Don’t miss an episode of our podcast, Personal Finance for Long-Term Investors. Tune in on: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Now, here’s today’s article: I’ve struggled with this concept. I’ve seen many others struggle with it, too. Step 1: We discover a new shiny idea (…Roth conversions! …Small-cap value investing! …Qualified charitable distributions!) Step 2: This idea’s shiny appeal catapults it to the top of our priority list. Step 3: Blinded by the light, we mistakenly overemphasize this new idea to the detriment of the big picture. In various fields, this is called a “novelty effect” or “novelty bias.” It affects long-term investors and DIY financial planners, too, as they contemplate retirement and other long-term goals. What if, instead, we had a simple, prioritized list of ideas that long-term investors ought to consider? Something that wipes away bias and cuts straight to the facts. We need an “order of operations” that ensures you focus on the most important things first, before getting to the shiny new idea. Math has “PEMDAS.” Personal finance has “FOO” – the “financial order of operations.” And what we’re about to do here is “FOO-adjacent,” but much more specific to long-term investors, retirement planning and portfolio construction. The Long-Term Investor’s Order of Operations I believe that if you follow this list in order, you’ll be a better long-term investor. Don’t commit too much energy to a lower topic until all the upper topics are fully addressed. Step 1: Invest I know, I know… we start with a stunning revelation: the most important step in investing is “invest.” But the truth is, many people get caught up in small details before they’ve invested enough to make those details matter. Your stock/bond allocation doesn’t matter if you only have $100 sitting in an account. The single biggest dial you can turn is how much you choose to invest. Consider making consistent investment deposits over time (aka “dollar cost averaging.”). Focus on your savings rate, lifestyle inflation, and career capital. Step 2: Control Your Temperament Warren Buffett said, “Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing.” Despite what many people think about investing, behavior dominates math. Simple steps, like automated investing and rules-based rebalancing, can be vital. We all possess biases (loss aversion, recency bias, anchoring) that can derail us. Long-term returns are achieved by staying invested during crashes, avoiding panic selling, avoiding speculative manias, thinking long-term, and choosing process over prediction. The math is straightforward. Controlling the broad spectrum of human emotion is far more challenging. Step 3: Risk Assessment & Asset Allocation Asset allocation describes splitting your portfolio across broad asset types like stocks, bonds, real estate, cash, etc. Determining a proper asset allocation is related to your personal time horizon and “need,

I don’t know about you, but when I’m confronted with a technology poised to vapourise vast tracts of the economy, to put hundreds of millions out of work, and ultimately to preserve the dregs of human society in a genius robot’s version of an ant farm, well… I look to profit. .memberful-global-teaser-content p:last-child{ -webkit-mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent); mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent); } This article can be read by selected Monevator members. Please see […]

The post 3 Dividend Growth Stocks for February 2026 appeared first on Dividend Power. It’s the end of February, and Valentine’s Day was on everyone’s mind. People bought candy, cards, flowers, jewelry, and clothing, and ate out at restaurants.  The National Retail Federation estimates consumers will spend a record $29.1 billion on Valentine’s Day this year. As a result, companies providing these products and services can make suitable investments.  Moreover, they often have market leadership and scale […]

The best time to open a retirement account is when you first start working. But what if you’re not even an adult yet? Great news! Kids and teens with earned income can still save for retirement. Read on to learn more about why and how you might want to help your kids open a custodial Roth IRA with Vanguard. Why Open a Custodial Roth IRA The short answer to why you should open a custodial […]

If you file your taxes as Married Filing Jointly or a Qualifying Widower in 2026 then your income… The post Traditional and Roth IRA Income Limits for 2026 appeared first on Part-Time Money.

This is what dividend investing is all about!  Investing in dividend stocks allows YOU to earn dividend income, the best passive income stream!  Bias, you better believe it. Time to dive into Lanny’s December 2025 dividend income results!  Were records set?  Almost to financial freedom?  One day and one month at a time! (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Dividend Income Dividend Income is the fruit from the labor of investing your money in the stock […]

Two books sat on my reading list for very different reasons. Both ended up teaching me the same lesson. The Great Depression: A Diary by Benjamin Roth is a quiet, intimate account—a lawyer in Youngstown, Ohio, documenting his observations and financial decisions from 1929 through the 1940s. His diary entries are remarkable for their immediacy and honesty. 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History by Andrew Ross Sorkin is the opposite in style—sweeping, […]

It was a tumultuous week for the U.S. markets. And it’s been a wobbly 2026. U.S. stocks are down over the last week, month and year-to-date. Of course, Canadian and International equities greatly outperformed the U.S. market in 2025. The U.S. Dollar has been in ‘free fall’ as well. We keep hearing about the ‘great rotation’ out of U.S. equities and more specifically out of U.S. AI and tech stocks. We don’t know if this […]