Radical Personal Finance

Today, I welcome Doug Nordman back to the show! Doug is an early retiree (he retired at 41) and his hobby is helping other military personnel improve their financial lives. One of the more interesting aspects of Doug's financial life is his involvement in private business as an angel investor. He's not only involved with the community of investors near him in Hawaii, he's also committed a substantial amount of his savings toward his investments. In this interview you'll learn: Why Doug invests his money in private companies even though the majority of his investments are held in mutual funds. How much money he has made and how many of his investments have gone bust! How to get involved as an angel investor yourself! You'll also learn how to make the decision of rent vs. buy when considering where to live. Enjoy! Joshua Links: Doug's finance website: http://the-military-guide.com/ Doug's book recommendations: The Illusions of Entrepreneurship: The Costly Myths that Entrepreneurs, Investors, and Policy Makers Live By by Scott Shane Angel Investing: Matching Startup Funds with Startup Companies--The Guide for Entrepreneurs and Individual Investors by Robert Robinson and Mark Van Osnabrugge Fool's Gold?: The Truth Behind Angel Investing in America by Scott Shane Support Radical Personal Finance on Patreon! http://radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron Support Radical Personal Finance by using our Amazon affiliate link: http://radicalpersonalfinance.com/amazon

Many people would like to earn more money. But, few people know how to actually look at their situation to assess their opportunities to actually do so. In today's show I share with you the framework that I use to think about money. It's simple but effective. And, most importantly, it's exclusively focused on the things you can actually do and change. It's practical and immediately actionable. Listen to the show to hear: The only three variables that affect how much money you earn in a free market economy. Which variables have the most impact in the short term and which have the most impact in the long term. How to assess your personal situation to decide where to focus your efforts. Enjoy! Joshua Links: Support Radical Personal Finance on Patreon! http://radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron Consider attending FinCon15! Buy your tickets here! http://radicalpersonalfinance.com/fincon

Hey amigos! Today is my 30th birthday! I'm having an incredible day celebrating with my family and friends.30 is a big milestone for me. I've been reflecting deeply on the last decade and looking forward to the next decade.I thought about creating a "30 Lessons Learned from 30 Years of Living" for you, but I decided to simply share one of my favorite messages with you instead. This audio is a short clip from a Jim Rohn speech. I keep it on my desktop and listen to it at least a couple of times per week. This is the succinct message that I would like to share with you to celebrate my birthday. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Talk soon, Joshua Support Radical Personal Finance on Patreon: http://patreon.com/radicalpersonalfinance

Hey Radicals! Just a quick announcement episode to share that the show will be taking a quick summer break for a few days. I have some show-related work to handle and I can't get it done and still continue producing content this week. Also, please expect the shows to be slighly more sporadic during the month of June...details in the audio! Joshua Support Radical Personal Finance on Patreon: http://radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron Get your tickets for FinCon15 with my affiliate link here: http://radicalpersonalfinance.com/fincon Details on the FinCon Expro are here: http://finconexpo.com/

