One question we’ve been asked a TON is this: “What are the steps (in order!) that I should follow to optimize the path toward my goals? While we’ve presented our own ideas about order of operations today, we’ve never asked our contributors for their input…and today we change that! Len Penzo, Paulette Perhach, and OG debate a recent list from popular blogger Financial Tortoise, who listed twelve steps to financial independence. Do we agree? Disagree? We not only share the list and where each of our contributors might make changes, but we also dive into the steps to share how to best use the step to improve with money.
Of course, we also continue our year-long trivia challenge between our panelists. Will OG pull away from the pack? Can Len Penzo take back the trophy? Will Paulette surge? All things will become clear on this week’s roundtable discussion!
Deeper dives with curated links, topics, and discussions are in our newsletter, The 201, available at https://www.StackingBenjamins.com/201
Enjoy!
Our Topic:
12 Steps To Financial Independence (Financial Tortoise)
During our conversation you’ll hear us mention:
- Building Career Capital
- Master Budgeting
- Hold Cash
- Pay Off High Interest Debt
- Master Your Expenses
- Hold The Right Insurances
- Ramp Up Your Savings Rate
- Manage Your Tax Advantaged Accounts
- Build Taxable Accounts
- Diversify Your Investments
- Buy Back Time
- Define Your Ideal Lifestyle
Our Contributors
A big thanks to our contributors! You can check out more links for our guests below.
Paulette Perhach
Big thanks to Paulette Perhach for joining us. To learn more about Paulette, visit thatwriterpaulette.com and powerhousewriters.com.
Len Penzo
Visit Len Penzo dot Com for the off-beat personal finance blog for responsible people.
OG
For more on OG and his firm’s page, click here.
Doug’s Game Show Trivia
- What was the opening number for the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1968?
MagnifyMoney Voicemail
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Miss our last show? Check it out here: Thinking Beyond “The Money” (plus Gen Z is rockin’!).
Written by: Tina Ichenberg
Too often we hear in the financial discussion space that Roth conversions are an optimal strategy. None of these discussions present the full picture. I believe it is Len Penzo who recently mentioned a cautionary caveat. As Mike Piper has also presented, that because of the cumulative property of multiplication, conversion does not provide any advantage. The only factor one should consider is whether marginal tax rates are going to be higher or lower in retirement. If its the same its a wash.
Predicting tax rates, interest rates and what the S&P 500 will be in the future is a fool’s game. If one had done a conversion in 2015 for say $100K in the 25% tax bracket, just waiting a couple of years could have resulted in a savings of $5K in 2017. But who knew?
This is precisely why we had both Ed Slott and Mr. McKnight on talking about tax rates. Can they go lower? Maybe. Higher? Much, much (and maybe….much) more probable.