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I have now entered into my 10th month of blogging, I started on July 9th of last year. During that time, there have been some pretty big swings, emotional and otherwise (much like the investment markets themselves), and Chance Favors has zigzagged in a few different directions over that time.

I think blogging is an evolutionary process… let me correct that - I know blogging is an evolutionary process. You have this picture in your mind of where you want to go with your precious cargo and it never quite turns out that way, things change.

Dealing With The Ups and Downs

I’ve read many times over - that you have to find your voice and your blogging comfort zone. Well, I’m here to say that is very very true and I have struggled mightily along the way.

There have been days where I’ve been elated by some little bit of success and channeled that positive energy for hours on end. There are days where I sit in from of the key board almost loathing it, depressed by it - the key letters as foreign as another language.

Continue Reading “The Quiet Before The Storm”

A few weeks ago I received an email from someone I affectionately call Blogger X.

In that email, Blogger X asked me for some ideas on how to reduce his taxable income. I decided to write a post addressing some of his concerns and in that post I listed 3 different retirement plans that allow for self employed individuals to shelter gobs of income:

• The Pros and Cons of a SEP IRA
• The Pros and Cons of a SIMPLE IRA
• The Benefits of Owning a Solo 401(k)

Now, the reason I bring all this up is because earlier this week I received a very thorough email (below) from a conscientious reader, and in that email (as you will see) he references the above articles. So, I just want anyone coming across this post to be up to speed;) My answers to his questions are highlighted in blue.

Without further ado…

Continue Reading “A Reader Question Regarding Self Employment Retirement Plans”

Last week over on Get Rich Slowly I read a post about the recently deceased Hollywood star Heath Ledger.

In that post there was a snippet from the NY Times reporting that Ledger’s will was last updated in 2003. Because he met his girlfriend after that date and had a child years later, sadly, neither were included in his will.

JD goes on to write that even young people need to be mindful of proper estate planning. And I’m here to say that I totally agree, although for most (young people) I’d recommend focusing on the simple stuff, like crafting a will.

You would think I’m about to write about wills and the like… but I’m not going to right now. Though I will say (pun;), if you are married, have just had a baby, or have begun to build wealth, it’s important to have one. Any major changes in your life should have you thinking, “I need to update my will!”

With that said… when I read the Heath Ledger post it reminded me of an article I had seen years earlier - about the massive estate taxes that famous celebrities owed the US government upon their passing.

In memory of them all, I thought I’d share some of the basic tenets of current US estate tax law and list a few prominent Americans that gave much of their net worth back to Uncle Sam in the form of estate taxes.

Continue Reading “Deceased Celebrities and Their Shocking Estate Tax Bills”

On February 13th I wrote 10 Simple Tips to StumbleUpon Success (That I Wish Someone Had Told Me About). At the end of that post I promised a follow up post around St. Patrick’s Day, well here it is!

This post won’t be quite as altruistic as the last. Some of the points I’m about to make might be categorized as tips; others would be categorized as observations or actionable ideas. Extrapolate what you will, and I hope you can use some of these to your advantage.

Also, this will be the last post I write in regards to (SU) StumbleUpon. Going forward, I will concentrate on writing financial planning and wealth building articles, as I want to stay true to the mission of my blog. Without further ado…

Continue Reading “15 Actionable Ideas for Achieving StumbleUpon Happiness”

If you’re a blogger, then you know what a ’roundup’ post is.

If you’re not a blogger - a ’roundup’ post serves to highlight your favorite articles from around the web each week. I typically write my ’roundup’ post each Sunday and call it ‘Chance Flavors’ of the week.

The purpose of a roundup is to network with other bloggers in your niche. It’s kind of cool to be recognized by your peers for something you’ve written, it makes you feel good about all the time and hard work you’ve put in, and God knows all bloggers need a morale boast from time to time.

The intricacies of a ’roundup’ post

A link from a roundup (to another blog) tends to be reciprocated at some point, although there are no rules here. Some of the best bloggers I know are also the strongest networkers, and they do a great job of linking out to other blogs and developing tremendous goodwill within their niche community. A good example of bloggers who are excellent at this, who I’d recommend modeling yourself after, are Pinyo from Moolanomy and Ron from The Wisdom Journal.

Continue Reading “A StumbleUpon Tip That Will Make Your Blog Roundups a Breeze”

If you’re self employed and feeling kind of down because you think your retirement options are limited to a SEP or a SIMPLE IRA… I’ve got good news for you… you can create your very own Solo 401(k)!

Similar in every way to it’s larger, more complicated, weighed down, traditional corporate 401(k) cousin, minus all the administrative headaches.

