Squeezing More Return Out of Your Retirement Account
Following the earlier post on Asset Aggregation, we’re continuing to run guest posts which were featured on other sites. This time around, we’re re-posting an article which appeared on Sweating The Big Stuff. Daniel has gone through a lot of great changes, so make sure to check out his other articles.
If you’ve been keeping up with Sweating the Big Stuff, you’ll know Daniel’s been hard at work funding his Roth IRA. He’s done a great job of adjusting his lifestyle to accommodate his aggressive investing goals, which leads in nicely to the topic at hand.
Most people understand the concept of compound interest and the benefits of starting sooner rather than later, but did you know you can squeeze EVEN MORE out of your investments by starting EVEN EARLIER?
That doesn’t make sense?
How can someone so young start any earlier?
ANSWER: FRONT-LOADING
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Asset Diversification, Allocation, Location, and AGGREGATION
Originally published over at My Journey to Millions, Evan’s letting me re-print the material on my own site. The benefit for me? More time to spend on wedding planning, but keeping the site fresh. Tonight was a rip-roaring good time at the local alcohol wholesaler. The benefit for Evan? More time being a new father, and getting link backs. It’s a win-win for all! Enjoy the post. 
A while back, the local supermarket ran a promotion with Cuisinart. Collecting “points” with each purchase, customers traded their stickers in for various products. At the time, I was bouncing between two stores, but switched to focus all my grocery efforts on this promotion. The store got a regular customer and I got a sweet 8-cup coffee maker and not-so-sweet waffle maker (either its broken or I’m just that bad at making waffles).
If asked for your own example of customer loyalty, what would you give? Free months of phone service, flight upgrades to first-class, special hotel accommodations?
Most would probably think along the lines of a consumer, yet investments are an often overlooked area. Many of the same benefits for becoming a loyal customer in the consumer arena apply to the world of finance. Just as the grocery store was hungry for my purchases, so are financial institutions hungry for your investments.
More of a long-term plan, “Asset Aggregation” doesn’t get the same amount of discussion as say, Asset Diversification or Asset Allocation. Plus, it’s probably not the first thing to come to mind unless you’ve got a few extra zeroes in your account.
Let me clarify. There’s really two camps: private wealth management and discount brokerage
preferred clients. Private wealth management refers to the full-service operations within organizations like: UBS, Deutsche Bank, & Morgan Stanley, who cater to families/individuals with assets of $20 million or greater. Premium client status offered by discount brokerages fall within bands ranging from $100,000 to $1+ million in assets.
For the purpose of this article, we’re going to look specifically at the discount brokerage services. Nevertheless, there are still 3 primary benefits to asset aggregation as I see it: savings, privileges, and throwing your weight around. Continue reading “Asset Diversification, Allocation, Location, and AGGREGATION” »
Interview: How to Be A Fierce Competitor (Part II)
FE: On to How to Be a Fierce Competitor, the book’s focus is on sales and marketing. However, I think there’s applicability beyond this field. If you think about it, we are all managers of ourselves, so we could apply the same principles if we wanted to become stronger employees. What’s your take? Does the book’s theme cover all areas of professional fierceness?
JF: Yes, the book’s applicable to all disciplines, but in context. There are two main competencies – marketing & innovation. All employees, 100% of them, are responsible for acquiring and retaining profitable revenues. That could be the engineers creating new product lines or the marketing team bringing in new clients. While each employee draws from the company’s bottom line, they each contribute in some way.
One of the chapters touches on how to conduct sales meetings with laser beam focus. Too many meetings are a waste of time and resources, so any industry that has meetings (that is, all of them) could benefit from what’s in the book.
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Interview: How to Be A Fierce Competitor (Part I)
After reading his book How to Be a Fierce Competitor in one sitting, it seemed necessary to contact author Jeffrey Fox about doing an interview. Half-expecting not even an acknowledgment email, he surprised me with a quick, “I’d be delighted” response.
While performing my due diligence, I learned more about Mr. Fox’s impressive (and extensive) accomplishments. Following the submission of my questions, I was equally caught off guard when he replied, “Your interview questions are very good. So good that I think the best way to do the interview is via phone”. He graciously gave me over an hour of his time. I jotted down notes while we spoke, so his responses are paraphrased below.
- FE: Looking back on your career, you’ve created quite the legacy. Under the belief that all our experiences build on each other, there’s still those 1 or 2 “defining moments” that set our course for better or worse. Can you recall what those were for you? Was it graduating from Harvard, starting your own firm, authoring your first book, or something more out of the ordinary?
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