Opening A Brokerage Account

In my previous post meant to help people attain basic financial literacy I covered basic banking products, which are the foundation of wealth building. In this post I’ll expand into the world of brokerage accounts. Brokerage accounts are exciting on one hand because they are a critical wealth building tool. On the other hand, they can be very dangerous because if one uses a brokerage account in the wrong way then that person can create financial misery for themselves. My goal with this post is to help you understand the safe way to utilize a brokerage account so that it truly is the vehicle that will ultimately ensure your financial success over the long-term.

When I wrote about banking products I mentioned how they are safe products that can return between a little more than 0% to around 4% (as of early 2025) without risking the capital that you put into those products. Brokerage products have the capability of earning you much more than 4% a year and also open you up to the possibility of earning dividends, which can really accelerate your wealth building process. On the flip side, brokerage products do not guarantee your initial capital so it is possible to lose some, or even all, of your investment. That doesn’t stop millions of people from transacting brokerage business daily and as long as you don’t act foolish you can build a very solid nest egg as long as you exercise the winning traits of patience and discipline.

Continue reading “Opening A Brokerage Account” →

Basic Banking Products

This is the third post in my financial literacy series. The first two posts can be found here and here. In this post I’ll provide overviews of the most basic banking products, which are checking accounts, savings accounts and Certificates of Deposit (CDs). Having an account at a bank is the foundation of wealth building so it’s important to know your options as well as the pros and cons of each product. In this post I lay out those pros and cons. Before I continue I do want to remind you that work on increasing your income as well as living on a reasonable monthly budget are critical in giving you a chance to use any financial tool effectively. So always consider how well you’re addressing your income and budget as part of any solid financial plan.

A checking account is the banking product that is most useful and also most widely used by everyone who earns a living and pays bills. Checking accounts today differ quite a bit from the accounts I dealt with in my post college years due to the advent of debit cards and easy online electronic transfers. The good news is that checking accounts have become much more flexible than they were in years past. Checking accounts allow customers to gain access to their funds in multiple ways, which is the reason why they are best used for the direct deposit of your paychecks and for paying your regular monthly bills. As the name implies checking accounts allow customers access to physical checks that can be written out and given to someone as a form of payment. The honest truth is that in 2025 people don’t write many checks but there are some instances where it’s useful to have access to a check to pay for something. So it’s good to have the option. Much more common with checking accounts are transactions that occur via debit cards tied to your checking account. A debit card can be used like a credit card to pay for something, either in-person or online, using funds from your checking account. In addition, a debit card can be used to withdraw cash at an Automated Teller Machine (ATM). Finally, it’s possible to link your checking account (either directly or via your debit card information) to automatically pay bills online or transfer money. As you can see checking accounts are important because they offer extreme flexibility in terms of moving your money to where it needs to be.

Continue reading “Basic Banking Products” →

Creating And Sticking To A Monthly Budget

My prior post regarding the virtues of attaining financial literacy has energized me to go deeper into the basics of personal finance so that you may benefit from my experiences (including failures) regarding wealth building. Briefly, in my mid-50s I have a net worth approaching $2 million having started from scratch and received no inheritances or large gifts from anyone. I’m 100% debt free and living in a condominium that I own outright. Honestly, 10 years ago (immediately following a difficult divorce) I couldn’t have imagined that I’d be in this financial position, which I’m very happy with. If you would like to know how I got here then please read the next few posts which will be on the topic of personal finance and wealth building. The focus of this post will be the cornerstone of wealth building and that’s your monthly budget. A monthly budget is not a sexy or exciting financial concept for most people. Most people consider a budget to be a financial albatross. Then again, most people are not achieving their financial goals…if they have financial goals at all. This is supported by data from the 2023 Federal Reserve  Report on Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households which revealed (here) that 51% of adults do not have the cash to cover a $400 emergency expense and that 52% of adults have less than $2,000 in savings.  

A good monthly budget that you stick to is the cornerstone of a solid financial plan and a successful financial future. A budget is not a financial albatross. Quite the opposite. It’s a road map to wealth. Follow the budget and you’ll find success. Go off the map and who knows where you’ll end up. People who live without a budget often find that they’re confused as to where their money is going. Eventually they get frustrated with the lack of control they seem to have over their money. This can turn into a vicious cycle where a person who is frustrated decides to avoid really looking at their finances for fear of what they might find out. Which only makes the situation worse. After a certain amount of time things may get so bad that a person either has a breakdown or a break through. I had the latter over 20 years ago. What I know now is that neither of those situations need to occur as long as you embrace the idea that a budget is important and get to work on one. Budgeting can be quite complicated as life becomes more complicated. That’s a great reason to start a budget when life is simple because the practice of maintaining a budget when life is simple and the numbers are small will make maintaining that budget much easier when life is more complicated.

