DIY Personal & Retirement Financial Planning
Do-It-Yourself financial and investment planning Excel spreadsheet software
Everyone has similar, yet distinct, financial planning needs regarding their families’ financial futures. While more wealthy people (think millions of dollars) have greater complexity to their financial affairs (caused largely by our incredibly convoluted U.S. personal tax codes), everyone needs sophisticated financial lifecycle planning. Whether wealthy or not yet wealthy, families need a personalized way […]
Why allow the financial industry to help itself to your money? This blog provides you with objective information that could solidify a lifelong commitment on our part to low cost investing. Low cost investing is how you keep more of your own investments for your family, instead of naively giving your money to the financial […]
CLICK HERE TO READ THE SKILLED INVESTOR’s OTHER ARTICLES ABOUT THESE “10 FINANCIAL PLANNING STEPS IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION Even with optimal investment strategies, there is still substantial room to improve upon net investment performance through continued and vigilant focus on controlling investment costs and tax realization. Personal Financial Planning Software The fees extracted by […]
The table below in this article presents The Skilled Investor’s Fund Authority Score and other information for the American Funds – AMCAP Fund – Class A Shares. The diversified investment fund strategy of the American Funds – AMCAP Fund – Class A mutual fund shares (AMCPX) Personal Financial Planning Software According to its prospectus filing […]
The table below in this article presents The Skilled Investor’s Fund Authority Score and other information for the American Balanced Fund – Class A Shares. The diversified investment fund strategy of the American Balanced Fund – Class A mutual fund shares Family Financial Planning Software According to its prospectus filing on the U.S. Securities and […]
What is the most effective strategy you have to increase your long-term mutual fund and ETF investment returns? Just reduce your investment fees to rock bottom and buy directly to eliminate all sales loads. This strategy is both simple and entirely within your control. You do not have to be smarter than all those other […]
< <– Go to Part 3 The Biggest Personal Finance Story of the Past 30 Years – Part 4 Find Home Financial Planning Software What does it mean to individual investors that the financial services industry is now about 21% of S&P 500 market capitalization? (For a graph of the relative percentage shares of various […]
< <– Go to Part 2 The Biggest Personal Finance Story of the Past 30 Years – Part 3 Family Financial Planning Software for Consumers There is no reason to believe that industry self-regulation or governmental regulation will ever fix these problems. Only those individuals who become wise enough to be proactive and seek out […]
< — Go to Part 1 The Biggest Personal Finance Story of the Past 30 Years – Part 2 Family Financial Planning Software To understand what has happened to the market valuation of the financial services sector, particularly over the last 30 years, you should view Figure 4 on page 16 of the financial study […]
The Biggest Personal Finance Story of the Past 30 Years – Part 1 What could the biggest personal finance story of three decades be? The growth of mutual funds and ETFs? Nope. The dot com boom and bust? Nope. Vanishing pensions? Nope. The not-so-high quality of mortgage bonds? Nope. A 0% personal savings rate nationally? […]
Early retirement for renters due to investment cost improvements and higher savings rates Improving on Fran and Fred’s lifetime financial plan with earlier retirement Fran and Fred Frugal, both age 30, are a married working couple with $100,000 in combined annual earned income. They want to understand how valuable different personal finance strategies could be […]
Pre-retirement savings rates for renters – with and without investment cost improvements Improving on Fran and Fred’s lifetime financial plan through lower investment costs Fran and Fred Frugal, both age 30, are a married working couple with $100,000 in combined annual earned income. They want to understand how valuable different personal finance strategies could be […]
Lifetime investment assets of renters through investment cost improvements Improving on Fran and Fred’s lifetime financial plan through lower investment costs Fran and Fred Frugal, both age 30, are a married working couple with $100,000 in combined annual earned income. They want to understand how valuable different personal finance strategies could be to their lifetime […]
10 Lower Cost S&P 500 Index Mutual Funds Regular readers know that The Skilled Investor advocates a very boring, low cost, broad market, passive index investment strategy. Costs less. Gets the broad market return — whatever that will be. Narrows the range of outcomes and therefore the risk to your long-term personal financial plan. Takes […]
VeriPlan can estimate the lost lifetime value of investment sales loads that you have already paid in the past Your personal investment portfolio losses related to past investment sales load payments can and should be measured, when you evaluate the cost-efficiency of your investment strategy. However, you cannot recapture any of the lost returns (past […]
How expensive is financial advisor compensation paid via sales loads? A sales load might be the method that you prefer to compensate your broker or advisor. If your advisor is truly competent and ethical, he may be able to manage properly the inherent conflicts of interest that are associated with commissioned investment product sales. Even […]
VeriPlan automatically tracks returns lost to investment sales loads Many justifications for investment sales load charges might be offered by financial advisors during the sales process, but once a front-end load is charged, your diminished portfolio will ‘forget’ about the load charge for the rest of your life. Loads become ‘phantom’ assets, which are rarely […]
Understanding one-time investment fees, such as sales loads Sales load charges and commissions on investment purchases differ from the financial service industry’s numerous other recurring methods of charging fees to their retail consumers. Sales loads are less straightforward to analyze for investment lifetime cost-effectiveness, compared to annually recurring charges. (See: Pay less to get more) […]
The heavy burden of recurring investment fees (Part 2 of 2) < < — Go to Part 1 By charging fees as a percent of your assets, the investment industry can make their recurring fees seem small – like they are “just a few†percent. Financial Planning Software for Individuals Furthermore, by charging fees against […]
The heavy burden of recurring investment fees (Part 1 of 2) Recurring investment costs can significantly impact the long-term value of your retained investment portfolio assets. Recurring fees, such as asset management fees, 12b-1 marketing fees, and advisory/asset custody fees are charged periodically, as a percent of your investment assets. The relative cost-efficiency of your […]