This week, we’re busting myths about investing, so you’ll be better equipped to think rationally and make smarter decisions about how you invest your money for retirement.

Today’s myth is: “You Must Be Savvy and Understand the markets to be successful.”

Buzzer! Wrong!

Unfortunately, personal finance topics like saving, investing, and avoiding debt, are scantily covered in school. Even if you have a bachelor’s or master’s degree, you probably entered adulthood woefully ill-prepared to properly manage your money.

You’ve surely made some mistakes with your money along the way, and hopefully somewhere along the way, you figured things out. And you obviously care enough about educating yourself and making smart decisions with your money, otherwise you wouldn’t be here listening to me blather on day after day.

Most financial advisors, like myself, would likely tell you that success at investing and managing your money well isn’t about what you know. It’s about your habits.

Habits like consistently saving, investing in your 401k in good times and bad, and paying off your credit card balance in full every month. Most of what it takes to be successful has nothing to do with understanding whether or not Facebook or Apple stock is a good buy right now. You don’t have to be a savvy stock picker, because you can hire that out to someone else (whether that’s a financial advisor, or a fund company like a mutual fund or ETF to pick the stocks for you).

Too many people lack confidence in their own knowledge and abilities and are intimidated by investing, so they stay out of stocks all together or don’t fully participate in the 401k plan offered at work.

I’m still understanding the markets and there's a lot I do not know. And not only did I study this stuff in school. I’ve been doing it day in and day out for over a decade. And I still am humbled by what I don’t know and still have to learn. So don’t let a lack of knowledge keep you from trusting the incredible long-term wealth building engine that the stock market has proven itself to be.

That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!

Tomorrow, come on back, because I’m going to tackle the most common investing myth I hear: Investing in the stock market is just like gambling.

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

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, investing myths, savvy investor, how to invest in stocks, how to start investing in stocks, investing 101, investing in stocks 101, how to invest in stocks for beginners, wealth management

It’s a brand new weekly theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip, and this week we’re busting some myths about investing. These myths are tossed around all the time, and believing these myths could hurt your chances of success in the long-run. And we can’t have that!

Here are the myths I’ll be busting this week:

• Myth #1 - You must be savvy and really understand the markets to be successful
• Myth #2 - Investing in the stock market is just like gambling
• Myth #3 - Cheaper is always better
• Myth #4 - Real estate is a better investment than stocks
• And, Myth #5 - Gold is a safe investment

Each day this week I’m going to try my darndest to obliterate one of these myths, all in the hope that you’ll be better equipped to think rationally about investing and make smarter decisions about how you invest your money.

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!

Before you go, please leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. Your review is so important – potentially thousands of people will read your review and decide to enable (or not) based on your feedback.

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, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, wealth management, investing myths

It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!

The theme for this week was: the most googled personal finance topics by state. I recently came across an interesting article on SmartAsset.com that analyzed google search trends to see what people were searching for by state.

I picked the personal finance topics from these search trends that I think are most useful when it comes to your retirement, and that’s what we covered this week.

In case you missed any of this week’s episodes, here’s what we covered:

• 529 plans
• Early retirement
• Pet insurance
• Roth IRAs, and
• Money laundering (based on the state searching for this, my guess is that they’re searching for HOW to launder money...take a guess and go back to Thursday to find out the answer.

If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.

Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Investment Myths...Busted! I’m going to bust several myths that I hear over and over again. People who want to tell me that investing is the same as gambling. Um, no. No it’s not. We’re also going to talk about real estate vs. the stock market, why lowest fee doesn’t equate to best investment choice, and several other myths that are continually perpetrated in the world of investing.

That’s it for this week! 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, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, 529 plan, early retirement, FIRE, FIRE movement, pet insurance, Roth IRA, Roth vs traditional IRA, roth vs traditional 401k

This week, we’re talking about the most googled personal finance topics by state. I’ve plucked topics from search trend results by state that are relevant for your retirement.

Today’s most googled personal finance topic by state is Connecticut, which ranked highest of all 50 states in searching for Pet insurance.

Apparently, people in Connecticut love their pets! Today I want to focus on whether or not pet insurance is a smart use of your dollars.

We live in a society where where doggie tummy tucks and face lifts are actually a thing, so within the context of that reality, pet insurance seems pretty normal, but it probably would have been a laughable concept to most people just 30 or 40 years ago.

