Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Check out all of the episodes and the new podcast player HERE!
{Please note that all information on YoProWealth.com is for informational purposes only. See a full disclaimer here.}
The wealthy do something well that the majority of the others do not even do at all…
They invest and put their money to work for them.
How do they do it? Well, in this solo edition of the YoPro Wealth podcast, I share with you the advice from many experts below.
Reserve your spot in the Wealth Webinar series here!
In this podcast episode, you’ll learn:
- The best investment you can make, and why.
- Why to consider index funds as a great option for you.
- The secret to financial freedom.
- Why to consider real estate as an investment vehicle.
- What dollar cost averaging is.
- Why you should love bear markets.
- Why saving is key early on!
- And much, much more!
Agatha Javellana-Schmidt, Marketing & Business Development Manager, IRA Services Trust Company
Use Self-Directed IRAs (Individual Retirement Accounts) to build retirement wealth by truly diversifying your portfolio. Self-Directed IRAs allow you to invest in alternative assets like real estate including trust deeds (source of passive income), precious metals, private companies, and almost anything and everything you can think of that will make money for your IRA.
Another advantage of the Self-Directed IRA is that it allows you to earn tax-sheltered income – you don’t pay taxes until you withdraw funds from your IRA (as with a Traditional IRA), and if you have a Roth IRA, you don’t pay taxes at all on any investment returns because contributions are post-tax funds.
Patrick Randall, President and Founder of City Point Wealth Management, Inc.
Being a financial advisor and a graduate with a Masters and Bachelors degree in finance, you would think the best advice I have received or given would have something to do with a stock valuation formula or a technical trading technique, but it’s not. In fact, it’s far from that. The best investment advice I have received and since then been passing along to young and middle-aged clients is to invest in yourself and your career.
Think about it. By developing your skills and abilities, whether through additional formal education or self-taught, you are able to enhance your value as an employee (or better yet, an entrepreneur). By making yourself a more valuable employee, not only do you potentially avoid being the first employee cut lose when times get tough and your company needs to downsize, but you also increase the chance for higher income.
I encourage friends, family, and clients to continue to develop both personally and professionally. Look for ways to add value to your team, division, or company as a whole. Strive to take on additional responsibilities, even ones that you may not be 100% confident you can successfully accomplish given your current experience level. You’ll surprise yourself. You may not be the best at the additional task, you may even fail, but the lessons learned through the process are invaluable to your future growth and potential earning power.
Bradley Dugdale, Jr., Author, Munny Journey
When I started my first job, I had an elder statesman in the company pull me aside. He told me to live on 90% of my income and invest the difference.
Boy was he right. 32 years later his advice has created financial freedom most people dream of.
Barry Maher, Author/Speaker, Barry Maher & Associates
The best investment advice I ever received was simply this: “Start early!”
Over time, the power of compounding can easily turn small investments into large investments. The second best piece of advice I ever got came from John Bogle of Vanguard, and that’s to simply “buy the market,” using index funds that mirror the whole market or a significant segment of it, rather than trying to pick individual winners and losers.
Dustin Hall, MBA, CFP®, ChFC®, Wealth Advisor, Hall & Burns Wealth Management, LLC
A couple of thoughts I would share:
- You don’t have to recoup a loss with the same investment that caused the loss in the first place. What brought you down may not necessarily bring you back. It’s okay to sell a loser and put the proceeds back to work in another investment that may provide a better opportunity going forward.
- Always remember, anything you can make a killing in you can also get killed in. Bottom line: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
- Gains and losses are not symmetrical. For example, a 40% loss like the one many investors experienced in 2008 would require a roughly 66% gain just to get back even. On the other hand, a 15% loss would only require about an 18% return to get back even. Clearly, avoiding huge losses is essential when it comes to investing.
Christopher V. Kimball, Christopher V. Kimball Financial Services LLC
DO NOT pay attention to the media (present company excluded, of course!).
