Category: General

I love a good pun and our first one is an interview with a friend of mine, Nick True.

I’ve known Nick for a few years and can attest to how genuine and kind he is. The interview talks a lot about his experiences building a blog and podcast but the part that stands out is the “why?” behind it. It’s a good look at what underpins a lot of why folks choose to pursue financial independence.

The True meaning of financial freedom [ConvertKit Blog] – “It’s not just about the budgeting. For Nick True, sharing his lifelong passion of finances is about helping people win the game of life.”

Always great to see folks like that enjoy success – check out their blog Mapped Out Money!

Being Triggered By A Mess [Natalie Bacon Podcast] – “What are your thoughts when your home is messy? What do you interpret a mess to mean? It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you are greeted with a mess, and you might feel the need to “fix” it. But it might surprise you to know that it isn’t the mess that is causing you to feel the way you are and have the reaction you have; it’s your thoughts about the mess.” So true.

How Much Life Insurance Do I Need (As A Fire Seeker)? [Eat Sleep Breathe FI] – “Before you can work on the numbers, you first need to think about the type of lifestyle your beneficiaries will have after you’re gone. Getting clear on this will make the rest of the life insurance planning process that much easier.”

Plutus Family, we hope we did not keep you waiting long. We searched high and low for just the right articles for this week. Please enjoy!

Here’s what we wanted to share with you this week.

How to Organize Your Tax Documents for Your Accountant. [Tucan Dream] — “You have received all your tax slips (w-2’s, 1099’s, etc.), and you have records of your other income and expenses, but now what? How do you organize your tax documents so that your accountant can prepare your taxes with ease?” (Submitted by Tarsha.)

Prepare for the Unexpected Mini-Retirement. [Jillian Johnsrud] — “Life can be unpredictably fragile and short. You just never know. You never know if you’ll have a hundred other chances to experience your dream, or perhaps this is the last chance for that dream. Save the money, make a plan, and when the opportunity arises, grab your go bag. And go” (Submitted by J. Money.)

Social Media Is Destroying Gen Z’s Finances. [A Dime Saved] — “The main reason cited for this was that people are constantly bombarded with photos and videos of others living a lifestyle that is seemingly unattainable. This can lead to feelings of inadequacy and frustration, especially for those who are struggling to get by…” (Submitted by Tarsha.)

In about two weeks, the Kansas City Chiefs will take on the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl.

There’s a “stock market indicator” for what the market may do depending on who wins.

If the Chiefs win, the market will decline this year.
If the Eagles win, the market will rise this year.

Or so says the indicator. 🙂

I remember hearing about this years ago and thought it was fun, but I wouldn’t base any investing decisions on them!

6 Weird But Successful Stock Market Indicators [The College Investor] – “There are also a lot of weird indicators and other odd hypotheses when it comes to stock market performance over time. I thought it would be fun to share a few that have actually been pretty successful over time (there are, of course, thousands of others that are not as successful).”

Why Tipping Is Impossible to Get Rid of in America [Kottke.org] – “It seems like the only way to get rid of tipping in the US is for every restaurant to do it simultaneously, either by mutual decision (ha!) or through some kind of legislation (double ha!). But because of the pandemic and the ubiquity of digital payment screens, tipping is more engrained in American commerce than ever so…??”

Grandiosity as a form of hiding [Seth’s Blog] – “We need a goal. But the more specific and measurable, the better.” Succinct and impactful.

It dawned on me recently that I’ve been blogging full-time for almost 13 years. I went full-time on my first blog in 2010.

I’d been working on it for five years before that too and it was in those years that Tim Ferriss published the 4-Hour Workweek. I’d read it and enjoy the messages within and while I wouldn’t go as far as to say it pushed me to go full-time, there’s no doubt it planted a seed that it was possible.

Our first post is a look at the impact of Ferriss’ book, 15 years after it was written:

The Great Contemplation: Reflections on the impact of the ‘4-Hour Workweek’ 15 years later [Every] – “Ferriss offered a powerful alternative script that inspired millions around the world to escape the default path, travel the world, take mini-retirements, start businesses, and take breaks from work. However, these people embraced their new paths in direct opposition to the 20th-century industrial economy “organization man” paradigm that still had a strangle-hold over the popular imagination, well into the 2010s. Even if you followed Ferriss’s playbook and found a path you enjoyed, it was likely that many people in your life still thought you were a bit crazy (raises hand). This is what drew people to leave cities organized around big companies and full-time work to escape to nomadic communities around the world, like Bali; Chiang Mai, Thailand; Medellin, Colombia; and Las Palmas, Spain.”

