Author Archives: OnceUSave

Retirement is expensive. It is expensive because the longer we live, the more years we’ll spend in retirement than saving for it. The other way to put it is that we are likely to have spent more years retired than working. The task, hence, is big. Not to mention the fact that there are otherContinue reading “Permission To Spend”

Alice Schroeder in her book, The Snowball describes how Warren Buffett acquired shares in the Coca-Cola company. Buffett had been wanting to buy Coca-Cola shares for quite some time but couldn’t because they never got cheap enough for his taste. The 1987 stock market crash gave him that chance. The world, though, knew who Buffett was so ifContinue reading “Real Investing”

We all pay into the Social Security system through FICA taxes each year. FICA is short for Federal Insurance Contributions Act that also includes paying for Medicare, but we’ll leave that discussion to later. The Social Security system, as designed, is set up as a transfer payment from the folks who are currently working payingContinue reading “Decoding Social Security”

Albert Einstein is a universal symbol of genius. He discovered the theory of relativity, won a Nobel Prize in physics, and made scientific advances in gravity, cosmology, radiation, theoretical physics, statistical mechanics, and quantum theory. So, wouldn’t an investor be blessed to have the smarts like his? Einstein lost his life savings – including his Nobel PrizeContinue reading “The Right Process & A Good-Enough Plan”

Tim Urban in one of his posts, The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence, attempts to measure the accelerating rate of human progress through something called the Death Progress Units (DPU). Take George Washington for example, our first president and likely a very curious dude from the mid-eighteenth century and say we transport him to today. But imagine hisContinue reading “Reinvesting Dividends Sets You Free”

Johnny Depp was once the highest paid actor with a net worth of $650 million1. In 2017, he filed a lawsuit against his business managers accusing them of stealing all his wealth and leaving him penniless. His managers countersued claiming that Depp spent $2 million a month maintaining his lavish lifestyle that included spending $500,000Continue reading “Investing Your Retirement Savings”

You know the end of working for a paycheck is coming but when you are in your 20s, that end seems so far that it might not as well come. Plus, life has a way of getting in the way. But then you wake up one day when you are 45 and you start toContinue reading “Never Too Late”

I get to listen to the radio sometimes and I still find (unfortunately) a plethora of shows where people call in to ask whether a given stock is a buy, sell, or hold. So, think about this. You call into a radio show to talk to a stranger, okay a professional stranger, who knows nothingContinue reading “Technical Analysis Is For Suckers”

I wish we would see a day when a majority women are at the helm of our businesses and the markets. I wish child-rearing, toddler-totting mothers someday rule Wall Street and investment houses across the globe. Consider me biased being a dad to two beautiful daughters but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that corroboratesContinue reading “Women Make Better Investors”

The stock and the bond markets are the most efficient places to invest your savings. Owning stocks means owning pieces of businesses while owning bonds means becoming a lender to the same businesses or sometimes to the governments. In case a business goes bankrupt, the bondholders get paid first before the stockholders get anything. ButContinue reading “Most Mistakes Happen In The Tails”