This week, I’m talking about investing in an election year to help you keep the proper perspective with your money and your retirement during a very contentious and anxious time. 

As I record these episodes in advance, I don’t yet know what the results of last night’s election are. But here’s what I do know. There’s a very high chance that the stock market will be volatile in the days and weeks ahead as we digest the results and what that means for Americans and American businesses. 

Today, I want to talk about the impact of the election on markets. The reality is that if you go back almost 100 years, the stock market doesn’t really care all that much what happens in the election. 

If the incumbent is re-elected, the stock market for the following year was higher by about 6.5% and if a new President is in the White House, returns were only slightly lower at 5%. 

So the point here is that although an election year means potential changes to policy, laws, taxes, regulation, etc., the stock market’s reaction tends to be pretty muted, no matter what happens. And that’s because changes to policy and laws tend to be slow and many campaign promises never materialize. 

Predicting political outcomes in our democracy is about as accurate as predicting when my 3 year old will finally be fully potty trained. In the meantime, just like with our politicians, I’ll have to put up with a lot of crap in the meantime. 

And if you think about it, it makes sense that doom and gloom predictions about the impact of politics on the economy and stock markets are overblown, because no matter what happens, the pace of change is usually slow and no matter what happens, the stock market likes the fact that we have some clarity over the political landscape over the next 2-4 years. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast

This week, I’m talking about investing in an election year. 

And today is election day! So I want to talk today about what a possible blue wave could mean for you. By blue wave I mean Biden taking the White House and democrats controlling Congress. This scenario would represent the biggest possible change to our political system and the economy, and could impact everything from taxes to the environment, to trade. 

Potentially the biggest impact from a democrat sweep of the White House and Congress is taxes. Biden and most democrats are pretty clear about their intentions to raise taxes - both on individuals and corporations. 

This could have significant implications for your estate planning, capital gains, etc. so if the country turns blue after today’s results, the prudent thing to do especially if you have a high income or wealth, you’ll want to consider accelerating some of your estate planning and tax strategies before tax laws change. 

Not only could taxes go higher for individuals, but higher corporate taxes could result from the election as well, which could lower profits for US companies, and hence, put downward pressure on stocks of these publicly traded companies. 

Ensuring you have high quality companies in your retirement portfolio with strong cash flow and room for some profit squeezing will help insulate your portfolio from the negative impact of higher corporate taxes. 

Stricter regulations on environmental industries, particularly oil companies is also likely in a blue wave election result, which could hurt a badly battered energy industry even more in the coming weeks. 

Of course, depending on the election results tonight this could all be moot but it’s important to consider the implications on the election and your money. 

That’s it for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow and for the rest of the week where I’ll be talking about the likelihood for higher volatility in the days and weeks ahead and what else will and won’t change after the election. 

Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast

Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip! 

Well here we are - it’s Presidential Election week. Some of you listening may be excited, anxious, or fearful - depending on what you want to happen in the election this week, and what that might mean for you personally. 

While I don’t care to make this a political podcast, since everything else in our world today has somehow become political, it’s an important week for us to look at the reality of what THIS election might mean for you and your finances. 

So this week, I’ll talk importantly tomorrow on election day of what a possible blue wave could mean for you. By blue wave I mean Biden taking the White House and democrats controlling Congress. This would represent the biggest possible change to our political system and the economy, and could impact everything from taxes to the environment, to trade. 

Then I’ll spend the rest of the week talking about how markets typically react during the election season and importantly, what’s unlikely to change no matter who is in the White House and who controls Congress for the next 4 years. 

My hope for this week is that you maintain the proper perspective about what this election will mean for you, and not get sucked in to the media hyperbole about what is and what might happen as a result of this week’s election. 

That’s it for today. But before you go...you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!

Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.

----------

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast

It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time! This week, we looked at

Here’s what we covered in each episode this week:

• The Most Important Millionaire Habit
• Why you’re better off with base hits and not home runs
• How millionaires avoid the trap of get rich quick schemes
• How making better decisions is key to building wealth
• And lastly, why you’re more likely to see a millionaire driving a 10 year old honda accord than a brand new car. 

My hope is that you come away from this week understanding that becoming wealthy isn’t about having a high income or winning the lottery. It’s about taking the long-term view, and habitually making good decisions with your money. The good news is that it’s largely up to you whether or not you become a millionaire. The bad news is that most people think it’s beyond their control...it’s not. 

