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How To Create an Affordable Freedom Lifestyle

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How To Create an Affordable Freedom Lifestyle

What is affordable freedom? Well, it can mean different things to different people. But when working with my clients, we …

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An All-American Lie

Basic investment advice will often tell you that owning a broad US index fund — such as one that tracks …

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How much should you save for your child’s future?

I tend to focus so much on financial planning and investing from a personal financial freedom standpoint, that I sometimes …

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How Much Do You Need to Retire?

What does Professor Google Say? If you do a quick Google search for “how much do I need to retire,” …

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Long-Term Growth Theme: Cannabis

Cannabis Investing:  Betting on Federal Legalization When investing, it’s important to remember that all investing is a form of speculation. …

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Minimalism: A Wealth Enhancing Drug with No Side Effects

After spending the previous week completely detached from work (to spend the whole week doing fun stuff with my son …

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You’re contributing. You should profit, too.

This week’s blog post describes what I believe is the core of an intelligent long-term investment strategy. If you’d like …

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Using Time Horizon Buckets to Grow and Protect Wealth

Overview of Investment Risks Investing comes with a lot of risks. When you consider the different types of risks that …

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How to Protect Yourself from the AI Bubble

First things first: is there a bubble? According to Investopedia, during a bubble, “assets typically trade at a price, or …

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Who’s Better for the Economy? Trump or Biden?

Did you see that presidential debate a couple weeks ago? I kinda wish I hadn’t. And then how about President …

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Reflective Wealth Global Growth Strategy – 2024 Mid Year Update

Opening Commentary  As you know, the Reflective Wealth Global Growth strategy (RWGG) is designed with a long-term focus on growth. …

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Using Debt to Maximize Wellbeing

Using Debt to Maximize Wellbeing We all want to maximize the quality of our lives, right?   And while money …

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What is Values-Based Financial Planning?

    What is Values-Based Financial Planning?   Traditionally, financial planning has been centered around maximizing the zeros in a …

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4-Step Financial Decision Making Process

Second only to time, money is the next most important tool we have to improve our wellbeing and, ultimately, the …

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Do Presidential Elections Matter to the Stock Market?

  Historical stock market returns during election years   Many people think that election years can have a big impact …

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Higher Inflation may be the New Normal

    The US labor shortage that isn’t going away   I believe the most pressing economic issue our country …

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Sometimes Freedom is a Choice

    “How the hell were you able to walk away from the money and job security?”   I was …

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The small business boom (and why you should care)

Small businesses are the bedrock of the American economy   In the United States, we’re free to do whatever work …

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Investing for the Future

Ignore short term noise   Benjamin Graham — one of the greatest investors of all time and mentor to Warren …

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Want to win? Don’t chase performance.

Our obsession with past performance   I’m not sure there’s an industry that’s been tainted by deception and fraud as …

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Government Debt Still Isn’t a Problem

Record debt just keeps getting higher   There’s a narrative on Wall Street that just won’t go away. It tells …

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The Hidden Danger in Your Index Fund

The Maginficent Seven   If you’ve followed the stock market at all over the past year or two, you know …

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Dividends Are Overrated

Quick Refresher on Dividends   I’m sure you know what a dividend is. But here’s a quick refresher so we’re …

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Bitcoin has gone mainstream – should you invest?

    Bitcoin has gone mainstream   Did you hear the news this week? After a very long wait – …

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Investing in a New Era

Rise of the growth economy   To understand why I think we’re heading into an era of unprecedented business growth …

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The Secret to Stock Market Investing

Santa Claus Rally?   There are some pretty funny adages that have been used by stock market traders over time. …

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Small Stocks, Big Implications

Do you root for the little guy? I always find myself doing so. Can’t help it…I guess I just tend …

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GAME ON!

Hey there friend! Do you remember the movie Wayne’s World? This was one of my favorite movies when I was …

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Starting an Online Business

Part 1 – Identifying Your Ideal Client Solve a problem for an ideal client The best startup businesses are generally those …

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This Bull Market Ain’t Over

Hey there, friend. As I’ve said several times before, the best way to build wealth — and ultimately gain financial …

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Is Real Estate Your Ticket to Financial Freedom?

“Return on Hassle” One of my favorite finance writers, Nick Maggiulli, recently wrote a blog post about this concept. It’s something I’ve thought …

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Will Debt Crush the Economy?

Debt is at all-time highs This probably isn’t news to you. The media has been talking about this for years. And …

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Ignore the Fear Machine

Hey there, friend. Hope you had a great week. And I hope you’re able to enjoy a restful weekend today …

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Always Pay High Interest Debt First

Hey there, friend. I hope you had a great week. This week, I received a question about paying off debt. So, …

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Impending Real Estate Crash

Part 1:  How We Got Here   In order to understand why I think the residential housing market will crash …

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Affordable Freedom Newsletter – Issue #14

Hey there, my friend. How’s summer going for you? Probably better than here.   Holy hell is it getting hot …

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Direct Indexing – Don’t Buy the Hype

Wall Street is at it again. Trying to squeeze more money out of you.   Technology has disrupted the investment …

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Affordable Freedom Newsletter – Issue #9

On the Stock Market Get Ready to Welcome a New Bull Market This is a blog post that I published back on …