The media is designed to sell fear and panic. Making investment decisions based on emotion is almost always counter-productive. Develop a strategy that is suitable for you, and stick with it. Ignore the noise. No one can predict the future, no matter how many fancy charts and graphs he or she may present. Sure, an “investment guru” may be right once or twice, maybe three times if he or she is really lucky, but looking forward in the short-term, no one know what will happen next. Long-term trends can be instructive, but again, that is using logic and not get-rich-quick or stop-the-pain emotions.
J. Massey, Investor, Entrepreneur, Author, Speaker, Cash Flow Diary
The best investment advice I could ever give is to invest in real estate. But first you have to invest in yourself and gain the tools and knowledge that allow you to do so.
The very first thing I suggest to people ALWAYS is to invest in themselves. They don’t have to attend college to get the know-how to be a great real estate investor, but they do need to educate themselves through books, audio courses, video courses, workshops if they have the budget and by joining mentoring and mastermind groups. In short time they can change their lives… and that’s no joke. That’s not pie-in-the-sky thinking.
It’s called taking action. Then taking more action. It’s implementing what they learn at the Speed of Instruction™ and treating deadlines like it’s NOW O’clock. If they wait to implement what they learn, they can easily forget the steps. They can get fearful. Fear can stop them from investing in anything. Their negative inner thoughts can stop them, too. The best way to combat those thoughts and feelings – because that’s all they are; they are not real – is to educate themselves and then get out there and do that thing they learned.
In my world, it’s real estate investing, and why that’s a good space is because everyone always needs a place to live, work, play and lay. No matter what you do in life and in business – and even when we die because we’ll be taking up space somewhere – it’s a sure bet that you are doing it on a piece of real estate that owned by someone if not you and it’s something that brings cash flow to that owner (landlord). Why not BE the owner or landlord? And before anyone says they don’t have the money to do so, they need to learn more about my story. All I can say is they don’t need any.
Scott Stratton, CFP®, CFA, President of Good Life Wealth Management LLC
The best investment advice might also be one of the most challenging to follow and that is to “stick with the plan!” Over the past 15 years, I’ve seen some investors have great success in the market while others lost money and became very frustrated and discouraged. The difference wasn’t necessarily in their ability to choose which investments to buy, but in their willingness to hang on when the going got tough. The folks who sold their funds in 2009 took a big loss and are probably still under water. Those who held on made their money back and probably have a nice profit by now.
The key here is not in the investment selection but in the subsequent decisions and behavior. Having the fortitude to weather a bear market for a couple of years is essential for a long-term investor. I should add one caveat, which is that individual stocks can and do go to zero. Markets do not. And that’s why diversification is a prerequisite for anyone who is investing and not speculating.
Matt Rinkey, Founder and President of Illumination Wealth Management
My grandfather, who was a depression era child built a business over his lifetime sold it for a sizable nest egg when I was a child. Within 5 years, he lost the vast majority of his money during the junk bond craze of the late 1980’s. From that experience, he told me that no matter what amount of money you have (large or small), you always need to have an investment plan and be investing for a clear purpose. He lost sight of that and that cost my grandfather and grandmother dearly which had ripple effects throughout our entire family.
Griffin Dalrymple, CFP®, AIF® Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Opinicus Wealth Management
The best investment advice I’ve ever received was to ignore the crowd and focus on the cash flow.
I heeded that advice from a book as a teenager. My first big investment was at the age of 19, while entering my sophomore year of college. I purchased a beat up duplex, contrary to all friends & family’s advice, with excess scholarship funds and a cash advance from a credit card. I couldn’t ignore the substantial cash flow the property could produce if both sides were rented. In fact, the rental was profitable above all mortgage and maintenance costs if only one side was occupied. The rental property ended up funding my living expenses for the remaining three years of college.
The more you think outside the box, the more your peers will provide their cynical opinion. The best investors are those who are willing to allow their imagination to wonder and take calculated positions against the current.
Anthony Alfidi, CEO of Alfidi Capital
The best investment advice I’ve ever received is “pay yourself first,” and I’ve passed it on to others. Paying yourself first means committing as much of one’s gross income as possible to saving and investing before even thinking about purchasing anything that’s not essential.