Tomorrow, we are starting a brand new theme: Investing In An Election Year, Part 2. Back in July, I talked about investing in an election year and what you’ll want to pay attention to this fall. Well, here we are! The election is just a couple days away, so it’s a good time to revisit this. That way if your chosen candidate doesn’t win, you won’t panic and make rash decisions with your money. I’ll talk about changes you can expect if Biden wins and what you should be doing with your retirement portfolio, no matter what the outcome. 

And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out my YouTube channel - True North Retirement, where I cover a wide variety of retirement planning topics - everything from whether or not you should pay off your mortgage before you retire to understanding the lifetime gift tax exclusion to inherited IRA rule changes for 2020. 

That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening and I hope you have a blessed Sunday! 

My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the “One Minute Retirement Tip”.

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast

This week, I’m talking about how to become a millionaire. The habits, behaviors, and attitudes of the most successful among us can teach us something about how to reach and maintain a financially secure retirement. 

Today I’m talking about making millionaire decisions about the big ticket items you buy. 

When you walk into a dealership to buy a car, the conversation about what car you can afford is always framed around how much payment you can afford. 

Many people who make poor decisions with their money, frame most of their big ticket purchase decisions this way, and the thought process goes something like this. 

This car or house costs this much. I think I can afford a monthly payment of $500 or whatever it is. 

But framing a big purchase decision around the monthly payment amount, is the absolute worst way to frame whether or not you should buy something. Lenders will always be willing to lend you the maximum amount, so what you can afford according to the lender is usually way more than what you can actually afford if you have other goals, like saving for retirement. 

When you buy cars and houses, and other big ticket items, successful people realize that deciding on how much to spend is not about monthly payment to the bank you can afford. It’s about what amount and what debt load makes the most sense given your financial goals and what’s most important to you. 

I have a lot of clients who drive cars like 10-year old Honda Accords, and have a paid off mortgage, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence. The bestselling book, The Millionaire Next Door talks about this concept at length. In fact, if you’re interested in diving deeper into the topic of millionaire habits, it's an inspiring read, and I highly recommend it. The book looks at 2 people with the same income levels but vastly different levels of wealth. One who made good decisions, and the other who let lifestyle creep prevent him from accumulating any meaningful wealth, other than just a bunch of stuff. 

That’s it for today, thanks for listening. Tomorrow, we’re going to recap the week and I’m gonna give you a little taste of next week’s theme.

My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip. 

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast

This week, I’m talking about how to become a millionaire. 

According to an article in Psychology Today, “some sources suggest that the average person makes an eye-popping 35,000 choices per day. Assuming that most people spend around seven hours per day sleeping and thus blissfully choice-free, that makes roughly 2,000 decisions per hour or one decision every two seconds.”

That’s a lot of decisions. Most of these are pretty mundane, like choosing the next word I’m going to say to you. Maybe you’re deciding right now to take another route to work because of construction traffic, take another sip of coffee, or maybe you’re about to decide to shut me off early today and move on.

But what’s different about millionaires is that when it comes to their money, they are better than the average person at making decisions. They tend to be more long-term focused and avoid impulse purchases. They understand the importance of paying yourself first when it comes to saving money consistently. They choose to live below their means and as I talked about yesterday, they don’t get suckered in to sexy get-rich-quick schemes. 

So how can you and I cultivate better decisions. It starts with knowing the difference between good and bad financial decisions and then beginning to discipline yourself in making better decisions. And the key is starting small. Perhaps you know that you spend too much on coffee at your favorite coffee shop. My wallet would certainly benefit from less trips to Starbucks. Rather than cutting it out altogether, the key is to go one less time a week. Not only will you save a few dollars, you won’t be overwhelmed by this massive change and begin to build the habit of saying no to your desires a little less often.

Making long-term focused decisions is hard. We all have baggage and biases that cause us to make bad decisions all the time. 

But successful people understand that their decisions today will impact their lives tomorrow, and that awareness and commitment to the long-term view helps them make better decisions. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast

This week, I’m talking about how to become a millionaire. 

Today, I’m talking about the absence of millionaire market timers. 

The most popular YouTube channel on day trading stocks is a channel with about half a million subscribers and more than 16 million views on her channel. 

It’s not uncommon to see ads or videos online touting how you can get rich easily and quickly by day trading, options trading, or short selling. You see this kind of stuff all the time with real estate too.

But I ask you this: Have you ever met a millionaire market timer or a millionaire day trader? Despite being touted as such, most of these strategies aren’t easy or formulaic, but instead are more akin to gambling than actual investing. If it were simple and easy, you would know plenty of people who got wealthy this way and you would likely be wealthy yourself from day trading, options trading, or risk-free house flipping. 

