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The Wolf Of Wall Street Is In Me

By Frugaling 4 Comments

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rkoi2

I dissociate somewhere between Donnie smoking crack in the back of a restaurant and Jordan stacking bills on bills in a safe deposit box. This is probably the fourth time I’ve seen The Wolf of Wall Street with Leonardo DiCaprio, so I pretty much know the entire film. I laugh on cue, but mostly drift into some sort of revulsion to the moneymakers’ debauchery.

Jordan, played by DiCaprio, chucks a wad of cash off the side of his yacht, and I fantasize about what would life be like if I were filthy rich. Something stirs inside me. I want that level of wealth and I don’t know why.

My life is comically dissimilar from Jordan’s. I’m nearing the end of graduate school, thinking about jobs, and constantly checking my bank account. The latter stands stronger than ever due to saving and scrimping, but it’s a measly sum. I’ll have a small amount of student loan debt to pay off, too. When I graduate, I’ll expect to earn $50-70,000 with my Ph.D. in hand.

Privilege allowed me to choose my career path. Early in my college years, I replaced business with psychology. The switch forever changed my earning potential. I just hoped psychology would allow me to help others in need — the money didn’t matter much.

Now, as The Wolf plays before my eyes, I struggle with two mindsets.

There’s the Jordan side of me. I want to travel. Iowa is killing me slowly with its lack of diversity and landlocked status. I want to be able to live in lavish places and decorate as I see fit. My minimalism borders on austere. I want to be able to buy, buy, buy. Every time I do, I feel this pang of guilt — I need to save that dollar. And I sure as hell don’t ever want to be in debt again.

Then there’s the modest, frugal person who writes these words. Iowa has been the perfect place to save, bike, and enjoy graduate school. I don’t care to have much. I don’t need to own, own, own. I don’t want my primary title to be “consumer.” I like being able to save, live, and give to others.

Maybe I’m dreaming of wealth because reality isn’t always easy. I’m moving out of an apartment complex I can no longer afford, paying off a hefty sum for a car, and living on a tight budget each week. Scrimp and save is often more challenging than earn and invest.

If I had the opportunity to make more money, I wonder how much I’d want. Would a million dollars in savings/investments suffice? Would tens of millions? Would a billion?

The mind seems capable of more. Always more. The mode is more. More than enough. More than the other person. More than you.

As the movie finishes and Jordan begins to unravel and lose it all, the director’s message is clear: money doesn’t buy happiness. You can still be a miserable millionaire. But the urge remains. How can the mind be so illogical and rational at the same time?

Filed Under: Make Money Tagged With: Billionaire, investing, Jordan Belfort, Millionaire, money, rich, saving, Stock Market, Wall Street, Wealthy, wolf of wall street

Everything We Learned About Investing Was Wrong. That’s Why We Need Betterment.

By Frugaling 11 Comments

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Wall Street Photo Wikipedia

What I learned about investing from my grandparents

As a young child, I loved pouring over the daily stock tables. Every day, I would scan over the newspaper to see how stocks moved up, down, and sideways. It was this fun dance of numbers.

Age-old wisdom about stocks was shared with me, too. Find some blue chip stocks and invest for the long-term, my grandparents said. They taught me about investing in great companies and pointed out stocks like GE, International Paper, IBM, and Wells Fargo. But living through the tech bubble and mortgage crisis tainted my perspective — it wasn’t easy to digest that buy-and-hold strategy.

My Millennial status seemed to set me up for some strong investments at a young age. I had a knack for picking winners. I purchased Apple in the double-digits before multiple splits. I eyed Google, but didn’t have any money to invest around $100 per share. More recently, there was Tesla Motors, where I invested around $30 per share. I don’t often take to optimism, but these companies embodied a positivity for the future. There was hope in these companies. It was easy to invest.

While the preceding investments paid off, plenty of others failed. There were embarrassing investments that went totally south. Additionally, trading fees ate up gains and increased losses. When you only have a couple thousand dollars to invest, losing $10 per trade can be painful.

Eventually, companies started marketing ETFs heavily. Some even incentivized the purchase of ETFs via free trades. But the investment fees were often expensive and I needed to buy whole shares. If I didn’t have enough liquid cash, I wasn’t going to be able to buy one. The money would sit in a paltry savings account and dwindle.

