For many families, the idea of stepping back from work in their 30s feels unrealistic. Careers are demanding, kids are young, and financial responsibilities seem endless. But Madison Sharick proves that with early investing, intentional planning, and a clear understanding of priorities, financial flexibility is possible much sooner than most people expect. Madison and her husband, Jake, reached Coast FIRE in their early 30s with just under $1 million invested. That means even if they […]

This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of them, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Please see my full disclosure policy for details. Many budgeting apps try to force you into one way of managing money, with strict rules, popups, or features you never asked for. Lunch Money takes a different approach. It gives you the tools to build a flexible budget that […]

This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of them, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Please see my full disclosure policy for details. If you’ve been looking for a budgeting app to replace Mint or take your financial planning a little deeper, you’ve probably come across Monarch. It’s marketed as an all-in-one budgeting and financial planning tool, and for the most part, it […]

We have some fun news to share at the end of this article, so keep reading to the end find out! Over the holiday break, I was helping a family member do some end-of-year tax planning (I know, we’re THOSE kinds of party animals) when we saw something strange on their 2024 Notice of Assessment. “An excess FHSA amount has been identified based on your contributions and participation room. A tax of 1% per month […]

There’s a popular belief in the investment industry that alpha, or the ability to beat the market, is the thing that you should seek out as an investor. This is perfectly logical. All else being equal, more alpha is always better than less. But, having alpha doesn’t always mean better investment results. Why? Because your alpha is always relative to whatever the market is doing. And if the market isn’t doing well, then alpha won’t necessarily save you. Let me illustrate with an example. Imagine two investors: Alex and Pat. Alex is very skilled and always beats the market by 5% a year. Pat, on the other hand, is a terrible investor and always underperforms the market by 5% a year. If Alex and Pat invested at the same time, Alex would always outperform Pat by 10% per year. But, what if Pat started investing at a different time than Alex? Is there a scenario where Pat could actually outperform Alex despite Alex’s superior skill? Yes! In fact, if Alex had invested in U.S. stocks from 1960-1980 and Pat had invested in them from 1980-2000, it would be Pat who outperformed Alex after 20 years. This is illustrated in the chart below (which I’ve shared before) showing the 20-year real annualized return in U.S. stocks from 1960-1980 compared to the same return from 1980-2000: In this case, Alex earns 6.9% annually [1.9% + 5%] from 1960-1980 while Pat earns 8% annually [13% – 5%] from 1980-2000. Pat outperforms on a total return, inflation-adjusted basis despite being a worse investor. But what if Alex had to go against a real competitor? So far we assumed that Alex’s competition was Pat, someone who underperforms the market by 5% per year. But, in reality, Alex’s actual competition would be an index investor who matches the market return each year. In this scenario, Alex could beat the market by 10% per year from 1960-1980 and he’d still underperform an indexer from 1980-2000! I know that this is an extreme example (i.e., it’s an outlier), but you’d be surprised at how often having alpha leads to underperformance relative to history. The chart below shows how often someone would’ve underperformed an index investor over all 20-year periods from 1871 to 2025 based on the amount of alpha that they have: As you can see, when you have no alpha (0%), the probability of you underperforming an indexer is basically a coin flip (~50%). However, as your alpha increases, you underperform less often because your returns start increasing. But they don’t increase as much as you think. For example, even with 3% annualized alpha over a 20-year period, there is still a 25% chance that you’d underperform an indexer in some other period throughout U.S. market history. Of course, some might argue that relative performance is all that matters, but I disagree. After all, would you rather get the market return in a normal period or lose less money than everyone else (i.e., have positive

The post 3 Worst Performing Dividend Kings in 2025 appeared first on Dividend Power. The Dividend Kings have a positive return in 2025. However, it is the second year in a row they have underperformed the broader market. They are currently up about 4.7%, giving the group their fifth positive return in five years. That said, investor interest in AI-related stocks has led to reduced interest in value, income, and dividend growth equities. The three […]

We started 2025 by signing up for Duolingo to learn a little French for a summer road trip to Quebec. As usual, we ended up going way farther than expected — covering 9,178 miles (14,770 km) from our home in Florida, all the way through Quebec, to the remote province of Labrador and back via Newfoundland! Not only did we get to practice our French, but we found out first-hand where to see the Northern […]

More money doesn’t fix bad money habits. It simply magnifies the ones you already have. Without systems, self trust, and clarity, higher income often creates more stress, not less. The post Why More Money Doesn’t Fix Bad Money Habits (And What Actually Does) appeared first on The Budget Mom.