Part 1 of Making of a Millionaire’s guide to financial rules of thumb — Managing money can feel overwhelming. Saving money, paying off debt, tracking your bill payments, saving for retirement, and investing strategies. There is a lot to keep track of, and we all have more pressing things to worry about, like our family and our careers. The idea of a “Shortcut” to…

Solving the “gift-giving” problem in personal finance — A budget is simply a reflection of your financial priorities. If you choose to budget for retirement savings, you declare that it is a financial priority. By not including something in your budget, you declare that the item is not a priority — whether you know it or not. Creating…

FOMO leads to reckless financial decisions — A surprisingly dangerous time in your financial life is when you’ve built good financial habits, are saving consistently, paying down debt, and doing everything you should be with your money. It’s at this point that a frustrating reality kicks in: Building financial habits is simple. Sticking with those habits and…

Reviewing the two types of assets you can use to build wealth — Yes, you can get rich working a 9–5 job. It just won’t happen quickly, which is perfectly fine, especially if you like your job. You don’t need to start a business to build wealth if you set up a simple saving system and stick to it for the long run. …

What you need to know about “thematic” ETFs — Don’t let your money die so you can express your beliefs. That’s what most investors do when they buy so-called “thematic” ETFs. Thematic investing is a bit of a squishy term but generally refers to a fund that invests in companies that some think will benefit from societal and technological…

Picking a nit while unveiling an important lesson for investors — What most people think of as “dollar-cost averaging” is, in fact, a lump sum investing strategy that looks like dollar cost averaging. I tackle the issue of dollar-cost averaging in chapter 29 of my book “The Rational Investor.” Dollar-cost averaging is an investing strategy where you decide to take a…

Investment “cash flow” is completely overrated — “A high net worth doesn’t pay the bills. ONLY CASHFLOW can do that…” That is a Tweet I see almost every day. …

Focus on what actually allows you to build wealth — What makes index funds incredible is not their historically exceptional returns or the broad diversification, or even their low costs; it’s their passive nature. Index funds adopt a passive strategy of tracking the market. …

But stock markets do… Here’s what that means for your money — When the stock market crashes you are very likely to hear some variation of the following advice online: “Don’t sell! Stocks have recovered from every market crash over the past 100+ years! Selling now turns a paper loss into a real loss.” This advice has evidence to support it and…