It means living well within one’s means for years to attain financial independence as soon as possible. It means cutting out all luxuries early in one’s earning years to prepare for the ultimate luxury of earned wealth later in life. I have followed this advice myself and I achieved financial independence in 2009 at the age of 36.
M. Brendon Marks, Business Development, Hodges Capital Management
The best advice I’ve ever got in the investment business is to dollar cost average, invest a certain amount of your income every month and to invest in companies you understand.
Richard Sturm, Financial Advisor and Public Speaker, Sturm Financial
As a financial adviser, my best advice for every age bracket is, “get out of debt, and stay that way!”
David Bakke, MoneyCrashers.com
The best piece of advice on investing I ever received came from my mother. She told me to never try to time the market or pick stocks.
The best way to effectively invest for retirement is to develop a balanced, diversified portfolio based on your age and risk tolerance, and to rebalance your portfolio one time per year. Other than that, you should leave it alone and let it grow over the long haul.
Michael Argiro, Financial Advisor, 4T Financial
Live below your means and don’t spend more than you make. It sounds easy but not everyone does it.
Think: do you need it or want it?
J. David Stein, Host, Money For the Rest of Us podcast
The one piece of investment advice I always share and follow myself is invest in undervalued asset categories not individual securities.
When we invest in an asset category, such as emerging markets stocks, that is selling for a valuation well below its historical average it is like discovering a bunch of un-popped corn kernels sitting on a heat source.
Just as we don’t have to guess which corn kernel will pop first and which won’t pop at all, when we invest in a diversified basket of undervalued securities via an ETF, we don’t have to predict which security will appreciate.
We just know that there is a greater likelihood for positive surprises and corresponding market appreciation in baskets of securities that are cheap.
Randall Reinwasser, CFP®, Solitude Canyon Investment Advisors
If you’re saving for retirement, bear markets are your friend.
Rick Van Ness, Author and Educator, FinancingLife.org
“A Penny Saved Is Two Pennies Earned” was the first game-changing investment advice that resonated with me. This was the title of a chapter from a book by Andrew Tobias 35 years ago. Tax rates were higher back then, but this taught me the importance of saving.
More recently I’ve been guided by investment advice from the champion of common sense investing, John C. Bogle, who says, “When it comes to investing, unlike with most things in life, you get (to keep) what you don’t pay for.” He is referring to the importance to keep investing expenses, and any fees for financial advice, at an absolute minimum.
Brian Penny, Writer, The Street
The best investment advice I ever received is to stop focusing on numbers, graphs, and statistics, and invest in companies you truly love.
Apple may be on an upswing, but if you don’t have an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, it becomes a chore to keep up with everything they’re doing. When you invest in companies providing products and services you use every day, you’re making much smarter financial decisions.
Michael Solari, Principal, Solari Financial Planning, LLC
The best investment advice I got was “control what you can and don’t worry what you can’t.”
An advisor was telling me that there are things that we can control when it comes to investing. When establishing a portfolio we can control how much risk it will take on, how high or low expenses are and most important our behavior. Typically, our behavior is what gets us in trouble. Intuition tells us to buy low and sell high but when things are volatile that can go out the window.
We can’t control what happens daily, weekly or monthly in the market but if managed appropriately you should be rewarded for the risk that you took on.
Joshua Austin Scheinker, Scheinker Investment Partners of Janney Montgomery Scott LLC
Find out what everyone else is doing and do the opposite… go against the grain.
Buy straw hats in the winter. That is how you create wealth.
Shane Fischer, Attorney at Law, Shane E. Fischer, P.A.
Create an emergency fund totaling six months worth of living expenses in an ultra-safe cash account.
You never know when you will incur a major repair bill (home, auto, or even dental); you could lose your job on a moment’s notice; or otherwise need a lot of money in a short time.
Grant A. Webster, CFP®, AKT Wealth Advisors LP
The best investment advice I have ever received is to never let emotions lead you to make dumb investment moves.