Living a Life of Luxury [Accidentally Retired] – “Despite knowing my enough, I still want to live a life of luxury at times. I want to splurge when the moment needs splurging. And I want to cut back, when the moment calls to cut back. This is what I am talking about, when I say ‘find your balance,'”

This next one is courtesy of J.D., who appears to be getting more curmudgeon-y in his elder years, but this one is well warranted. Places where “tip” appears has gotten out of hand but now these additional fees (which are not optional) are ridiculous.

Perfidious Pricing [Passing Time] – “As the conversation winds down, the waitress returns with the check and a small placard. “If you haven’t been here recently, I wanted to let you know that we attach a 20% Fair Wage and Wellness Fee to all orders. This sheet of paper explains it. It’s… not a tip.” She slides the paper across the table and, somewhat embarrassedly, adds, “If you have any questions, please let me know.””

I never got into crypto. I love some of the ideas behind it, like the blockchain and decentralized finance, but as with any shiny new (and not well understood) object – there are a lot of grifters. Crypto has a ton of grifters and sadly they’ve stolen/lost a lot of people’s money.

While I’ve made a case against crypto, I think our first post of the day makes a strong case too – that you simply don’t need it to win.

I Will Never Recommend Crypto [Financial Panther] – “Crypto gets its allure from how much you can seemingly make from it – it’s like winning the lottery if you get in at the right time. And while we all want to hit home runs, the truth is, we don’t need home runs to win at most things in life.”

With all the talk about the debt limit, the folks at Money Crashers do a good job recapping what exactly that means for your wallet.

What the U.S. Debt Ceiling Limit Means for Your Finances [Money Crashers] – “In reality, Congress must raise the debt limit so that the government can pay bills it has already agreed to pay: Social Security checks, Medicare reimbursements, veterans’ healthcare, military service members’ salaries, and on and on. Congress choosing not to raise the debt ceiling is akin to a business owner deciding not to pay her employees or a homeowner telling his mortgage servicer to stuff it.”

Ok this robot is nuts. And it’s got some flair!

I love dividends.

As an entrepreneur, I’ve always had a concern that the irregularity of our income could be a financial risk. Normally, a younger investor (I’m in my 40s, so I’m not “young” but I’m closer to my college graduation than my “retirement”) would prefer capital gains over dividends. You want the company to keep the cash and re-invest it into the company.

But as an entrepreneur, dividends offer a bit of income insurance that I can’t get elsewhere. Plus, picking dividend stocks scratches my “stock picking itch” in a responsible way.

It will be fun, as I do enter retirement, to count on some of that cash tax free. 🙂

Dividends Provide a Tax-Efficient Form of Income [Dividend Growth Investor] – “This means that if you are single, living on your own, and only claiming yourself as a dependent, you can essentially make $52,950 in annual qualified dividend income, and pay zero taxes on that. This includes the Standard Deduction of $12,550. This calculation also assumes you have no other sources of income and no other deductions for the sake of simplicity and to illustrate the point. In order for you to generate so much in income, your portfolio would likely be worth around $1.765 million at a dividend yields of 3%. If you made your selections wisely, your dividend income should at least keep up with inflation over time. With most dividend growth stocks, I expect a 5% – 6% annual dividend increase in the long run, ahead of the long-term annual inflation rate of 3%.”

How Charlie Javice Got JPMorgan to Pay $175 Million for … What Exactly? [The New York Times] – “When JPMorgan Chase paid $175 million to acquire a college financial planning company called Frank in September 2021, it heralded the “unique opportunity for deeper engagement” with the five million students Frank worked with at more than 6,000 American institutions of higher education. Then last month, the biggest bank in the country did something extraordinary: It said it had been conned.”

Fort Walgreens [Curbed] – “The recent spike in shoplifting is both overblown and real. And almost everyone is profiting from it (including you).” Courtesy of J.D.!

Happy Wednesday! Tarsha here from the Plutus Team. I could not wait to post these awesome articles for you to enjoy. So, make a cup of coffee and dive right into them. See you next week!

