Invest with Wesley

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Your credit score is one of the most important measures of your financial health. It tells lenders at a glance how responsibly you use credit. The better your score, the easier you will find it to be approved for new loans or lines of credit. A higher credit score can also open the door to the lowest available interest rates when you borrow. If you'd like to improve your credit score, there are a number of simple things you can do. It takes a bit of effort and, of course, some time. Here’s a step-by-step guide to achieving a better credit score.

https://youtu.be/ZQ8PDyt5lVs

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Make sure you pay at least the minimum balance due on time.

Pay down your credit card balances to keep your overall credit use low.

Don’t close old credit card accounts or apply for too many new ones.

Review Your Credit Reports

To improve your credit, it helps to know what might be working in your favor (or against you). That’s where checking your credit history comes in.

Pull a copy of your credit report from each of the three major national credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You can do that for free once a year through the official AnnualCreditReport.com website. Then review each report to see what’s helping or hurting your score.

Factors that contribute to a higher credit score include a history of on-time payments, low balances on your credit cards, a mix of different credit card and loan accounts, older credit accounts, and minimal inquiries for new credit. Late or missed payments, high credit card balances, collections, and judgments are major credit score detractors.

Check your credit report for errors that could drag down your score and dispute any you spot so they can be corrected or removed from your file.

Get a Handle on Bill Payments

More than 90% of top lenders use FICO credit scores, and they’re determined by five distinct factors:

Payment history (35%)

Credit usage (30%)

Age of credit accounts (15%)

Credit mix (10%)

New credit inquiries (10%)

As you can see, payment history has the biggest impact on your credit score. That is why, for example, it’s better to have paid-off debts, such as your old student loans, remain on your record. If you paid your debts responsibly and on time, it works in your favor.

So a simple way to improve your credit score is to avoid late payments at all costs. Some tips for doing that include:

Creating a filing system, either paper or digital, for keeping track of monthly bills

Setting due-date alerts, so you know when a bill is coming up

Automating bill payments from your bank account

Another option is charging all (or as many as possible) of your monthly bill payments to a credit card. This strategy assumes that you’ll pay the balance in full each month to avoid interest charges. Going this route could simplify bill payments and improve your credit score if it results in a history of on-time payments.

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How To Increase Your Credit Score:

https://youtu.be/bYHymMtm66I

Payment history (35%)

Credit usage (30%)

Age of credit accounts (15%)

Credit mix (10%)

New credit inquiries (10%)

So a simple way to improve your credit score is to avoid late payments at all costs. Some tips for doing that include:

Creating a filing system, either paper or digital, for keeping track of monthly bills

Setting due-date alerts, so you know when a bill is coming up

Automating bill payments from your bank account

Many of the best credit monitoring services can also help you prevent identity theft and fraud. For example, if you get an alert that a new credit card account that you don’t remember opening has been reported to your credit file, you can contact the credit card company to report suspected fraud.

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https://youtu.be/QAClSzxthRk

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Starting your own personal bank, using the infinite banking concept, all WITHOUT Whole Life Insurance!

https://youtu.be/dq-tDEeYJpI

What Is Cash Flow Banking, and How Does It Become Your Own Personal Bank?

Cash flow banking is leveraging cash value in a whole life insurance policy to self-finance, make purchases, make investments, or to create free cash flow. Cash flow banking can provide you access to capital without having to go through the traditional loan process at a bank. Normally when you take out a loan from the bank or another financial institution, you are required to make payments, which include interest and principal, until the loan is paid back in full. Leveraging money against life insurance cash value is similar to a line of credit because it is interest only. All you are required to pay is the interest. You are never required to pay back the principal.

Cash flow banking gives you options about how you manage your finances. When you have been funding a cash value life insurance policy, you will have access to money that you can borrow on a moment’s notice. The “loan” comes from the insurance company’s general fund and it is fully collateralized by your policy. Because the loan is fully collateralized it gives you lots of flexibility to use the money you’ve borrowed. All you’re required to pay on the loan is the annual loan interest. You have full control as to when and if you make principal repayments. Having a loan out against your policy does not negatively affect the guaranteed growth of the policy.

How to Create Cash Flow: Using Life Insurance for Cash Flow Banking

To build your “personal cash flow bank” you’ll start with a whole life insurance policy. Some people are hesitant to opt for whole life insurance policies because the premiums are typically higher than term insurance. However, term insurance doesn’t allow you to build cash value. Plus, these higher premiums are essential to building cash value. Without significant cash value, you can still have a useful life insurance policy. But you won’t have the added benefits of available cash value or building a significant financial legacy for your family. A whole life insurance policy provides you with a death benefit to cover traditional life insurance needs, as well as the increased cash flow that provides the benefits we just covered.

To start cash flow banking, you’ll need to craft the correct whole life insurance policy. Opting for dividends and a paid-up addition rider are two of the most important insurance features for increasing cash flow. As you pay premiums, you accumulate cash value in your policy that can then be “borrowed” against to fund anything from a house to a college education. Additionally, money from a life insurance policy has tax advantages, which makes whole life insurance a strong policy to start a cash flow bank.

The Advantages of Cash Flow Banking

Using a cash flow bank system allows you to increase, use and enjoy your wealth now and create a financial legacy for your family after you die. Cash flow banking, also known as ‘infinite banking,’ is possible because you can use your policy as collateral similar to the way you can use other assets for collateral—like your home. A personal cash flow bank allows you to create a strategy for your finances that has guaranteed growth with little risk. Here at Life Benefits, we teach how to fully utilize a whole life insurance plan to cultivate a legacy for your family that you can use now and for years to come.

If you’re deciding whether or not to adopt this strategy, our ebook, “Understanding the Infinite Banking Concept,” answers all the typical questions you probably have.

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Stagflation is characterized by slow economic growth and relatively high unemployment—or economic stagnation—which is at the same time accompanied by rising prices (i.e. inflation). Stagflation can also be alternatively defined as a period of inflation combined with a decline in gross domestic product (GDP).

https://youtu.be/FSSagX8mNSo

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Stagflation refers to an economy that is experiencing a simultaneous increase in inflation and stagnation of economic output.

Stagflation was first recognized during the 1970's, where many developed economies experienced rapid inflation and high unemployment as a result of an oil shock.

Prevailing economic theory at the time could not easily explain how stagflation could occur.

Since the 1970's, rising price levels during periods of slow or negative economic growth have become somewhat of the norm rather than an exceptional situation.

1:18

Stagflation

Understanding Stagflation

The term "stagflation" was first used during a time of economic stress in the United Kingdom by politician Iain Macleod in the 1960s while he was speaking in the House of Commons. At the time, he was speaking about inflation on one side and stagnation on the other, calling it a "stagnation situation." It was later used again to describe the recessionary period in the 1970s following the oil crisis, when the U.S. underwent a recession that saw five quarters of negative GDP growth.1 Inflation doubled in 1973 and hit double digits in 1974; unemployment hit 9% by May 1975.2 3

Stagflation led to the emergence of the Misery index. This index, which is the simple sum of the inflation rate and unemployment rate, served as a tool to show just how badly people were feeling when stagflation hit the economy.

Stagflation was long believed to be impossible because the economic theories that dominated academic and policy circles ruled it out of their models by construction. In particular, the economic theory of the Phillips Curve, which developed in the context of Keynesian economics, portrayed macroeconomic policy as a trade-off between unemployment and inflation. As a result of the Great Depression and the ascendance of Keynesian economics in the 20th-century economists became preoccupied with the dangers of deflation and argued that most policies designed to lower inflation tend to make it tougher for the unemployed, and policies designed to ease unemployment raise inflation.

The advent of stagflation across the developed world in the mid-20th century showed that this was actually not the case. As it result, stagflation is a great example of how real-world economic data can sometimes run roughshod over widely accepted economic theories and policy prescriptions.

Since that time, as a rule, inflation persists as a general condition even during periods of slow or negative economic growth. In the past 50 years, every declared recession in the U.S. has seen a continuous, year-over-year rise in the consumer price level.4 The sole, partial exception to this is the lowest point of the 2008 financial crisis—and even then price decline was confined to energy prices while overall consumer prices other than energy continued to rise.

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What are the option greeks? Delta, Gamma, Theta, Vega, Roh

https://youtu.be/a3onOynbh2w

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wells fargo cuts credit lines

https://youtu.be/ihr7iMwYUj0

In a move that surely will make a negative impact on the credit score of some of its customers

In what CNBC reports as a six-page letter to Wells Fargo customers, the financial services company said it has "decided to discontinue offering new Personal and Portfolio line of credit accounts and to close all existing accounts."

Wells Fargo Is Shutting Down All Existing Personal Lines of Credit

Wells Fargo had previously offered revolving credit lines, typically between $3,000 and $100,000. According to reports, the letter gives customers 60 days’ notice.

In a statement, Wells Fargo says those customers will no longer have access to that line of credit once the 60-day period ends, although they’ll need to make regular minimum payments on their balances.

In the letter, Wells Fargo told its customers that the closures “may have an impact on your credit score.” That will almost certainly be true for some people.

"Amounts owed" makes up 30% of your credit score, according to MyFICO.com, and it's the second-most important factor. It's calculated as a percentage: the amount you owe divided by the total amount of credit you have available. Keeping that number below 10% is ideal (for example, using $1,000 or less if you have $10,000 of credit).

If someone is losing a significant amount of available credit due to Wells Fargo’s decision, it probably will impact their credit score negatively. Closing sources of available credit can also negatively impact “length of credit history,” another factor used to calculate credit scores.

Money expert Clark Howard is on record with his extreme displeasure with the "Big Four" in American banking: Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase and Citi.

He thinks that these banks prey on customers through fees and are disinterested in the banking side of their businesses, which are necessary evils for more profitable credit card and personal loans.

“I see no reason for anybody at any time to ever do banking with any of those four under any circumstances,” Clark says.

This latest move by Wells Fargo comes amid bigger controversy. For the last three years, the financial giant has been prohibited by the U.S. Federal Reserve from expanding its balance while it works on fixing compliance issues that surfaced during a scandal related to opening fake accounts.

Just last year, the bank stopped offering home equity lines of credit and stopped making loans to independent car dealerships.

It’s unclear whether these actions by Wells Fargo are related to the asset cap imposed by the Fed. The bank could be trying to mitigate risk with Treasury yields declining and anxiety by some that the Fed will issue a rate hike before the end of next year.

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How option price is calculated depends on a variety of factors, Pricing Models, Intrinsic Value, and Extrinsic Value.

Option Pricing Models Before venturing into the world of trading options, investors should have a good understanding of the factors determining the value of an option. These include the current stock price, the intrinsic value, time to expiration or the time value, volatility, interest rates, and cash dividends paid.

There are several options pricing models that use these parameters to determine the fair market value of an option. Of these, the Black-Scholes model is the most widely known.1 In many ways, options are just like any other investment—you need to understand what determines their price to use them effectively. Other models are also commonly used, such as the binomial model and trinomial model.

Let's start with the primary drivers of the price of an option: current stock price, intrinsic value, time to expiration or time value, and volatility. The current stock price is fairly straightforward. The movement of the price of the stock up or down has a direct, though not equal, effect on the price of the option. As the price of a stock rises, the more likely it is that the price of a call option will rise and the price of a put option will fall. If the stock price goes down, the reverse will most likely happen to the price of the calls and puts.

Intrinsic Value Intrinsic value is the value any given option would have if it were exercised today. Basically, the intrinsic value is the amount by which the strike price of an option is profitable or in-the-money as compared to the stock's price in the market. If the strike price of the option is not profitable as compared to the price of the stock, the option is said to be out-of-the-money. If the strike price is equal to the stock's price in the market, the option is said to be "at-the-money."

Although intrinsic value includes the relationship between the strike price and the stock's price in the market, it doesn't account for how much (or how little) time is remaining until the option's expiration—called the expiry. The amount of time remaining on an option impacts the premium or value of an option, which we'll explore in the next section. In other words, intrinsic value is the portion of an option's price not lost or impacted due to the passage of time.

Time Value Since options contracts have a finite amount of time before they expire, the amount of time remaining has a monetary value associated with it—called time value. It is directly related to how much time an option has until it expires, as well as the volatility, or fluctuations, in the stock's price.

The more time an option has until it expires, the greater the chance it will end up in the money. The time component of an option decays exponentially. The actual derivation of the time value of an option is a fairly complex equation.

In other words, the time value is what's left of the premium after calculating the profitability between the strike price and stock's price in the market.

As a result, time value is often referred to as an option's extrinsic value since time value is the amount by which the price of an option exceeds the intrinsic value. Time value is essentially the risk premium the option seller requires to provide the option buyer the right to buy or sell the stock up to the date the option expires. It is like an insurance premium for the option; the higher the risk, the higher the cost to buy the option.

As a general rule, an option will lose one-third of its value during the first half of its life and two-thirds during the second half of its life. This is an important concept for securities investors because the closer the option gets to expiration, the more of a move in the underlying security is needed to impact the price of the option.

