New Teacher (Financial) Orientation

I've been doing some financial presentations for educators in various Colorado school districts. As part of the intro to my presentation I reference the fairly typical "90-minute New Employee Orientation" that school districts often provide for new teachers and that, while these are well-intentioned, they usually fall woefully short of what they could (and should) … Continue reading New Teacher (Financial) Orientation

Spend Now or Spend (More) Later

In my financial literacy class for teachers we spend a lot of time discussing the balance between spending money now and saving in order to spend money in the future. And I want to be perfectly clear, this is an important balance to achieve. Some folks (myself included) may delay gratification too much, always saving … Continue reading Spend Now or Spend (More) Later

Our Current Portfolio and Recent Returns

Last April I shared our portfolio and some of the different ways we look at it. I thought it might be nice to update it each January. That previous post has a bit more descriptive verbiage, so refer back to it if you need to. Asset Location Like many people, by necessity we have our … Continue reading Our Current Portfolio and Recent Returns

Fidelity: One Account to Rule Them All (including checking and savings)?

Update 6-25-24: I originally posted this in August of 2023. At that time, the Cash Management Account (CMA) at Fidelity only allowed you to put your "core position" in an FDIC-insured bank account that was paying around 2.7%. Since Fidelity's brokerage account's core position was a Money Market paying around 4.9%, that was my recommendation. … Continue reading Fidelity: One Account to Rule Them All (including checking and savings)?

Why You Should (and How To) Transfer Your HSA to Fidelity

I've written previously about why I think an HSA is not only great in general, but is especially great if you have the ability to use it as a stealth retirement account. But for folks who want to use it this way, the HSA provider that they are with is not always the optimal choice. … Continue reading Why You Should (and How To) Transfer Your HSA to Fidelity