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If you could live your financial life again, what would you do differently?

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AUTHOR: Jonathan Clements on 8/17/2021
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Ken Begley
4 months ago

I would have quit trying to time the market based on real or imagined fears for the future.

haliday11
11 months ago

Other than the normal 20-20 hindsight stuff, eg starting earlier, never cashing out retirement accounts, not running up credit card debt, etc. I would have taken the $5000 in cash I earned as an exotic dancer on the Alaskan Pipeline in 1976 and made a downpayment on the W. 94th St apartment I could have purchased for $10K.

Susanne Krivit
11 months ago

I would have taken better care of my teeth especially in my teenage years. I have huge expenses now resulting from replacing old dental work I had done in my 20’s and 30’s that could have been avoided. It is by far my largest expense today and limits other things I would much prefer to spend my retirement savings on. I live in an area with high medical/dental costs and dental insurance replaces only up to $2000 a year even with the best policies. That is a drop in the bucket for me.

Captain FI
1 year ago

I would really work harder to try and score a flying scholarship, and I would have pressed myself to really go out and start my flying career sooner rather than what I did, and actually relax my savings rate a little for a more sustainable journey

Seigo Tsujimoto
1 year ago

I would start much, much earlier.

Terry Meland
1 year ago

I would invest 100% of my savings in stocks.
Keep minimum cash and no bonds or other investments.
 
I would do:
* 85% in diversified ETFs under a “buy and hold” (never sell) approach.
* 15% in diversified ETFs under a “market timing” approach.
Follow my indicators and buy and sell for mid-term (4 to 12 months) market moves.
 
The 85% “buy and hold” ETFs would be a mixture of:
* High dividend ETFs like VYM, SDY, DGRO, TDIC, etc. (60% of the 85%).
    Dividends would be re-invested into the ETF.
* Broad market ETFs like SPY (S&P 500) and QQQ (Nasdaq) (40% of the 85%).
 
The 15% “market timing” ETFs would be leveraged ETFs like QLD (2X the NASDAQ) and SSO (2X the S&P 500).
* Use stop losses to limit trading losses.
* Learn and improve over time.

Don Southworth
2 years ago

Rent my house in California and not sell it.

John Wood
2 years ago

Rent in a neighborhood that I wanted to live in before I could afford to buy there, rather than buy in a lesser neighborhood just to own a home (whose value when I sold it ended up being about the same as just renting it).

tshort
2 years ago

I made all the classic mistakes, and also didn’t have access to after tax 401k/IRA. If I did it over again:

  1. max out ROTH 401k and/or ROTH IRA contributions.
  2. manage IRA contributions so that I could do a mega backdoor ROTH conversion at some point.
  3. Except for maxing out the employee stock purchase plan (which I did and it worked very well), don’t buy individual stocks (I lost 50% in the Dot Bomb collapse) – invest only in index funds and manage the entire portfolio (a Lazy Portfolio at that) to a single asset allocation, set to 80/20 (back when I was in my 30s-40s).
Lehman Brown
2 years ago

I would have invested in low-cost index funds, instead of purchasing GE stock through employer. I would have paid taxes on contributions to 401K. I would fully maximize 401k Roth opportunities! I would have been a little more aggressive in stock allocation versus bonds.

Tony Brady
2 years ago

When I was a younger worker just learning about investing, I bought stocks instead of index funds. I would have also paid greater attention to asset location between my pre-tax and taxable accounts.

Kurkyboy
2 years ago

I would have taken my own advice and not traded my accounts as much

Jeff Bond
2 years ago

I would confront my now ex-wife about the dramatic change in her spending habits and lack of discipline.

Juan Fourneau
2 years ago

Listened to my gut more when I was in my mid to late twenties. I finally began to make a good living and rather than live frugally I bought a house and a new car. If I had lived like a student for even 5 years while I was still single I could have made some more substantial investments.

Michael1
3 years ago

Never carry credit card debt. Haven’t in many years, but didn’t figure this out early enough.

Pat Roach
3 years ago

Instead of starting drawing social security at age 62, I would have waited until I turned 70.

Jeff
2 years ago
Reply to  Pat Roach

If you live long enough you be about the same as if you waited.

Nicholas Clements
3 years ago

I am a conservative investor but I do wish that in my younger years that my portfolio was more heavily weighted towards stocks.

R Quinn
3 years ago

I would have been a bit more aggressive with investments. And I would have used Roth accounts as soon as they were available.

Sonja Haggert
3 years ago

I would save more and learn about stock market investing earlier. We spent too much on mutual fund fees and taxes when we could have been buying stocks.

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