Q&A today and I handle these four questions! Does tax-loss harvesting really offer the kind of benefit that companies like Wealthfront, Betterment, Personal Capital, et al claim? And can a person do it on their own without relying on a firm to do it for them? Thought you should know something I recently found out. California child labor laws no longer apply once you have graduated from high school. In addition, California has a method to graduate by exam (similar to a GED, but GEDs are only available to those 18 or older). The high school proficiency exam (which is easy) can be taken by anyone who is 16 or older or who has completed 10th grade or will have completed 10th grade by the end of the academic year in which they take the test. My son, who is 15 1/2 and in 10th grade, took the exam and passed it. Nothing prevents him from continuing on in high school, but he's no longer subject to child labor laws. He's seriously considering switching to community college in September, doing that for 2 years, and then transferring to a University of California campus to finish off his college. That'd get him a solid college degree by the time he's 19. During that entire time, he'd be eligible to work whatever hours he wants. Another option we're considering is self-study (with my help; I used to be a Computer Science professor), taking a bunch of AP exams, and then entering UC at age 18 with at least one year (and possibly more) of credits. Joshua, Can you weigh in on your thought about being an accredited investor and the legal limitations around it? As I understand it, I do not qualify as an accredited investor. And certain investments cannot be invested in by those who are not accredited. however, apparently the rules were supposed to have changed to allow people to make investments of these kinds without the government saying that I have to make X amount or have X amounts of savings. but, as I learned by listening to the podcast Startup (episode 7) by alex blumberg, these rules have changed with the JOBS ACT, but the FCC has been sitting on the ruling and is way overdue for implementing it so that someone like me can invest in these previously off limits investments without being told that we can't. That episode of startup really explained a lot to me, because I had wanted to invest a large amount with alex after listening to the very first episode of startup (i assumed he would be very successful because I've loved his stuff for years and he's leveraging some seriously big friends for his new venture), but I couldn't invest in something I really thought was going to be a huge success (or at least provide me with good cashflow) because of these rules. I'm also about curious why these rules exist. Were they implimented to protect people from being scammed out of their money? Joshua, As a young engineer, who is single, making a salary of over $80,000 in Texas (no state income tax): Should I max out my 401k if my goal is to become very wealthy, before age 40? Or, should I invest some in my 401k and invest the rest in REITs/other, more risky assets. Of course, along the way, I will be very frugal, and live way below my means. Thank you, love the show. Enjoy the show! Joshua Evaluating The Tax Deferral And Tax Bracket Arbitrage Benefits Of Tax Loss Harvesting by Michael Kitces: https://www.kitces.com/blog/evaluating-the-tax-deferral-and-tax-bracket-arbitrage-benefits-of-tax-loss-harvesting/ Wealthfront Tax-Loss Harvesting White Paper: https://research.wealthfront.com/whitepapers/tax-loss-harvesting/#14-comparison_of_daily_vs_one_time_i_e_end_of_year_tax_loss_harvesting Betterment's White Paper: Tax Loss Harvesting+™: https://www.betterment.com/resources/research/tax-loss-harvesting-white-paper/ The Tax Harvesting Mirage by Michael Edesess: http://www.advisorperspectives.com/newsletters14/The_Tax_Harvesting_Mirage.php The Tax Harvesting Oasis: A Response to Michael Edesess by Daniel Egan and Boris Khentov: http://www.advisorperspectives.com/newsletters14/The_Tax_Harvesting_Oasis.php The Tax Harvesting Water Hole by Michael Edesess: http://www.advisorperspectives.com/newsletters14/The_Tax_Harvesting_Water_Hole.php Accredited Investor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accredited_investor Fixed Fortunes Article: http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2014/11/17/fixed-fortunes-biggest-corporate-political-interests-spend-billions-get-trillions/ Why the "Accredited Investor" Standard Fails the Average Investor: http://www.bu.edu/rbfl/files/2013/09/AccreditedInvestorStandardFails.pdf Support Radical Personal Finance on Patreon! http://radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron

Todd Simpson, a veteran life insurance broker with over 30 years of experience, offers a fascinating glimpse into high-risk underwriting. He discusses the dramatic evolution of life insurance products since the 1980s and how various medical conditions, like diabetes and heart disease, affect insurability. Simpson highlights the role of the Medical Information Bureau in the application process and stresses the importance of honesty for those with health challenges. His insights also emphasize the significance of securing life insurance at a younger age for long-term benefits.

Many of find ourselves in a situation where we are concerned about the financial well-being of our parents. Obviously, we'd like to help, if possible. But, this is rarely easy. There are many, many challenges that can emerge. In essence, to truly answer these questions you'd not only have to have all of the skills of a financial planner, but also the background of a relationship counselor, a life coach, and more! It ain't easy! I created this show as an overview of ideas that may be able to help you get involved and to help your parents. Some of the ideas are technical financial suggestions, others are more practical and relationship-oriented. The show is structured around: Ideas to help create a great life of good health. Ideas to help in case of the need for long-term care. Ideas to help plan your parents' estate to make the estate settlement process smoother. I hope it's useful to you! Joshua Support Radical Personal Finance on Patreon! http://radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron

