How do you find balance between smart money management vs. missing out on opportunities?
Should you pile money into investments or take that dream trip to Tanzania?
What should you do when your heart leads you to a decision that doesn’t make sense on paper?
In today’s episode, former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy and I discuss the purpose and practice of mindful money.
Charlie in Cali has enough money saved to pay cash for a house, but she and her husband decided to finance their home, instead. They’d rather invest the money and arbitrage the spread.
But one problem: how can they keep themselves from touching this investment?
Jay is choosing between Fidelity and M1 Finance and has questions about tax loss harvesting.
Nicole and her siblings will be inheriting some properties that they eventually plan to sell. How should they set up or organize these properties among so many owners? Should one person take the lead? Do they need a shared business account? Also, how should they evaluate a property and make sure they get a good deal when they sell?
Ed owns three homes, two of which he plans to sell in the next few years. He plans to live in them long enough to establish residence and take the capital gains exemption when they sell. Is his plan for handling the taxes solid?
We answer these four questions in today’s episode.
Enjoy!
Anna and her husband have volatile income, but Anna thinks that having 18 months of living expenses is unnecessary. She’s torn between paying off her student loans ($30,000) or investing the money. Mentally, she always figured she would pay off her debt first, but wouldn’t investing pay off in the long run?
Charlotte and her husband are taking a phased approach to financial independence, where they need to bridge two gaps before they each turn 59 ½. How can they calculate how much they need at each phase?
Elle has a retirement plan in place, but her company is adding a Roth 403(b) option soon. Should she stay the course or adjust her strategy in these last five years before retiring?
Sara wants to purchase land and build her dream house by refinancing her rental property and turning her current home into a second rental. How can she improve this plan?
Joe Saul-Sehy, my friend and former financial planner, joins me to tackle these questions on today’s episode. Enjoy!
Anonymous and her husband have set themselves on the path of saving for retirement. But an old mistake haunts them: a financial planner convinced them to buy a mix of whole and term life insurance, which costs them $700 per month. Do they need whole life insurance, and where else can they save their money?
Mike has $60,000 in cash earning one percent interest. He has plans to buy a home and get married in three to five years. Where else can he put his cash to earn a little more? Is the stock market too risky for such a short time horizon?
Anonymous and her future husband are wondering: what’s a realistic amount to spend on a wedding?
My friend and former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy joins me to answer these questions on today’s episode. Enjoy!
Do you have a question on business, money, trade-offs, financial independence strategies, travel, or investing? Leave it here and we’ll answer them in a future episode.
Julia and her husband, both 27, want to retire by their early to mid-40s. Is there a point at which they should stop contributing to tax advantaged accounts and only contribute to taxable accounts?
Ana and her family like their home, but it needs to be bigger. A cash-out refi didn’t give them enough funds for their dream renovation. Should they put their money into the market in the hopes that it will grow large enough to fund a future renovation? Or should they move into a bigger house, rent out their house, and fix it up years down the road?
Anonymous from MA is flummoxed by HSA-compatible health plans. His copay and deductible are awful, and even bronze plans seem better. Are HSA plans overrated, or does the math work out?
Aja’s mom is 75 and has to take required minimum distributions from her IRA. She doesn’t need the money. Where should she put it?
Nick has a seasonal business. Can a sweep account help stabilize him?
My friend and former financial planner, Joe Saul-Sehy, joins me to answer these questions on today’s show. Enjoy!
Do you have a question on business, money, trade-offs, financial independence strategies, travel, or investing? Leave it here and we’ll answer them in a future episode.
Linda is 58 and wondering how to account for her Social Security benefits when thinking through the 25x expenditure equation. Her expected expenses are $100,000 – $150,000. How can she figure out if she’s ready to retire?
Mr. Man is eligible to retire with a full pension, health benefits, and social security at age 48. He has 20 years to go. Should he include his pension and social security benefits in his financial independence plan, or think of them as extras?
“Timothy,” a lawyer from Colorado, has $250,000 in a SEP-IRA account that’s invested in mutual funds with fees ranging from 0.61 percent to 1.06 percent. Fees on these funds are projected at $200,000 over the next 20 years. Should he and can he transfer these funds to another SEP-IRA account? What are the consequences of doing that?
