Rule #1 Finance Blog
retirement planning
5 Retirement Mistakes You Might Be Making That Could Be Keeping You From Financial Freedom
If you want to retire comfortably (and many Americans believe they are preparing to do so in the best way possible) chances are good that you’re just not…
Preparing For Your First Investment: How to Choose a Brokerage Account
[INFOGRAPHIC] What You Need to Know About Opening a Brokerage Account
In order to buy and sell stocks, you’ll need a brokerage account. This account allows a broker to sell and purchase, on your behalf, to other people willing to give or take the same stock. Choosing a brokerage account can seem confusing because you have a lot of options. Let’s take a look at these options.
Note: Not ready to open a brokerage account yet? Explore more ways to invest money in this blog post, instead.
Phil Town is an investment advisor, hedge fund manager, 3x NY Times Best-Selling Author, ex-Grand Canyon river guide, and former Lieutenant in the US Army Special Forces. He and his wife, Melissa, share a passion for horses, polo, and eventing. Phil’s goal is to help you learn how to invest and achieve financial independence.
The Benefits of Compound Interest After Retirement
When you are ready to retire, how much of your stock should you sell?
Let’s pretend it’s time to retire and we have $1 million of stock invested in a wonderful company…
Not too bad, huh?
We can sell all of our stock in the company and use that to finish paying off our mortgages, travel the world, and visit our children – or we can keep our money in the company and skim what we need from the top to live during retirement.
Which path to retirement is better?
Phil Town is an investment advisor, hedge fund manager, 3x NY Times Best-Selling Author, ex-Grand Canyon river guide, and former Lieutenant in the US Army Special Forces. He and his wife, Melissa, share a passion for horses, polo, and eventing. Phil’s goal is to help you learn how to invest and achieve financial independence.
Tax-Free Ways to Grow Your Retirement
One of the key strategies for growing wealth is to minimize taxes on your money. When it comes to saving for retirement, the more capital you have, the more interest you gain.
The following are some tax-free ways to grow your retirement tips on how you can save on taxes and grow your retirement at the same time.
Phil Town is an investment advisor, hedge fund manager, 3x NY Times Best-Selling Author, ex-Grand Canyon river guide, and former Lieutenant in the US Army Special Forces. He and his wife, Melissa, share a passion for horses, polo, and eventing. Phil’s goal is to help you learn how to invest and achieve financial independence.
A lot of people spend all their income on living expenses and, as a result, don’t have enough to retire today and won’t have enough to retire early tomorrow, either.
Phil Town is an investment advisor, hedge fund manager, 3x NY Times Best-Selling Author, ex-Grand Canyon river guide, and former Lieutenant in the US Army Special Forces. He and his wife, Melissa, share a passion for horses, polo, and eventing. Phil’s goal is to help you learn how to invest and achieve financial independence.
Many of you write in asking how to roll over your retirement plans. Here's a question from Kay:
Hi Phil,
I am a nurse at a local hospital with a 401K and a 403B plan. I have a 14% payroll deduction every two weeks. The funds are managed by Fidelity. I have yet to see a 10% return. I have given myself 6mo to become a real rule #1 investor.
I have a paper account at MSN and am making money! When I get the guts to jump in what is the best strategy to get my $130,000.00 out of Fidelity and into the stocks I pick.
Phil Town is an investment advisor, hedge fund manager, 3x NY Times Best-Selling Author, ex-Grand Canyon river guide, and former Lieutenant in the US Army Special Forces. He and his wife, Melissa, share a passion for horses, polo, and eventing. Phil’s goal is to help you learn how to invest and achieve financial independence.
PREDICTING A COMPANY’S LONGEVITY
From the Comments under the YHOO post:
Question Phil. (And thanks for answering the email I sent to you.) QUOTE: "Still, as you pointed out, it would be very difficult to predict that YHOO is going to be around for sure in 20 years."
How did we know this early in GE or IBM's lief [sic] that they were going to be around 20 years? How do we know Whole Foods is going to be around. I think with any company there is a bit of speculation don't you think?
Do we have to wait for a comapny [sic] to be around 20 years to know that it is a good company to invest in?
Here's what I told him:
Excellent question: How can we know that a business will be around in twenty years?
It's all about the first three Ms. And in this case it's most particularly about the Moat.
Phil Town is an investment advisor, hedge fund manager, 3x NY Times Best-Selling Author, ex-Grand Canyon river guide, and former Lieutenant in the US Army Special Forces. He and his wife, Melissa, share a passion for horses, polo, and eventing. Phil’s goal is to help you learn how to invest and achieve financial independence.
People often write in to ask me specifically how to free up funds to invest. I’m sure a lot of you have Eric’s question, below, about life insurance. Read on:
Mr. Town,
1. I currently have a whole life policy into which I pay $250 per month. Would it be smarter for me to invest the $250/month in following the program you set before us during the "Get Motivated!" seminar? I could pick up inexpensive term life to replace it for about $120 per year and invest an additional $3000 per year. I do have $3000 invested in the policy at this point (1 year) to consider – what would you do?
2. I started putting about $200-$500 per month into a normal money market account four months ago just to have it set aside for a rainy day. You seemed to be in favor of putting all eggs into one basket – do I close my safety account and start sending that money to Scottrade?
3. I have an IRA in worth about $15K. Would I be smarter to take the penalty for early withdrawal in order to have it available to invest using the Success Investor’s Toolbox in the manner you described during the seminar?
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Eric W.
Here’s what I think:
Phil Town is an investment advisor, hedge fund manager, 3x NY Times Best-Selling Author, ex-Grand Canyon river guide, and former Lieutenant in the US Army Special Forces. He and his wife, Melissa, share a passion for horses, polo, and eventing. Phil’s goal is to help you learn how to invest and achieve financial independence.
BusinessWeek recently pointed out that the major stumbling block in the President’s attempt to privatize a part of Social Security is that Americans across the political spectrum are afraid to take responsibility for investing their own money. They want the government to keep its guarantees in place … even if the rate of return on Social Security is only 2%.
Phil Town is an investment advisor, hedge fund manager, 3x NY Times Best-Selling Author, ex-Grand Canyon river guide, and former Lieutenant in the US Army Special Forces. He and his wife, Melissa, share a passion for horses, polo, and eventing. Phil’s goal is to help you learn how to invest and achieve financial independence.