As a young financial planner and investor, there are many times when the markets have made me feel uncomfortable and nervous-but in reality, the short term bumps in the market are meaningless. Don’t make irrational investment choices like selling when the stock market dips, buying the “hot stock” of the week, or thinking of investments as a “get rich quick” vehicle.
Start a long term plan and stick with it. When you look back at your investments 30 years from now, you will likely wish you had stuck to a more disciplined investment strategy and spent less time following the ups and downs of the market.
Gary Lee, Serial Entrepreneur
The best advice I was ever given was do not look to invest in anything short term unless it is real estate that you want to buy and flip.
Gold, Silver and Real Estate over a 10 year period have never gone down in value. Trying to make a quick buck now is like going to the casino and betting on red, you have no idea because the markets are so volatile.
Jonathan K. Duong, CFA, CFP®, President of Wealth Engineers
As a financial planner and investment advisor, I’ve heard a lot of “advice” about investing. Everyone has an opinion and everyone thinks they are right. The trouble is that the advice from one supposedly genius guru is often in direct conflict with another supposedly genius guru. Worse, a lot of so-called advice simply doesn’t stack up in the face of basic arithmetic..
As a result, there’s a lot of noise and nonsense for the average investor to wade through in trying to develop their game plan. Thus, I’d like to share a couple pieces of advice from John Bogle, an investment giant who has been fighting for individual investors foe decades.
The best investment advice I ever received:
John Bogle: “Time is your friend, impulse is your enemy.”
Bogle’s point is very simple, but is the most powerful concept in all of investing. Compound interest is the single greatest tool that most young investors have on their side. Investors who develop a plan and stick to it are highly likely to be successful. Investors who let emotion drive their decisions become their own worst enemy by buying high and selling low, therefore greatly hindering the power of compounding.
John Bogle: “Forget the needle, buy the haystack.”
Throughout history, very few individuals have demonstrated the ability to pick stocks that consistently outperform the market after adjusting for risk, costs, and taxes. Thus, rather than attempting to find the next Apple, just buy the entire market using a low-cost index fund or ETF. By doing so, you guarantee yourself the market return (less a small amount in fees and taxes), which has historically delivered performance that surpasses the majority of other investors.
Jonathan DeYoe, President, DeYoe Wealth Management and Blogger, Happiness Dividend
The single best piece of advice, which I received early in my career and have given hundreds if not thousands of times in the last 20 years, is a combo of planning and investment advice… Before you invest you have to know what you are investing for.
“Making more money” is NOT an investment goal. “Beating the market” is NOT an investment goal. “Beating your neighbor” is NOT an investment goal. Each of these is a setup. The things that you might do to produce or accomplish each of these things (and hundreds of similar things) are often the very same behaviors that ultimately produce smaller and worse returns over your entire investing experience.
This is because the human mind is naturally a speculator (not that it is good at it, but that is the natural tendency). Humans tend to equate price (what everyone seems to be willing to pay for an investment) with value (the intrinsic, even if only projected, real future cash flows available from the investment). By equating them, we are attracted to higher priced investments and we are afraid of lower priced investments. Note: this is, I hope obviously, exactly backwards.
Nothing we can do about our human proclivities or about the volatility of markets, but knowing where we are going before we start and understanding the likely outcomes on the path keeps us from making stupid, but very human, errors along the way.
Joseph Neibich, Touring Comedian, Writer
Shanna Tingom, Financial Advisor
Years ago, a woman much older and wiser than me told me to “follow my checkbook” when investing.
What she meant by that was to invest in products and companies that I use and love. I still use this advice today, and I often tell my clients the same thing! Think of your favorite grocery items, your mobile phone, your computer. If you love them, it’s likely others to do! Do some research and find investments that may have those companies in them, or in the company themselves.
If you’re not confident enough to go it on your own, hire a Financial Advisor and talk your ideas over with them. Soon, you’ll be seeing investment opportunities everywhere. Not all of them will be good, but some of them will, and your advisor can help you decide. And, by buying companies that you know, like and trust you’ll be more “invested” in the process…and pay more attention.