Continue reading “Creating And Sticking To A Monthly Budget” →

Attaining Financial Literacy Is Worth Your Time And Effort

I was recently approached by a family member who wanted my opinion on whether they should hire a financial advisor and give that person the power to make investments on their behalf. This person is relatively young (under 40), had recently been promoted to a higher salary position and is the sole breadwinner for his small family. I asked what prompted the question and he said that some co-workers were advising him on the issue. As a self-made millionaire I definitely have my own thoughts on the topic so I was glad that he came to me for advice before making a decision to turn over his financial future to a paid advisor.

Knowing the basics of his situation, which is a lot like mine was when I was his age, I was able to point out a few things which I think are worth sharing here. First off, it’s worth it early on in your life to invest your own time and effort to understand investing. If for no other reason than there are countless horror stories from people who turned over control of their financial life to an advisor…who then screwed those people over! Bernie Madoff is an infamous name that people will probably recognize and he used a broad, worldwide network of financial advisors to propagate what turned out to be a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme. Most people who invested with those advisors knew nothing of Madoff, but the advisors knew. Those advisors later admitted that they didn’t really know what Madoff was investing in. That’s not to say that all financial advisors are foolish or crooks. Just to point out that if you manage your own investments then you’ll know what you’re invested in and you’ll know that you’re going to act in your own best interests.

Continue reading “Attaining Financial Literacy Is Worth Your Time And Effort” →

The Gifts We Give Ourselves

In the midst of the holiday season thoughts of gifts are in the air. Gifts we’d like to give to others and gifts we’d like to receive from others. But let’s not forget about the gifts that we can, and should, give to ourselves. I’m not speaking of physical gifts, although there’s always something we feel like we could use. I’m talking about the intangible things and those intangible things are some of the most important in terms of quality of life and happiness. I think that most of us feel a bit selfish when we start thinking about ourselves and not wanting to feel selfish we often fight that urge. It’s not selfish at all though to consider how may treat ourselves to something that will improve the quality of our lives.

Continue reading “The Gifts We Give Ourselves” →

Sweating The Small Stuff

Some of you may have heard of a book called Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff written by Richard Carlson. The premise of the book is a very simple one but following the premise is decidedly difficult for most people. For whatever reason we humans tend to get all wrapped up in the little things in our lives (the small stuff) that in the long run don’t make much of a difference. Yet we tend to obsess over them. And that obsession is costly in that we lose focus with regard to the big picture things that truly make a difference in our lives. I’ve tread over this ground before on a post made nearly three years ago titled The One Thing. Recent events, such as having to deal with two hurricanes in Florida, had me thinking once again about the value of staying focused on the big stuff, the stuff that really matters, instead of obsessing over the little things that in the long run don’t make much of a difference in my life.

What is fascinating to me is how dealing with two hurricanes within two weeks of each other reset my mindset to the point where the numerous small worries that I had been dedicating energy to prior to the storms were completely forgotten. After the storms passed the issues were still there but in my mind their importance was practically eliminated. My attitude on these things went from worrying about how to handle the issues to realizing that they’re not such a big deal. For example, I’d been worrying about the age of my car (over 17 years) and whether or not I should upgrade the vehicle. The fact is that my car runs fine and keeping it has been a factor in helping me to build wealth over the years since I haven’t invested in a car payment. Then the storms came and I was so glad that I had a car that ran well and had a full tank of gas so I could evacuate. Then after the storms I was so glad to have a car that didn’t get flooded out like some many people’s cars did. I honestly don’t know why I was fretting over the vehicle in the first place. But I was for sure. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to flip that same switch in our minds without needed to massive hurricanes to affect the change?

Continue reading “Sweating The Small Stuff” →

Travel As A Catalyst For Personal Development

View of an airport runway at night.

One piece of advice that I’ve learned over the years and that I’ll often pass on to people who ask for advice on personal development is the following. Get out of your comfort zone. Being around the people, places and situations where we’re most comfortable is a good thing for a certain amount of time but not always. While growth can occur in comfort we need periods of discomfort to break out of ruts and take significant leaps. One way to get out of your comfort zone is to travel to a place where things are different. Things like the people, the landscape, the weather, the culture, the food and the language. All of those things don’t need to be different for the change to make a difference but the further away you move from your ordinary life the greater the potential for personal growth. Experiencing life as a foreigner and outsider in a new place can offer you a perspective that changes the way you approach everyday life at home. Below I give some examples of how I’ve developed personally via travel.

