The best way to understand anything that seems complicated is to just try it yourself. I learned how to invest by basically clicking on a bunch of buttons, and I didn’t fully grasp how an ETF works until I attempted to buy one myself. And the second best way? Seeing what someone else did in […]
My Caprani Lamp: Investing in Furniture
After a decade of diligently saving, I’m ready to graduate to PhD-Level Personal Finance. I have investing in companies down pat. I don’t blink twice when the stock market dips. I’ve even broken the rules by buying individual stocks and not regretting it. Fueled by my home upgrade project, this summer I’ve found myself browsing […]
Acorns Review: Is This Investing App Worth It?
I kept forgetting that I have the Acorns app on my phone. I suppose that’s the whole point. That I was investing money without even trying. Go to any personal finance blog and we’ll all tell you why investing is important and why you need to start doing it as of yesterday. But most of […]
Ask Luxe: What Do I Do with My Old 401k (When My New Plan Sucks)?
It’s that time of year when people are thinking about money, because I’ve been getting lots of e-mail lately along the lines of, “Hi Luxe, what would you do if…” I start hammering out a reply, but then I think, hey, I bet other readers are wondering about this same thing. So today I’m test-piloting […]
My Investing Hierarchy: A Breakdown of My Accounts
Recently I came across a statistic that stopped me dead in my tracks: 71% of women and 60% of men keep their money in cash. There are perfectly good reasons why someone might hoard cash, but I have a feeling that for many people, holding money in a savings account can give the illusion of […]
How I Pick My 401k Funds in Just 15 Minutes
A few weeks back, I talked about why we should invest. Today I want to talk about company-sponsored retirement plans, which is how most people dip their toes into investing. Specifically, how I’d go about choosing the investment funds that go into them. Investing in your first 401k (or 403b/457 for nonprofit and government folks) […]
How a Non-Rich Person Started Investing, and Why You Should Start, Too
When I was young, everything I knew about investing I learned from TV. This was how you invested: You call guys in suits to buy a stock, and then they go to the trading floor and yell that order as loud as they can, and somehow the money lands in your account and you become […]