My guest today is a author named Matthew Bracken. Matthew is a sailor, writer, and former Navy Seal. He's the author of four novels (all of which I've thoroughly enjoyed.) Most importantly for our purposes, he is an expert on the topic of achieving a lifestyle of freedom through sailing. He wrote an excellent essay called "Get Yourself a 30-Footer and Go!" which advocates a quick entry into the sailing world as a way to build economic opportunity for yourself. During the course of the interview, we cover three primary topics: How to go about getting started in sailing and how quickly it's possible to achieve a lifestyle of freedom. Matt's experience establishing himself as an independent, self-published novelist in the semi-dystopian genre. The potential impact of societal changes and how to prepare for them. Enjoy the show! Joshua Links: Get Yourself a 30-Footer and Go! http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3095240/posts Information about Matt's novels: http://www.enemiesforeignanddomestic.com/index.php?page=books Huge Excerpts (free) from Matt's novels: http://www.enemiesforeignanddomestic.com/index.php?page=excerpts The Last Valley on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-dItSpmQtlE Support Radical Personal Finance on Patreon! http://radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron

Q&A show today and I answer these two questions for you: Joshua, My parents just moved to Florida last year and got wooed by an advisor that bought them dinner, gave them a free round of golf, etc. and now they're in an annuity and I can't figure out how badly they are getting screwed (not because there's anything inherently wrong with annuities but because the advisor is sadly not a fee-only advisor so I imagine he's taking a big cut of the action). I'm trying to convince them to find a good fee-only advisor to help them get set up for retirement but I'm not sure how to go about finding a good one. Thanks for the help! Joshua, I can't thank you enough for starting Radical Personal Finance; been a fan since you did the interview with Jacob Fisker :) I have learnt so much from you and others in the personal finance community - I'm unable to quantify with an exact figure yet, but I know it's going to compound to a huge amount (possibly millions?) over my lifetime. This morning I just signed up via Patreon to support your show. It's a small amount, but one important thing I've learnt on my PF journey is learning to pay for value rather than simply focusing on cost. I have a question which relates to the investment part of building wealth. How should I invest an idle USD$20,000 that's sitting around in my savings account for maximum returns? I feel I'm sufficiently exposed to the stock market at this stage and diversified enough within and outside the publicly traded securities realm. I don't want to pour money into publicly traded stocks as due to mean reversion, future returns tend to be lower when markets are at highs. Please feel free to suggest the most radical ideas you have - that's why I love the show! Some background on myself: I'm 28 years old living in Singapore. My marginal tax rate is 7% but we are forced to contribute 20% to our own tax-free housing/medical/retirement accounts. Annual take home salary (post taxes and retirement etc contributions) is about USD$50,000. Invested USD$60,000 in semi diversified stocks, ETFs and REITs. USD$20,000 in alternative non-publicly traded investments. Have 6 months emergency fund. Have a 30 year level term insurance for USD $400,000. Time horizon: >20 years. I consider myself an aggressive investor willing to take large risk on small sums of money for the potential return, if the mathematics are in my favor (eg NO lotteries, YES to EM stocks). I know it's hard to provide investment suggestions without knowing the nuances of each individual situation. Right off the bat I know I should be focusing on: increasing my salary/earning potential and starting a side business. Should I be getting more insurance coverage? Should I be maxing out retirement accounts when my marginal tax rate is only 7%? Is there anything else I'm missing? As a goal oriented person (and my goal is to reach FI fast!), I can't stand the fact that my money is idling in my savings account earning a negative real rate of return. Keep doing great work! Enjoy the show! Joshua Support Radical Personal Finance on Patreon! http://radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron

From time to time, I receive questions from listeners about the equipment that I use to produce my show. I also get questions about the mistakes I've made and what I would do differently if I were to do it over again. Today, I share the workflow that I use to create my show and some of the lessons I've learned in 200 episodes of podcasting. This show does not contain any specific financial planning or personal finance content. It does include a discussion of my thought process in creating the show and how I selected my Unique Selling Proposition for the show. Resources mentioned: I use a Heil PR-40 Dynamic microphone. If I were to do it over again, I would simply use an Audio-Technica ATR2100 Dynamic microphone. I use a Behringer mixer and a Roland R-05 audio recorder. If I were to do it over again, I would buy the Zoom H6 audio recorder. I also have two Shure SM7B Dynamic microphones for my mobile interview kit. Cliff Ravenscraft's podcast workflow. Enjoy the show! Joshua Support Radical Personal Finance on Patren! http://radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron