Save, invest, prosper with My Own Advisor. Weekend Reading – How to think about bonds Well hello and welcome to some new Weekend Reading, about bonds and how to think about bonds. First up, some recent reads in case you missed them! Kudos to BMO and commission-free investing! BMO InvestorLine now offers commission-free stock and ETF trading Here is the drawdown order… Early retiree thanks to DIY investing in stocks and ETFs. The article Weekend […]

Next weekend we are having another (sold out) FIRE meetup. Nicely timed on October 31st, which happens to be Halloween! So we just had to do the theme “financial horror stories”. With fraud, investment mistakes and taxes, obviously. I’ve been busy, together with Mrs Hoefnix, to prepare an opening presentation of said horror stories. But we can always use more, and preferably, stories from you! Financial Fuck-ups Financial fuck-ups are entertaining, especially when they don’t happen to you. I’ve made my fair share of them. Like evaporating about €10.000 using Turbo’s (leveraged products) back in 2009, yes, this was well before we discovered responsible investing via the FIRE community. This was, as far as financial mistakes go, painful. It also discouraged me from investing for a few years. There was also buying a house that was way too big for what we needed, evaporating thousands in financing, maintenance and insurance costs, and property taxes of course! This might actually have been more expensive than the Turbo fiasco. There were also cars, motorcycles and other toys (full size pool table, which we used 10 times, anyone?). Fun stuff, financially not the smartest decisions, but not full sized financial fuck-ups either. Fortunately! But things can go horribly wrong. Like with Charles. Who lost his entire retirement account, which was filled with just Enron stocks back in 2001. A portfolio that was worth $1.3M a it’s peak. ouch. Or this story about a couple that got defrauded out of $270.000 in Australia via a crypto-scam. Reddit is also entertaining. Student loan stories are also painful to read. Especially as people work their way into debt, in the hope of a better paying job, which then doesn’t exist and so they sink further into debt. We are talking $200k+ debt here! Still happy to live in the Netherlands, albeit it’s going up quick here too. Your stories But we also want to hear from you! What horror stories can you share with us. Anonymous if you want! Can be first hand, of from family or acquaintances, as long as the story is true and real. If you have something for us, let us know! If you do have something, please use the below format, that we be appreciated: What went wrong? Why did it go wrong and what were the consequences? How was it solved? (Assuming it is solved. If not, how should it be solved?) What was the lesson learned? (And how are you or the main character doing these days?) You can leave this as a comment, or send us an email (see here). Thanks for you help! After the meetup we will do a write up of the presentation and the shared stories. Have a great weekend! The post Horror Stories appeared first on Cheesy Finance.

What caught my eye this week. Weekend Reading – featuring the week’s best money and investing articles from around the web – can be read by any logged-in Monevator member. Alternatively please subscribe to our free email newsletter to get future editions direct to your inbox. The post Weekend reading: When I’m telling myself I’m not really 64 appeared first on Monevator.

Welcome back to my series on the great retirement book The Retire Sooner Method: The 5 Secrets Behind America’s Happiest (and Unhappiest) Retirees. So far we’ve had the following posts in this series: The Retire Sooner Method: Overview The Retire Sooner Method: Overview, Part 2 The Retire Sooner Method: Secret #1, The Money Green Zone The Retire Sooner Method: Secret #1, The Money Green Zone, Part 2 The Retire Sooner Method: Secret #2, Core Pursuits […]

In 2017, Christopher Tan of Providend said a retirement plan needs three things: a lifelong income, a fully paid house and medical insurance. I turned those three into a 16-bit RPG called FIRE Fantasy. Watch the demo. The post Distilling Retirement Plans To The Irreducible Minimum: From Dreams Into Reality appeared first on Turtle Investor.