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Affordable Freedom Newsletter – Issue #8

On Wealth Mindset Lately, I’ve had several people ask me about my definition of wealth. And I’ve also asked several people …

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Affordable Freedom Newsletter – Issue #7

Hey there friend, I’m going to keep the newsletter to one section today. My wife is giving me the “evil …

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Affordable Freedom Newsletter – Issue #6

Hey there, friend. I hope you had a good week and are able to enjoy a restful weekend now.   …

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Affordable Freedom Newsletter – Issue #5

Hey there, friend. I recently had a conversation with one of you, where we talked about the mission of this community …

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The College Tuition Bubble – It’s Over

This week, I thought I would share my thoughts on the future of college education. For many of you, financially …

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Inflation Update: Are Stocks Doomed?

This week, inflation fears were running rampant again. We saw a few inflation indicators come in “hotter than expected” and …

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Achieving Higher Investment Returns with Less Risk

What is Risk?   If you do a Google search for “definition of risk,” there are many definitions. Some that …

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Build Wealth through Mindfulness and Intention

Prioritize the Essentials   It’s amazing how much clearer and easier life seems to get when you distill it down …

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Don’t Let your 401(k) Hold You Hostage

Two weeks ago, I wrote a newsletter about a hypothetical couple (The Smiths), who were able to retire early thanks …

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If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck

The stock market has been on quite a run since October. After setting a new closing low of 3,577 on …

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How to Retire Early

Please note this is an oversimplification and is simply meant to illustrate a concept. If you were to poke holes …

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Understanding Market Leadership

Changing of the Guard?   Historically, market leadership tends to change when we go through a bear market. This means …

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Thoughts on Recent Changes to College Funding

SECURE Act 2.0   On December 29th, President Biden signed the “SECURE Act 2.0” into law. This act builds upon …

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Ample Reserves, Lower Rates, and Higher Stock Prices

This will be my last newsletter until January 7th. I will be taking some time off to be in the …

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2023 Stock Market Forecast

The US Fed has been saying all along that they would continue raising interest rates until the inflation battle has …

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Get Comfortable with Volatility

Volatility is Here to Stay   For the past 20+ years, we’ve had tremendous stock market volatility, thanks to shareholder …

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Stock Market Update – December 3, 2022

For the week, the S&P 500 was up +1.13%. On the surface, that seems like a pretty tame week. But …

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Stock Market Commentary – November 26, 2022

Over the past few months, I have been forecasting that the rate of inflation would start to slow more than …

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Stock Market Update – November 12, 2022

It was a great week in the stock market. Thursday saw the largest single-day gain since March of 2020.   …

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Stock Market Commentary – November 5, 2022

If you followed news in the stock market this week, you probably heard about the Federal Reserve statement on Wednesday, …

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Stock Market Commentary – October 29, 2022

Happy Saturday, friend! I hope you are enjoying your weekend so far.   Apologies for the delayed newsletter today. My …

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Stock Market Update – October 22, 2022

On Thursday, November 3rd @ 7pm CDT – I will be hosting a free webinar to teach my investment process. …

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Stock Market Update – October 15, 2022

If you know anything about my investing style, you know that timing the market is not part of it. For …

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Stock Market Update – September 17, 2022

Another rough week in the stock market. I’ve been saying this a lot lately. But that’s the reality we’re in …

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Get Ready to Welcome a New Bull Market

To understand why I think the current bear market is almost over – and why a new bull market will …

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Stock Market Update – October 1, 2022

Howdy friend! This week’s newsletter is brought to you by a fellow subscriber. He emailed me during the week and …

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Stock Market Update – September 24, 2022

Another week. Another big drop in the stock market. For the week, the S&P 500 finished lower by -5.26%. In …

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Attempting to Decode Inflation

We all know that inflation is tough right now. It’s the highest level of inflation in the United States since …

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Stock Market Update – September 9, 2022

It’s been a tough year so far, for both the economy and the stock market. This is not news to …

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Stock Market Update – September 3, 2022

Happy Saturday! I hope your week was awesome! If we’ve been connected for a while, whether through this newsletter or …

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Stock Market Update – August 27, 2022

Hello, friend! A rough week in stocks culminated with its worst day on Friday, with the S&P 500 dropping by …

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Stock Market Update – July 9, 2022

A book that I go back to all the time is The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. It is written like …

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Stock Market Update – July 9, 2022

Do you invest internationally or only in US stocks? Hint: if you own a S&P 500 Index fund, you don’t own …

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Stock Market Update – July 16, 2022

Almost everyone knows that investing has compound benefits. For example, we all intuitively know that investing for 40 years will …

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Stock Market Update – July 30, 2022

Howdy folks! My apologies for skipping last week. Not that you were sitting on pins and needles, waiting to read …

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Stock Market Update – August 6, 2022

Howdy folks! As you know, I generally try to make these as timely as possible. But this week, I thought …

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Stock Market Update – August 13, 2022

Happy Saturday! You may have seen that this was a pretty good week for the stock market. The S&P 500 …

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Stock Market Update – August 20, 2022

Welcome to the weekend. I hope you had an awesome week! This morning, I thought I would start out with …

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