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https://youtu.be/TAS5jPZHwC4

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House Hacking combined with the anonymity and tax efficiency of an LLC can lead to massive returns and generational wealth in the long run.

https://youtu.be/y0BaMmfDdFE

What is House Hacking?

House hacking is when you buy a small multi-unit real estate property, live in one unit, and rent out the others. The property for house hacking could be a duplex, a triplex, a fourplex, a single family house, or even other creative property uses like garage apartments or mobile homes, which I’ll cover later. The income from the rental units can pay for some or all or expenses while you live there. Then once you move out, the property could also become a great long-term rental investment.

As a real estate investor for over 17 years, I’ve personally benefited from house hacks. I lived for free in a small multi-unit property for several years before moving out and keeping it as a rental (more on that later). I’ve also helped others get started with house hacking.

Why House Hacking

I’ve already mentioned the first big benefit of house hacking. It can reduce or eliminate your housing costs, which are a major part of most personal budgets.

A U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report for 2015 shows that 19.2% of the average U.S. household’s expenses were dedicated to shelter. The actual number was $10,742 per year or $895 per month on average. Canadian households’ average shelter expenses were even higher at 28.9% of household expenses. The actual shelter expense in Canada was $17,509 per year or $1,459 per month. Of course, these expenses will be much higher than these quoted figures in some locations, which makes house hacking even more important.

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Here is how to avoid beginner investor mistakes, and intern grow your wealth rapidly.

https://youtu.be/l4_cp64gGJw

Not Understanding the Investment One of the world's most successful investors, Warren Buffett, cautions against investing in companies whose business models you don't understand. The best way to avoid this is to build a diversified portfolio of exchange traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds. If you do invest in individual stocks, make sure you thoroughly understand each company those stocks represent before you invest.
Falling in Love With a Company Too often, when we see a company we've invested in do well, it's easy to fall in love with it and forget that we bought the stock as an investment. Always remember, you bought this stock to make money. If any of the fundamentals that prompted you to buy into the company change, consider selling the stock.
Lack of Patience A slow and steady approach to portfolio growth will yield greater returns in the long run. Expecting a portfolio to do something other than what it is designed to do is a recipe for disaster. This means you need to keep your expectations realistic with regard to the timeline for portfolio growth and returns.
Too Much Investment Turnover Turnover, or jumping in and out of positions, is another return killer. Unless you're an institutional investor with the benefit of low commission rates, the transaction costs can eat you alive—not to mention the short-term tax rates and the opportunity cost of missing out on the long-term gains of other sensible investments.
Attempting to Time the Market Trying to time the market also kills returns. Successfully timing the market is extremely difficult. Even institutional investors often fail to do it successfully. A well-known study, "Determinants Of Portfolio Performance" (Financial Analysts Journal, 1986), conducted by Gary P. Brinson, L. Randolph Hood, and Gilbert L. Beebower covered American pension fund returns. This study showed that, on average, nearly 94% of the variation of returns over time was explained by the investment policy decision.2 In layperson's terms, this means that most of a portfolio's return can be explained by the asset allocation decisions you make, not by timing or even security selection.
Waiting to Get Even Getting even is just another way to ensure you lose any profit you might have accumulated. It means that you are waiting to sell a loser until it gets back to its original cost basis. Behavioral finance calls this a "cognitive error." By failing to realize a loss, investors are actually losing in two ways. First, they avoid selling a loser, which may continue to slide until it's worthless. Second, there's the opportunity cost of the better use of those investment dollars.
Failing to Diversify While professional investors may be able to generate alpha (or excess return over a benchmark) by investing in a few concentrated positions, common investors should not try this. It is wiser to stick to the principle of diversification. In building an exchange traded fund (ETF) or mutual fund portfolio, it's important to allocate exposure to all major spaces. In building an individual stock portfolio, include all major sectors. As a general rule of thumb, do not allocate more than 5% to 10% to any one investment.
Letting Your Emotions Rule Perhaps the No.1 killer of investment return is emotion. The axiom that fear and greed rule the market is true. Investors should not let fear or greed control their decisions. Instead, they should focus on the bigger picture. Stock market returns may deviate wildly over a shorter time frame, but, over the long term, historical returns for large-cap stocks can average 10%.

Over a long time horizon, a portfolio's returns should not deviate much from those averages. In fact, patient investors may benefit from the irrational decisions of other investors.

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how to survive the second global financial crisis

https://youtu.be/nhh4h3pkA2Q

Don’t panic As the share market plummets, many people are worried about what this means for their reduced retirement savings. But now isn’t the time to make major changes to your super fund. “Firstly, if you have 30 years or more before retirement, you can wait this out and come out the other end just fine,” says eToro Popular Investor Joe Milazzo. “If you’re closer to retirement, hopefully you’ve made some wise financial decisions this close to your ‘tools down’ day.” While Milazzo says “there’s nothing wrong with closing out your trades and sitting on the sidelines for a while,” he also points out “as interest rates are so low and probably continuing to drop, there’s not much incentive.” By selling now, you’ll lock out your losses, miss out on the eventual upswing and also have to pay capital gains tax. Having this sort of cash just sitting in the bank simply means inflation will rise faster than your money earns in interest. “Turn off your computer and log out of your trading applications,” advises Milazzo. “Out of sight out of mind can help sometimes.”
Bide your time When everyone else is selling, it’s worth considering buying shares. “In short, bad news is an investor’s best friend,” Warren Buffet says. “It lets you buy a slice of…future at a marked-down price.” Look at options such as treasury bonds, advises Milazzo. “These government bonds normally act in the opposite direction of the market. The market goes down, bonds go up! Not always but they are less risky than others.”
Be generous Many small businesses will go under during the COVID-19 pandemic. So, if you’re in a financial position to do so, and you’re owed a refund of $50 or less from an event you couldn’t attend due to it being cancelled, then don’t ask for a refund. Keeping small businesses afloat will keep the economy buoyant, and benefit everyone in the long run.
Build a buffer If you’re reaching retirement age, it’s a good idea to build up a cash buffer of around three years’ worth of living expenses. This means you can weather any bumps or crashes in the market without having to sell investments.
Look outside the stock market “There are many other income-generating streams out there besides the stock market,” says Milazzo. “Is it worth moving your money? Every trader has different risk tolerances and time horizons.” While many people aren’t in a financial position to be buying a house, if your job is secure and you have the funds, this is your time to bargain hard – both with the vendor and the bank. Not only could you get a reduced rate on a house, but the bank may give you a lower mortgage rate too, meaning you’ll be ahead of the game when the economy starts to pick up.
Short your trades “Certain brokers allow you to short markets,” says Milazzo. “You’re essentially saying, stock X will go down. The more it goes down, the more you profit. But please take heed – traders like to use leverage and can quickly wipe out your account if you are not paying attention. For example, the eToro platform gives you the option to short a stock with no leverage or X11. This action would be for more advanced and committed traders.”
Know your entitlements The Australian government has released an $83.6billion coronavirus stimulus package, designed to help small businesses, sole traders and the self-employed, as well as pensioners, students and those on income support. If coronavirus has affected you, you’re also able to access up to $10,000 of your super before 1 July, and another $10,000 after July. Knowing what you’re entitled to could make the difference between keeping your business afloat or managing your daily expenses more easily.

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How Reverse Repo Market Works

Reverse repurchase agreements (RRPs) are the buyer end of a repurchase agreement. These financial instruments are also called collateralized loans, buy/sell back loans, and sell/buy back loans.

https://youtu.be/qZisXPqA6vY

Reverse repos are commonly used by businesses like lending institutions or investors to lend short-term capital to other businesses during cash flow issues. In essence, the lender buys a business asset, equipment or even shares in the seller's company and at a set future time, sells the asset back for a higher price. The higher price represents the interest to the buyer for loaning money to the seller during the duration of the deal. The asset acquired by the buyer acts as collateral against any default risk it faces from the seller. Short-term RRPs hold smaller collateral risks than long-term RRPs as over the long term, assets held as collateral can often depreciate in value, causing collateral risk for the RRP buyer.

In a macro example of RRPs, the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) uses repos and RRPs in order to provide stability in lending markets through open market operations (OMO). The RRP transaction is used less often than a repo by the Fed, as a repo puts money into the banking system when it is short, whereas an RRP borrows money from the system when there is too much liquidity. The Fed conducts RRPs in order to maintain long-term monetary policy and ensure capital liquidity levels in the market.

Triparty RRPs

Part of the business of repos and RRPs is growing, as third-party collateral management operators are providing services to develop RRPs on behalf of investors and provide quick funding to businesses in need.

As quality collateral is sometimes difficult to find, businesses are taking advantage of these assets as a quality way to fund expansion and equipment acquisition through the use of triparty repos, resulting in RRP opportunities for investors. This section of the industry is known as collateral management optimization and efficiency.

Components of an RRP

An RRP differs from buy/sell backs in a simple yet clear way. Buy/sell back agreements legally document each transaction separately, providing clear separation in each transaction. In this way, each transaction can legally stand on its own without the enforcement of the other. RRPs, on the other hand, have each phase of the agreement legally documented within the same contract and ensure the availability and right to each phase of the agreement. Lastly, in an RRP, although collateral is in essence purchased, generally the collateral never changes physical location or actual ownership. If the seller defaults against the buyer, the collateral would need to be physically transferred.

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How Derivatives And The ETF Index Bubble Are Connected

https://youtu.be/ikeHwgbrIZw

A derivative is a financial security with a value that is reliant upon or derived from, an underlying asset or group of assets—a benchmark. The derivative itself is a contract between two or more parties, and the derivative derives its price from fluctuations in the underlying asset.

The most common underlying assets for derivatives are stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, interest rates, and market indexes. These assets are commonly purchased through brokerages.

The Basics of a Derivative

Derivatives can be used to hedge a position, speculate on the directional movement of an underlying asset, or give leverage to holdings. Their value comes from the fluctuations of the values of the underlying asset.

Originally, derivatives were used to ensure balanced exchange rates for goods traded internationally. With the differing values of national currencies, international traders needed a system to account for differences. Today, derivatives are based upon a wide variety of transactions and have many more uses. There are even derivatives based on weather data, such as the amount of rain or the number of sunny days in a region.

For example, imagine a European investor, whose investment accounts are all denominated in euros (EUR). This investor purchases shares of a U.S. company through a U.S. exchange using U.S. dollars (USD). Now the investor is exposed to exchange-rate risk while holding that stock. Exchange-rate risk the threat that the value of the euro will increase in relation to the USD. If the value of the euro rises, any profits the investor realizes upon selling the stock become less valuable when they are converted into euros.

To hedge this risk, the investor could purchase a currency derivative to lock in a specific exchange rate. Derivatives that could be used to hedge this kind of risk include currency futures and currency swaps.

A speculator who expects the euro to appreciate compared to the dollar could profit by using a derivative that rises in value with the euro. When using derivatives to speculate on the price movement of an underlying asset, the investor does not need to have a holding or portfolio presence in the underlying asset.

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https://youtu.be/ZOUaAyI3w4E

Michael Burry, the hedge fund legend whose prescient bets on the subprime mortgage crisis led to a silver screen depiction by Christian Bale in “The Big Short,” has earned respect.

Recently, Burry stated publicly that he sees the frenzy around passive investing as another dangerous bubble, and that when the massive inflows eventually reverse, “it will be ugly.”

“The simple theses and the models that get people into sectors, factors, indexes, or ETFs and mutual funds mimicking those strategies – these do not require the security-level analysis that is required for true price discovery,” Burry said in a recent interview with Bloomberg.

“This is very much like the bubble in synthetic asset-backed CDOs before the great financial crisis in that price-setting in that market was not done by fundamental security-level analysis, but by massive capital flows,” Burry continued.

This first point seems to be the one that subject matter experts, generally speaking, find more troubling.

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https://youtu.be/BjFz5ppz0ZQ

The Primary Market Defined

The primary market is where securities are created so they can be sold to investors for the first time. Above all, the primary market issues new securities on an exchange to allow companies, governments and others to raise capital.

Securities issued through a primary market can include stocks, corporate or government bonds, notes and bills. Those issuing securities can sell them to reduce debt on their balance sheets. Also, they can expand a company’s physical footprint, develop new products, or fund other business goals.

In a typical primary market transaction, there are three players. First, there’s the company issuing the new securities. Secondly, there are investors who purchase them. Finally, there’s bank or underwriting firm that oversees and facilitates the offering. The bank or underwriting firm determines the accurate value and sale price of the new security.

There are four ways investors can buy securities through the primary market:

Initial Public Offering (IPO)
Rights Issue
Private Placement
Preferential Allotment

Primary Market vs. Secondary Market

The other side of the capital market coin is the secondary market. The secondary market is where existing shares of stock, bonds and other securities are traded between investors, after they’ve been issued on the primary market. These trades happen on an exchange, such as the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq.