As I found in 2014, pet insurance can come in handy. I paid over $10,000 out of pocket for my dachshund’s back surgery and 2 ½ week stay in the Vet ICU after the poor guy got tangled in his leash and fell awkwardly onto his back, instantly paralyzing himself. It was a traumatic experience, and financially, it was a big hit to our savings.

It sure would have been nice if pet insurance would have covered that, instead of use having to drain our savings to pay for little Benny’s back surgery and all the expensive complications that it came with. But a scary sob story isn’t justification enough to purchase pet insurance.

So let’s explore if pet insurance is a smart purchase. “Checkbook.org, an independent, non-profit consumer organization, took a deep dive into pet insurance and found that “pet insurance is not worth it for many people” - that’s according to a September 2018 article in NBC News.

What many people don’t realize when they buy pet insurance for their puppy is that premiums go up as your pet ages. And, unless your dog has serious and chronic medical issues, you’ll likely pay more with pet insurance over your pet’s lifetime.

For a 13 year old male dog who needed typical, moderate care over his lifetime, total care costs with pet insurance ranged from $11,000 to $23,000, compared to about $9,000 without insurance, according to Checkbook.org.

The bottom line here is that while pet insurance would be a better option that going into credit card debt to pay for Fido’s serious and treatable health problems, keep in mind that you’ll likely spend more on pet insurance over your dog’s lifetime, and consider just doing the smart thing of keeping enough money in savings for emergencies instead.

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

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, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, pet insurance, pet insurance cost

This week, we’re talking about the most googled personal finance topics by state. I’ve plucked topics from search trend results by state that are relevant for your retirement.

Today’s most googled personal finance topic by state is Delaware, which ranked highest of all 50 states in searching for the Roth IRA.

The Roth IRA and it’s cousin, the Roth 401k are worthy of an entire week’s worth of tips, but today I want to clear up the paralyzing confusion of deciding between a Roth and a Traditional IRA or 401k.

A Roth is a retirement account where you don’t get a tax break on money going in, but from that point on it grows tax-free, and money going out isn’t taxed either. It’s a pretty sweet deal to not pay taxes on that money you pull out of a Roth in retirement.

If you research Roth IRAs at all, a lot of the advice you’ll find is wishy-washy. And that’s because no one knows what tax rates will be in the future. And since a traditional IRA is taxed later and a Roth IRA isn’t, it’s anyone’s guess how tax rates in retirement will impact the taxation of the money coming out of your retirement accounts. So don’t try to predict the future and base your Roth vs Traditional choice on what you think tax rates will be in your retirement years. That’s a fool’s errand.

Consider one other selling point for the Roth: No mandatory withdrawals at age 70 ½. Withdrawals are required from traditional IRA accounts at age 70 ½, but Roth IRAs don’t have mandatory withdrawals in retirement, which will give you more control over how your income is taxed in retirement.

In case you couldn’t tell, I love the Roth. 90% of my personal IRA and 401k accounts are in Roth.

I think the best piece of advice I could give you about the Roth is that no matter what your age, income, or prediction about future tax rates, investing at least a portion of your 401k or IRA dollars into Roth makes sense. And if you make too much money to contribute to a Roth IRA, a Roth 401k is still available to you since there is no income cap. Plus, you can sock away as much as $25,000 into a Roth 401k this year if you’re 50 or older.

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening.

Tomorrow I’m going to tell you which animal lover state ranks the highest on google for pet insurance, and I’ll tell you if buying pet insurance is a dumb idea. You’ll have to come back tomorrow to see what I think.

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, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, Roth IRA, Roth vs traditional IRA, roth vs traditional 401k

This week, we’re talking about the most googled personal finance topics by state. I’ve picked out topics from search trend results by state that I think are most useful when it comes to planning your successful retirement.

Today’s most googled personal finance topic by state is Washington D.C. which ranked highest of all 50 states in searching for...wait for it...money laundering.

Seriously?! Our nation’s Capital and all the government workers in DC are searching for money laundering more than any other state. Frightening.

Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. It’s probably just a bunch of aids and interns trying to dig up dirt on the opposing side (cough: Trump). There are probably 100 full-time staffers in DC, whose lives are dedicated to trying to dismantle Trump, so I guess it’s not surprising after all.

