joe Biden Calls on Nation to ‘Start Afresh’ at Inauguration as 46th President

The WSJ: Trump Impeachment Trial to Start Week of Feb. 8

The WSJ: U.S. Business Activity Gains at Start of Year

The WSJ: U.S. Existing-Home Sales Reach Highest Level in 14 Years

You attract what you are ready for and are given exactly what you can handle. That means that GOOD DAYS and BAD DAYS are one and the same: they are both opportunities for celebration, acceptance, and growth.

— Brittney Castro,CFP® (@Brittneycastro) January 19, 2021

Morgan Housel: Personal Finance Philosophies "There are few universally right answers. Just lots of shades of gray that work for people’s unique personalities and situations. A lot of finance arguments happen when people get upset after realizing that not everyone has, or wants, the same life as you." 

Kyle Moore: When The Future Never Comes "Financial planning is a never-ending balance between living for today vs. planning for tomorrow. We don’t know what life will bring our way, but it's better to prepare and not have needed, than need and not have prepared. While we can't escape planning for our futures, we must do so with balance and a reverence for the present moment, for we aren't guaranteed a tomorrow."

Calibrating Capital: Why Do We [Truly] Do What We Do? "As I said in my own example, I think it’s possible to still do good work even with the existence of the Nefarious Why. However, we need to ensure that the Noble Why is the one in the driver’s seat, and the Nefarious is in the backseat – or even the trunk."

Of Dollars And Data: 10 Investing Lessons from 2020 "If 2020 taught me anything, it was what the late Jack Bogle was fond of saying, “Nobody knows nothing.”  Of course, predicting the future is always hard, but 2020 illustrated to us just how difficult it can be. If you would’ve told me that U.S. stocks would rise over 10% in the same year as a global pandemic, I wouldn’t have believed you.  But that’s what makes markets so complex and mystifying, especially in 2020, a year unlike any other."

Brett Koeppel: Trust the Process: What You Can Learn About Retirement Planning From the Buffalo Bills "In the early years, fans heard “Trust the Process” so often from Sean McDermott that it became a running joke around town. The belief is that by taking the right reps and doing the right things consistently, the results would come over time."

Simon Tryzna: Mosaic Theory "While I'm not building valuation models for individual stocks or making any stock recommendations, I think this analysis method is essential in making informed decisions. There are many places for investors to get information from on the internet – I urge everyone reading this to not fall in love with one or two and follow their recommendations blindly."

A Wealth Of Common Sense: Getting Your Stock Picks From Podcasts "I didn’t perform any due diligence on Spotify’s business or look through the financial statements or anything approaching the work of an actual analyst. I simply bought it because I was impressed with Ek’s vision for the future of the company and his humility as a leader."

Retirement Field Guide: Real Return Is All That Matters "So, if inflation has been about 3%, then the real return for each asset class has been 7% for equities vs. just 2% for bonds. That means that equities haven’t outpaced bonds by 2X, but by 3.5X! "

Brett Fellows: Investor Heuristics--5 Biases To Watch Out For When Making Financial Decisions "However, these mental shortcuts don’t always serve us when making complex decisions. Indeed, heuristics aren’t supposed to result in optimal decisions, but rather “good enough” decisions given a limited timeframe. That’s why it’s important to recognize them at play and keep them in check, especially when faced with information meant to appeal to our instincts, not our intellect."

The Irrelevant Investor: Resist The Temptation "If you f...

https://youtu.be/K-MaolSI814

I've been fortunate to get to know Josh Brown on a personal level and I can assure you he is an even better person than you think he is. I'm happy to share the story of how I weaseled my way into calling him a mentor in person with you whenever conferences start back up--it all started with an email late one Friday night and now I take him out for dinner every fall when I visit NYC.

JB and I in the basement of Bobby Van's in front of JP Morgan's old vault.

Given my respect and admiration for JB, it was a huge honor to have him join me as my first guest on The Pursuit. I'm not going to spoil any of the conversation--just hit play, sit back, and enjoy!

The Reformed Broker

The Compound YouTube

Disclaimer: Nothing on this blog should be considered advice, or recommendations. If you have questions pertaining to your individual situation you should consult your financial advisor. For all of the disclaimers, please see my disclaimers page.

A quick intro to the newest show on The All About Your Benjamins Podcast--The Pursuit. Join me every Friday as we explore the intersection of passion, purpose, reducing regret, and personal finance.

The Pursuit has been something I've been wanting to do for a while, but I wasn't quite sure how to do it. And if I'm being honest, I was a little nervous to tackle it--this is a little outside my comfort zone, but that's where the real growth occurs, right? On The Pursuit, I'll be discussing, sometimes by myself and sometimes with a guest, how we can achieve greater happiness and live more fulfilled lives by identifying and pursuing our passions, finding our purpose, and how it all plays into our financial planning.

