Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Fund a Roth IRA if youre eligible; your money grows tax free for
retirement, and in an emergency you can take your contribution
back without penalty.
#8
Barry Sternlicht: Pay attention to the big themes, because they
are what will help you earn ten times your money.
#9
Back a friend or relatives startup with a convertible loan, so
you share in the upside.
#10
Use commodities as a hedge against inflation.
#11
Raise the deductibles on your auto and home insurance.
#12
Form family limited partnerships to transfer assets at a tax
discount.
#13
Beat death taxes in 20 states by making big gifts while youre
alive.
#14
For simple federal tax-free wealth transfer, make $14,000
annual giftsto children and grandchildren. It wont cut into your
$5.25 million lifetime exemption from gift and estate taxes.
#15
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#24
Dont keep too much in cash equivalentsover time, this
safe investment barely keeps up with inflation.
#25
After setting an asset allocation, rebalance yearly; it forces you
to take profits when stocks have surged and to buy more shares
when theyre cheap.
#26
Benjamin Graham: Adopt simple rules and stick to them.
#27
Buy Bitcoin as a speculation or political statement, not a hedge.
#28
Be a tax-smart investor. Hold taxable bonds in a 401(k) or
IRA. Put individual stocks in taxable accounts so you can sell
losers to harvest tax losses.
#29
Pay attention to the IRS wash sale rule when harvesting capital
losses.
#30
Dont invest in a hedge fund unless its audited results are
reported in compliance with Global Investment Performance
Standards.
#31
Build an emergency fund outside your 401(k).
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#32
For the biggest tax break when donating collectibles to
charity, make sure theyll be displayed and not sold.
#33
Put alternative investments like real estate (but never
collectibles) in your IRA.
#34
Burton Malkiel: All index funds are not created equal. Some
have unconscionably high expenses.
#35
Keep an eye onbut dont obsess overmutual fund fees and
expenses.
#36
Even committed indexers should use actively managed funds to
buy municipal and high-yield bonds and value stocks.
#37
Yield is nice, but total return is the metric that matters.
#38
Gold is overrated as an inflation hedgehistorically, its price
moves are unrelated to inflation.
#39
For inflation protection, buy floating-rate corporate bonds.
#40
Dont let the mood swings of Mr. Market coax you into
speculating.
#41
Beware affinity fraud; find God, not hot investments, at your
church, synagogue or mosque.
#42
Sir John Templeton: The four most dangerous words in
investing are: this time its different.
#43
Dont put more than you can afford to lose into a
crowdfunded deal; startups are always risky, and the new JOBS
Act reduces both paperwork and investor protection.
#44
Dont underrate the importance of liquidity.
#45
Use Quicken or a Web service to track all your finances and see
your big picture.
#46
Use different passwords for each of your online financial
accounts; add optional security questions whose answers cant
be found in your Facebook or LinkedIn profiles.
#47
Write down your passwords and hide them; tell one person
where they are.
#48
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#92
Howard Marks: Rule number one: Most things will prove to be
cyclical. Rule number two: Some of the greatest opportunities for
gain and loss come when other people forget rule number one.
#93
Before remarriage, discuss estate plans.
#94
Track gambling losses to offset taxable gambling winnings.
#95
Confess any tax crimes to a lawyer, not a CPA.
#96
Deduct your yacht loan as mortgage interest on a second
home.
#97
Dont do deals between yourself and your own IRA.
#98
Dont roll your old 401(k) into an IRA if you might face a
lawsuit.
#99
When creating a trust or family limited partnership for asset
protection,dont give it your own name or one obviously
identified with you.
#100
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#128
Discuss any prenuptial agreement way in advance of your
wedding.
#129
Hell hath no fury. Never cheat on your taxes and your spouse at
the same timeexes are a big source of IRS leads.
#130
Dont buy a large amount of a thinly traded stock all at once.
#131
Buy and hold at your own risk.
#133
Dont be afraid to buy into strength.
#134
Its okay to chase performancesometimes.
#135
Burton Malkiel: In the stock market, past is not prologue.
#136
Start a 529 college savings plan for yourself before you have
children. If you dont use it for graduate school, transfer it to your
kid.
#137
Make your kid rich by helping him fund a Roth IRA.
#138
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#173
Be leery of pitches involving a self-directed IRA.
#174
Benjamin Graham: It is absurd to think that the general public
can ever make money out of market forecasts. For who will buy
when the general public, at a given signal, rushes to sell out at a
profit?
#175
Avoid sudden lifestyle changes after a windfall.
#176
Automatically divert money from your paycheck into savings to
the point where it hurts.
#177
Retire to a place without state estate or inheritance taxes.
#178
Benefit from 20/20 stock market hindsight by reversing a Roth
conversion if stocks tank.
#179
Donald Trump: Sometimes your best investments are the ones
you dont make.
#180
Ben Stein: Dont move into a neighborhood of poverty. Avoid any
situation that could leave you with too much unsecured debt.
#181
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#191
Strong stocks tend to stay that way. Buy high and sell higher.
#192
Dont let family wealth become a curse on your children.
#193
Start your kid at the bottom of your business.
#194
Read Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Philip A.
Fisher.
#195
Buy a gift annuity from your alma mater.
#196
John Neff: When you feel like bragging, its probably time to
sell.
#197
Mine your closet for eBay gold.
#198
Mine your network for investment ideas.
#199
Warren Buffett: The risks of being out of the game are huge
compared to the risks of being in it.
#200
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#209
If your spouse is shady, file separate tax returns.
#210
Burton Malkiel: Never buy anything from someone who is out
of breath.
#211
Know when to fire your financial advisor.
#212
Be skeptical of principal protected productsask how much
is guaranteed and at what cost.
