Posts by ssolares

What’s Your Investment Personality? Do you read the Wall Street Journal every morning and actively monitor your investments throughout the day? Or do you want as little to do with your finances and investments as possible? Maybe you’re somewhere in between these two extremes… One Investment Personality is no better than another.  They each have…

The First Step to Investment Success If you’ve created your goals, this step should be easy. You’re just going to create separate investment accounts for each of your goals. There are dozens of account types to choose from. For most of your goals, you will want a plain vanilla taxable account or, if you have…

The single greatest formula that will help you attain the life of your dreams is your ability to spend less than you earn, save consistently, and invest with a purpose. You’ve already identified the life of your dreams and aligned your income with your goals. The next few lessons will introduce you to Purpose-Driven Investing—a…

If your employer doesn’t offer direct deposit, you can still put savings on autopilot. Use automatic transfers through your bank. An automatic transfer is a transfer, or “payment,” from your checking account to another account either at your bank or an investment account you’ve established. For example, you can tell your bank that you want…

How can you take the ease of saving in your 401(k) and save for your other goals? The answer is through direct deposit.  Direct deposit is a slick way to save for multiple goals effortlessly. Instead of receiving a check that you have to bring to the bank to deposit, your check is automatically and…

The 401(k) is one of the best tools you have in your savings arsenal. It allows you to contribute money directly from your paycheck. Don’t worry if your company doesn’t offer a 401(k), they might offer a different type of retirement account that’s just as good such as a SEP, SIMPLE, 403(b), or 457 account.…

A good savings plan is like a good diet: It’s only going to work if you stick with it.  When so many things compete for our time and attention, it’s easy to push our finances to the back burner. While the consequences of spending a few months ignoring your finances are not quickly apparent, it…

Does Purpose-Driven Investing sound a little too touchy-feely for you? Don’t worry, it has many real-world benefits.   Benefits of Purpose-Driven Investing: It fits your personality. Trying to fit a square peg in a round hole usually ends in frustration and failure. Many investors have been trying to do just this. Not all of us have…

How We Achieved Our Goals as Kids We can learn a lot from our youth. Do you remember what it was like to save for a goal when you were younger? I didn’t get an allowance, so I earned all my money. The process was the same every time. I would get an idea for…

Investing in the Age of Information The average investor has more data and information available at her fingertips today than entire investment departments had twenty years ago. The Internet and software has opened the floodgates and unleashed more investment information to you, the consumer, than we’ve ever had access to before in our history. Do…