When buying stocks on the primary market, they’re purchased directly from the issuer. With the secondary market, the issuing company doesn’t play a part. This is what you might automatically think of when you think of stock trading. Following an IPO, investors can buy or sell company shares on an exchange.

For example, you decide you want to buy 100 shares of XYZ company. You log in to your online brokerage and place an order for 100 shares. A seller who owns those shares sells them to you when the bid and ask price align. The bid price is your target price you want to pay for the shares. The ask price is the seller’s target price for selling. The bid-ask spread is the difference between the two numbers.

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The US Isnt Worried About Its Massive Debt But You Should Be; The U.S. federal government’s debt load hit another milestone this month: It’s now a record US$22 trillion in nominal terms.

https://youtu.be/VDIw23JdysE

That’s $67,000 for every man, woman and child living in the U.S., and it’s up $2 trillion since President Donald Trump took office in 2017. For comparison, U.S. debt is more than the total size of the United States’ $20 trillion economy and equivalent to the gross domestic products of China, Japan and Germany combined.

This hefty sum is a reflection of the large annual budget deficits that the federal government has run, pretty much continuously, since 1931. Prior to that, surpluses were much more common, apart from the years following the Civil War.

With another round of anxiety-causing debt-ceiling debates likely to return in the coming months, like other economists, I believe it is worth asking whether we should even care about the size of government debt.

Default isn’t imminent

First of all, it’s important to note current U.S. debt levels do not indicate any risk of imminent default.

As long as the U.S. federal government remains an “ongoing concern” – fiscal institutions are strong and effective, taxing authority is maintained and the long-run productive capacity of the nation’s economy is secure – there is no economic reason to fear default on the nation’s debt. Political reasons, such as debt-ceiling mischief, are another matter.

To remain solvent and ultimately pay what it owes, the U.S. Treasury – which sells notes and bonds to investors to raise money to finance the budget deficit – needs only to balance its books over the long run, rather than over an arbitrary unit of time like a year.

Historically low interest rates on government debt suggest that bond market participants agree with this view and are not afraid of a sovereign debt default in the U.S. Indeed, with these low rates, sufficient economic growth can allow the government to borrow indefinitely.

Why it’s irrelevant

Although $22 trillion is a large number, it is essentially irrelevant to proper thinking about the economic role of the U.S. government or about responsible fiscal policy.

Government debt simply reflects the timing of taxes. Higher spending levels today require more borrowing – and a larger debt – as long as the taxes needed to pay for those expenditures are pushed into the future.

But regardless of when taxes are collected, what ultimately matters is the quantity of the economy’s scarce resources the federal government commands and controls, and how those resources are used, which essentially depend on the level and composition of government spending. To paraphrase Milton Friedman, spending is taxing.

In short, government debt can be a bad indicator of the stance of fiscal policy or its burden on the private sector. The government can be wildly intrusive in the economy and thus a hindrance to growth and welfare even if its debt is low. For example, Venezuela’s sovereign debt was only 23 percent of its GDP in 2017, yet its economy has been in turmoil for several years.

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Is mortgage refinancing a good idea?

https://youtu.be/2yYRg705YvA

Refinancing a mortgage means paying off an existing loan and replacing it with a new one. There are many reasons why homeowners refinance:

Refinancing to Secure a Lower Interest Rate

One of the best reasons to refinance is to lower the interest rate on your existing loan. Historically, the rule of thumb is that refinancing is a good idea if you can reduce your interest rate by at least 2%. However, many lenders say 1% savings is enough of an incentive to refinance.

Reducing your interest rate not only helps you save money, but it also increases the rate at which you build equity in your home, and it can decrease the size of your monthly payment. For example, a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with an interest rate of 5.5% on a $100,000 home has a principal and interest payment of $568. That same loan at 4.1% reduces your payment to $477.

Refinancing to Shorten the Loan's Term

When interest rates fall, homeowners sometimes have the opportunity to refinance an existing loan for another loan that, without much change in the monthly payment, has a significantly shorter term.

For a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage on a $100,000 home, refinancing from 9% to 5.5% can cut the term in half to 15 years with only a slight change in the monthly payment from $805 to $817. However, if you're already at 5.5% for 30 years ($568), getting, a 3.5% mortgage for 15 years would raise your payment to $715. So do the math and see what works.

Refinancing to Convert to an ARM or Fixed-Rate Mortgage

While ARMs often start out offering lower rates than fixed-rate mortgages, periodic adjustments can result in rate increases that are higher than the rate available through a fixed-rate mortgage. When this occurs, converting to fixed-rate mortgage results in a lower interest rate and eliminates concern over future interest rate hikes.

Conversely, converting from a fixed-rate loan to an ARM—which often has a lower monthly payment than a fixed-term mortgage—can be a sound financial strategy if interest rates are falling, especially for homeowners who do not play to stay in their homes for more than a few years.

These homeowners can reduce their loan's interest rate and monthly payment, but they will not have to worry about how higher rates go 30 years in the future.

If rates continue to fall, the periodic rate adjustments on an ARM result in decreasing rates and smaller monthly mortgage payments eliminating the need to refinance every time rates drop. When mortgage interest rates rise, on the other hand, this would be an unwise strategy.

The Bottom Line

Refinancing can be a great financial move if it reduces your mortgage payment, shortens the term of your loan, or helps you build equity more quickly. When used carefully, it can also be a valuable tool for bringing debt under control. Before you refinance, take a careful look at your financial situation and ask yourself: How long do I plan to continue living in the house? How much money will I save by refinancing?

Again, keep in mind that refinancing costs 3% to 6% of the loan's principal. It takes years to recoup that cost with the savings generated by a lower interest rate or a shorter term. So, if you are not planning to stay in the home for more than a few years, the cost of refinancing may negate any of the potential savings.

It also pays to remember that a savvy homeowner is always looking for ways to reduce debt, build equity, save money, and eliminate their mortgage payment. Taking cash out of your equity when you refinance does not help to achieve any of those goals.

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why you should not have a high yield savings account is because the amount of interest you receive never beats the rate of inflation, so you are guaranteed to lose money with a high yield savings account.

https://youtu.be/lDRVzNiqxKs

High-yield savings accounts function similarly to traditional savings accounts, except that the annual percentage yield (APY) is greater. The APY on savings accounts averaged 0.05% as of December 2020, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Rates on high-yield savings accounts have taken a hit during the COVID-19 crisis, but still come in higher than those of traditional accounts.

Putting your money in a safe and liquid investment is almost always better, as I explain in the video, low volatility and high volume is your new best friend when it comes to protecting your savings!

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Why you should have a high yield savings account is because it allows you to earn interest while you save—a win-win scenario. But how much money you put into a high-yield savings account will depend on your personal savings goals and financial situation.

https://youtu.be/i0223rvbTwA

As with traditional savings accounts, you'll likely be limited in how many withdrawals and transfers you can make from a high-yield account each month. You'll also owe income taxes on the interest you earn. Still, these accounts can be quite useful for growing an emergency fund or saving money for a big, short-term expense (such as a vacation or wedding).

Because your savings goals are unique, the amount you should put into a high-yield savings account is as well. But there are ways to calculate that number for yourself.

What Is the Recommended Amount to Put in a High-Yield Savings Account?

There are a couple of factors to consider when funding your high-yield savings account. One is your purpose for saving, and the other is your savings goal—the balance amount you want to reach. Common uses for these accounts include building emergency savings or paying for a short-term expense.

Emergency fund: Your emergency fund should be able to cover three to six months' worth of expenses. The goal is to be able to afford essential expenses—rent or mortgage, utilities, groceries, prescriptions, debts—if you lose your income due to a layoff or illness, for instance.

It's a good idea to keep your emergency fund in a savings account you can easily access, as opposed to investing it in a longer-term vehicle such as a mutual fund, so you can withdraw cash immediately without risking financial loss.

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high yield savings accounts, money market accounts, certificate of deposit (CD)

What is a money market account?

A money market account, or money market deposit account, is an interest-bearing savings product available at most banks and credit unions. You can usually write checks from it and may get a debit card.

https://youtu.be/umBZoT6k9_M

A money market account is considered a deposit account under the Federal Reserve’s Regulation D, so the number of transactions, such as transfers and withdrawals, are limited to six per month. There are some transactions, including withdrawing from an ATM or bank teller, that don’t count as one of the six transactions. There are also exceptions to the limits. Check with your bank to find out its policy.

It used to pay more interest than a regular savings account, but the Fed has cut rates to near zero, and yields on the two products are not that different now. If you find an MMA with a higher yield, be prepared to maintain a higher minimum balance or hold to another requirement to get the top yield.

To find the best rates, use Bankrate to compare MMAs.

What is a savings account?

A savings account is the most basic type of bank account designed for storing your extra money. When you open a savings account, you’ll deposit some money into the account. You can add money and withdraw money as you need to, but you won’t get a checkbook to access the money. Instead, you’ll have to rely on online transfers or make withdrawals in-person at your bank. Some banks will let you make ATM withdrawals if you have a debit card linked to a checking account.

Typically, banks limit the number of withdrawals you can make from your savings account each statement period. Going over the limit can result in a fee, emphasizing how the account is designed for longer-term storage of your money rather than frequent transactions.

In exchange for letting the bank hold your money, the bank will pay interest on the balance of your savings account. Each statement, the bank will make an interest payment into your savings account, helping your balance grow.

Some banks have minimum balance requirements and charge fees for their savings accounts. Keep an eye out for these types of fees as they can reduce the value of your savings over time.

What is a CD?

A certificate of deposit is an account that you can use to save money for a set period of time.

When you open a CD, you have to decide how much money to put in the account and how long you want to keep the money in the account. For example, you may choose to open a six-month CD.

Once the account is open, you cannot withdraw your money until the chosen amount of time passes. If you do, you usually have to pay a penalty fee. In exchange for this loss in flexibility, banks tend to offer higher interest rates on CDs than on other accounts.

CDs offer fixed rates throughout their term. Once you lock in your interest rate, it won’t change, making CDs good for savers who want a guarantee that their interest rate won’t drop. However, if market rates rise, the money in the CD will be stuck at a lower rate, which can make long-term CDs a risk.

How does a money market account differ from a savings account or CD?

A money market account differs from a savings account or CD in that it has checking account features. For instance, you can usually write checks from it. You may also get a debit card.

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The Proper Way To Structure Your RE Investing

https://youtu.be/2NxPfGehIvE

Choosing a legal entity for your real estate investment business is an important decision that has both legal and tax consequences. The wealthiest real estate investors are not just skilled at spotting a good investment or closing a deal—they are knowledgeable and savvy about all aspects of their business, including the way it is legally organized and operated.

Sole Proprietorships for Real Estate Investing

A sole proprietorship is kind of a “default” business structure, which is formed when a person is engaging in business in their individual capacity, without having formed a separate legal entity. The assets and income of the business are entirely owned by the individual and all income from the business is taxed as personal income.

Unlike other legal entities where business income “passes through” the business to the individual, all income from the business is considered immediately earned by the sole proprietor. All property purchased by, transferred to, and owned by the business is simply owned by the sole proprietor personally.

The advantages of this business structure are that it is very easy to start. No paperwork is required to form a sole proprietorship. As a real estate investor, you simply purchase or invest in real estate. Depending on the laws in your state, there may be a requirement to register your sole proprietorship, but this registration does not create your sole proprietorship, it simply is a requirement to comply with state law. Your sole proprietorship is created automatically, by default, when you start doing business.

However, if you are a real estate investor there are major disadvantages to operating your investment business as a sole proprietorship. First, unlike other entity options, a sole proprietorship offers no degree of asset protection from creditors or lawsuits, because your business assets are also personal assets. Furthermore, depending on your debt-to-income ratio and how you choose to finance your investments, you may be able to begin as a sole proprietor, but if and when you exceed the debt-to-income ratio permitted by your lender, you will have to form a separate legal entity to obtain commercial financing.

LLC

A limited liability company (LLC) is a common entity choice for real estate investors and offers many advantages. Choosing this structure for your real estate investment business allows you to limit your personal liability in the business to the money you contribute and the debts you co-sign for. This includes personal assets that you contribute as collateral to a loan.

In an LLC, owners are known as “members”. If you are the only owner in your real estate LLC, you have a single-member LLC. In a single member LLC, all business income will “pass through” the entity and be treated as personal income for tax purposes. However, you will not be personally liability for the debts, claims, and liabilities of the business, beyond the amount you contribute. To form an LLC, you must file Articles of Organization with your appropriate state government authority.

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How Is Real Estate The Best Investment?

https://youtu.be/lys7LF3x4WE

The benefits of investing in real estate are numerous. With well-chosen assets, investors can enjoy predictable cash flow, excellent returns, tax advantages, and diversification—and it's possible to leverage real estate to build wealth.

Thinking about investing in real estate? Here's what you need to know about real estate benefits and why real estate is considered a good investment.