In this intro episode, I reference my recent blog post, Impact, which you can read here, along with the latest Human Advisor Podcast episode with Ron Carson and Jason Wenk, which you can watch here.

And while I'm sharing other content that plays into The Pursuit, check out this month's All About Your Benjamins conversation with Tyrone Ross here as he and I spend the majority of the conversation discussing "purpose".

I want to give a quick shoutout to my very good friend and one of my creative go-to's, Nyle Bayer for the instrumental leading into the episode. Nyle's work is always 🔥.

I'm excited for The Pursuit to start and the first episode this Friday is a great one. All I'm going to share is I am joined by the one and only, Downtown Josh Brown. You won't want to miss it!

Disclaimer: Nothing on this blog should be considered advice, or recommendations. If you have questions pertaining to your individual situation you should consult your financial advisor. For all of the disclaimers, please see my disclaimers page.

https://youtu.be/xLRFiEK7YFg

This is an episode that has been in the making since Tyrone first joined me on the podcast back in 2018 --we just didn't know it. Over the years Tyrone has joined me on podcasts and in videos to continue the conversation on bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and even the lack of representation in the financial services profession.

It's been fun to watch Tyrone grow, expand his impact on the world, and ultimately take on the role of CEO at OnRamp. And I know he's just getting started.

In this episode, we discuss how the opportunity to lead OnRamp aligns with his purpose, how it keeps him on his path of "destiny steps", and what exactly OnRamp will do.

As a financial advisor who has been following bitcoin and digital assets since early 2017, I'm excited about the opportunity to incorporate bitcoin for clients with the right risk tolerance and goals. I'm also excited to be able to announce I am an investor in OnRamp, which is the company I referenced in my "How I Invest" blog post.

This is a great conversation about finding purpose, pursuing passions, and an up-and-coming Fintech company--I hope you enjoy!

OnRamp

December 26er Podcast

Disclaimer: Nothing on this blog should be considered advice, or recommendations. If you have questions pertaining to your individual situation you should consult your financial advisor. For all of the disclaimers, please see my disclaimers page.

https://youtu.be/YfFSAbenXic

The WSJ: President Trump Impeached by the House for Second Time

The WSJ: Pence Says He Won’t Invoke 25th Amendment, Setting Stage for Impeachment Vote

The WSJ: U.S. Unemployment Claims Rise as Coronavirus Weighs on Economy

The WSJ: U.S. Consumer Confidence Ticks Down in Early January

The WSJ: Americans Won’t Be Banned From Investing in Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu

The WSJ: Lilly Alzheimer’s Drug Helped Patients in Small Trial

 

"The trajectory of your life bends in the direction of your habits."

–@JamesClear

— Jim OShaughnessy (@jposhaughnessy) January 14, 2021

Morgan Housel: A Few Thoughts On Writing "But in every field, the person with the best story wins. Not the best idea, or the right answer, or the most useful solution. Just whoever tells the most persuasive story. A lot of good ideas are killed with bad writing."

Cristina Guglielmetti: Thinking Small "If you set micro-goals and miss the mark some weeks, you can quickly reset and get back on course. Or, you can quickly learn that the broader goal is perhaps unreasonable and rethink it. And you will get frequent boosts when you do reach your goals, so you’ll be more encouraged to keep going."

The Retirement Field Guide: Rationality In Investing "But it’s hard to act rationally in a market that acts irrationally in the short-term. We know that markets are rational in the long-term, but they always seem irrational in the short-term."

Of Dollars And Data: Just Take The Money "This is what happens when you become your investments.  You make decisions that could either (1) make you very rich or (2) lead to ruin."

Peter Lazaroff: How Hindsight Bias Can Impact Your Investment Decisions "The more we see things fitting together into a cohesive narrative, the more we feel as though we knew it all along. And the more time that passes, the more difficult it is to accurately recall the way an uncertain situation seemed to us at the time actually happened. We forget what information was available at the time of the event, as well as  our own initial reasoning in support of or against a particular decision."

Stephanie McCullough: Yoga Teacher Powerful Money Lessons "I started to see the many similarities between yoga philosophy and the financial planning I do with my clients. Whether or not you practice yoga, the yoga outlook on life has many lessons applicable to sound financial behaviors."

A Wealth Of Common Sense: How To Invest In A Bubble "You could also simply choose to ignore market conditions altogether and invest according to your own specific personal and financial circumstances. Doing nothing is a decision and often the right one for many investors."

Thomas Kopelman: How I Manage My Money "But just because I know these things does not mean I can actually do them when the time comes and it’s my money at stake. This is why I choose to lead with automation. I want to take away as much power as I can from human behavior so I can continue to make good choices for myself."

