I was saddened to hear the news of the passing of David Swensen, a well-known investor, endowment fund manager, and educator. From the NY Times obituary: David Swensen, a money manager who gave up a lucrative Wall Street career to oversee Yale University’s endowment and proceeded to revolutionize endowment investing, in the process making Yale’s the best-performing fund in the country over a 20-year period, died on Wednesday in New Haven, Conn. He was 67. In addition to “revolutionizing” endowment investing, he also wrote a book for the average individual investor called Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment which I read at a very formative period in my investing education. Even though he is best known for being an early adopter of alternative … [Read More...]

Tesla’s stock value is up a whopping 600% in 2020 alone, with a current market cap of over $550 billion dollars and a P/E ratio of over 1,000. At this moment, it is worth more than Disney, Walmart, or Berkshire Hathaway. Even better, the S&P 500 index managers decided not to allow Tesla in until they were pretty much forced to, as Tesla was now in the top 10 of all US companies. Tesla went up 40% after that announcement because they know that after 12/21 every single S&P 500 index fund and ETF will have to sell a little bit of hundreds of companies and put over 1% of their total assets into Tesla stock (an estimated flurry of $100 billion in mandated trades). Meanwhile, the Vanguard Total… [Read More...]

Allan Roth is one of the financial planners whose independent opinions I have come to respect, and he shares seven takeaways from 40 years of financial planning. Financial Planning is an industry trade magazine targeted at (obviously) professional financial planners, but many of the articles are quite useful for DIY investors as well. Read the article first, but here are my personal interpretations of his lessons (not his words): A solid income and frugality both matter, but either one is not enough. He’s advised a high-income doctor with a net worth smaller than an emergency fund, and a 10X millionaire who is still afraid to spend their money. Both needed help. Many people overestimate their ability to handle real-world risk. He has seen firsthand how … [Read More...]

Updated bank bonus details, 10% cash back categories still active. If have you a SoFi Money account, don’t miss that they are offering earn 10% cash back on select Grocery: Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Instacart and Subscriptions: Netflix, Disney+, Spotify when you pay with SoFi Money from 7/1 through 9/30. Max cash back is $50 for Grocery ($500 in purchases) and $50 for Subscriptions ($500 in purchases). I like that they keep coming up with new bonuses. If you opened a SoFi Money account prior to 6/9/2020, this is available to all members. If you opened a SoFi Money account after 6/9/2020, you need $500+ in monthly deposits (from any source, bank transfers okay) in order to qualify for the 10% cash back program. Looks like they added a… [Read More...]

New 10% cash back categories. If have you a SoFi Money account, don’t miss that they are offering earn 10% cash back on select Grocery: Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Instacart and Subscriptions: Netflix, Disney+, Spotify when you pay with SoFi Money from 7/1 through 9/30. Max cash back is $50 for Grocery ($500 in purchases) and $50 for Subscriptions ($500 in purchases). I like that they keep coming up with new bonuses. If you opened a SoFi Money account prior to 6/9/2020, this is available to all members. If you opened a SoFi Money account after 6/9/2020, you need $500+ in monthly deposits (from any source, bank transfers okay) in order to qualify for the 10% cash back program. Looks like they added a new hoop with a grandfather… [Read More...]

(I don’t know if this was targeted, but SoFi Invest (not Money) just sent me an email about a 1% deposit match bonus for the month of June for existing customers. The maximum bonus is $5,000 (if you move over $500,000). You cannot withdraw the net deposits for 90 days. Getting 1% of your deposit in 90 days is roughly the same as 4% annualized, which beats the interest rate on any cash equivalent even if you didn’t invest in anything.) Updated. SoFi (“Social Finance”) has expanded from students loans into a cash management and stock brokerage account. They’ve also updated their bonuses for trying them out, and if you have a spouse/partner, you can refer each other (in addition to … [Read More...]

Updated. As noted in my post on best online brokers, my favorite option in the now-crowded “robo-advisor” category is now M1 Finance. Here’s a quick rundown of what makes them different: Fully customizable. You pick your own target asset allocation “pie”. (You can add ETFs or individual stocks.) You can simply copy one of the many model portfolios out there, or customize it as you like. You have full control! M1 handles the boring stuff, like rebalancing or dividing a $100 contribution across 8 different ETFs. Here is my pie which I named the My Money Blog Portfolio. No commissions. Free stock/ETF trades with a low $100 minimum account size for taxable accounts and a $500 minimum for retirement accounts. 0.00%… [Read More...]

Michael Burry became famous (at least in investing circles) due to his bold bet against mortgage-backed securities in 2008 that was chronicled in The Big Short by Michael Lewis (later a movie). He’s been pretty quiet since but has resurfaced recently on Twitter due to his strong opinions on the pandemic lockdown. Due to his reputation as an independent thinker, he was also asked to share his recommended book reading list by user @thesis_11. I like to collect book recommendations and add them to my Amazon wishlist, so here’s his response in case it gets deleted later (I added the links): Intelligent Investor by Graham Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Fisher Why Stocks Go Up and Down by Pike Buffettology by Buffett and Clark … [Read More...]