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Brains before beauty as you set about your Saturday.
Profile of Obama’s presidency (Politico) Pervasive match fixing in tennis comes out (Buzzfeed) Who poisoned Flint’s water? (Rolling Stone) Following the FANG playbook (Stratechery) How Voltaire rigged the lottery (Today I Found Out) Status Report of Frequent Flyer programs (View from the Wing) Sitting down with the worst person on the internet (Fusion) How to Not suck at blogging (Man vs Debt) Be sure to share your favorite links and do your shopping through my Amazon Link. This is the fourth part of a four part series on personal finance basics. Check out parts one, two, and three when you get a chance. There are a multitude of reasons to save, such as; a down payment on a house, your child’s college tuition, and retirement. Priorities will change over time, but saving is always a prudent idea. The issue arises when you don’t know what you’re saving for, it needs to feel important so give yourself some objectives. Priorities 1. Emergency Fund What happens if you lose your job or are injured and can’t work for 8-12 weeks? Can you support yourself? Recent surveys have indicated that more than 50% of Americans do not have enough in the bank to cover three months’ expenses. This should be your first and most pressing priority. Experts generally recommend having six months worth of living expenses in your emergency fund, but you should have even more if you are starting a family or have a significant mortgage. Cut back on all your expenses and tighten the budget until you get this done. Once you’ve put together the 6 months of dough, put it in a separate account that you can’t touch for everyday expenses. 2. Investing in Assets Assets are the opposite of disposable goods (toilet paper, food, cleaning supplies). They are going to stick around and make a positive impact on your balance sheet. Assets can come in many forms, think stocks, bonds, real estate, etc., and starting to build assets will benefit you years down the road. 3. Opportunity Fund Are you going to be buying a house, proposing to someone, or paying for a wedding sometime soon? Those are all expensive propositions and you should start setting money aside now.  You might be thinking to yourself, “that’s all well and good, I have an emergency fund and want to start investing, but I have no idea where to start.”
You’re not alone. Lots of people feel out of their depth since this isn’t something you usually learn in school. Plenty of people dedicate their lives to learning how to invest in stocks and bonds, but the most important thing is that you stick to a plan once you get started. The biggest investing mistakes are made when investors don’t have a plan and make emotional decisions. Investing Basics Investing is its own unique language. Roth IRAs, 401ks, brokerage accounts, the list goes on and on. What do you need to know? There are entire books written on the subject so don’t expect a sufficient education here. To start:
Odds and Ends It’s best to save at least 10% of your income. Over the years, try to work up to 20% before you get married or have kids. Take more risks in your 20’s and 30’s as long as you pledge not to sell out of your positions when the market inevitably corrects every 5-7 years. Life insurance is a must-have for anyone with a family or a co-signer on private loans. Make sure your loved ones are taken care of. Further Reading A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel A Wealth of Common Sense by Ben Carlson This has been a four part series on personal finance basics. Check out parts one, two, and three if you missed any of them.
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Don’t worry about the economic chicken littles (Politico) How to get your first 1000 customers (Medium) Young, gifted millennials oppressed by unfavorable policy (Economist) The “Internet of Things” is woefully insecure (ARS technica) When will self-driving cars be a real thing? (Marginal Revolution) “Pluto-killer” finds a new planet (Washington Post) States are hampering the solar industry (Slate) America is losing the skyscraper race (NY Mag) Please support the blog by shopping through my Amazon Link.
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Your germ avoidance behaviors are pointless (City Lab) Thousands of young Americans applying for student loan forgiveness on grounds that they were defrauded by schools (WSJ) Podcasting continues slow climb towards legitimacy (Economist) Truth about wine (Medium) Why does pessimism sounds os smart? (Motley Fool) How to read deeply (Marginal Revolution) How successful people network (HBR) Please support the blog by shopping through my Amazon Link.
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Prioritize process over outcomes (Washington Post) Income inequality in the startup world (Medium) Quitting the digital nomad lifestyle (The Worldly Blend) Author earnings indicate greater opportunity for writers than ever before (Author Earnings) Sanders’ advantage over Clinton (Vox) Follies of stack fallacy (TechCrunch) Hunting for a virtual assistant (Forbes) Please support the blog by shopping through my Amazon Link.
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2015 was an absurdly warm year (Bloomberg) Google’s latest moonshot (Re/Code) Drinking age absurdity (Vox) Hilary’s support with women eroding under scandals (NYT) A really good 2015 review (Tom Morkes) An open letter to the next commander-in-chief (Medium) The Tarp; An Aid Worker’s Secret Weapon (Wired) Please support the blog by shopping through my Amazon Link.
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MUST READ - The American Spring (StartupBoy) Working on “Important” vs “Trivial” problems (Breaking Smart) Avoiding failure v. pursuing success (Sasha) US’s leading marathoner retires early (NYT) VERY GOOD - The unexotic underclass (MIT) Please support the blog by shopping through my Amazon Link.  A Wealth of Common Sense By: Ben Carlson Life Skills: 4 out of 5 Entertaining: 2 out of 5 Being social animals, humans are adept at relying on experts to provide advice in areas of importance like law, medicine, and tax accounting. This pattern extends to the world of financial advice and investing, but can also get investors into trouble. In his book, Chartered Financial Analyst Ben Carlson draws from his years of professional investing experience to deliver straightforward advice to any investor, big or small. The fundamental truth that making investment decisions and philosophies focused on the long term (decades) instead of short term (week to week), will save people from themselves.
Most investing mistakes are either emotional overreactions or overconfident beliefs, fueled by the cognitive biases that plague our decision-making. Implementing Carlson’s practical advice will benefit readers young and old. Who should read this; Anyone who wants to start investing or is considering working with a financial advisor. Major lesson learned; Complexity in financial products and plans serves more to confuse (read: dupe) investors than elicit greater returns. Interesting tidbit; Carlson’s book is named after his blog. Buy it here and you’ll support the blog!
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The scariest part of writing is acceptance (Jamie Rubin) Publishers gave away 123k books during WWII (Atlantic) Considerations before bombing someone else (Boston University) Now you can calculate the exact cost of company meetings (Fast Company) Amazon expands into shipping ocean freight (WSJ) The rise of drone racing (Fusion) 90 steps to becoming a better leader (Inc) Please support the blog by shopping through my Amazon Link.
Some rollicking reads for the dedicated pursuer of knowledge.
Lessons from 9 years as CEO of Hubspot (ReadThink) The efficient startup hypothesis (Medium) Larger forces shape the book publishing industry (Idea Logic) A boxer’s hour of need (NYT) Will email ever die? (Atlantic) Warning to potential entrepreneurs (mattermark) Sean Penn interview El Chapo (Rolling Stone) A magnum opus on the potential of virtual reality (Time) Horizontal History (WaitButWhy) Be sure to share your favorite links and do your shopping through my Amazon Link. |
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