I’ve now been on the road for two weeks. And nothing has gone according to plan. From Day 1. If you follow me on social media, you know that tragedy struck my family hard two weeks ago. Unexpectedly, devastatingly hard. The whole planned trip got cancelled or rather rerouted, repurposed, and rearranged 4 hours into our drive away from home. And my whole family is still reeling. The loss is so hard. My brother died. The eldest of my three brothers is gone. Forever. Instead of a “getting dad back into the world” road trip. It became a find out what happened, plan a service, say good bye to someone who is gone far too early trip. And then clean up. It’s one thing to say good bye to someone whose time it is, who is sick, who is ready. It’s another to be shocked at a death with absolutely so forewarning and so many questions. Questions, we may never have answers too. And even I, who can always find a silver lining, find some hope, see an adventure in a hardship…I can’t, in this. And if dealing with the loss of my mom and the “estate” type stuff the last 4 months wasn’t enough, now wading into that with my brother to help my dad. It’s a whole different story. Lots of other players, decision makers, influencers. It’s hard, so hard. Especially when what we really want is answers to so many unanswered questions. Death is expensive. Mind blowingly expensive. How in the world do people afford these services? Please plan for it. Even if it’s not expected. Maybe especially if it’s not expected. Tell your loved ones your desires for your body, your service, your stuff. Your memory. Don’t leave things unsaid. Forgive. While my day to day life may not be changing. My heart and mind are changed forever. Hope’s Brother – Micah My brother’s obituary: https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/katy-tx/micah-huckaby-13076404 The “trip” will end a week earlier than planned. Dad did make it to his high school reunion. In fact, he’s there as I’m writing this. We all encouraged him to attend seeing it’s probably the last time he will see many of these people and he’s so been looking forward to it. I am getting to check on my storage unit for the first time in over a year. And see my daughters for a couple of days. But the work has just begun. Lots of “stuff” to sort. And lot’s of grief…so much grief. And we await the autopsy report. With hope and dread. This isn’t supposed to happen…to anyone. The post Sudden Tragedy appeared first on Blogging Away Debt.

After spiking to 40 year highs in 2021 and 2022 because of the pandemic, inflation had been settling down a bit the last few years. Unfortunately, as a result of the Iran war and its impact on the price of oil (which is integrated into practically everything we buy), inflation has begun rearing its ugly head again. As a result, the Fed is unlikely to be lowering rates anytime soon. Higher rates are bad if you’re a borrower, but they’re great if you’re a saver. With the latest inflation rates, we can now calculate what we think Series I bond rates will be when they reset in November. First, if you’re wondering how Series I bonds work, we explain it all after the rate calculation. We start with what the rate is expected to be when it adjusts in November followed by how Series I bonds work: Table of Contents💸 November 2026 Interest Rate Prediction: 5.41%💸 May 2026 Interest Rate: 4.26%What Are Series I Bonds?Tax ConsiderationsHow Are Interest Rates Calculated?Interest Compounds SemiannuallyHow To Predict Series I Bond Interest RatesWhen Should You Buy Series I Bonds? 🔃 Updated October 2026 with the predicted Series I Savings bond rates for November 2026 now that latest inflation data has been published. The predicted rate for the bonds sold in November will be 5.41% for the first 6 months. 💸 November 2026 Interest Rate Prediction: 5.41% [embed]https://youtube.com/watch?v=Mp8jlHf-c6o&feature=oembed[/embed] With the September inflation figures out from the BLS, we can now predict what the inflation rate will be for Series I bonds issued November 2026 through April 2027. With the March 2026 CPI-U of 330.213 and a September 2026 CPI-U of 336.940, we have a semi-annual inflation rate of 2.04%, which means the inflation-adjusted variable rate will be 4.08% – up from 3.34%. We won’t know what the fixed portion will be until Treasury announces it on November 1st, but as we’ve learned from reading Tipswatch, it tends to track with the 5-year TIPS. Take the average real yield of the 5-year TIPS over the preceding six months and multiply by 0.65. With 5-year real yields averaging right around 2%, that gives us 1.30% – a big jump from 0.90% – and it’s close enough to the line that 1.40% is possible. If we assume a fixed rate of 1.30%, the composite rate would be 5.41%. If it comes in at 1.40%, the composite rate would be 5.51%. As always, you can peek at EyeBonds.info to see how the inflation rate changes impact your specific bonds based on its fixed rate. Should you buy in October? If you buy before November 2026, you get the fixed rate of 0.90% while earning the May-October 2026 variable rate of 3.34% – this means you will be earning at the 4.26% annual rate for six months. Then, after six months, your variable rate will increase to 4.08% and you’ll earn 5.00%. If you wait until November, you’ll earn about 5.41% for the first six months and,

After years of saving, it can feel reassuring to know you have enough set aside for a major purchase or an unexpected expense. You can look at your account balances, decide what you can comfortably afford, and begin making plans.   Choosing where to take the money from deserves a little more thought. You may have several accounts available, each with a different tax treatment. Even within the same account, the cost of a withdrawal can […]