All joking aside, a similar type of criminal act that you’ll want to pay attention to as it relates to your retirement is elder abuse. It’s very common in this country, and often family members are the primary abusers of the elderly. Yes, that’s right...family. If you take away nothing else from today’s tip, remember that.

So, as you face caring for aging parents and plan for your own retirement, I encourage you to pay attention to the signs of elder abuse: sudden and large increase in withdrawals from bank or investment accounts, or ATM cash withdrawals, additional names added onto bank accounts, and beneficiary changes in wills or retirement accounts.

Consider providing access to more than one person who can view account activity on bank or investment accounts, so there is more than one set of eyes on things. This can be set up with an interested 3rd party release or by establishing a trusted contact on an account that the financial institution can get in touch with if they see suspicious activity.

Banks and investment firms are taking more steps to protect against elder abuse, so look into ways you can protect yourself or your loved ones with additional protections on financial accounts.

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! Tomorrow we’re going to talk about who is googling Roth IRAs and why you should consider investing in a Roth.

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

---------

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

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

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, money laundering, washington dc money laundering, elder abuse, elder financial abuse

This week, we’re talking about the most googled personal finance topics by state. I’ve picked out the personal finance topics from these search trends that I think are most useful when it comes to planning your retirement.

Today’s most googled topic by state is Massachusetts, which ranked highest of all 50 states in searching for early retirement.

Ah, early retirement. This is also known as the FIRE movement. FIRE stands for financial independence, retire early. And it means a lot of different things to different people.

It’s a way of life that has has soared in popularity in recent years, but has also drawn harsh criticism from the likes of Suze Orman and other personal finance gurus.

The jury is still out for me on the FIRE movement, but I do think that some people chasing after or living an early retirement may not realize the risk of needing your money last for potentially 50 years, if you were to retire at, say, 40 years old.

That’s 25 years of paying for healthcare before medicare kicks in, all the costs associated with raising kids, paying for college, 5-10 downturns in the stock market in retirement, watching inflation make everything you buy more expensive, not to mention the risk that things will go wrong in life that can completely change your plans like a serious illness in your family.

Any one of these factors could force you to go back to work and start all over again after 20 years of living your early retirement. Now at age 60, you have no retirement savings and will have to work again until God knows when. There are real risks there, that many FIRE chasers don’t fully appreciate, and that is worrisome.

My other criticism of the FIRE movement is that I’ve met many people who are pursuing FIRE to stroke their own egos.

Think about this: If you’re 40 years old and someone asks you what you do and you say “I’m retired”. That’s like the ultimate status symbol. It’s instantaneously clear to anyone that you clearly have plenty of money or a large trust fund, in order to retire before your hair turns gray.

So if you’re considering FIRE, please make a thoughtful decision about the sustainability of a 40-50 year retirement in your situation and really question your motivation for pursuing FIRE in the first place.

Take the time to do a full-blown retirement analysis, which will show you the likelihood of not running out of money, based on your lifestyle. But it should also show how vulnerable you are  if things go sideways, which can help you make the most informed decision possible. Here at True North, we do retirement projections which can model a lot of different scenarios for clients all the time, and they provide so much clarity to help clients make smart decisions. So I encourage you to talk with a financial advisor who can show you whether your early retirement dreams are actually doable.

That’s it for today! Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about who is googling money laundering. The answer might scare you.

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

----------

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

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

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, early retirement, early retirement extreme, early retirement health insurance, fire, fire movement, financial independence retire early, financial independence

This week, we’re talking about the most googled personal finance topics by state. I’ve picked out a few personal finance topics from the rankings that are relevant for your retirement.

Today’s most googled topic by state is Maryland, which ranked highest of all 50 states in searching for 529 plans.

Today, I want to focus on 529 from the grandparent’s perspective today, since many of you listening are within 10 years of retirement and may already have grandkids.

In my not always humble opinion, a 529 plan is the best way to save for college. The money inside of a 529 plan grows tax-free, and as long as it’s used for qualified education expenses - like tuition, and not a spring break booze cruise to Mexico (which is arguably a qualified education expense in the mind of a 19 year old), taxes won’t be owed when the money is pulled out and used for college.