How does that sound? Hopefully, pretty good!

The 1 person 401(k) goes by a few different names, but is most commonly referred to as the Solo 401(k) or individual 401(k). Although the plan is designed for the individual business owner (or self employed), it is technically available to the spouse of the owner and any shareholder or partner in the business, as well.

A Solo 401(k) is simple and straight forward

Setting up a Solo 401(k) makes a lot of sense for sole proprietors, owners of an S Corp, C Corp or partnership. It would not make sense if you had employees or were thinking of hiring any employees in the near future. It’s specifically designed for you (and your spouse or partner) ONLY!

Continue Reading “The Benefits of Owning a Solo 401(k)”

Last week I wrote a post on different ways you can reduce your reported taxable income. Besides offering some tax advice to one of my blogging contemporaries - Blogger X , I listed a few retirement plans (for those with self-employment income) that allow you to sock away large sums of pre-tax money each year.

I’d like to take a closer look at 3 of the plans I mentioned in that post. For the sake of keeping it simple, I’m going to breakdown each plan into an individual blog post. Let’s begin with the SEP IRA, the plan of choice for last week’s subject - Blogger X.

SEP (Simplified Employee Pension) Plan Suitability

A SEP IRA is the way to go if you’re a small employer (typically less than 10 employees and many times just one employee, YOU!) looking for a simple retirement plan that’s easy to install and administer. Most financial institutions will have the plan documents on file and it’s as easy as opening up any investment or bank account.

Continue Reading “Pros and Cons of a SEP IRA”

According to Wikipedia, the languages of India primarily fall into two major categories: Indo-European and Dravidian. According to the 2001 Census of India, individual mother tongues number in the several hundred.

You’re probably wondering what any of that has to do with ‘fee-only’ vs ‘fee based’ advisors? Well, that’s a good question, I bring it up to make a point.

Much like the languages of India, financial advisors (more and more these days) tend to fall into two major categories: Fee Based and Fee Only. And within these categories there are so many different ways to run an advisory business; the many different advisory factions kind of reminded me of the breakdown of different mother tongues found in India. (not too sure if this analogy worked… lol)

Keep it simple stupid

I want to try and simplify things here, so the average investor isn’t left with a headache when it comes to understanding the different terminology. But before I break down ‘fee based’ vs ‘fee only’ I want to refer you to an article I wrote last July that talks more to the differences in compensation, that I will lightly touch on here. Please read that post!

Continue Reading ““Fee Based” vs “Fee Only” Financial Advisors”

I know I promised a few articles on the different types of self-employed retirement plans, as well as, a follow up post to the ‘fee only vs. fee based’ debate that occurred in the comments section of my Interview with Dylan Ross. And that’s all going to happen this week.

I will post the ‘fee only/fee based‘ article tomorrow, followed by 4 separate posts addressing the pros and cons of SEP’s, SIMPLE’s, KEOGH’s and SOLO 401(k)’s. But first, I wanted to squeeze in a quasi off-topic post, inspired by something that caught my eye late last week.

Last Thursday, I read an interesting article over on Wise Bread titled Chinese Money Habits - How My Culture Influences My Attitudes Towards Money. I thought that post by Xin Lu was incredibly valuable because it shed some light on to something most Americans know little about.

I think a lot of us are hearing more and more about China in the news, but for the most part, the manner in which the average Chinese lives their life remains an enigma to the average American.

Continue Reading “My Personal Experience with Chinese Money Habits”

Dylan Ross is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER(TM) professional and owner of Swan Financial Planning, LLC, a registered investment adviser in New Jersey. Some of you may recognize Dylan from Get Rich Slowly, where he is one of the moderators in the forum there.

In the past I’ve written quite a bit about how I run a “Fee based” advisory business, well Dylan is a member of a growing segment of “Fee Only” Advisors. I was interested to learn more about his approach to the advisory business, and happy to interview him.

Tell us a little more about yourself and your practice Swan Financial Planning?

I started out in the financial industry in 2000 working at a large, full-service brokerage. While I was there, I completed my CFP certification requirements, but eventually became frustrated because of the inability to actually practice financial planning due to industry limitations.

So, I left the brokerage industry altogether and started Swan Financial Planning as a New Jersey Registered Investment Adviser firm, in late 2005. Initially, I worked only on retainer and then added an hourly option last year to make my services more accessible.

I also joined the Garrett Planning network around that time. Now, most of what I do is on an hourly basis, and I limit the number of retainer clients I have.

Continue Reading “An Interview with Dylan Ross”