When my Father-in-Law asks a timely question about passive index fund investing, it surely means many of you have the same question. And it’s regarding a unique scenario unfolding due to the upcoming SpaceX IPO on Friday, June 12th. It is the largest IPO in history, and it’s going to impact your retirement portfolio. How… The post Will the SpaceX IPO Break Your Index Funds? appeared first on Retire Before Dad.

Sometimes there’s a world of nuance hiding inside things we barely notice. Kind of like the Dr. Seuss book, Horton Hears a Who!, where Horton the Elephant discovers Whoville, an entire microscopic city that exists on a floating speck of dust. Well, this article is about one of those nuanced topics many people never think much about — but those of us in retirement planning think about all the time. Bonds. And as many retirees […]

Sometimes I want to do an exercise and record it in MapMyFitness, but MapMyFitness doesn’t have that particular exercise. So I choose the next-closest exercise. For instance, sometimes I ruck – I walk around the neighborhood wearing a backpack with weights. (I use a HYPERWEAR® Rucking Backpack with Yes4All Rucking Weights). In those cases, I choose the next closest activity – in the case of rucking, I choose one of Hiking, Light or No Pack, […]

Why we misunderstand odds and why it matters Everyone has a weakness. A blind spot. A vulnerability. For Achilles, it was his heel. Superman had kryptonite. Ted Williams struggled with pitches low and away. But what about the average person? I often think our Achilles heel is our inability to understand probabilities. And increasingly, it’s making us more stressed than ever. I was reminded of this recently after speaking with a young man who is […]

The cost of even a small repair makes car insurance nice to have. When we start adding in the medical expenses that can go with a car accident, insurance becomes downright necessary. In many states, insurance is even a legal requirement before you can drive your car out on the road. But a wide variety of options are available when it comes to insurance—there are actually seven different types of car insurance you can choose […]

In this episode, I sit back down with Cody Berman, entrepreneur, real estate investor, and author of the book Retire by 30. Cody first came on the podcast in 2018 at 22 years old. By 25, he had reached financial independence through scalable online businesses, strategic real estate, and intentional spending. He quit a corporate banking job after seven months, tried over 30 side hustles, and grew his income from $96K to over $400K in […]

Living on your own comes with new expenses, so you must prepare your finances ahead of time. Independence is a fantastic thing, but enjoying that new freedom can be more expensive than you think. Here is how to prepare your budget for moving out. The post How to Budget Moving Out for the First Time appeared first on The Budget Mom.

I’m still doing a some catching up with sharing budget updates. Thankfully, I keep our budget pretty well up-to-date in YNAB even if I’m slow to post the updates on my website. We’ve had some financial challenges recently (with more on the horizon) that have had me feeling stressed. Still, the thought of facing these challenges without a budget would make my stress level go through the roof. In good times and bad, I thankful […]

When I was looking for another no-fee cash back credit card because my beloved MBNA World Elite Mastercard was no longer attractive anymore, I was very close to getting the Tangerine Money-Back credit card and it was considered in one of the 5 alternatives I … Read moreTangerine Money-Back Credit Card Review: Is It Worth It? The post Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card Review: Is It Worth It? appeared first on Genymoney.ca.

Is it okay to give nominal bonds the boot? Can they just be replaced wholesale by index-linked bonds, thus solving the glaring weakness of the 60/40 portfolio at a stroke? “What’s the glaring weakness again?” .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 our membership plans and consider joining! Already a member? Sign in here. The post Bond death […]

Divorce is more than a legal process—it’s a full life reset. Even when it’s the right decision, even when it’s amicable on both sides, it can leave you feeling untethered. The routines, assumptions, and plans you once relied on have dramatically changed—sometimes all at once. And in the middle of all of that, there’s a very real, very practical question underneath it all: What happens to my finances now? You might be sorting through paperwork, […]

Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and U.S. service academy graduates have unique rules when it comes to earning the Post 9/11 GI Bill. While the valuable education program provides the same benefits, the initial service commitment for ROTC or the service academy does not count towards PGIB entitlement. ROTC and academy grads can still earn… | Read More… The post Post 9/11 GI Bill for Academy and ROTC Grads appeared first on KateHorrell.

This week SpaceX is having its initial public offering (IPO) where it plans to raise $75 billion at a $1.77 trillion valuation. Anthropic and OpenAI have their own IPO plans for later this year. With these highly valued companies coming to market, there’s been a lot of discussion around how index providers will include them in their funds. Index funds are governed by a set of inclusion criteria which determine which stocks can be added to a particular index and when. For example, historically the Russell 1000 only added a stock to its index if at least 5% of its overall shares were available to trade (i.e., 5% float). However, since SpaceX’s IPO is only offering around 4% of its overall shares into the float, FTSE Russell decided to modify their inclusion criteria. Nasdaq also made changes to its inclusion criteria to fast-track larger IPOs after just seven days of being listed rather than on an annual basis in December. The good news is that not all index providers are changing their rules to fast-track SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI into their funds. S&P Global recently stated that “there will be no changes to existing methodology” for their large and megacap index funds. In other words, SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI will need to be public for 12 months and hit certain profitability metrics before they can be considered for the S&P 500 (and similar megacap funds). Nevertheless, some investors are up in arms with Nasdaq and FTSE Russell. They believe that the purpose of the recent rule changes is to force index investors to buy companies like SpaceX at elevated prices. In other words, some believe that index investors are being used as exit liquidity. I see the argument, but how much does this really impact the typical index investor? Let’s find out. How Much Will SpaceX Impact the Typical Index Investor? When an index provider adds a new stock to their fund, the weighting is determined based on the float of the stock, or the total value of all shares publicly available to trade. In this case, SpaceX should have a float of around $75 billion. This is the amount of money the company plans to raise at its IPO. So, for a fund like VTI (Vanguard’s Total U.S. Stock Market Index), which tracks a U.S. market worth around $70 trillion, SpaceX would represent about 0.11% of the index. But not every index does a simple weighting based on float. For example, Campbell Harvey noted how the Nasdaq 100 changed a rule to weight SpaceX at 3x their float, or around $270 billion in Harvey’s estimation. Given that the Nasdaq 100 has a total market capitalization of around $40 trillion, SpaceX would make up roughly 0.68% of the index. In dollar terms, for every $100,000 invested in VTI, $110 would be in SpaceX. And for every $100,000 invested in QQQ (i.e., the Nasdaq 100), $680 would be in SpaceX. This isn’t a lot in the grand scheme of things, but