Alise has dreamed of living abroad for long periods of time and wants to buy a property in Portugal before the minimum spend requirement increases. Should she go through with this, or is there another way to gain dual citizenship or travel abroad for long periods of time?
Former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy joins me to answer more of your questions.
Do you have a question on business, money, trade-offs, financial independence strategies, travel, or investing? Leave it here and we’ll answer them in a future episode.
Sarah O Sahara’s parents sold their rentals and business of 24 years. They’d like to create a trust for their grandkids with boundaries in place to avoid entitlement. How should they structure this trust?
Renee and her husband are in their 60s, and most of their retirement funds are in pre-tax accounts. They have federal tax credits they’d like to use to move these funds into taxable accounts. Is this a sound strategy?
Anonymous “Yvette” in Canada has a fully paid off condo that she wants to turn into a rental once her new townhome is ready. Should she mortgage against the condo to reduce the mortgage on her townhome? Are there any tax benefits to having a mortgage on a rental?
Luis’s wife wants to start moonlighting in her field. Can she open and contribute to a Solo 401k even though she has a TSP account with her 9-to-5 employer?
Russell and his partner want to emigrate to Canada in the near future. Should they move their investments into Canadian funds?
My friend and former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy joins me once again to answer your questions. Enjoy!
(Have an investing, entrepreneurship, lifestyle, or decision-making question you’d like us to answer? Submit it here!)
“Hetty” is struggling with being too frugal, possibly to the detriment of her health. I mentioned in a previous episode that I struggled with frugality for a long time. She wants to know: in what ways was frugality a hindrance or an asset, and how did I get myself out of such a frugal mindset?
John and his wife aren’t sure how much they should contribute to their daughter’s Ohio 529 plan. They want her to graduate from undergrad debt-free, but they imagine she’ll get help from scholarships and that she’ll work as a teenager. How much is enough?
Rafael just got a job as a 1099 sales associate and is wondering how the heck to calculate what he’ll owe in taxes.
Rafael has a second question: he opened an account at Vanguard in December 2020 and noticed that he could still contribute to that account for the first few months of 2021. Which year should he have focused on contributing to?
Elizabeth has two rental properties: one that’s paid off and profitable, the other which shows a loss. If she put her profitable rental into an LLC, could she still combine the rent from both properties?
My friend and former financial planner Joe Saul-Sehy joins me to answer another round of questions.
By the way, if you have questions on business, money, trade-offs, financial independence strategies, travel, or investing, be sure to leave them here and we’ll answer them in a future episode.
Nick is curious: how have my views on wholesalers changed over the years, and why?
Rob and his fiancé are grappling with what to do about her $400,000 of federal student loan debt. Should they pay it off immediately, or bank on a 20-year dismissal?
Daniel recently discovered the financial independence retire early (FIRE) movement and got a job earning $50,000 per year. He wants to househack a duplex to get closer to FIRE, but how the heck can he find anything in this seller’s market?
“Nurse Dreaming of FI” isn’t sure what her family’s next financial move should be. She’s torn between investing extra money into index funds, or using it to buy a fix-and-flip. Her goal is to make work optional. Which path will lead her there?
“Phoebe” and her husband have 457s with the City of Chicago. However, they found out that Illinois has a horrible credit rating. How can they – and should they – protect their funds? How much should they rely on their pensions?
My friend and former financial planner, Joe Saul-Sehy, joins me to answer these questions today.
Jess wants to reach financial independence by the time she’s 50. But she’s worried that she doesn’t have enough money in cash or taxable brokerage accounts to bridge the gap in her first few years of retirement. What moves should she make, if any?
Yisell wants to invest money now. Should she cash out her $70,000 pension in hopes to generate more than the $1,000 per month she’s guaranteed from it?
Abbey is 22 and she would like to go back to graduate school for nurse anesthesia. Should she save up and pay for it in cash, or invest her money and take out federal loans?
Eliana enjoyed our interview with Paul Merriman on the two-fund portfolio. She’s curious about what growth stocks and value stocks are, and how they fit into a passive index fund investing strategy.
Finally, Sneezy wants to know: why aren’t stocks a good hedge against inflation?
My friend and former financial planner, Joe Saul-Sehy, joins me to answer these questions on today’s episode. Enjoy!