All About Your Benjamins: Impact

Disclaimer: Nothing on this blog should be considered advice, or recommendations. If you have questions pertaining to your individual situation you should consult your financial advisor. For all of the disclaimers, please see my disclaimers page.

https://youtu.be/gd8-FJMWilk

Week In Review Articles

The WSJ: Congress Certifies Joe Biden’s Election Win Following Day of Turmoil

The WSJ: Georgia Senate Wins by Democrats Followed Years of Party Organizing

The WSJ: House Democrats to Introduce Article of Impeachment Against Trump

The WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates: Reported U.S. Cases Rise as Deaths Dip

The WSJ: Covid-19 Surge Ends Seven Months of U.S. Jobs Growth

The WSJ: U.S. Weighs Adding Alibaba, Tencent to China Stock Ban

The WSJ: Tesla's Elon Musk Overtakes Amazon's Jeff Bezos as World's Wealthiest Person

 

Why promoting yourself/your business/your ideas feels uncomfortable:

You must repeat things that are obvious to you until they become obvious to others.

— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) January 3, 2021

 

Morgan Housel: Two Worlds--So Much Prosperity, So Much Skepticism "The causes of rising inequality over the last 40 years are vague. It’s part offshoring, part the decline of unions, part winner-take-all technology, part globalization, part regulation and tax code, part education, on and on. Complexity and vagueness made the trends subtle and slow."

Calibrating Capital: Enough "What if we slowed down – if we grew small – in our 30s/40s and then ramped back up if needed in our 40s/50s? Yes: compound interest, yada yada. That is an entirely true point, not only the compounding of our investments, but also the compounding of any businesses we own."

A Wealth Of Common Sense: Updating My Favorite Performance Chart For 2020 "No big takeaways from this data beyond the fact that plus or minus one year here and there can make a large difference when it comes to performance."

The Belle Curve: Lock It In "Whatever you think you know, that the rest of the world doesn’t know, about Tesla, Etsy, Nvidia, Paypal, or any of the other winners this year, it doesn’t matter. You’ve made the kind of return most investors will only dream about. Take some money off the table. It doesn’t matter if the stock keeps going up from here. You can still participate with less of your money at risk.  Lock it in. Secure the win."

The Irrelevant Investor: 10 Things I’ll be Watching Closely in 2021 "It’s always hard to see things changing. And then along comes a year like 2020. Nobody had any of this on their list at the end of 2019. 2021 is sure to deliver some surprises, and unlike the last dreadful year, hopefully, they’re for the better."

Humble Dollar: Growing Up "The financial lessons I learned growing up are still with me as an adult. I grew up not only appreciating the value of a dollar, but also learning that the memories from life experiences are far more valuable than any item that can be bought. To this day, I carefully pick and choose what I’ll spend my hard-earned money on. A day with friends at a pistol shooting competition is more highly valued than any possession I might purchase."

The Retirement Field Guide: Nobody Saw This Coming, Part Two "Can we conclude, once and for all, that we’ll never know what’s going to happen next? Can we conclude that we’ll never see it coming? It’s impossible to time these sorts of things. It’s impossible to time the bad things that might happen, but it’s equally impossible to time the good things."

Brian Plain: New Year, New Mantra "Strict with yourself, tolerant with others."

Thomas Kopelman: The Long Game Podcast Episode 6: Paul Jorgensen – Believing In Yourself

Disclaimer: Nothing on this blog should be considered advice, or recommendations. If you have questions pertaining to your individual situation you should consult your financial advisor. For all of the disclaimers, please see my disclaimers page.

The headlines that may or may not be impacting your financial plan and portfolio...

https://youtu.be/BeHrXTdPJsQ

Week In Review Articles

The WSJ: Trump Signs Covid-19 Aid Bill Averting Government Shutdown

The WSJ: Five Investment Trends That Skyrocketed in 2020

The WSJ: Year Ends With Record-Setting Month in U.S. for Covid-19

The WSJ: The U.K. Has Finally Cut Ties With the EU. Here’s What Has Changed.

People who root for others to lose are miserable human beings. You don't want them in your life, your social feeds, your texts, your gatherings. Surround yourself w/those who want to lift others up. The idea that someone else has to lose for you to win is very last century stuff.

— Adam Singer (@AdamSinger) December 27, 2020

Weekly Mixtape

Morgan Housel: Last Man Standing "And the most important point is that the best returns you can earn for the longest period of time are rarely the highest returns in any given year, or even decade."

The Street: Two Ways to Align Your Money with Your Values "So, instead of focusing on money simply as a thing to accumulate, think about your money in terms of what it can do for you. Truly align your finances with your values by spending money on what you care about."