Priority number one after my kids were born and I got their social security numbers was setting up and contributing to their 529 plan. We all know that college is ridiculously expensive these days, so the earlier you start, the better.

One of the great things about 529s is that anyone can contribute to the account, not just the account owner. So the parent could be the account owner, but you as a grandparent can put money in there any time as well, and help pay for your grandkids college, in a very smart and tax-efficient way.

When my nephew was born 12 years ago, my dad told my sister that he would match contributions that she put in to the 529 plan. My dad also set a monthly savings target to shoot for, because he knew that if they could save more in the early years and let it grow, they would have to save less $s overall for college. He’s done that for all 4 of his grandkids and those matching dollars will go a long way toward growing the 529 plan quickly.

If you can’t commit to regular, matching 529 contributions, at very least, consider making contributions for birthdays and Christmas.

Imagine sitting in the stands on college graduation day, beaming with pride because you were able to do your part to help your grandchild receive that diploma, hopefully without the crushing debt of student loans.

That’s it for today, Thanks for listening!

Tomorrow I’m going to explain what the acronym FIRE means in the realm of retirement.

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

----------

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

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

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, 529 plan, 529 plan rules, 529 plans grandparents

It’s a brand new weekly theme here on the One Minute Retirement Tip, and this week we’re talking about the most googled personal finance topics by state. I recently came across an interesting article at SmartAsset.com that analyzed google search trends to see what people were searching for by state.

I encourage you to check it out, and I’ll link to article in the show notes, which you can find over on iTunes or Google Play by searching for the One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley.

>>Most googled personal finance topics by state: https://smartasset.com/personal-finance/map-the-most-googled-personal-finance-terms

You can see which states ranked highest for search terms like motorcycle insurance, free college, foreclosure, gold, money laundering, etc.

I pulled out the personal finance topics from these search trends that I think are most useful when it comes to your retirement, and we’ll be covering those this week.

We’ll talk about:

• 529 plans
• Early retirement
• Pet insurance
• Roth IRAs, and
• Money laundering (based on the state searching for this, my guess is that they’re searching for HOW to launder money...take a guess and I’ll give you the answer on Thursday of this week)

Interestingly, I found that my home state, Oregon, did not rank for any of these key terms analyzed from google. I guess the takeaway there is that we Oregonians couldn’t care less about our money or our financial well-being. We’re probably all blowing up google search with cat memes instead of asking google thoughtful questions about retirement. But that’s a discussion for another day.

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening!

Before you go, please leave a review for the One Minute Retirement Tip in Amazon. Your review is so important – potentially thousands of people will read your review and decide to enable (or not) based on your feedback.

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, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, 529 plan, early retirement, FIRE, FIRE movement, pet insurance, Roth IRA, Roth vs traditional IRA, roth vs traditional 401k, money laundering

It’s Sunday, which means...It’s recap time!

The theme for this week was: Investing in bonds.

Bonds will likely be a critical component of your investment portfolio in retirement. So it’s important that you have a basic knowledge of how to invest in bonds and why you should consider bonds for your retirement portfolio in the first place.

In case you missed any of this week’s episodes, here’s what we covered:

• Why bonds serve an important role in retirement
• How much of your retirement portfolio should be invested in bonds
• The top 3 mistakes I see investors make with their bond portfolios
• What a bond ladder is and why it’s a time-tested way to invest in bonds
• And, a discussion of the trade-offs of individual bonds vs. bond funds.

If you missed any of these episodes, you can find them on iTunes by searching for the “One Minute Retirement Tip with Ashley”.

That’s it for this week! Thanks for listening.

Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: The most googled personal finance topics by state. We’ll look at who’s googling pet insurance, Roth IRAs, & early retirement and what’s important for you to know about each of these personal finance topics.

We’ll also find out which state is googling money laundering. I think you’ll find the answer not surprising in the least, but comical nonetheless.

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, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance, investing in bonds, investing in bond funds, benefits of investing in bonds, are bonds a safe investment, fixed income, fixed income vs equity, fixed income mutual funds, types of fixed income, fixed income examples, why invest in bonds, bonds investment definition, are bonds risky, are bonds safe, interest rate risk, interest rate risk definition, high yield bonds, junk bonds, non-investment grade bonds, how do bonds work, individual bonds vs bond funds, bonds vs mutual funds