I spent years at Vanguard Group. They’re friendly, available, and supportive to smaller investors. They’re customer owned and tend to have lower transaction fees (about $7 per trade). The big bonus was low-fee ETFs that could be traded for free. It was perfect, except that income fluctuations and whole-share buying restricted diversification.

You’ve been investing wrong, here’s why

This summer, I decided to read A Random Walk Down Wall Street. I heard that this was the ultimate, research-based, investment strategy book. The author Burton Malkiel outlined the major investment theories that market makers, advisors, and average investors used.

The book blew my mind and set me on a race to change my investments. Malkiel introduced fundamental ideas such as, the more an individual trades (frequency), the worse they perform (usually). So if you trade nervously throughout the market’s swings, you’re likely performing worse than the broader market (compared to the S&P 500). The author also noted that male investors traded more often than women, too.

Fundamentally, the entire book wrapped psychology, economics, and politics into one perfectly assembled masterpiece about investing. I felt like I was sipping from the fountain of youth and could finally understand why — despite some good investments here and there — I was performing worse than the broader market averages.

Every time I thought I discovered a new pattern in the market or companies introducing breakthrough technologies, the entire market was too. I wasn’t the only one, and that screwed with my ability to profit from reason. And even more powerful, was this statement, “Even real technology revolutions do not guarantee benefits for investors.” That crushed my soul. How could I invest in life-changing technologies and companies, but not see profit and gain? The reason: companies are constantly growing and changing and falling from grace. It’s a constant cycle. To predict one company over every other competitor and up and comer is dangerous, potentially futile, and rarely as safe as investing in a broader average (a basket of stocks).

The book brilliantly analyzed humans’ use of heuristics and time-saving mental machinations that actually served to stifle our gains. Convinced that we are always right, we tend to reflect on our more positive investments and downplay the negative ones. We like to think we can “beat the market.” Being average is a bore, right?!

We grow up reading and watching articles and movies and novels that take us on an arc: introduction, rise, climax, decline, resolution. We grow accustomed to this style of story from a young age. And that can easily be applied (poorly) to the markets. We can look for climaxes and resolutions, where they might not be there. We can analyze past chart history to predict the future, but research shows that doesn’t give us an advantage over broad indexing. Despite searching for market patterns, rules to the market, etc., we overwhelmingly fail — time and time again — when compared to the averages. Our minds are tricking us.

As a species we love heuristics. Brain schemes allow us to save time and look for patterns. In nature, patterns help us stay safe — snakes are dangerous. TV shows follow traditional arcs: intro rise climax decline conclusion. An episode of Law and Order follows characters for one hour through a new problem. We expect a resolution. By 45-50 minutes in, we should find our culprit. When we apply these patterns and rules to the market, we tend to fail. Even if there are patterns, the markets quickly learn about them and destroy the potential use. When everyone knows the pattern, nobody needs it. The market smooths out the differences that the pattern once held. As much as our minds search for patterns and see them, they’re an evil chicanery. The market winners know this.

After reading all the books conclusions, it was like getting smacked over the head with a large frying pan. I felt dizzy and sick. Why hadn’t I been given this knowledge prior to this date? Why had I been allowed to invest on my own, without any research understanding of market behavior?

I was investing all wrong. It was costing me money (in fees, lack of diversification, and portfolio performance) and time (researching different investments, ETFs, and scanning for proper diversification). After reading the book, I couldn’t help but look for a better way.

How to easily, affordably diversify

Betterment allocation
Betterment allows investors to easily diversify and allocate.

Over the last five or so years, there’s been a torrential rise in robo-advisors. These are companies that invest the money for you, with little overhead and fees. Additionally, they use the market theories introduced by Burton Malkiel’s book and apply it to your investments. Instead of staking claims on individual stocks, which are prone to heavily volatility (read: risk), they broadly diversify across sectors and areas of the economy. The intention is to keep risk minimal, while maximizing performance.

The research is clear: low-fee diversification via ETFs is the best option for most investors. Moreover, when it’s managed and invested for you it cuts down on day trading and psychological biases. Numerous companies have sprouted up to take on the challenge. The most popular robo-advisors tend to be Betterment, FutureAdvisor, Schwab’s Intelligent Portfolios, and Wealthfront. Each provides different fee structures and diversification practices. It’s important that you select the best one for your financial needs.