Here’s what we wanted to share with you this week.

It’s Time to Uncomplicate Your Health and Wealth. [A Teachable Moment] — “It’s rare to find a situation where simplifying lifestyle or financial choices doesn’t result in a better outcome for end-users… The same goes for investing. Trying harder by creating costly complexities is a poor substitute for bare-boned and easy-to-understand investments.” (Submitted by J. Money.)

Top Tips for How to Teach Your Child Responsibility.  [How Much Is That in Tacos] — “Our kids are our world, we want their lives to be so much better than ours ever was. We send them to private schools so they can be smarter than we were. They’re involved in nonstop extracurricular activities to ensure they have physical abilities and the right amount of socialization for college applications.” (Submitted by Tarsha.)

Could You Live in $25k A Year, and Be Happy? [ Money and Meaning] — “My last 30 years were based on three philosophical, environmental, and financial beliefs: spending more money wouldn’t make me happier, spending more money would degrade the environment, and spending more money meant I would have to work more years.” (Submitted by J. Money.)

In a fun little quirk, two of the posts I wanted to share today involve “lists” that are twelve in length.

They also share another characteristic – I like them both!

Please enjoy:

12 Steps To Financial Independence [Financial Tortoise] – “Alcohol Anonymous is famous for their 12-step program. It’s helped millions, if not tens of millions of people reach sobriety and transform their lives for the better. So in salute to the original 12-step program, in this post we are going to review the 12-steps to achieving financial independence.”

12 Ways to Improve Your Finances in 2023 [Retire Before Dad] – “This list aims to inspire you to level up your financial security, build a sturdier wealth foundation, and enable more career flexibility and freedom in the next decade.”

Lastly, this is a fun video that I enjoy watching every so often:

Happy Monday! Jim here with your gems of the day:

Why Perfectionism Ruins Portfolios [eversight wealth] – “Investing success is not about finding the perfect portfolio. Meb Faber revealed that even if someone could have predicted the top performing strategies in advance, paying high fees would have transformed the best into the worst. Investors cannot predict which portfolio is optimal for an unknowable future. But you can reduce fees to ensure you capture a larger share of future returns.”

A Million Choices [Steve Adcock] – “The best-made plans are over dinner and margaritas, right??? But here’s the magic in what happened that night. As we chatted, I never had to think about if my boss will let me go. Or if I have enough vacation hours left. Or whether I should bring my laptop in case of a work emergency.”

Two surprising reasons behind the obesity epidemic: Too much salt, not enough water [The Conversation] – “Throughout my many years of studying obesity and related health conditions, I’ve observed that relatively little is said about two significant pieces of this very complex puzzle: lack of hydration and excessive salt intake. Both are known to contribute to obesity.”

I’ve long viewed credit cards, and their reward programs, as useful tools if you know how to use them.

If you pay off your balance in full each month, rewards programs are great. You get a little tiny rebate on every purchase.

If you don’t and are paying interest each month, reward programs are red herrings. They get you to stick around and use a card that’s paying you a few cents but “robbing” you of dollars.

Your credit card rewards might not be worth it [Vox] – “Rewards cards are only really useful for consumers who are generally credit-savvy. Less financially sophisticated consumers — meaning people with higher unpaid balances or who don’t pay off their cards month to month — ultimately end up losing out. They wind up subsidizing the rewards of people who are a little better at credit, wherever they fall on the income spectrum. More than half of credit card customers are “revolvers,” meaning they don’t pay off their full balances each month.” eeek.

I’ve long viewed travel insurance as a bit of a “scam” in the sense that it was largely unnecessary. Then Covid happened and we are not big fans. What Thomas describes is not even the stuff you pay extra for!

How To Travel In A Safe And Wise Way (What I Learned From The Southwest Failure) [The Long Game] – “I was apart of the horrible Southwest cancellations in late December. And when I say horrible, I mean horrible.” Use your card benefits!

This next one… Hmmmm… 😡

U.S. military-run slot machines earn $100 million a year from service members overseas [NPR] – “The slot machines, operated by the U.S. Department of Defense, earn the DOD more than $100 million each year in the name of “morale, welfare, and recreation” for service members, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office that was written in response to demands from Congress.”

Have a great weekend!