Cash Flow

Cash flow is the net income from a real estate investment after mortgage payments and operating expenses have been made. A key benefit of real estate investing is its ability to generate cash flow. In many cases, cash flow only strengthens over time as you pay down your mortgage—and build up your equity.

Tax Breaks and Deductions

Real estate investors can take advantage of numerous tax breaks and deductions that can save money at tax time. In general, you can deduct the reasonable costs of owning, operating, and managing a property.

Appreciation

Real estate investors make money through rental income, any profits generated by property-dependent business activity, and appreciation. Real estate values tend to increase over time, and with a good investment, you can turn a profit when it's time to sell. Rents also tend to rise over time, which can lead to higher cash flow.

This chart from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis shows average home prices in the U.S. since 1963. The areas shaded in grey indicate U.S. recessions.

Average sales price of homes sold for the U.S.

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Build Equity and Wealth

As you pay down a property mortgage, you build equity—an asset that's part of your net worth. And as you build equity, you have the leverage to buy more properties and increase cash flow and wealth even more.

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The Problem With UGMA UTMA Account is when parents try to take it back, its FRAUD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhDsiuBM2KI&t=1s

Imagine you open a savings account for your child at the local bank, depositing $10,000 in the hope that they will someday use it to pay for college. You put their name on the account and name yourself as the custodian. Every single financial institution that permits this sort of setup structures the title as a "UTMA account." The next week, you get hit with an enormous medical bill that threatens your solvency—you might have to declare bankruptcy unless you can work something out. In a panic, you go back to the bank, withdraw the $10,000 you put in your child's account and figure you'll replace it later.

Or how about this scenario: Your mother passes away and leaves your five-year-old daughter (her granddaughter) $150,000. She names you as successor custodian to a brokerage account she established, stuffed with blue-chip stocks like Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson, Hershey, and Procter & Gamble. When your daughter is 13 years old, she breaks her leg in a sporting accident at a time when you are unemployed and have no health insurance. You decide to withdraw a few thousand dollars to pay her medical bills out of her account.

Here's one last hypothetical: your brother decides to give your son (his nephew) a check for $1,000 each Christmas to help pay for college. The check is made out to "[Your name] as custodian for [nephew's name]." You deposit the money in your checking account and make a rough back-of-the-envelope calculation, so you have a decent idea of what should be available for your son. Over the years, your brother gives you a total of $18,000. When your kid reaches adulthood, he asks for his money. You have $7,000 in your checking account and tell him, "We used it on the family over the years, but here's what I can give you right now." You write a smaller check.

Each of these scenarios broke the law in a significant, serious way. In the process, you've opened yourself up to everything ranging from criminal prosecution to civil lawsuits. Legal proceedings could result in the restitution of the funds you took, payment of foregone investment income that should have been generated, attorney fees, and a host of other expenses that can (and probably will) be more costly than the money you used. This may come as surprise to those who don't spend a lot of time considering financial law, but in the United States, a child's money does not belong to the child's parents or guardians.

The Reason Your Child's UTMA Assets Are Protected from You

Legally speaking, two things occurred the moment assets were gifted under the UTMA law. These occur whether or not the donor is fully aware of UTMA restrictions on withdrawals:

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https://youtu.be/GT9h6hASDhI

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How Business Entities Save On Taxes is really just a matter of how they are set up and what entity is used for your idea!

there are plenty of different Entities to help you out here are a few

Sole proprietorship

Partnership

LLC

S-CORP

C-CORP

TRUST

WILL

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The Different Types Of Taxes In The United States all fall into one of three categories:

Earn

Buy

Own

Taxes on things you Earn:

Individual Income Taxes

Corporate Income Taxes

Payroll Taxes

Capital Gains Taxes

Taxes on things you Buy:

Sales Taxes

Excise Taxes

Taxes on things you Own:

Property Taxes

Tangible Personal Property (TPP) Taxes

Estate and Inheritance Taxes

Wealth Taxes (proposed)

There is not enough room to go into detail on all of them, so here are a few common ones.

Income:

An individual income tax (or personal income tax) is levied on the wages, salaries, investments, or other forms of income an individual or household earns.

Many individual income taxes are “progressive,” meaning tax rates increase as a taxpayer’s income increases, resulting in higher-earners paying a larger share of income taxes than lower-earners.

US progressive tax system, federal income tax data 2020

The U.S., for example, levies income tax rates ranging from 10 percent to 37 percent that kick in at specific income thresholds outlined below. The income ranges for which these rates apply are called tax brackets.

Capital Gains:

Capital assets generally include everything owned and used for personal purposes, pleasure, or investment, including stocks, bonds, homes, cars, jewelry, and art. Whenever one of those assets increases in value—e.g., when the price of a stock you own goes up—the result is what’s called a “capital gain.”

In jurisdictions with a capital gains tax, when a person “realizes” a capital gain—i.e., sells an asset that has increased in value—they pay tax on the profit they earn.

When applied to profits earned from stocks, capital gains taxes result in the same dollar being taxed twice, also known as double taxation. That’s because corporate earnings are already subject to the corporate income tax.

Sales:

Sales taxes are a form of consumption tax levied on retail sales of goods and services. If you live in the U.S., you are likely familiar with the sales tax from having seen it printed at the bottom of store receipts.

The U.S. is one of the few industrialized countries that still relies on traditional retail sales taxes, which are a significant source of state and local revenue. All U.S. states other than Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon collect statewide sales taxes, as do localities in 38 states.

Sales tax rates can have a significant impact on where consumers choose to shop, but the sales tax base—what is and is not subject to sales tax—also matters. Tax experts recommend that sales taxes apply to all goods and services that consumers purchase but not to those that businesses purchase when producing their own goods.

Property:

Property taxes are primarily levied on immovable property like land and buildings and are an essential source of revenue for state and local governments in the U.S.

Property taxes in the U.S. account for over 30 percent of total state and local tax collections and over 70 percent of total local tax collections. Local governments rely on property tax revenue to fund public services like schools, roads, police and fire departments, and emergency medical services.

While most people are familiar with residential property taxes on land and structures, known as “real” property taxes, many states also tax “tangible personal property” (TPP), such as vehicles and equipment owned by individuals and businesses.

Overall, taxes on real property are relatively stable, neutral, and transparent, whereas taxes on tangible personal property are more problematic.

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How amazon paid no taxes is a question so many people ask. Its amaizing that a company who profits BILLIONS of dollars a year can wined up paying little to no taxes at all!

The truth on how they did this has nothing to do with paying people under the table or hiding profits, the truth is much less glamourus.

Amazon uses top notch tax professionals that know the in and out of the tax code.

Did you know only 55 pages of the Tax code talk about raising or collecting taxes, and the remaining 5000 pages all talk about lowering your taxes if you or your business do certain things?

That is exactly where the publics outrage should be, its not that Amazon is not paying their fair share, its that everyone else is OVERPAYING.

Not any more!

In these next upcoming videos im going to teach you everything i know about the tax code and how to beat the Government at there own game, just like Amazon, Ford, and hundreds of other businesses have done over the years.

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The Changed app is an app that lets you round up your spare change and apply them to your student loan.

The pioneer of round up technology was Acorns,

Both Acorns, and Stash offer the same round up features but instead of going to your student loans, the spare change is instead invested in to the stock market.

Now between JUST Acorns and Stash, Acorns is the clear winner just simply due to less fees than stash, but if you were going to use a round up feature to help you save money in any way, there really is no better way in my opinion than to use Changed.

Although this may sound like an Advert for Changed, in no way shape or form was this episode sponsored, these are all my opinions that I truly believe would add value to you.

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Copy of Fund Fact Sheet

How to read a fact sheet starts with the fund name and objective

In my example I show you Franklin Income Fund, a multi class mutual fund.

the objective of that fund is:

The fund seeks to maximize income, while maintaining

prospects for capital appreciation, by investing in a

diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds.

The next things to look at is the funds assets and dividend frequency

after that you must look at the different classes of shares they offer,

Franklin Income fund offers A, C, R, & R6 shares.

once you decide what kind of class you want to buy into, you then have to look at the historical performance of that particular class.

Some real important things to look at on the fact sheet is who the managers are, how long they have been in the industry, as well as all the fees associated with investing in this Mutual Fund.

If the experience is good enough and the fees are cheap enough you then want to see what it is the mutual fund or ETF is actually investing in, for that you go to the asset allocation and holdings portion of the fact sheet.

Assuming all these things look good to you, you also want to check the Beta as well as the standard deviation, both of these measure the funds volatility so you know exactly what kind of rollercoaster you will be getting on, in the event that you decide to invest with the fund.

Once you understand how to read all these metrics and figures, then you are ready to decide if you're interested, but ALWAYS remember to review the prospectus of a fund prior to investing

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What is credit card churning?

Credit card churning involves opening new credit cards to get the intro bonus without intending to use the cards afterward. Churning isn't illegal, but it is controversial and frowned upon by card issuers.

Before credit card issuers really caught on and put systems in place to stop the practice, churners would open multiple credit cards in quick succession, earn the intro bonus for each new account and then close or stop using the cards. A few months later, churners would start again with another round of applications. While they had to meet the minimum spending requirements to earn the intro bonuses, there were tricks to accomplish that as well.

Credit card churning still happens, but many credit card issuers have updated the terms and conditions for their credit cards and rewards programs to stop it, or at least make it harder and less lucrative.

For example, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve® both offer intro bonuses to new cardholders. However, you can only qualify for an intro bonus from one of the cards if you don't currently have either Sapphire card and haven't received a new cardmember bonus on either Sapphire card within the last 48 months.

Another example is Chase's unofficial 5/24 rule, which means the card issuer generally won't approve you for a new credit card if you've opened five cards within the last 24 months—including cards from other issuers.

Other card issuers may take similar approaches to stop people who may be trying to game their rewards programs. For example, American Express generally only allows you to earn the intro bonus on one of their cards once per lifetime. If you close your account, you can apply for the same card again in the future, but you might not be eligible for the intro bonus.

There have also been cases of card issuers taking back points that were earned by someone gaming the system. In a few cases, issuers have even shut down accounts, including checking and savings accounts someone has at the company

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A Health Savings Account (HSA) is a tax-advantaged account created for or by individuals covered under high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) to save for qualified medical expenses. Contributions are made into the account by the individual or their employer and are limited to a maximum amount each year. The contributions are invested over time and can be used to pay for qualified medical expenses, such as medical, dental, and vision care, as well as prescription drugs.

In addition, with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act enacted into law in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, HSA funds can now be used for over-the-counter medications without a prescription, as well as certain other health-related products.

Account holders who are unsure about what expenses qualify should check with their HSA administrator or pharmacist.

As mentioned above, people with HDHPs can open HSAs. Individuals with HDHPs may qualify for HSAs and the two are usually paired together. To qualify for an HSA, the taxpayer must meet eligibility standards set out by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). An eligible individual is someone who:

has a qualified HDHP

has no other health coverage

is not enrolled in Medicare

is not claimed as a dependent on someone else’s tax return

The maximum contribution for an HSA is $3,600 for an individual and $7,200 for a family in 2021. The annual limits on contributions apply to the total of the amounts contributed by both the employer and the employee. Individuals 55 years or older by the end of the tax year can make catch-up contributions of an additional $1,000 to their HSAs.

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DISCLAIMER: Although I am a Registered Investment Advisor, no statements made during this video should be taken as advice or recommendations since I do not know your specific situation, goals, or the suitability of said investments within your portfolio.

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What Is a 403(b) Plan?

A 403(b) plan is a retirement account for certain employees of public schools and tax-exempt organizations. Participants include teachers, school administrators, professors, government employees, nurses, doctors, and librarians.

https://youtu.be/hEaRhvE6p_w

The 403(b) plan is in many ways similar to its better-known cousin, the 401(k) plan. Each offers employees a tax-advantaged way to save for retirement, but investment choices are often more limited in a 403(b), and 401(k)s serve private-sector employees.

Both also offer Roth options and require participants to reach age 59½ to withdraw funds without incurring an early withdrawal penalty. Like a 401(k), the 403(b) plan offers $6,500 catch-up contributions for those age 50 and older in 2020 and 2021.1 Unlike a 401(k), it also offers a special plan for those with 15 or more years of service with the same employer (see below).

What Is a 401(k) Plan?

A 401(k) plan is a tax-advantaged, defined-contribution retirement account offered by many employers to their employees. It is named after a section of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Workers can make contributions to their 401(k) accounts through automatic payroll withholding, and their employers can match some or all of those contributions. The investment earnings in a traditional 401(k) plan are not taxed until the employee withdraws that money, typically after retirement. In a Roth 401(k) plan, withdrawals can be tax-free.

What Is a 457 Plan?

Generally speaking, 457 plans are non-qualified, tax-advantaged, deferred compensation retirement plans offered by state governments, local governments, and some nonprofit employers. Eligible participants are able to make salary deferral contributions, depositing pre-tax money that is allowed to compound without being taxed until it is withdrawn.