Recently, I wrote about how it is hard to save when interest rates are this low. It’s pushed the stock market higher, but left savers in the lurch. The average interest rate on a savings account is 0.06%, while inflation rates generally stay around 1-2%. That means you’re losing money by keeping it in a savings account.

With little disposable income or money available to invest, I wanted a robo-advisor that would provide all the diversification I needed, with few fees, and the ability to invest immediately — without a minimum. That’s a tough bargain, right?

After considering all these factors, Betterment was the clear winner. Let me tell you why.

Betterment marries technology and market knowledge to provide a low-cost choice. They provide three brackets for users: 0.35% (below $10,000), 0.25% ($10,000-$99,999), and 0.15% ($100,000+). When you have less than $10,000 invested, like me (for now), that 0.35% management fee is assessed — regardless of returns. Thankfully, that’s comparable to all the current robo-advisors right now (note: Schwab’s Intelligent Portfolios don’t charge a direct fee, but they grab your interest in a forced cash quantity — 6% of the portfolio).

My prediction is that these fees will precipitously reduce over the next 5-10 years. The technology will clearly be very competitive and adaptive. Any company that continues to charge a lot will be priced out of the market. Competition will be extremely helpful in this area.

Here’s what I like about Betterment:

No minimums

There are no minimums for new accounts. Thankfully, simpletons like me can start with $100 and invest over time. This is especially helpful for irregular — month-to-month — incomes. Let’s say I make $2000 this month, which provides $1000 to invest with (rounding for simplicity), I can direct that $1000 into Betterment. But if I can’t rely on that amount, and I make $1100 the next month, I can manually transfer in $100 instead. The only minimum you need to meet is $100 invested per month until you reach $10,000. Once you reach that level, you reduce to 0.25% in management fees and $0 minimum deposits.

Fractional shares

This really sets Betterment apart from the rest of the pack. Normally when you invest, you need to buy whole shares. That means if there’s an ETF that costs $125, but you only invest $100, it won’t be purchased. Unfortunately, uninvested cash can hurt your potential gains. Betterment allows you to purchase fractional shares of every ETF they invest in. Your money is always working at full capacity!

Goal-based investing

Betterment accounts
Betterment allows you to have specific goals and accounts. Then, you just need to follow their advice!

Psychologically, humans suffer without clear goals. With retirement and other long-term goals (vacations, cars, homes, etc.), it’s tricky to understand how best to allocate funds. How much do you really need to invest in your Roth IRA to maintain your current standard of living? How much to improve it? How much if you cut back a bit? This is where Betterment shines. The company has designed beautiful graphs customized to your needs. For instance, I’m saving to move away from Iowa City right now. I estimate that I’ll need a couple thousand dollars when it comes to interviews for jobs and moving and finding a new place to rent. That all costs sizable sums, and I don’t dare consider debt. I estimate the time until completion, and Betterment provides an initial deposit and regular monthly contribution to meet the goal. Simple, as any financial advisor should be.

Smart rebalancing

The maintanence of a diverse portfolio is one of my least favorite activities. Let’s say I want to be invested in 90% stocks and 10% bonds, but the stock market has improved and bonds have lagged. Your stock position might represent more than you allocated. That requires you to sell a portion of the stock and reinvest elsewhere to regain balance. This can be time-consuming and tax-laden. Thankfully, Betterment handles it automatically. If your portfolio “drifts” 5% from its intended allocation, they’ll rebalance for proper diversification. Additionally, they’ll minimize any tax implications associated with the activity. That’s one of the hardest parts of managing your own portfolio.

Tax-loss harvesting

For those in the big leagues with lots more money than me, you also could benefit from tax-loss harvesting. Essentially, the portfolio will sell off your losses so that you can have a tax writeoff and invest in a comparable stock. Without getting into the weeds, that’s a really good thing as you want to prevent “wash sales.”

Behavioral change

This aspect has nothing to do directly with money. Since my shift to Betterment, I’ve noticed I’m calmer and clearer about my investments. I know how I’m invested and why. Likewise, I have confidence in the market principles that are used. Whereas individual stocks can make you go wild — needing to buy and sell all the time — this highly diversified portfolio provides comfort.