But my guess is you don't know a single person who is wealthy from any of these methods.

Part of what makes a successful investor, successful is their ability to avoid chasing the next get rich quick scheme or fall victim to really bad investment ideas. Millionaire understand this and don’t fall victim to get rich quick schemes. They are perfectly happy to win the race the tortoise way by diligently saving, making smart decisions about where to invest, and growing their wealth over time. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast

This week, I’m talking about how to become a millionaire. 

Today, I’m talking about how it’s more important to get base hits vs. home runs. This is true in many things in life, and while on the surface it sounds like settling for mediocrity, it’s not. Let me explain...

First of all, let me just say that I know next to nothing about baseball. But I do know that baseball isn’t just about smashing home runs. It’s also about strategy and hitting base hits when the situation calls for it to get other players into scoring position. 

The same is true with money and investing. Too many investors aren’t successful because they ignore base hit opportunities...all the while, wildly swinging at every pitch and praying for a home run. But all it leads to is strike after strike. 

Hitting base hits isn’t as fun as hitting home runs, and it requires more patience, but investors can build serious wealth by patiently sticking with base hits, knowing that if they are patient, they will likely hit a few home runs along the way too. 

This means sticking with a boring, diversified portfolio and not chasing the hot stock tip of the day, or betting everything on the next big trend. 

Good investors and the best investors like Warren Buffett still get home runs, but it’s not because they’re chasing after home runs. It’s because they patiently pursue base hits, and don’t let greed, or fear of missing out cloud their good judgement. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.

----------

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast

This week, I’m talking about how to become a millionaire. The vast majority of millionaires in the United States did not inherit their wealth, but rather, achieved millionaire status from strong habits and good decisions. 

Today, I’m talking about the most important habit of millionaires - paying yourself first. In other words, millionaires make sure that they set aside money in savings and retirement accounts before they spend their income on eating out, or even before they pay their mortgage and their other bills. 

This is the exact opposite of what most Americans do. Most people pay everyone else first, and pay themselves last. When all you get is the scraps and leftovers, it’s much harder to build wealth. It also leads to inconsistent savings habits. Some months you might save and other months you don’t. Then your retirement and financial future is left to chance. 

Millionaires understand how important it is to save early and often, rather than throwing money away keeping up with the Joneses. It’s not difficult to become a millionaire if you understand this. In order to build wealth, you must have this habit. I’ve seen clients who have very high incomes but very little wealth because they didn’t follow the pay yourself first rule. 

Even with an average income during your working life, you can still become a millionaire by following the rule of paying yourself first. Here’s why: 

I ran the numbers, and if you saved just $3,500 a year starting at age 25 to retirement at age 65, you would be a millionaire at retirement, assuming your investment grows at 7% a year. If you were able to set aside $10,000 a year for retirement in that scenario, you would have about $3 million at retirement. 

The good news is that if you have a 401k or similar retirement plan through work, you’re already paying yourself first. 

But, if you are currently paying yourself last, you can flip the switch by setting up automatic transfers from your checking account into your savings and retirement accounts. Setup the auto-transfer within a couple days of your paycheck hitting your bank account. It’s a simple way to make sure you pay yourself first, and pay yourself consistently every single month. 

That’s it for today. Tomorrow I’ll be discussing how baseball can help you become a millionaire. Yes, baseball.

Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.

----------

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast

Welcome to a new week and a new theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip! 

This week’s theme is How To Become A Millionaire. The habits, behaviors, and attitudes of millionaires can teach us something about how to reach and maintain a financially secure retirement. 

The good news is there has been a lot of research done on the habits, behaviors, and attitudes of millionaires, and anecdotally, I work with a lot of clients who have a 7 to 8-figure net worth. And I notice there are traits that they share that set them apart from the average American. 

Most of my millionaire clients have not inherited their wealth, but they’ve achieved affluence through a combination of hard work, consistency, strong habits and good decisions. 

Each day this week I’m going to share with what I’ve learned over the last 13 years working with my affluent clients. I’ll focus on the habits and behaviors that I beleive are the most influential, along with some practical advice on how you can get started building better habits if you’re not yet where you want to be financially. 

That’s it for today. But before you go...you probably know someone who is close to retirement and could benefit from listening to this podcast. If so, please share this podcast with them and encourage them to check it out by adding it to their flash briefing in Alexa or subscribing wherever they listen to podcasts!

Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.

----------

>>> Subscribe on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Check out our blog: https://truenorthretirementadvisors.com/blog/

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, finances, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, money tips, fee only financial advisor, financial planner, financial podcast, retirement podcast, financial independence podcast