Free Money Finance

Posts of the Week

Here's my weekly dose of interesting articles from around the web:

• Dreaming of a Vacation Home In Retirement? Here's a Reality Check -- I used to want a vacation home. Then I thought of all the expense, maintenance, and on and on. It really seems like more of a hassle than anything. So while I may move to a vacation area, I don't see myself owing a second house in a vacation area.
• The Reality of The Overnight Success…It’s 10 Years in the Making! -- I LOVED the idea behind this post. So many people look at those who are successful and assume it's been easy and quick to get where they are. In reality, success in any area of life generally takes years and years of hard work. It's no different with money management.
• The World’s Smallest Ukulele -- HA! I loved this post as it features millionaires complaining because they are being pushed around by billionaires. It was an interesting story I thought you'd enjoy as well.
• And to round out this week it seems like I missed Be a Millionaire Day last week. Do they have a special day for literally anything you can think of?

That's it for this week! Enjoy!

Requests Every Day

I'm still getting emails requesting access to the new blog.

So, as promised, I'm posting here again until no one asks for the site's address.

If you want an email sent to you with my new site listed, simply leave a comment below like "please send me the URL to your new site". Include your email address in the email box when you leave your comment. I will get both the message and the email address, but no one else will be able to see the email address (no one wants their email to be public, right?)

As a reminder why I'm sending emails instead of simply announcing the new site, you can see my reasons here.

Posts of the Week: Living on Nothing, Dividend Investing, Financial Freedom, and Retiring Abroad

Here's my weekly dose of interesting articles from around the web:

• Here's a contradiction. First, there's This Is What It’s Like To Live On $2 A Day about how hard it is to live on $2 per person per day. Then there's Heidemarie Schwermer, Who Doesn’t Need Money, a piece about a woman who doesn't use money at all. Uhhhhhhh......
• The 8 Rules of Dividend Investing - This is more of an ad than a post, but the rules seem good to me. I'm interested in dividend investing so I found the article worth a read.
• Do You Think About Financial Freedom? - Ask yourself this question, "How would you spend your remaining years if money weren’t an issue?"
• 9 Great Properties to Retire Abroad - I've considered retiring overseas and may actually do it one day!

That's it for this week! Enjoy!

Index Funds, Retiring Early, and Real Estate Investing

Here's my weekly dose of interesting articles from around the web:

• Warren Buffett’s Bet with Hedge Funds - Here's the quote from the Wall Street Journal: “Mr. Buffett showed a chart comparing the cumulative returns of the two sides of the bet since 2008. As of the end of 2015, the S&P 500 index fund had a cumulative return of 65.7%, outdoing the hedge fund team’s 21.9% return. The S&P has outperformed in six of the eight individual years of the bet too. The chart was preamble to the real point Mr. Buffett wanted to make: that passive investors can do better than “hyperactive” investments handled by consultants and managers who charge high fees.” Costs matter. And they are one of the main reasons I invest using index funds. For a bit of a spin on this same issue, see When Mediocrity Trumps Brilliance and 4 ways Vanguard lowers the cost of investing.
• Retiring After 65 May Help People Live Longer - Talk about dashing my hopes of early retirement! :) Seriously, am I going to limit my life span if I retire early?
• How to Invest in Real Estate without Buying Property - You know how once you become aware of a topic you start to see posts about it all over the web? That's me and real estate crowdfunding right now. In addition to this piece, I ran into Part 1: The State of the Union in Real Estate Crowdfunding recently. Is someone trying to tell me to invest this way?

That's it for this week! Enjoy!

New Posts at FMF

Here's something that FMF fans might be interested in...

As many of you know, I have started a new website. On that site, I post more in-depth articles. They are longer than what was usually posted on FMF and generally much more detailed. I like the format as it makes the pieces more thoughtful IMO.

That said, I do miss a few things about the "here's a quick quote and my top three thoughts" sort of posts that were the majority of what was on FMF. And as I'm looking at posts and ideas for the new site, I'm finding more and more articles that I simply want to make a quick comment on -- not write an entire piece about. I'm also seeing other articles that I'd just like to point to and say "check this out -- I liked it." But neither of these sorts of posts will work on the new site.

So...I'm going to start posting the short stuff on FMF. They will be concise, more opinion pieces or even simply links to great articles I've found elsewhere. For now I'll just do it once a week on Mondays and we'll see how it goes from there.

So with that said, here are a few posts I found interesting:

• Side Hustle (FAIL): Becoming a Sperm Donor -- I laugh out loud just about every time I read Budgets are Sexy. J. Money just has such a different take on money (and life) than I do that I find his voice refreshing. And this post in particular was both humorous as well as informative (what a process these donors have to go through!)
• Blogging For A Living: How Much Can You Really Make Online? -- Financial Samurai is currently my favorite blog to read for my personal education. Sam and I are at similar wealth levels. He's ahead of me, but just enough I can learn and apply what he has to say to what I'm doing. This post is a great insight into how a person can build a blog from $0 to $175k per year in four years (which I'm certainly up for). :)
• Real Estate Crowdfunding Experiment #1: Patch of Land Final Update -- This piece interested me because I'm thinking of investing in RE Crowdfunding myself, so it's good to hear about someone else's experience. It's really not that much different than P2P lending as you're not investing in real estate but simply making a loan. The difference is that this is a loan for an investment and you have some collateral versus a loan to consolidate credit, buy a car, etc. I'll be watching this industry and may jump in to see how well it performs for me.

That's it for now. Hope you enjoy!