How a 457 Plan Works

Notably, 457 plans are similar in nature to 401(k) plans, only rather than being offered to employees at for-profit companies, they cater to state and local public workers, together with highly paid executives at certain nonprofit organizations, such as charities.

Participants of these defined contribution plans set aside a percentage of their salary for retirement. These funds are transferred to the retirement account, where they grow in value without being taxed. There are two types of 457 plans:

457(b): This is the most common 457 plan and is offered to state and local government employees.

457(f): A plan offered to highly compensated government and select non-government employees.

Employees are allowed to contribute up to 100% of their salary, provided it does not exceed the applicable dollar limit for the year. If the plan does not meet statutory requirements, the assets may be subject to different rules.

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SOFR or the Secured Overnight Financing Rate is a benchmark interest rate for dollar-denominated derivatives and loans that is replacing the London interbank offered rate (LIBOR). Interest rate swaps on more than $80 trillion in national debt switched to the SOFR in October 2020. This transition is expected to increase long-term liquidity but also result in substantial short-term trading volatility in derivatives.

All that jargon aside SOFR is set to replace LIBOR as the benchmark banks use when setting interest rates. SOFR is unique because it is the only interest rate that affects you (the borrower) directly as well as indirectly.

Understanding the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR)

The secured overnight financing rate, or SOFR, is an influential interest rate that banks use to price U.S. dollar-denominated derivatives and loans. The daily secured overnight financing rate (SOFR) is based on transactions in the Treasury repurchase market, where investors offer banks overnight loans backed by their bond assets. Benchmark rates such as the SOFR are essential in the trading of derivatives—particularly

interest-rate swaps, which corporations and other parties use to manage interest-rate risk and to speculate on changes in borrowing costs.

Interest-rate swaps are agreements in which the parties exchange fixed-rate interest payments for floating-rate interest payments. In a “vanilla” swap, one party agrees to pay a fixed interest rate, and, in exchange, the receiving party agrees to pay a floating interest rate based on the SOFR—the rate may be higher or lower than SOFR, based on the party’s credit rating and interest-rate conditions.

In this case, the payer benefits when interest rates go up, because the value of the incoming SOFR-based payments is now higher, even though the cost of the fixed-rate payments to the counterparty remains the same. The inverse occurs when rates go down.

At the surface level, switching from LIBOR to SOFR is a great idea because it gives us access to even lower interest rates due to it being a secured rate.

But as mentioned in this episode, there is a giant flaw with the SOFR rate being connected to the US Repo Rate and due to this the Feds have potentially opened us all up to the mother of all depressions.

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https://youtu.be/URZ8eTGyCyY

Understanding the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR)

interest-rate swaps, which corporations and other parties use to manage interest-rate risk and to speculate on changes in borrowing costs.

At the surface level, switching from LIBOR to SOFR is a great idea because it gives us access to even lower interest rates due to it being a secured rate.

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SOFR or the Secured Overnight Financing Rate is a benchmark interest rate for dollar-denominated derivatives and loans that is replacing the London interbank offered rate (LIBOR). Interest rate swaps on more than $80 trillion in notional debt switched to the SOFR in October 2020. This transition is expected to increase long-term liquidity but also result in substantial short-term trading volatility in derivatives.

Understanding the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR)

interest-rate swaps, which corporations and other parties use to manage interest-rate risk and to speculate on changes in borrowing costs.

At the surface level, switching from LIBOR to SOFR is a great idea because it gives us access to even lower interest rates due to it being a secured rate.

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Funds Rate Explained.

Federal funds rate is the target interest rate set by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) at which commercial banks borrow and lend their excess reserves to each other overnight.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the monetary policy-making body of the Federal Reserve System, meets eight times a year to set the federal funds rate.

The FOMC makes its decisions about rate adjustments based on key economic indicators that may show signs of inflation, recession, or other issues that can affect sustainable economic growth. The indicators can include measures like the core inflation rate and the durable goods orders report.

The FOMC cannot force banks to charge the exact federal funds rate. Rather, the FOMC sets a target rate as a guidepost. The actual interest rate a lending bank will charge is determined through negotiations between the two banks. The weighted average of interest rates across all transactions of this type is known as the effective federal funds rate.

While the FOMC can't mandate a particular federal funds rate, the Federal Reserve System can adjust the money supply so that interest rates will move toward the target rate. By increasing the amount of money in the system it can cause interest rates to fall. Conversely, by decreasing the money supply it can make interest rates rise.

The target for the federal funds rate has varied widely over the years in response to the prevailing economic conditions. It was set as high as 20% in the early 1980s in response to inflation. With the coming of the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, the rate was slashed to a record low target of 0% to 0.25% in an attempt to encourage growth.

Besides the federal funds rate, the Federal Reserve also sets a discount rate, which is the interest rate the Fed charges banks that borrow from it directly. This rate tends to be higher than the target fed funds rate, partly to encourage banks to borrow from other banks at the, lower, federal funds rate.

Impacts of the Federal Funds Rate

The federal funds rate is one of the most important interest rates in the U.S. economy since it affects monetary and financial conditions, which in turn have a bearing on critical aspects of the broader economy including employment, growth, and inflation. The rate also influences short-term interest rates, albeit indirectly, for everything from home and auto loans to credit cards, as lenders often set their rates based on the prime lending rate. The prime rate is the rate banks charge their most creditworthy borrowers and is influenced by the federal funds rate, as well.

Investors keep a close watch on the federal funds rate, too. The stock market typically reacts very strongly to changes in the target rate. For example, even a small decline in the rate can prompt the market to leap higher as the borrowing costs for companies gets lower. Many stock analysts pay particular attention to statements by members of the FOMC to try to get a sense of where the target rate might be headed.

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what is the libor rate? The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is a benchmark interest rate at which major global banks lend to one another in the international interbank market for short-term loans.

LIBOR, which stands for London Interbank Offered Rate, serves as a globally accepted key benchmark interest rate that indicates borrowing costs between banks. The rate is calculated and will continue to be published each day by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), but due to recent scandals and questions around its validity as a benchmark rate, it is being phased out. According to the Federal Reserve and regulators in the UK, LIBOR will be phased out by June 30, 2023, and will be replaced by the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR). As part of this phase-out, LIBOR one-week and two-month USD LIBOR rates will no longer be published after December 31, 2021.

Each day, ICE asks major global banks how much they would charge other banks for short-term loans. The association takes out the highest and lowest figures, then calculates the average from the remaining numbers. This is known as the trimmed average. This rate is posted each morning as the daily rate, so it's not a static figure. Once the rates for each maturity and currency are calculated and finalized, they are announced and published once a day at around 11:55 a.m. London time by the ICE Benchmark Administration (IBA).

LIBOR is also the basis for consumer loans in countries around the world, so it impacts consumers just as much as it does financial institutions. The interest rates on various credit products such as credit cards, car loans, and adjustable-rate mortgages fluctuate based on the interbank rate. This change in rate helps determine the ease of borrowing between banks and consumers.

But there is a downside to using the LIBOR rate. Even though lower borrowing costs may be attractive to consumers, it does also affect the returns on certain securities. Some mutual funds may be attached to LIBOR, so their yields may drop as LIBOR fluctuates.

Uses of LIBOR

LIBOR is used worldwide in a wide variety of financial products. They include the following:

Standard interbank products like the forward rate agreements (FRA), interest rate swaps, interest rate futures, options, and swaptions, whereby options provide buyers with the right, but not the obligation, to purchase a security or interest rate product

Commercial products like floating rate certificate of deposits and notes, variable rate mortgages, and syndicated loans, which are loans offered by a group of lenders

Hybrid products like collateralized debt obligations (CDO), collateralized mortgage obligations (CMO), and a wide variety of accrual notes, callable notes, and perpetual notes

Consumer loan-related products like individual mortgages and student loans

LIBOR is also used as a standard gauge of market expectation for interest rates finalized by central banks. It accounts for the liquidity premiums for various instruments traded in the money markets, as well as an indicator of the health of the overall banking system. A lot of derivative products are created, launched, and traded in reference to LIBOR. LIBOR is also used as a reference rate for other standard processes like clearing, price discovery, and product valuation.

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what is the prime rate?

The prime rate is the interest rate that commercial banks charge their most creditworthy corporate customers. The federal funds overnight rate serves as the basis for the prime rate, and prime serves as the starting point for most other interest rates.

the prime rate (prime) is the interest rate that commercial banks charge their most creditworthy customers, generally large corporations. The prime interest rate, or prime lending rate, is largely determined by the federal funds rate, which is the overnight rate that banks use to lend to one another. Prime forms the basis of or starting point for most other interest rates—including rates for mortgages, small business loans, or personal loans—even though prime might not be specifically cited as a component of the rate ultimately charged.

Interest rates provide a way to cover costs associated with lending and they act as compensation for the risk assumed by the lender based on the borrower’s credit history and other financial details.

Default risk is the main determiner of the interest rate that a bank charges a borrower. Because a bank's best customers have little chance of defaulting, the bank can charge them a rate that is lower than the rate they charge a customer who has a greater likelihood of defaulting on a loan.

Each bank sets its own interest rate, so there is no single prime rate. Any quoted prime rate is usually an average of the largest banks' prime rates. The most important and most used prime rate is the one that the Wall Street Journal publishes daily. Although other U.S. financial services institutions regularly note any changes that the Federal Reserve (the Fed) makes to its prime rate, and may use them to justify changes to their own prime rates, institutions are not required to raise their prime rates in accordance with the Fed's.

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What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

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If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

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what is a mutual fund and how does it work?

A mutual fund is a type of financial vehicle made up of a pool of money collected from many investors to invest in securities like stocks, bonds, money market instruments, and other assets. Mutual funds are operated by professional money managers, who allocate the fund's assets and attempt to produce capital gains or income for the fund's investors. A mutual fund's portfolio is structured and maintained to match the investment objectives stated in its prospectus.

Mutual funds give small or individual investors access to professionally managed portfolios of equities, bonds, and other securities. Each shareholder, therefore, participates proportionally in the gains or losses of the fund. Mutual funds invest in a vast number of securities, and performance is usually tracked as the change in the total market cap of the fund—derived by the aggregating performance of the underlying investments.

Mutual funds pool money from the investing public and use that money to buy other securities, usually stocks and bonds. The value of the mutual fund company depends on the performance of the securities it decides to buy. So, when you buy a unit or share of a mutual fund, you are buying the performance of its portfolio or, more precisely, a part of the portfolio's value. Investing in a share of a mutual fund is different from investing in shares of stock. Unlike stock, mutual fund shares do not give its holders any voting rights. A share of a mutual fund represents investments in many different stocks (or other securities) instead of just one holding.

That's why the price of a mutual fund share is referred to as the net asset value (NAV) per share, sometimes expressed as NAVPS. A fund's NAV is derived by dividing the total value of the securities in the portfolio by the total amount of shares outstanding. Outstanding shares are those held by all shareholders, institutional investors, and company officers or insiders. Mutual fund shares can typically be purchased or redeemed as needed at the fund's current NAV, which—unlike a stock price—doesn't fluctuate during market hours, but it is settled at the end of each trading day. Ergo, the price of a mutual fund is also updated when the NAVPS is settled.

The average mutual fund holds over a hundred different securities, which means mutual fund shareholders gain important diversification at a low price. Consider an investor who buys only Google stock before the company has a bad quarter. He stands to lose a great deal of value because all of his dollars are tied to one company. On the other hand, a different investor may buy shares of a mutual fund that happens to own some Google stock. When Google has a bad quarter, she loses significantly less because Google is just a small part of the fund's portfolio.

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What is an ETF? How do ETFs work?

There is no doubt that understanding different securities products can be exhausting and confusing, in this video I explain exactly what you have been asking. What Is An ETF And How Does It Work?

An exchange traded fund (ETF) is a type of security that involves a collection of securities—such as stocks—that often tracks an underlying index, although they can invest in any number of industry sectors or use various strategies. ETFs are in many ways similar to mutual funds; however, they are listed on exchanges and ETF shares trade throughout the day just like ordinary stock.

A well-known example is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 Index. ETFs can contain many types of investments, including stocks, commodities, bonds, or a mixture of investment types. An exchange traded fund is a marketable security, meaning it has an associated price that allows it to be easily bought and sold.

An ETF is called an exchange traded fund since it's traded on an exchange just like stocks. The price of an ETF’s shares will change throughout the trading day as the shares are bought and sold on the market. This is unlike mutual funds, which are not traded on an exchange, and trade only once per day after the markets close. Additionally, ETFs tend to be more cost-effective and more liquid when compared to mutual funds.

An ETF is a type of fund that holds multiple underlying assets, rather than only one like a stock. Because there are multiple assets within an ETF, they can be a popular choice for diversification.

An ETF can own hundreds or thousands of stocks across various industries, or it could be isolated to one particular industry or sector. Some funds focus on only U.S. offerings, while others have a global outlook. For example, banking-focused ETFs would contain stocks of various banks across the industry.