Next-day investments

Another essential aspect for any company managing your money is rapid investment of deposits. Betterment invests all your deposits the next day. With that turn around you don’t miss the market’s moves, and can quickly benefit. Numerous companies require cash to be held about 3-5 days before it’s invested, and then you need to find ways to diversify it. Betterment does all the work for you.

Here’s what I dislike:

No direct transfer from brokerage to IRAs

This is a pesky rule, but Betterment does not allow any cash positions. Therefore, to transfer money from a brokerage account in the company to an IRA, you need to withdraw the funds and redeposit them through your bank account. That takes a lot of time, in some cases. For instance, if I want to invest $500 from my brokerage to Roth IRA, it’ll take about 1 week or more even though Betterment already has all my funds.

No progressive fee structure favoring poorest

I’m disappointed that no robo-advisor’s fee structure is preferential for those with less. It’s a universal problem for the industry, not just Betterment. Still, I’d like to see the process of investing and taking charge of your future be easier for everyone involved. Those with $100 per month or less to invest shouldn’t have to pay more than those who invest $1000.

No manual cash positions

Sometimes, especially near retirement, it can be helpful to temporarily have cash or cash-equivalents in your account. Unfortunately, Betterment does not provide space for cash positions. They note that it goes against their entire premise and philosophy to allow pure cash positions. I understand their rationale, but it’s scary not being able to run for cover (you have to withdraw to your bank account to be in cash).

No expected returns presented

Instead of presenting expected returns from your portfolio allocation of stocks and bonds, Betterment provides predicted totals. As a novice, it would be helpful to see gains in a percentage form. That way I could compare portfolio allocations to other types of investments.

No real estate exposure

Lastly, Betterment doesn’t seem to provide real estate exposure through something like Vanguard’s REIT ETF (VNQ). Burton Malkiel suggested that some amount of nearly every retirement portfolio should have real estate exposure because they’re a safer place for higher yields. I would tend to agree, especially since the population growth rate is very strong in America.

After I read Malkiel’s A Random Walk Down Wall Street, I realized I needed to take action. But even before that book, I wanted something that would minimize my time spent researching ETFs and strategies and individual companies. Betterment has been the perfect solution, and a wonderful way to concentrate on what really matters: those around me.

Filed Under: Make Money, Save Money Tagged With: Advice, Betterment, ETFs, goals, Income, invest, investing, money, Random Walk, Robo-advisors, Stock Market, Wall Street, Wealth, Wealthfront

Finally, You Can Trade Stocks For Free!

By Frugaling 3 Comments

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Wall Street Free Stock Trading
Get ready world! Wall Street is about to get a lot more friendly.
Photo: Michael Daddino/Flickr

Back then, free stock trades weren’t possible

Free stock trading isn’t exactly new. In fact, plenty of companies have tried and failed in the process. Any number of problems have beset these pioneering companies. From beginning to charge commissions and fees to questionable management to poor corporate reputations, they haven’t stood the test of time.

When I first started investing and researching individual stocks, I was a wee middle schooler. As I tried to understand the markets, my burgeoning interest was dampened by trading fees. With only a couple hundred dollars to my name, stock trading fees of about $50 made it financially oppressive. I couldn’t invest in Apple (ticker: AAPL) right after the iPod was released, but I wanted to.

Fees destroy profits and wreak long-term havoc on investment returns — especially for those getting started. Thankfully, fees have been on a precipitous decline in recent years. From that abominable $50-fee time to now, you can see great change. Most online brokerage companies are around $10 or less per trade.

Unfortunately, if you’re an average investor — or even a day trader — you’ll spend money every year rebalancing your portfolio to better diversify. Whether you choose individual stocks (more risky) or exchange traded index funds (more diversified), you’ll be spending about $20 per stock to get in and out. And that should be frightening to anyone. Heck, that’s 10% of my monthly food budget!

The hope for fee-free stock trades

The lingering question: Is there actually a non-scammy, reputable way to trade for free? Until very recently the answer was still no. Unless you had gobs of wealth ready to trade, investment and brokerage companies had no interest in providing for the little guy or gal. Free didn’t really exist; the handful that tried, failed.