When I was a kid my parents took the family on what vacations that they could afford, and while it was never anything extravagant it was enough to ignite my sense of adventure. I didn’t understand it then, but early travel within the United States instilled in me a sense of adventure and an understanding that there was a much larger world out there to be explored. A car ride to Montreal. A flight to the Bahamas. A cross-country flight to California. These trips during my middle school years were eye openers and I’m grateful that my parents sacrificed to make them happen. Perhaps it’s because I knew that these trips were a stretch financially that I did not take them for granted. I think those trips also opened my eyes to the possibilities for future travel if I worked hard, earned money and invested that money well. Those early trips were surely a catalyst that drove me to want to be a conscientious worker and successful in my careers. In high school and college I was definitely a dreamer when it came to the possibility of far away places and also the possibilities in life if one were able to build wealth.

Continue reading “Travel As A Catalyst For Personal Development” →

401K Millionaire Advice

I couldn’t believe it when earlier this year I checked my retirement accounts and found that their total value had eclipsed one million dollars. Being a superstitious person (the kind who won’t mention during a game that a pitcher is throwing a no-hitter) I reveled over my fortune for about two minutes and then put it out of my head for a little while. As in for a day when I checked my accounts again after the following days close. Still over a million! The number was exciting to see as the one million dollar amount has been drilled into my head since I was a kid via the culture (with game shows like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?), politicians (always talking about taxing millionaires and having them pay their fair share of taxes) and family (telling stories over coffee and Sambuca about some distant family member or friend who had struck it rich). In practice what a million dollars in my retirement accounts mean to me now is that a) I’m not likely to be eating lots of canned food when I eventually retire; and b) My mantra of patience and discipline when it comes to money is paying off.

Honestly, I’ve been a bit reticent about writing about this milestone for a couple of reasons. First, due to the superstition that I mentioned above. In fact, in the months since the number topped a million there were a couple of stock market dips that took my retirement account values below that mythical threshold. The values have since recovered and are now above one million. Second, because I’m not one to brag about my finances. On the other hand, I’m compelled to write about my situation because I know there are many people who desire to build financial wealth and they would like some insight regarding how it’s done. I also know that I wish I’d had the kind of guidance that I can offer now many years ago as I might even be in a better financial position to day. So (as the kids like to say) no brag, just fact.

Continue reading “401K Millionaire Advice” →

Building A Mansion With Grains Of Sand

So many people want to achieve in life, gain wealth and be recognized for their accomplishments but very few ever come close to achieving the ideas that they have in their heads. I think that’s always been the case but recently I’ve pondered the following question. Why, in a time when we have more tools than ever and more access to knowledge than ever, do so few people achieve anywhere near the levels that they aspire to? I believe that the answer to the question is as follows. They believe they can build a mansion with grains of sand.

Now I’m pretty sure that everyone knows that you can’t build a mansion with grains of sand. So why even try? Well, a person might try if they had become convinced that the grains of sand were cinderblocks. From that point of view their efforts wouldn’t seem so foolish. Still, people have been fooled and it’s worth (to me at least) exploring what’s happening and why. The world today is one where people have become accustomed to sharing every little bit of information about their lives. What they’re having for breakfast. What they’re thinking. What they’re doing or where they are at any given moment. These minute things that once were considered pedestrian are now thought to be spectacular events. People expect, or at least hope, to get strong positive reactions to their everyday mundane activities. And for non-mundane activities such as taking a vacation or going to a fancy party people expect great accolades. That kind of attention is addictive and it devalues the pride one used to feel in obscure efforts that eventually lead to fantastic results.

Continue reading “Building A Mansion With Grains Of Sand” →

Strategies For Managing Mental Health

Have you ever had one of those days, weeks or perhaps years where stress just seemed to build and you wondered when it would end or how you could turn things around? I have and this is something I’ve been thinking about writing about for awhile. I’m not a mental health expert and I’m not qualified to give mental health advice but I do know what my experiences have been like and I’d like to share them. The successes. The failures. And the still working on thems.

We hear a lot about mental health and that’s caused me to become a bit jaded about the subject because I’ve perceived (rightly or wrongly) that society approaches mental health as this thing, this blob that’s a one size fits all issue. I think the reason I feel that way is that so much advice related to mental health starts with, “Talk to someone.” I’ve no doubt that talking things out can help…at times…if it’s the right person…and the right situation. But finding the right person and right situation is not easy, especially if you lead a busy life and have responsibilities. Even then, I see talking as a band-aid that you have to keep replacing on a wound and the wound may or may not get better. It should also be recognized that if you’re in a position where you have to talk a lot every day as it is then more talking may not be so helpful.

Continue reading “Strategies For Managing Mental Health” →