Types of ETFs include:

Bond ETFs might include government bonds, corporate bonds, and state and local bonds—called municipal bonds.

Industry ETFs track a particular industry such as technology, banking, or the oil and gas sector.

Commodity ETFs invest in commodities including crude oil or gold.

Currency ETFs invest in foreign currencies such as the Euro or Canadian dollar.

Inverse ETFs attempt to earn gains from stock declines by shorting stocks. Shorting is selling a stock, expecting a decline in value, and repurchasing it at a lower price.

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The decision whether or not should you lease or buy a car is one that depends on your specific situation and finances, as an example you could be living paycheck to paycheck and not able to afford to buy a car! You could also be in a business where you are expected to drive newer cars as a sort of success symbol! Whatever the situation you're in leasing vs buying a car really boils down to one thing. How long do you plan on keeping the car. If you only plan on keeping a car for 2 or 3 years then leasing might be a better option for you. On the other hand if you want to drive something into the ground and don't care about having the latest and greatest thing, then owning your car is the better choice.

When it comes down to the numbers Buying is always better than leasing long term! Unfortunately i didn't have time in this video to break down all the numbers and show you exactly what i mean by this. However, WHITEBOARD FINANCE does a terrific job at breaking down the numbers for you all!

https://youtu.be/BtY9Nmm2z0U

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Here it is, the truth about investing in crypto!

When it comes to crypto not all coins are created equal and it is extremely easy to get bogged down in all the hype and options of each one.

In my opinion there are only a small hand full of Crypto Coins that are worth investing my money into:

Bitcoin

Etherium

Ripple

Stellar Lumens

These forms of crypto have whats called inherent value, and although only Bitcoin is considered rare, all these coins are valuable!

The only way investors should look at crypto is the same way they look at commodities, commodities are store holds for value and protect against runaway inflation of FIAT currencies.

If a Crypto can't pass a couple easy tests then it is not considered a commodity and isn't a store hold of value.

Test 1: Is it inflationary? Meaning can more coins be created whenever or is the amount of coins available the fixed amount forever

Test 2: Is the Crypto going to be used as a currency or process by a large number of people?

Depending on the answers of these two test will ultimately tell you if the crypto being tested has inherent value and can be treated as a commodity.

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Youtube Live Recap on current drama with GameStop, Reddit, and Hedge Funds

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sing A Custodial Roth IRA to save for college is one of the best methods you can use to set your child up for a great chance at success!

If you have children or grandchildren whom you hope will go beyond high school and receive a college education, there’s a good chance you’ve thought about setting some money aside to help pay their expenses. There are some terrific ways to do this, including utilizing 529 plans, but one savings vehicle that is often overlooked as a way to fund a child’s college education is a Roth individual retirement account.

Most people think of the Roth IRA as a terrific method to save for retirement—which it is—but it can also be a great tool to help you cover Junior’s university tab. Unlike 529 plans, which can be used only to cover the costs associated with college, Roth IRAs can be used for both college expenses and retirement income.While it’s true that deposits into Roth IRAs receive no tax deduction, it’s also true that these accounts then grow tax-deferred. So with a little planning, they can be an ideal source for funding a loved one’s higher education.

Here’s why: Withdrawals from IRAs, including Roth IRAs, are actually exempt from withdrawal penalties if the funds are used specifically for qualified educational expenses, including tuition, fees, books and room and board.

For most folks who are sending their kids off to college, only the contribution portions of their Roth IRA balances can be withdrawn tax-free. (Any earnings in the account will be taxable for those people under 59, as well as for those over 59½ who haven’t held the Roth for at least five years.)

But Roth IRAs enjoy a rather unique tax treatment. Withdrawals are treated as a “return of contribution” first and as earnings second. This means that a person who has been contributing $5,000 per year for the past five years can withdraw $25,000 tax-free, provided the proceeds are used for qualified educational expenses. (Any withdrawals that exceed the total of one’s contributions and are attributable to earnings will be taxable for those under age 59½.)

What I really enjoy about the Roth IRA is the flexibility it offers over the 529 plan. I have two teenagers of my own, and I’ve been contributing to their 529 plans since they were in diapers. I’ve always told them to shoot for the best schools, but as my children are now in high school, I’ve come to realize that my expectations for them may not precisely mirror their own hopes and dreams. One of my kids is working hard to get into a top-notch university, but my other child may not attend college at all.

Unfortunately, any money I’ve saved in the 529 plan that is not used for educational expenses will not only become fully taxable as ordinary income but will also be subjected to a 10 percent penalty.

Many states offer a tax deduction for funds contributed to a 529 plan. If you reside in such a state, the 529 can be an attractive solution. But for the millions who live in the eight states that don’t offer this tax break—including California, Massachusetts and New Jersey—the Roth IRA is both a terrific and flexible alternative.

Unlike a 529 plan, a Roth IRA allows people who have funds left over after withdrawing for college expenses to convert those dollars to retirement income—with no tax consequences or penalties whatsoever. Simply, this means that if Johnny or Jane doesn’t use up all of the funds to pay for college, the remaining bucks can be used to supplement your own retirement income.

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A 529 college savings plan is a tax-advantaged savings plan designed to help pay for education. Originally limited to post-secondary education costs, it was expanded to cover K-12 education in 2017 and apprenticeship programs in 2019. The two major types of 529 college savings plans are savings plans and prepaid tuition plans. Savings plans grow tax-deferred, and withdrawals are tax-free if they're used for qualified education expenses. Prepaid tuition plans allow the account owner to pay in advance for tuition at designated colleges and universities, locking in the cost at today's rates. 529 plans are also referred to as qualified tuition programs and Section 529 plans.

Although 529 college savings plans take their name from Section 529 of the federal tax code, the plans themselves are administered by the 50 states and District of Columbia. Anyone can open a 529 college savings plan, but they are typically established by parents or grandparents on behalf of a child or grandchild, who is the account's beneficiary. In some states, the person who funds the account may be eligible for a state tax deduction for their contributions.

The money in the account grows on a tax-deferred basis until it is withdrawn. As long as the money is used for qualified education expenses, as defined by the IRS, those withdrawals aren't subject to either state or federal taxes. In the case of K-12 students, tax-free withdrawals are limited to $10,000 per year.

Other Considerations:

As with other kinds of investing, the earlier you get started, the better. With a 529 savings plan, your money will have more time to grow and compound. With a prepaid tuition plan, you'll most likely be able to lock in a lower tuition rate, since many schools raise their prices every year.

If you have money left over in a 529 plan—say the beneficiary gets a substantial scholarship or decides not to go to college at all—you'll have several options. One is to change the beneficiary on the account to another relative, as financial advisor Jay Murray describes in the box above. Another is to keep the current beneficiary in case they change their mind about attending college or later go on to graduate school. If worse comes to worse, you can always cash in the account and pay the taxes and 10% penalty.

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What Is a Coverdell Education Savings Account (ESA)?

A Coverdell education savings account is a tax-deferred trust account created by the U.S. government to assist families in funding educational expenses for beneficiaries who must be 18 years old or younger when the account is established. The age restriction may be waived for special needs beneficiaries. While more than one ESA can be set up for a single beneficiary, the total maximum contribution per year for any single beneficiary is $2,000.

How a Coverdell Education Savings Account (ESA) Works:

Formerly called an education IRA, the ESA allows families to increase investment earnings through tax-deferral as long as the funds are used for educational purposes.

For example, if you contributed $500 to an ESA and it appreciated to $5,000 in 10 years, the earnings would not be taxed until the account's owner was enrolled in a post-secondary institution.

Special Considerations:

The contributions put toward a Coverdell ESA must be made in cash and are not deductible. Contributions can be made by individuals with modified adjusted gross income that falls within an annual limit. In addition to individuals, corporations and trusts may make contributions to an ESA without the restriction on adjusted gross income.

Upon the beneficiary reaching age 30, any remaining funds in the ESA must be disbursed, unlike a 529 plan. The exception to this rule is if the beneficiary qualifies as a special needs beneficiary. It is also possible to make certain transfers from the account to members of the beneficiary’s family.

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Investing without an advisor is a lot easier than it looks.

Granted there will be a very steep learning curve and you will have to spend time learning how to pick a stock and read that businesses financial statements.

Once you learn how to do this, be ready to say goodbye to your Advisor!

Because soon you will be able to begin investing all on your own without the need for your advisor.

I recommend using the M1 Finance app to set up your first portfolio and begin automatically investing and rebalancing your portfolio.

M1 & Other Investing Resources

https://m1.finance/TjGme7YgPH-b

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oap...

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/fin...

https://www.franklintempleton.com/fin...

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@InvestwithWesley (IG)

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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The question of "Should I Invest or Pay Off Debt?" has been asked a million times, in this video i give my opinion on where your money should be going, when to focus on paying off debt and when to invest!

Investings strength is time IN the market not how much money you have in the market so it would make sense to start as soon as possible.

on the other hand, if you pay off debt you are GUARANTEED to make an immediate return on your money and can free up cash flow for more investing later!

"So which one should I choose, Wesley!"

Well in my opinion, after creating a budget and building an emergency fund, you should focus on investing for your retirement so you can have the longest opportunity for your investment to grow.

HOWEVER, If you are currently saving for retirement via a 401K, IRA, or Pension I would recommend you focus instead on paying off your high interest debts, pretty much anything over 5% interest!

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What is Active vs Passive Income?

Active income is any income earned by trading time for dollars.

Wages, Salary, Tips, and Commission are all considered to be ACTIVE Income

Passive Income is the most sought after form of income and can be earned in a number of ways simillar to Active income

Passive income is money that is earned without you having to do anything. Examples of Passive Income are :

Interest, Dividends, Rent, Royalties, etc.

Interest can be earned by Loaning money to People, Businesses, and even the Government!

Dividends are a form of passive income that is generated by owning equity in a business, when Mcdonalds makes a profit the owner and share holders all receave a portion of that profit in the form of a dividend.

Rent can be an easy way to make passive income and it doesn't necessarily need to be a home you're renting. More affordable options to earn passive rent income are to rent tools, equipment, or spare space in the apartment or home you're already in!

Passive income in all of its forms always requires either a lot of money or time at the very beginning to make it worth while, without one of these two investments you will likely be working and earning Active income.

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What are Annuities? Well, basically an annuity is an investment product generally sold by insurance companies, where an annuity owner will pay the insurance company (either once at the start or through multiple payments) and in return the insurance company will invest the money and eventually repay the annuity owner based on a few key factors that are determined at the start of the annuity, chiefly being guaranteed income for the rest of a persons life.

In this video I go over the most common types of Annuities out there:

Fixed

Fixed Indexed

Variable

Structured

Immediate

Deferred

What I Use for Investing:

https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com...

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oap...

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/fin...

https://www.franklintempleton.com/fin...

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@InvestwithWesley (IG)

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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What I Use for Investing:

https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@InvestwithWesley (IG)

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Are you ready to buy your first home?

1) Decide Whether You’re Ready to Buy A Home

2) Calculate How Much House You Can Afford

3) Save For A Down Payment And Closing Costs

4) Get Preapproved For A Mortgage

5) Find The Right Real Estate Agent For You

6) Begin House Hunting

7) Make An Offer On A House

8) Get A Home Inspection And Appraisal

9) Ask For Repairs Or Credits

10) Do A Final Walkthrough

11) Close On Your New Home

In this 4 part series I'll take you through the steps of buying your home starting with are you ready to take on the commitment and ending with closing on your home

This video specifically talks about steps 5-11:

In part 1 we discussed the first three steps

In Part 2 we discuss the lending process of step 4

and finally in Part 4 I'll tie everything together and give you some personal tips and tricks that I used to buy my first home with almost $0 down!

What I Use for Investing:

https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@InvestwithWesley (IG)

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What Is An IPO? Should I Invest In Airbnb? Should I Invest in DoorDash?

Answering all these questions starts with knowing exactly what and ipo is and why companies use them to begin with.

What Is An IPO:

IPO stands for Initial Public Offering, during an IPO a company offers securities that public investors and traders can buy to own a small piece of the company in hopes that the company continues to grow.

The decision for a company to go IPO is a strategic one. The goal of the ipo is to raise as much working capital as possible for the growing business.

In the past companies would perform an IPO with malicious intent.

Because of this the SEC created rules and regulations to stop this and make it more fair for the small investors to invest safely.

Should I Invest in Airbnb / Should I Invest in DoorDash:

The answer to these to questions is the same

IT DEPENDS ON YOUR TOLLERENCE AND STRATEGY

As an example if you were a day trader that is always on the hunt for market fluctuations then an IPO could be a perfect place to rake in some quick profits.

I'm more weary for the buy and hold investor because they have little data to go off of in an IPO other than the Prospectus that is created, at the end of the day this is still a piece of marketing that is designed to give you factual information but also designed to make you want to buy!

If you're a long term investor who believes a company is revolutionary enough to do well then the answer is pretty simple! If you believe the company will do well then you also believe the stock will do well past its IPO!

