Money Tree Investing

Deacon and his wife combined finances shortly after marriage – only to find $52,000 in consumer debt was weighing them down. They made the choice – and a plan – to pay down that debt in 18 month.

Moving past debt freedom, Deacon began focusing on complete financial independence.

In his book, "You Can Retire Early!: Everything You Need to Achieve Financial Independence When You Want It" he describes the three ways to financial independence:

• Real estate
• Stock market
• Entrepreneurship

Listen in as Deacon shares each way and how it can help you achieve financial independence.

For more information, visit the show notes at http://moneytreepodcast.com/3-paths-financial-independence-deacon-hayes

Raw land. Is it the undiscovered country of the investing world?

Mark Podolsky shares his experience buying, selling, and leasing raw land as an investment.

Unlike buying traditional real estate, purchasing raw land doesn't require a lot of money. Mark outlines a process of looking for lots with unpaid property taxes, purchasing the lots, and then offering them to people who live along the plot line.

The key to a successful raw land purchase is to do the research and due-diligence needed to make sure you have a clear title or other obstructions to a hassle-free transaction.

After Mark's interview, the panel discusses other thoughts behind investing in raw land - and the pitfalls you need to be aware of.

For more information, visit the show notes at http://moneytreepodcast.com/224

Shannon Compton Game went through a divorce. Today she shares things she learned that helped get through the process of separating finances in a way that doesn't drain the bank.

For more information, visit the show notes at http://moneytreepodcast.com/223

Investing in equities can help you build wealth, but creating a business and finding other streams of income can help accelerate building your net worth. Johnny Gabriele knows this all too well.

He thought it would be fun to find a cat-shaped cake mold for his girlfriend. After looking everywhere and finding nothing, he took the opportunity to create his own and started selling them online.

A new small business was born.

Johnny shares the steps to creating a business, and emphasizes that they should be followed in a precise order.

Listen to the steps and our panel discuss how they built their businesses. For more information, visit the show notes at http://moneytreepodcast.com/222

Why is knowing about intellectual property important for normal investors?

A patent gives you a specific right in a given country. It give the right of exclusivity to sell the item or device, build the device, or import it into the country.

A great name, they offer something exclusive, or a company that works hard and offers an excellent product or service. A patent can be placed on any one of these things to bring something unique to an investor.

Dr. Daniel Goldstein also explains the complications of patents in other countries, how somebody gets a patent, and the difference between trade secret and patent rights.

For more information, visit the show notes at http://moneytreepodcast.com/221

CFP Rick Rodgers described the three legs of a tax-efficient retirement strategy:

• Pre-tax
• After-tax
• Tax-free

Then the panel comes on to discuss Social Security, municipal bonds, and year-end tax strategies that can help you can avoid being taxed on capital gains when expecting a loss in the market.

For more information, visit the show notes at http://moneytreepodcast.com/220

Kip Meadows joins us to talk about how ETFs are constructed.

He explains that an ETF is a type of mutual fund that trades like a stock. While mutual funds aren't technically traded until the end of the day, ETF transactions can be conducted during intraday trading.

"They're organized in a structure that allows buying shares in an underlying portfolio. That's why you go through an exchange because you have to to go through a broker dealer in order to purchase an ETF. The broker-dealer will purchase the shares in the underlying ETF and the broker-dealer is who keeps up with how many shares you own. The broker-dealer then handles the accounting to show you how many shares you own - which is different than an open-end fund where the transfer agent for the open end fund directly carries your shares at the fund.

They're created the same way as any sort of registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission - you have to file the registration to become effective, and once it's effective then you can purchase those shares through the broker-dealer."

Then our panel gets into a discussion about alternative medicinal ETFs and who's getting into marijuana stocks.

For more information, visit the show notes at http://moneytreepodcast.com/219

Insider Trading may not be what you think it is. But it is clear that there are rules to follow when certain knowledge is obtained when it comes to buying or selling stocks.

When you see people get shares inside their own company and they immediately sell. This is not illegal, and could be used as an indicator in your decision to buy or sell.

We also talk about stock buybacks, following the Consumer Confidence index, and how you can read various indicators.

For more information, visit the show notes at http://moneytreepodcast.com/218

What's going on in the market? Can you predict the next market downturn from how well the economy is chugging along and the confidence of consumers? For almost a decade, people have been predicting the next bear market. With the recent volatility in the DOW and S&P 500 index, you would think their prediction is coming true. But is it? Doug Goldstein, Linda P. Jones and Miranda Marquit discuss indicators we can examine to determine how the market is doing today and what that means for the future. It should be noted that nobody can predict the future, and past performance is no indication of future returns. This podcast is for informational purposes only. Before making any decision or taking any action, you should consult a competent professional. For more information, visit the show notes at http://moneytreepodcast.com/217

Kevin Quigg describes the differences between ETFs, mutual funds, and the type of person who would benefit from hedge funds.

Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) is traded during the day, just as a single stock would be.

Mutual funds are typically bought directly through the mutual fund manager. The price is determined by the net asset value of the securities held within the fund at the end of the trading day.

Kevin Quigg describes hedge funds as different from ETFs and mutual funds as "sharp tools rather than dull instruments". He goes on to explain that hedge funds are only available to qualified investors…those who have met certain requirements and proven themselves to be able to truly understand the amount of risk they are taking.

There are also numerous restrictions with hedge funds. Listen to Miranda's interview with Kevin Quigg and then the discussion our roundtable has immediately following.

For more information, visit the show notes at http://moneytreepodcast.com/216