Today, there’s good news for everyone — at every income level — because data and tech companies have solved this wretched problem. Today, I’m making a rather lofty prediction: nobody in the United States will pay to trade at average investor levels within 7-10 years. Today, there’s hope on the horizon for a more affordable, accessible investing world.

The cost of everything tech-related has fallen. We can store more and get data faster than ever before. It makes all of our consumer products less expensive to purchase, and has the added benefit of making cloud applications cheaper, too.

We are just beginning to benefit from these reduced costs, as many cloud-based providers have opted to slash costs for services. For instance, Google Drive offers 15GB free and for $2.00 per month, you can receive 100GB. Think about it, only a few years ago we were working with floppy disks that stored about 1.5MB!

As technology prices decline, the consumer has benefited appreciably. And it’s leaving room for innovators to save us even more when trading stocks. If a company can utilize the latest technology, reduce brick and mortar costs by only having an online presence, make money off of user data, and turn cash-on-hand into interest for them, then you could have a success story.

Robinhood saves money for everyone

The other day I was reading up on a new tech startup that’s aiming to do everything I mentioned. They have an office — not hundreds or thousands of offices. They have a staff of coders, developers, graphic designers, and technical support to make something for the 21st century.

The company’s called Robinhood. I don’t know if they could come up with a better name than that! They aim to “democratize” stock trades by removing the “$10 [fees] for every trade.” Now, the wealthy and the hopefully-soon-to-be wealthy can participate in the market without being eaten alive by trading fees.

Instead of porting over old ways about investing, Robinhood revolutionizes everything about trading. All you need is a smartphone (iOS only, Android coming soon). With a few taps, anyone can invest for free.

Here’s where I want you to ask, What’s the catch, Sam? Nothing in life is free, right?

True. Nothing in life is completely free. There’s always some trade off. The fees that used to be captured by older brokerage houses are eliminated; instead, the company profits off of unused cash balances in portfolios. For instance, say you deposit $1,000 in a Robinhood account. Until you formally invest in a stock, that money is borrowed by the company and put in an interest-bearing bank account for them. As you research and decide on a stock to buy, they scoop up a little interest in the process.

Additionally, Robinhood uses advanced technical features that will likely be able to track user data far better than stodgy companies. I’m always cautious about data-based companies, but the potential gain is worth the information loss.

Robinhood Investors Google Ventures

Robinhood is backed by some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, including Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures. That has provided them with some much needed funding to get off the ground and running. With Google behind them, I trust their platform and user-focused future. This isn’t a company that will crash and burn like Zecco did.

First impressions on this new app and trading platform

Robinhood iOS App

I deposited my first funds into Robinhood’s iOS app a few days ago. Trading stocks and ETFs were easy. As if conditioned to wince over the costs like before, I clicked and beared for some strange $7-10 trading fee. It never came.

Robinhood is an honest platform with some exciting energy. When I reached out for support via their FAQ forums and Twitter account, responses were delivered within 24 hours — usually in a couple hours. That’s impressive for a small staff with plenty of new accounts. The company seems to understand that if it’s to appeal to younger, more tech savvy generations, they’ll need to meet them where they are — Twitter included.

Reducing these trading is a wonderful first step towards a more accessible, affordable stock market for all. The dangers of stock market manipulation are still ever present, but being able to enter the market without these fees is amazing. And having a terrific platform on top of it is a wonderful thing!

Want to try it out? Unfortunately, it’s invite-only at this stage, but I have 3 invite codes up for grabs! Comment below and share this article on Twitter. I’ll email the codes to 3 people within 7 days of this article.

Filed Under: Save Money Tagged With: Free, invest, investing, market, money, review, risk, Robin Hood, Robinhood, stock, trades, trading, Wall Street

Destroy The 40-Hour Workweek

By Frugaling 54 Comments

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workweek posture picture
It’s time to destroy the 40-hour workweek. Photo: Joe Loong/Flickr

Our American economy needs you to work nothing less than 40 hours per week. The message is simple: earn more, collect belongings, and don’t stop until you retire/die. Unless you meet this expectation, be prepared to be called lazy and unproductive — stuck in the unfortunate world of lower and middle incomes. And if you’re not doing something that makes more money than your neighbor, you ought to think about changing careers.