What I Use for Investing:

https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@InvestwithWesley (IG)

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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Are you ready to buy your first home?

The answer to this question depends on a couple of different things!

1: Are you ready for the commitment that comes with a 15-30 year mortgage

2: Have you figured out Why you want to buy a home?

3: Have you calculated how much home you can actually afford?

4: Have you saved up money for a down payment on you home?

5: Are you ready to take full ownership it keeping up with the maintenance and taxes that come along with buying your first home?

Based on the answers to these questions you may well be on your way to buying your first home!

In this 4 part series I'll take you through the steps of buying your home starting with are you ready to take on the commitment and ending with closing on your home

This video specifically talks about the first three steps in buying a home which is:

1: To decide if you're truly ready to buy a home

2: Figure out how much home you can afford

and

3: Save for Down Payment, Closing Costs, and Repairs

Part 2 of this series will talk exclusively on talking with a lender and getting pre-approved for your home!

Part 3 We will visit my friend Britney the real estate agent to talk about hunting for your home making offers and doing the inspections

and finally in Part 4 I'll tie everything together and give you some personal tips and tricks that I used to buy my first home with almost $0 down!

What I Use for Investing:

https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@InvestwithWesley (IG)

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The Theory Of Decreasing Responsibility is pretty easy to understand! When your younger you have a lot of responsibilities, You have student loans, car loans, mortgage, kids and other debt.

You also have low income and savings.

Because of this inverse between savings and responsibility means the need for life insurance is high, but as you get older the need for life insurance goes down, because your investments and savings should be increasing while your liabilities go down!

The Theory Of Decreasing Responsibility Does have some pitfalls however,

and creating a plan that can avoid these pitfalls is crucial!

Part of this plan should be to create a team of Insurance Brokers, Investment Advisors, and Tax Professionals to help you along your goals! Please remember I'm here for you as a free resource so if you would like me to set up a free plan or review a plan you currently have id be more than happy to do so!

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This Video Talks About How To Partner With Your IRA, specifically how to partner with your ira for the purchasing of Real Estate!

A Self Directed IRA can partner with any other IRA or business even if belongs to your spouse, family member of a friend.

Hiring a professional can help smooth out the kinks when forming a Partnership LLC owned by you and your spouses IRAs.

You can even leverage your IRAs money and use it to buy even more properties!

But be warned that any leveraged assets will accrue a UDFI Tax even if the IRA has a ROTH designation!

What I Use for Investing:

https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@InvestwithWesley (IG)

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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What is an SDIRA? A Self Directed Individual Retirement Arrangement is a type of IRA or Retirement account that gives you 100% control with your money.

That key word arrangement in IRA makes a huge difference because you are in a since arranging with the IRS how you would like to be taxed upon your assets in retirement.

If done properly an SDIRA is an amazing vehicle that can be used for limitless tax free income.

Sure you can treat it like an investment account and load up on stocks, bonds, etfs, and so on; but if your a savvy investor like my self you could also use your SDIRA to own property such as rental homes, gold, oil, or even crypto! Then all the rent you receive over the years is tax advantaged as well as the profits of selling the property in the future!

Using a SDIRA this way can be crucial for a well planned retirement strategy that can generate limitless tax free income, but be warned because owning a Self Directed Individual Retirement Arrangement can also open yourself up to giant tax liabilities and penalties!

As an example you are not allowed to conduct business with yourself or disqualified individuals, the list of disqualified individuals in a Self Directed Individual Retirement Arrangement is as follows:

YOU

SPOUCE

PARENTS

GRAND PARENTS

CHILDREN (Blood or Adopted)

GRANDCHILDREN (Blood or Adopted)

Entities that one of the above owns 50% control or more of

Entities that YOU are an officer, director, controller, or own 10% control or more in

Note: Only linear family is disqualified, meaning Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and Stepsiblings are NOT Disqualified Individuals!

What I Use for Investing:

https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@InvestwithWesley (IG)

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/wesley-caruso/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wesley-caruso/support

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What is an IRA? Most people think an IRA stands for Individual Retirement Account, but those people are wrong!

An IRA is actually a individual retirement arrangement.

That key word arrangement makes a huge different because you are in a since arranging with the IRS how you would like to be taxed upon your assets in retirement.

If done properly an IRA is an amazing vehicle that can be used for limitless tax free income. Sure you can treat it like an investment account and load up on stocks bonds etfs and so on, but if your a savvy investor like my self you could also use your IRA to own property such as rental homes, then all the rent you receive over the years is tax free as well as the profits of selling the property in the future!

Using a ROTH IRA this way can be crucial for a well planned retirement strategy that can generate limitless tax free income.

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Black Friday is the single most marketed day to consumers throughout the year, and not that marketing or advertising is bad, because it is essential for business.

What makes black Friday so bad is that the doorbusters and other deals marketed to you are done so with a strategy in mind to manipulate you in to spending even more money then you originally thought!

To counter this people have learned to go in for the deal that actually makes sense and then leave to avoid falling pray to the traps of old outdated shelf items that no one wants anyway!

In this video i really hope you pay attention to the third and final scam, this is the only scam that you do to yourself!

Under no circumstances are you to use debt to pay for random items you find on black Friday! Yes it may mean not as many gifts or stocking stuffers for the holidays however falling into the debt trap of high intertest credit cards can ruin more holiday seasons than just one!

But if your thinking to yourself that you want to save a few bucks on an item you intend to purchase no matter what, then by all means, shop for that item on black Friday and save yourself that much more money to invest!

What I Use for Investing:

https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypothetical

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@InvestwithWesley (IG)

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If you have been following my series you should have created a budget by now.

Now here are some Things To Watch Out For When On A Budget these are things like Coffee, Dining Out, and Clothes.

On Average Millennials spend around $1950 a year on clothes

and this number will only go up as inflation and cost of goods go up.

As for going out to eat, Millennials spend $175 a month or $2100 a year eating out

and because restaurants charge bare minimum 3x the price of each serving your over paying on each meal by about 3x

When it comes to coffee, Millennials spend anywhere from $2100-$2500 per year on coffee.

That averages out to about $5.5 dollars a day!

As mentioned in this episode, enjoying life and spending money isn't a bad thing, what's bad is the lack of discipline in knowing that all the miniscule spending starts to add up throughout the month.

and because 41% of millennials say the spend more on coffee then they do on their retirement savings, this is a BIG DEAL!

The Links to all the photos and research can be found below!

https://www.inc.com/chris-matyszczyk/the-10-starbucks-coffee-is-here-will-millennials-pay.html

https://www.thesimpledollar.com/save-money/millions-of-millennials-spend-more-on-coffee-and-other-things-than-retirement/

https://www.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/news/2015/06/millennials-eat-out-more-and-spend-more-when-they-do-than-non-millennials

https://capitalcounselor.com/millennial-spending-statistics/#:~:text=How%20much%20do%20millennials%20spend%20on%20clothing%3F&text=As%20of%20February%202018%2C%20millennials,as%20many%20annual%20apparel%20purchases.

https://dqydj.com/stock-return-calculator/

What I Use for Investing:

https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@InvestwithWesley (IG)

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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The reason why social security is so bad really comes down to economic policy and the practice of robbing Peter to pay Paul. But even if SSI was run in an honest way, the numbers of socialized retirement just don't make sense. As more and more people go on to the platform, less and less people are contributing to it!

The scary part is that the Social Security board of trusties even acknowledges this and is warning people that the Social Security Program is on track to go bankrupt by 2035!

When a government program goes belly up the government is sure to step in and bail out this program, bail outs always come in either HIGHER Taxes or Printing of more Money (INFLATION)

in reality we will probably see both happen as social security deals with peoples livelihood!

Its my opinion that we should not tax employees or businesses but encourage tax breaks as an incentive to Invest and have the businesses "Match" more money.

in the end of my video i give an example about what this could look like for future retirement values.

SPOILER

almost 5x the amount of income SSI would give.

What I Use for Investing:

https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@InvestwithWesley (IG)

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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When it comes to Mutual Funds and ETFs there can be a lot of confusion!

This video gives a details comparison between the similarities and differences of Mutual Funds VS ETFs.

ETFs and Mutual Funds both share the same goal in providing a place for investors to pool their assets so a professional investment manager can use those pooled resources to invest.

On the ETF side of things the investment manager typically manages the investment passively by linking to some sort of index, in this video I give the ETFs example of SPY an ETF designed to mirror the S&P 500.

On the Mutual Funds side of things the investment manager typically manages the investment actively in an attempt to beat market returns, in this video I give the Mutual Funds example of FKAIX a Mutual Fund that is also designed to mirror the S&P 500.

Mutual Funds are way more complex than ETFs are and typically have higher fees, but these fees can be worth it to some people depending on if the Mutual Fund is successfully beating the market and if the new investor would prefer to rely on the larger network of Investors that Mutual Funds have over ETFs.

Regardless of what type of investment you decide to place your money in, these pooled asset classes are a great way for new investors to experience a fantastic return while not having to know very much about the underlying assets in each of the funds.

What I Use for Investing:

https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@InvestwithWesley (IG)

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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In early 2020 the United States experienced multiple historic events chief of them being The 2020 Recession where the stock market dropped nearly 32%

To put this in perspective, the market sank 26% during the Great Depression in the 1920s

The sudden and deep dive was caused by the government mandated shutdown in response of COVID-19.

Due to the lowering of interest rates and Quantitative Easing, (which is the printing of money to inject into the stock market) the US markets experienced a massive recovery with the same ferocity as we saw in the dip.

Although many investors cheer at this, I'm filled with skepticism, many people are still unemployed, and the economy its self has still not fully recovered.

I'm fearful that this recovery looks like a beautiful desert oasis, but is really just a mirage hiding a much uglier second dip just beyond the horizon.

Because no one can predict these things, only time will tell if this is the haven we have been waiting on, or if it is just a charade waiting to trick us!

What I Use for Investing:

https://join.robinhood.com/wesleyc434

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.mint.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@WesleyCaruso (IG)

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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Life Insurance, wills, trusts, and other estate planning documents are of EXTREME importance to have even if you are relatively young.

Having a will and trust is the best combination to have when planning for your estate.

A trust is by far the best thing for your next of kin because it bypasses probate court as well as estate tax which is an astronomical 50%!

The Downside of a Trust is that it only protects what you place inside the trust, it is not overarching like a will is!

So, you should do your best to have everything, that you want to leave behind for your family, be kept safe inside a trust, but just in case you pass away before all the items can be transferred, you should also have a Will with advanced directive as well as power of attorney!

This is so any decisions that need to be made, can be made, even when your unable to make them!

If you’re interested in setting up a will and/or a trust, sign up for Legal Shield,

I currently use Legal Shield and have never been more satisfied with any other Attorney I have ever dealt with. Click the Link for more information!

https://groups.legalshield.com/?group=primerica&agent=4JLKA

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When it comes to retirement planning, knowing your financial independence number is the first step!

FIN stands for Financial Independence Number

In order to find your FIN, think about how much money you want to make in retirement, when you want to retire, and calculate the inflation rate of what the dollar will be worth in retirement.

As an example, If you wanted to retire 40 years from now making 100k a year, you actually need to retire making 210k a year because due to inflation 210k will spend like 100k does today.

Once your annual income has been determined, divide that number by 4%.

We divide by 4% to follow the 4% rule, which states that if you take 4% of your retirement assets every year you have a 90% greater chance of that money lasting even longer than if you took more.

So we know we need to make 210k a year in retirement, 210k divided by 4% equals $5,250,000

In this example, 5.25 Million dollars is the Financial Independence Number we need to work to.

If you want to calculate your own FIN I recommend using

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://smartasset.com/investing/inflation-calculator#RRQKfUpyBK

To start investing today use one of these links to get a free stocks valued up to $1400

https://join.robinhood.com/wesleyc434

https://act.webull.com/ie/AfSdHcj7oapv/n60/inviteUs/

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Having good credit is one of the most important things you can do to set yourself up for financial success in the future!

The reason Credit is important is because it shows how trustworthy you are with money.

Our entire economy is operated by taking on debt.

If the banks, businesses, and government don't know if they can trust you with money, you will find it almost impossible to leverage your income and grow your wealth!

Most people know that the better your credit score is the lower your interest rate will be when borrowing money. But why this matters so much is because when leveraging your money your growth is a lot easier to compound and grow your wealth when the difference between interest owed vs interest earned is great!

If your buying a rental property don't be afraid to carry the loan and maybe even refinance to help lower your interest as much as possible!

What I Use for Investing:

https://join.robinhood.com/wesleyc434

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.mint.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@WesleyCaruso (IG)

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In this video I teach you how Thinking Like The Rich is vastly different than the way a poor person thinks, and how you can change your mindset too become wealthy for yourself!

Thinking Like The Rich isn't just about finding ways to make money, anybody with the time to learn can do that.

Its more about being satisfied with what you currently have and not needing to buy things to look cool or impress anyone.