#213
Be wary of companies that have gone public in reverse
mergers.
#214
Low-priced stocks arent necessarily cheap.
#215
Make sure a stocks dividends are less than its cash
flow and likely to remain that way.
#216
Warren Buffett: Risk comes from not knowing what youre
doing.
#217
Beware unlisted REITs.
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#218
Save remodeling receipts to add to your homes basis and cut
gains taxes when you sell.
#219
Buy no more house than you can afford.
#220
Dont accept a high property tax assessment of your homeyou
can appeal and talk it down.
#221
Dont assume you should buy a house. Start by calculating rentversus-buy costs for homes in your market.
#222
If you have no time for complexity, diversify your portfolio
with just three mutual funds.
#223
Buy a deferred fixed annuity to make sure you dont outlive
your money.
#224
Build your own ersatz retirement annuity with savings bonds.
#225
Boost income with closed-end, covered call funds.
#226
Burton Malkiel: Trust in time, rather than timing.
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#227
Delay retirement as long as you can.
#228
But dont assume in your planning that you can work full-time
until 70.
#229
Compare insurance costs before choosing a new car model.
#230
Then go shopping for that model at months end.
#231
To save even more, dont own a car, share one.
#232
Hold actively managed mutual fundsthe kind that pass on the
most-short-term gainsin tax-deferred retirement accounts.
#233
Hold real estate in your IRAbut carefully.
#234
Dont let the groupthink of investment clubs cloud rational
investment analysis.
#235
Warren Buffett: Diversification is a protection against
ignorance.
#236
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#245
Warren Buffett: Time is the friend of the wonderful business,
the enemy of the mediocre.
#246
Dont chase yesterdays winners unless theyre still winning.
#247
Purchase own occupation disability insurance.
#248
Remember that market underperformancejust like costs
compounds.
#249
Ramit Sethi: Set up systems to automate desired behaviors.
Leave your gym clothes at the foot of your bed. Have
contributions to savings automatically deducted.
#250
Open a spousal IRA for a stay-at-home husband or wife.
#251
If you work from home, get a rider on your homeowners
insurance policy to protect you if the FedEx man slips.
#252
To maximize college aid, make Roth 401(k) contributions, not
pretax ones, while your kids are in college.
#253
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#270
Get a will. What happens to property if someone dies without
one (intestate) varies by state and might not be what you would
want.
#272
Warren Buffett: No matter how serene today may be, tomorrow
is always uncertain.
#273
Insure your home for its replacement value; buy flood
insurance if theres a risk of water damage.
#274
Scan in your tax records, and keep a copy on the cloud or on
an external drive at work; fires and floods happen.
#275
Keep business and personal expenses separate.
#276
Maintain at least some financial accounts separate from your
spouses.
#277
Peter Lynch: Know what you own and know why you own it.
#278
Have your kid read The Little Book That Beats the Market by
Joel Greenblatt.
#279
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Dont fall for cheap stocks that are really worth even less.
#280
Read the classic Where Are the Customers Yachts? by Fred
Schwed Jr.
#281
Run from a pitchman guaranteeing high returns.
#282
Benjamin Graham: Speculate only with a separate small portion
of your capital.
#283
Snitch on tax cheats and collect a multimillion-dollar IRS
whistle-blower award.
#284
Learn what behavioral economists have found about selfdestructive investor behaviorso you can try to avoid these
common and expensive mistakes.
#285
Understand the risks of using leverage and inverse ETFs,
which rebalance assets daily.
#286
Benjamin Graham: Every nonprofessional who operates on
margin is ipso facto speculating.
#287
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#296
Set up 10% trailing stop-loss orders to avoid unexpected
nosedives in your portfolio.
#297
Barry Sternlicht: You have to be willing to change your mind. If
you are a stubborn mule, youll get killed.
#298
Read Warren Buffetts favorite book, Benjamin
Grahams Intelligent Investor.
#299
Be a vulture investor: Buy distressed bonds at pennies on the
dollar like Marty Whitman and David Tepper.
#300
Pay attention to moving averages. When the 20- or 50-day
average crosses below the 200-day average its bearish.
#301
Monitor the level of fear in the market with the CBOE put/call
ratio and the VIX.
#302
Get tax help if youve got incentive stock optionsthey carry
tax benefits but also a nasty alternative minimum tax trap.
#303
Pay public school tuition for your overachieving teen by getting
steep discounts at great private colleges.
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#304
Dont treat your 401(k) as a piggy bank; youll regret it come
retirement.
#305
Read Money Masters of Our Time by John Train.
#306
Never buy anything from a cold-calling broker.
#307
Be alert for the signs that a bubble is forming.
#308
Use sentiment indicators as contrarian tools.
#309
Dont confuse correlation with causation in markets.
#310
Small-cap stocks with lower price-to-book values tend to
outperform.
#311
Tap an IRAnot a 401(k)without penalty for a first-time home
purchase.
#312
Leave the dollars in a Health Savings Account growing tax
free for retirement while you cover medical deductibles and
copays from your current income.
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#313
Use a flight path approach to asset allocation, raising
your exposure to stocks as you become a more confident investor.
#314
Know your sell rules before you buy.
#315
Read letters of great investors such as Warren Buffett and
Jeremy Grantham online.
#316
Become an online stock researcher.
#317
Beware of asset protection scams.
#318
When stuck paying AMT, accelerate some income.
#319
Rent out your vacation home for two weeks a year, tax free.
#320
Most people dont need a whole life policy; buy a 20-year levelpremium life insurance policy before your first child is born.
#321
Warren Buffett: You only find out who is swimming naked
when the tide goes out.
#322
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Plan.
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