McMansions, vehicles, and stores grow. In turn, our consumption escalates. We need more to fill our bigger homes; otherwise, they feel empty. Meanwhile, our wallets are stripped and we maintain this cycle of work and near poverty — just getting by. Despite going through a horrific “great recession” over the last few years, companies have continued to report record revenue and profits. The business world is clearly benefiting from our workweek and continued spend.

This current system is predicated on infinite growth. If you’re not continually benefiting from pay raises and getting promoted, you’re not doing it right. Since the Industrial Revolution, we haven’t stopped to seriously question what we’ve created and amassed. Like worker zombies, it’s hard not to see the countless hours we put into companies — all so that we reach financial independence.

Steel Mills Pittsburgh PA Workweek
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the steel boom. Clouds of ash engulfed the city continually.

Unfortunately, infinite growth has two awful consequences: unstable population and climate change. The world population was about 300 million in 1000 AD. The Industrial Revolution sparked atmospheric population increases. Now, the U.S. alone has around 300 million citizens. There are over 7 billion people on the planet, and that number is rapidly increasing.

As we developed more efficient means to produce and manufacture goods, fossil fuel use increased and never stopped. The delicate balance of carbon dioxide in the air shifted and it devastated our climate. We are suffering from an inescapable greenhouse gas effect where the temperature of Earth rises and natural disasters worsen. Even when faced with this dire news, we make a societal shrug and continue to pump out record amounts of oil and coal to feed growth.

The market demands this. If you watch the stock market, you’ll see investors and institutions pressure companies for constant revenue growth. Stagnation is likened to the death of a company — maintenance isn’t enough. We have a myopic economic policy of long-term instability for short-term riches. Profits over people is a rewarded mantra on Wall Street, and it leads to absurd business practices that hurt their employees and our environment further.

We live in a world where the Koch brothers are lobbying to tax alternative energy sources, Microsoft stock (MSFT) increases when they announce thousands in job cuts, and corporate executives are paid, on average, 350-to-1 for regular employees. Incontrovertible evidence suggests that we are causing irreparable harm to our environment, while we maintain this status quo.

It’s time to break out of this cyclical destruction. We need to find another method to contribute to society in a positive manner — one that doesn’t cause harm to future generations and massive environmental diaspora.

It may all start with reducing our workweek, because the 40-hour schedule is destructive:

“The eight-hour workday developed during the industrial revolution in Britain in the 19th century, as a respite for factory workers who were being exploited with 14- or 16-hour workdays.

As technologies and methods advanced, workers in all industries became able to produce much more value in a shorter amount of time. You’d think this would lead to shorter workdays.

But the 8-hour workday is too profitable for big business, not because of the amount of work people get done in eight hours (the average office worker gets less than three hours of actual work done in 8 hours) but because it makes for such a purchase-happy public. Keeping free time scarce means people pay a lot more for convenience, gratification, and any other relief they can buy. It keeps them watching television, and its commercials. It keeps them unambitious outside of work.”

The idea of changing this age-old work life is gaining popularity. In Sweden, government offices are attempting a shift to a 6-hour workday:

“Municipal staff in Gothenburg will act as guinea pigs in a proposed push for six-hour workdays with full pay, with hopes that it will cut down on sick leave, boost efficiency, and ultimately save Sweden money.”

See, the Swedes understand that by cutting back, their employees will be more productive with their time and suffer from less burnout. Even in capitalistic America, the founders of Google are beginning to advocate for reductions in our workweek. In the following video, the tech titans are advocating for this change for a more productive future.

There’s a tragic irony about this whole problem: we developed technologies, vehicles, and our massive global economy to increase productivity. But who’s really benefited from these changes except a select few? Most workers are working more than ever, despite record productivity and profitability. We haven’t invented and invested in a technology that truly eased our workweeks.

The system is broken and skewed. We have an opportunity to respect our fellow humans and environment — for generations to come. Perhaps it’s time to shift forward, and evolve towards empathy and positive economic models. Perhaps it’s time to emphasize healthy companies over exorbitant profits. Infinite growth is not sustainable on a planet with finite resources. Let’s throwaway these antiquated economic ideals.

Filed Under: Social Justice Tagged With: 40-hour, climate change, Compensation, environment, Industrial Revolution, Pay, Population, Recession, Salary, Stock Market, Wall Street, Work, workweek

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