If you're a millennial or any other gen that wants to break the family debt cycle than it all starts with creating a budget, limiting your expenses and increasing your investable income!

To Create a Budget Click here:

https://youtu.be/3ce5ukxJrwI

What I Use for Investing:

https://join.robinhood.com/wesleyc434

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.mint.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@WesleyCaruso (IG)

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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Roth Vs Traditional is a question that has been asked by so many people over the years! Its not so much that people don't know what Roth or Traditional are its more of they don't know if its right for them! in this video i take you step by step on what Roth is, but also what some of the benefits of Roth and traditional are, and how you can use them to maximize your tax savings as well as your growth!

What I Use for Investing:

https://join.robinhood.com/wesleyc434

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.mint.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@nvestwithWesley (IG)

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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Velocity Banking is the FASTEST way to pay down any debts, it works the same whether you have $10,000 in debt or $100,000.

What gives Velocity banking its power is that you are essentially altering how much interest you actually pay on your debts.

When done properly Velocity Banking combined with Dave Ramsey's Avalanche method create a new method called the Railgun Method.

It is with the Railgun Method that my wife and I managed to pay off over $50,000 in just under one years time.

If you have any questions about the Railgun method, or perhaps you need some assistance with the velocity banking system.

Please don't hesitate to reach out with any of your questions, I designed this YouTube channel to be a completely free resource for you to take advantage of, so don't be afraid to use it!

You can also reach me on Facebook and Instagram with the @InvestwithWesley

To use the calculator resource I showed in this video follow the link bellow!

https://www.replaceyourmortgage.com/calculator/PayoffLine.html

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The Infinite Banking Concept, when used properly, can get you out of the rut of going into debt or not being able to save. Using this concept properly can astronomically grow your wealth.

Most people fall into the debt cycle where they take out loans to pay for their items such as a car house or college

unfortunately as long as people are in this cycle they will never be able to grow their wealth because they are always owing other people.

Some people become savers, saving as much as possible only to liquidated there accounts when needing to pay for big items. In this scenario the saver is no better than the debtor because they always end up back at zero.

In This Video I show you how to stop the cycle, grow your net worth and wealth so that you can be one step closer to financial freedom!

If you want help selecting investments, creating a portfolio, or implementing the Infinite Banking Concept for yourself, don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have! I'm here to help as best as I can!

Find me on IG and on FB at @InvestWithWesley

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Assets and Liabilities are two of the most important things to learn and manage when it comes to growing your wealth. Your credit score and the spread between your assets and liabilities are what banks look at when deciding weather or not you can manage more debt.

Assets are anything that:

Produces a positive income return

Appreciates in value

Pays for its self

Has little to no accumulating interest

Liabilities are the opposite, a Liability is anything that:

Depreciates in value

Does not produce a return

Has to be payed for at the cost of your income base

Has high interest accumulating

Anything and everything can be an Asset or a Liability, it all depends on how you use what you have purchased.

If you want help deleveraging your debts and restructuring your liabilities than feel free to reach me either on FB or IG with the @InvestwithWesley

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What is good vs bad debt? Based on Google Trends, this question is something that numerous people want to know.

Good Debt is something that appreciates in value, provides a monthly return, or is extremely low in interest.

Good Debt:

Rental Property

Business Investment

Credit Cards (When Used Properly)

Debt that pay for themselves and don't cost any money out of pocket.

Bad Debt:

New Car Auto Loans

Student Loans

Primary Mortgage

Credit Cards (If Used Improperly)

Any Debt that depreciates in value and causes monetary loss of income.

With anything, its not about what you buy it is more about how you will utilize what you buy, Real Estate is a perfect example, Buying an expensive house for yourself is Bad Debt because it causes giant monetary losses per month to your income, however if you rent it out its Good Debt because it is paying for its self and causing no excess expenses from your income.

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All About Investing where I give a brief overview on the numerous ways you can invest and grow your money for the best possible gains!

First I'd Like to say A special thank you to everyone watching these videos with the intent to grow and become more financially capable, Its because of you i get to teach you about investing!

In this video I cover all the NUMEROUS ways to invest money!

a list of these ways can be found bellow.

Stocks

Bonds

Mutual Funds

ETFs

Real Estate

Commodities (Gold, Silver, Oil)

Private Equity (Angel Investor)

When Creating a paper portfolio, always remember to diversify as much as possible! A great general rule of thumb is, No more than 20% in any one sector and no more than 5% in any one Stock.

What I Use for Investing:

https://join.robinhood.com/wesleyc434

https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oap...

https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/fin...

https://www.franklintempleton.com/fin...

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.mint.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@WesleyCaruso (IG)

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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When it comes to The Cashflow Quadrant, Saving yourself on taxes is key!

First I'd Like to say A special thank you to everyone watching these videos with the intent to grow and become more financially capable!

In this video I cover the 4 Legal ways to make money also known as The Cashflow Quadrant!

Quadrent#1 The Employee:

✔ a safe form of making money

✔ comes with benefits

✔ guaranteed income making future planning easy

✖ Average Tax Payed is 40%

✖ Trades Valuable Time for Dollars

Quadrent#2 The Small Business Owner

✔ Controls Their Time and Money

✔ Can have benefits

✖ Trades Time For Dollars

✖ Average Tax Payed is 60%

✖ Income levels may fluctuate

Quadrent#3 The Big Business Owner

✔ Leverages other peoples time and money

✔ Has a system allowing complete freedom

✖ Pays 20% in Taxes

✖ Income may fluctuate

Quadrent#4 The Investor

✔ Leverages other peoples time and money

✔ Money works so you don't have too

✔ Pays 0% in Taxes

✖ Income may fluctuate

✖ Building credibility may take time

When Moving from the left side to the right side and building your wealth, one of the BIGGEST things you could do to increase your chances of success, is simply to get a mentor! If you have any questions or ideas on a new investment or business venture and want to ask someone for advice Id gladly offer my services in exchange for a like, subscribe, and a share!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@WesleyCaruso (IG)

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In this video I cover the fundamentals of investing and explain to you the core principles to growing your investment over time! When it comes to investing it starts with you and how much extra income you have to put towards your investments. Starting now with a little is better than starting later with a lot! Rule of 72: is a metric used to find the approximate number if years it will take for your investment to double if left alone to grow. You can find this number by dividing 72 by the interest your getting as an example, 72/10 is 7.2. Every 7.2 years your money will double. Simple Interest: The interest earned on an initial investment that stays level as time progresses Compounding Interest: Interest earned on an initial investment that grows exponentially over time, in this metric, interest earns interest.

What I Use for Investing:

https://join.robinhood.com/wesleyc434 https://act.webull.com/pm/AfSdHcj7oapv/71l/inviteUs/ https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

https://www.franklintempleton.com/financial-professionals/tools-and-resources/tools/hypotheticals

What I Use for Budgeting:

https://www.personalcapital.com/

https://www.mint.com/

https://www.truebill.com/

http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want help setting up a portfolio service, a budget, or just want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation; feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@WesleyCaruso (IG)

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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Thank you to everyone watching these videos! In this video I cover the topic of PAYING OFF YOUR DEBTS and explain to you the best methods to pay off your debt as early as possible! When it comes to paying off debts it all starts with your budget and how much extra income you have to put towards your debts. If you haven't created a budget yet, now would be the time! Refer back to my budgeting video to learn how.

Debt Elimination Method #1 Is the Shotgun method, this is the practice of spreading extra payments across all your debts at the same time similar to a shotgun blast. This is what most people use when paying down there debts, and it is quicker then the minimum payment, but slower then other methods.

Debt Elimination Method #2 Is the Snowball method, in this method you organize the debts from least to greatest in the amount that you owe, focus on the first one on the list, and roll that payment into the next one once it has been payed off. This method is a great for people that want to see immediate progress, its benefits are paying down your debts quicker than shotgunning and saving money on interest.

Debt Elimination Method #3 Is the Avalanche method, this method is exactly the same as the Snowball method, however the only difference is you order your debts from greatest to least interest you owe, this method is faster than the snowball and saves you more interest but you wont see as immediate results as you would the snowball.

Debt Elimination Method #4 Is the Rail Gun method or Velocity Banking Method, This method is by far the fastest and saves the most money on interest, however, is not for beginners as it requires complete confidence in your spending and budget. A dedicated video will be produced later as we progress from beginner finance to advanced!

What I Use for Budgeting: https://www.personalcapital.com/ https://www.mint.com/ https://www.truebill.com/ http://refer.amex.us/WESLECF6jM?xl=cp15

If you want FREE help setting a budget or want recommendations on what to do in a certain situation, feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow! @InvestwithWesley (FB) @WesleyCaruso (IG)

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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A special thank you to everyone watching these videos with the intent to grow and become more financially conscious!

In this video I cover the 3 CRITICAL accounts you MUST have to gain financial success that much quicker!

Critical Account #1 The Emergency Account

Critical Account #2 The Short Term Account

Critical Account #3 The Wealth Building Account

In Critical Account #1 Your Goal should be to have one or two months worth of expenses in a HYSA or Money Market Account gaining at least 1% interest!

In Critical Account #2 Your Goal should be to store all excess funds as well as have anywhere from six months to a year worth of expenses. With this account we sacrifice upside gain for downside protection and are looking to achieve a 6-9% rate of return.

In Critical Account #3 Your Goal should be long term growth with increased risk in the short term. The level of your aggressiveness varies wildly depending on your age and overall time horizon.

If you want FREE help setting these accounts up, or want recommendations on what Investments should go in each fund, feel free to comment or message me using one of the links bellow!

@InvestwithWesley (FB)

@WesleyCaruso (IG)

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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Welcome everyone and thank you for being part of my first real upload on the platform!

In this video (All About Life Insurance) I talk to you about the confusion if life insurance,

needles to say there is a huge market for Insurance from

Dave Ramsey's "TERM ONLY" to the thought that "Cash Value is King"

I take you step by step in understanding the importance of life insurance and how to avoid some of the more common pitfalls.

In this video I answer:

What is life insurance?

What is life insurance for?

Do I actually need Life insurance?

How much coverage should I get?

Plus a variety of other questions.

I hope you enjoy this video and that it sheds light on the different kinds of life insurance there are and the different kinds of life insurance you may need.

Be warned that the Life Insurance industry is a confusing and shady industry with extremely deep pockets and just because someone looks and sounds convincing, does not mean that they actually have your best interest in heart.

If you currently have life insurance but you think it's the wrong amount, wrong kind, or if you're currently looking for life insurance and just want to get a second opinion or quote; feel free to message me with any comments, concerns, or questions you can reach me at the following links,

I'd love to help!

@investwithwesley (FB)

@wesleycaruso (IG)

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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Hello Everyone and welcome to Invest With Wesley,

The Youtube / Podcast channel that talks all about personal and small business finances!

My goal is to Lead, Educate, and Encourage you to reach your full potential and too take the much needed next steps toward the road to your personal and financial breakthrough!

If you enjoyed this video and watching me trip over my own words please like and subscribe so you can always see more!

If you want to reach out with comments concerns or questions feel free to reach me at the following links, I'd love to help!

@investwithwesley (FB)

@wesleycaruso (IG)

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Welcome everyone and thank you for joining!

In this video I talk about the pros and cons, but mostly cons, of having a Cash Value Life Insurance Policy and how to avoid the common issues and huge pitfalls that come with most if not ALL Cash Value Policies;

from GIANT surrender fees to little to no gains all just so the Insurance company can steal your money when you pass away!

In this video I answer:

What is Cash Value Insurance?

What are the pros and cons of it?

Why salesmen still push this Scam?

Plus a variety of other questions.

I hope you enjoy this video and that it sheds light on the different kinds of life insurance there are and the different kinds of life insurance you may need.

Take this into consideration when talking to any life insurance agent!

If you currently have life insurance but you think it's the wrong amount, wrong kind, or if you're currently looking for life insurance and just want to get a second opinion or quote;

feel free to message me with any comments, concerns, or questions

you can reach me at the following links,

I'd love to help!

@investwithwesley (FB)

@wesleycaruso (IG)

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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Welcome everyone and thank you for joining!

In this video I talk about the Term Life insurance, if it's right for you,

what benefits you should look for in an insurance company as well as in a policy!

In this video I do an apples to apples comparison on Term vs. Cash Value Insurances.

In this video I answer:

What is Term Insurance?

What are the pros and cons of it?

What is the theory of decreasing responsibility?

Plus a variety of other questions.

I hope you enjoy this video and that it sheds light on the need for life insurance,

but most importantly what to look for when choosing an insurance company!

Take this into consideration when talking to any life insurance agent!

If you currently have life insurance but you think it's the wrong amount, wrong kind, or if you're currently looking for life insurance and just want to get a second opinion or quote;

feel free to message me with any comments, concerns, or questions

you can reach me at the following links,

I'd love to help any way I can!

@investwithwesley (FB)

@wesleycaruso (IG)

This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

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