Good morning,
According to a survey by MarketWatch, here are the top 5 goals among those who made financial resolutions:
Save more moneyTrack spending more carefullyReduce overspendingCut spending on non-essentialsPay off loans
If you share these resolutions with those surveys, I can offer a bit of help:
Learn to save more cashLearn to track spending and reduce overspendingLearn strategies to pay off your student loans
Without further ado, your Thursday newsletter.
News 📰
If you use LastPass, they just screwed you (Wired)COVID-19 misinformation continues (NYT)9 surprising things that happened in 2022 (A Wealth of Common Sense)Congress approves new rules for retirement accounts (CNBC)How Southwest Airlines lost it’s shirt (CNN)The race to beat Twitter (and Elon Musk) (WaPo)What we should learn from the FTX meltdown (White Coat Investor)Apple to start making MacBooks in Vietnam (FT)Why crypto will be fine (Axios)
Headlines to Ignore 🙅🏼♂️
Featured Stock: Why This Chinese Tech Stock ETF is Resilient (MarketWatch)These elite dividend stocks consistently beat the market (CNBC)
Tips 💎
“Index funds allow you to own the entire stock market with a single security. Owning the stock market over the long term is a winner’s game, but attempting to beat the stock market is a loser’s game.”
Index funds offer diversification that would be too time-consuming and expensive to accomplish with individual stocksIndex funds lower your investing costs: low expense ratios, no sales fees, low transaction fees, and tax-efficientIndex funds include market risk (which is plenty), but avoid the risks of picking individual stocks, specific sectors, or mutual fund managersIndex funds outperform actively managed funds 95% of the time over 20 years
Read the Full Article: Why Experts Love Index Funds
Extra Fun 🤪
If you believe index funds are “too boring” or “not good enough,” consider these three points:
90% of Warren Buffet’s estate is directed to a low-cost S&P 500 index fund.Investing isn’t supposed to be exciting. But when done well, the results are.You’re a dummy. Yes, I’m calling you dumb.
Announcements 🔈
I’m going to be including a new newsletter section called Mail Bag 📨!
Every newsletter will include a few reader questions and my answers, including favorite resources, books, websites, quotes, and more to guide the asker to better understanding.
Deals 🤝 (Sponsored)
If you aren’t already using a high-yield savings account, I highly recommend you open a Wealthfront Cash Account. When you use this link to create an account, you’ll get $30.
Let’s say you have a savings account with Chase, Bank of America, or Wells Fargo.
With these big banks, your cash is earning essentially nothing (~0.01-0.05%). No joke.
The Wealthfront Cash Account offers 3.8% APY on your cash.
For context, if you save $100/month for 10 years, you’ll get about $2,500 from Wealthfront in interest (at these rates). With your current savings account, you’d get about $12.
This really is a no-brainer. Tell Wells Fargo to pound sand, create a Wealthfront Cash Account, and get $30.
This is the last newsletter of the year! Thanks for being a part of the journey so far. I have a lot of exciting plans that I’m hoping to roll out in Q1, so buckle up.
Happy New Year!
Cheers,
Cole
PS: Creating a spending plan allows you to save more, invest more, and spend more on what you want.
Disclaimer: This newsletter is strictly informational. It is not investment advice, tax advice, financial advice, or a solicitation to buy/sell any assets. Please do your own research. This newsletter may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links (at no cost to you).