Easy $500 return on a $2,500 investment

I am always looking for easy ways to make money that doesn’t require a lot of effort. One opportunity that I decided to explore this year is checking and/or savings account churning. This is where you open a checking or savings account for the sign-up bonus. I’ve heard of people earning enough in one year

Invest along with me! Step 3: Rebalancing

Welcome back to the next edition of “Invest along with me!”. If this is your first time visiting this website, be sure to check out the following posts first: How to Invest in Stocks for 8% or Higher Returns Why Everyone Needs a Roth IRA & How to Open One Invest along with me! Step

Invest along with me! Step 2: Buying stocks

Welcome back to the next edition of “Invest along with me!”. If this is your first time visiting this website, be sure to check out the following posts first: How to Invest in Stocks for 8% or Higher Returns Why Everyone Needs a Roth IRA & How to Open One Invest along with me! Step

How to Invest in Stocks for 8% or Higher Returns

Last month, I gave an “Introduction to Index Investing” presentation to the ChooseFI San Diego members. The above chart was one of the slides in my presentation. This chart shows you how much $100 is worth today (a little under $400,000) if you had invested it in the S&P 500 in 1928 (that’s how far

How Hoarding Cash Can Hurt You

Risk and return are correlated. Everybody wants high returns without any risk, but that’s like trying to buy a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom detached house in San Diego for $300,000 (very unlikely to happen). If you want higher returns, you’re going to need to take on some risk. Keeping your money in a savings account,

How to become a millionaire without winning the lottery or starting a business

I used to think that the only way to become a millionaire was by either winning the lottery or starting a successful business. And while I had dreams of becoming one, it felt more like a pipe dream. I’m not alone in thinking this way–many of my friends and family share the same sentiment. I

What to buy in your 401(k) if you don’t know where to start

You know your 401(k)? There’s a reason the government puts a limit on how much you can contribute to it. It’s such a good deal that if there isn’t a limit, the government would lose out on so much money. So why aren’t you taking advantage of it? When we were living in DC, my

How Your Debt Affects Your Ability to Buy Rental Property

I received a great question over the weekend that I thought would be beneficial to other readers. What’s great about this question is that it actually considers the impact of buying a residential property on retirement strategies. Specifically, the reader, whom we’ll call InterestedHomebuyer, is (1) trying to understand her financial profile and whether it’s

How to Prioritize Your Investments and Debt

Prioritizing your investments and debt is all about trying to maximize the return on your dollar. When I got my first job out of college, I made the mistake of prioritizing the repayment of my student loans, which was approximately at 6% interest, over maxing out my TSP (the long-term average return of the stock

How to Treat Your Money If You Want to Be Rich

One of my biggest money mistakes in my younger years was treating money like a disposable (maybe it’s due to the fact that after-tax income is also referred to as “disposable income”). The word “disposable” means that it is intended to be used once, then thrown away. This was most evident when we were planning