The Reformed Broker: Happy New Year, Don't Die "If you’re reading this blog post, chances are you’re focused on allocating your assets, not choosing which debt to pay off and which bills to ignore. So you’d most likely take your own problems back out of the pile too. It could always be worse."

Brian Plain: Reflecting On A Year Unlike Any Other "As we reflect back on our past year, focusing on impact – both negative and positive – can be particularly useful. Here are some specific questions around impact that can help."

Michael Baker: Your Timing May Never Be Perfect...And That's OK "For anyone that has not created a financial plan, the best thing you can do is START NOW. One lie we tell ourselves is that we’ll get our financial lives in order when we  (FILL IN THE BLANK). Then we become experts at moving our own cheese. Don’t expect your timing to be perfect because it most likely won’t be."

Ryan Krueger: 4,000-To-1 Long Shot "Knowing the efficiency of all the investing approaches, analyzing the risk metrics of individual securities or funds, or even relying on some balanced allocation...all take a back seat to the WHO. Getting that part wrong can mess up the math in a hurry. Getting it right, and investing time to get it better, can provide the very best reason to Plan at all."

Mr. Stingy: You Don't Always Need The Best. What You Need Is Good Enough "I think so. I think the 90% is good enough for most people. Heck, the 90% will probably make you do better than most people."

Of Dollars And Data: Running Out of Time Before Running Out of Money "That’s why my biggest takeaway from 2020 is that you can lose with a winning hand.  You can make all the right choices and still end up with a bad outcome. Not everything is in our control.  Yet, many of us save and invest as if it is."

Anne Tergesen: Tiny Changes Can Help You Achieve Savings Goals for Retirement "Here’s a suggestion for those planning to make big changes in the new year: Consider making them small instead."

Mark Suster: How I Lost 65 Pounds In 18 Months Without Any Fad Diets or Gimmicks "I made maintaining my weight a habit rather than chore. A way of life rather than a restriction."

Outside Online: We've Reached Peak Wellness. Most of It Is Nonsense. "Wellness—the kind that actually works—is simple: it’s about committing to basic practices, day in and day out, as individuals and communities."

All About Your Benjamins: “Pay Yourself First”–How I Invest My Money

All About Your Benjamins: The Pursuit Of Happyness

All About Your Benjamins The Podcast: Picking Stocks With Roman And Leo

Disclaimer: Nothing on this blog should be considered advice, or recommendations. If you have questions pertaining to your individua...

I hope Roman and Leo pick up good money habits and investing principles just observing me doing my job. But, rather than assume I'm constantly talking to them about the basics of finance and I finally was able to get them to my office to record a video about investing.

I funded an account with Public and asked the boys to each pick three stocks to invest in. I told them they would need to explain why they picked their stocks and we would have a conversation about their picks and whatever else might come up.

Before you get to the conversation, please remember the stocks we discuss are not meant to be recommendations. The boys are 10 and 8 and in no way stock experts. Even if they were older, you probably shouldn't make investment decisions based on YouTube videos.

However, if you are a parent, you should have conversations about money and finance with your children. The beauty of this exercise is you can set up an account with Public with very little money and are able to invest in companies using fractional shares--meaning you can buy fractions of a share in companies. Don't invest more than you can afford to lose, especially since your children will be making the investment decisions 😀. Although, I have a feeling our kids may make better investors than many adults.

Ok, here's that conversation.

Public.com

YCharts

https://youtu.be/Hbp5v_Oagio

Disclaimer: Nothing on this blog should be considered advice, or recommendations. If you have questions pertaining to your individual situation you should consult your financial advisor. For all of the disclaimers, please see my disclaimers page.

Another company leveraging community to help grow and spread financial education is Finimize and in this episode, I’m joined by their CEO Max Rofagha. The story of how Max found his way to the world of finance is fascinating given that he had no background, other than an interest in his own personal finance and the willingness to ask a lot of questions and leverage his network of peers in finance.

Finimize currently boasts over 1,000,000 members across the globe and is known for its local meetups, arranged by its members. If you’re interested in continuing to learn more about personal finance, investing, and more you should definitely check out the community!

Speaking of Community, The AGC™, a community for financial advisors I co-founded with Taylor Schulte, a little over a year ago is opening back up for enrollment in January. If you’re a financial advisor looking for a group of forward-thinking, collaborative, and supportive advisors to learn and grow alongside, the AGC™ might just be the place for you. If you’re not an advisor, but you want yours to stay sharp and be surrounded by great advisors and people, you should tell her about The AGC.

All the information you need to learn more can be found at advisorgc.com.

Show Notes:

Finimize

Max's Twitter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNzAFHj1xsk

Disclaimer: Nothing on this blog should be considered advice, or recommendations. If you have questions pertaining to your individual situation you should consult your financial advisor. For all of the disclaimers, please see my disclaimers page.