TheGiveback.com was created to help all age groups at any income level on their personal finance journey as simply "15 minutes of free common sense financial advice".  Everybody has different goals and timelines when it comes to personal finance and it's up to you to figure out what works for you and to stick to your strategy over time.  We are not financial advisors and do not recommend individual securities. The Giveback encourages everyone to become financially independent and give back.  Helping others and giving back to causes that you believe in is what The Giveback is all about.

GENERAL FINANCIAL ADVICE

• Spend less than you earn.  Invest what is left over into cash flow producing assets at good valuations.  Reinvest proceeds to take advantage of compound interest.  Stay out of debt.  

• You need to have the mentality that focuses on investing rather than spending.  You should focus on ways to improve your financial independence by investing instead of buying materialistic things.  

• Make your money work for you by investing in cash flow producing assets.  Cash flow producing assets are investments that pay you cash every month, quarter, or year.  Examples of cash flow producing assets are index funds that pay dividends, rental properties with paying tenants that generate cash flow, your own business that produces income, etc.

• Always improve your skill sets and education to be able to negotiate a higher salary and increase your income.  Negotiating a higher salary and being paid what you are worth in the market is one of the most critical aspects of having more disposable income to invest.

• Your focus should be on how to increase your income.  Budgeting your expenses and watching your costs closely is a wise strategy that we all need to do but the majority of your time, effort, and energy should be spent on boosting your income.  You can only cut your expenses to zero but you can earn an unlimited amount of income.  You should still be frugal and live within/beneath your means but most of your energy/effort needs to be boosting your income/investments.

• Focus on ways to generate multiple streams of income.  Making income from multiple sources reduces your dependence on only one stream of income. 

• Do not get into unnecessary debt.   You should never finance anything that loses value over time.  Pay cash for items that lose value over time.  If that means driving an older used car, be frugal and drive an older used car that you paid cash for.  One of the worst financial decisions you can make is financing a brand new automobile that will depreciate over time.  Debt is the number one cause of financial troubles.  Remember that you can't go bankrupt if you don't have debt.

• Pay off your credit card debt every month - NO EXCEPTIONS.  Credit card interest rates are extremely high (20%+ interest) and paying your credit card debt off in full should be a top priority.  You should use your credit card like cash and only buy things on your credit card when you know you can pay it off at the end of the month.  If you do have credit card debt, you need to pay this balance off before you start to invest.  Quit buying stuff you don't need and you'll be amazed at how much lower your credit card bills are every month.  

• You should have both a checking account and a savings account.  You should have enough money in your savings account to cover a minimum of 3-6 months of living expenses (rent/mortgage, utilities, food, loan payments, etc.).  Make a point of saving 3-6 months living expenses and have these funds in cash in your savings account before you start to invest.  This cash sitting in your savings account will give you peace of mind in case you were to lose your job or have some unexpected expense arise.  

• No one is going to magically make you wealthy.  It's up to you to learn about personal finance and to make investments in order to build your wealth. Read, read, and then read some more - Learn something new every day.

HIGH LEVEL INVESTING ADVICE 

Your goal should be to invest as much money as you possibly can after all of your living expenses are taken care of.  The more you invest today, the more wealth and income you will have in the future.  Investing is all about "delayed gratification", which is defined as the act of resisting an impulse to take an immediately available reward in the hope of obtaining a more-valued reward in the future. The returns generated from your investments can provide financial stability in the future and investing is how you take charge of your financial security. It allows you to grow your wealth but also generate additional income streams.  Make sure to invest in cash flow producing assets which are assets that generate cash and income for you and buy at low to fair valuations - don't overpay.  Investing at a young age makes a huge difference in your long term returns so don't waste any time and start investing today.  

Stock Market/Index Fund Investing

• The stock market is a place where shares of publicly listed companies are traded.  A stock exchange facilitates stock brokers to trade company stocks and other securities.  Thus, the market is the meeting place of stock buyers and sellers.  The stock market has thousands of companies that produce goods and services available to buy or sell.  "Stock" or "Shares" are small slices of ownership in a company. 

• What is an index fund?  An index fund is a portfolio of stocks or bonds designed to mimic the composition and performance of a financial market index. Index funds have lower expenses and fees than actively managed funds, are lower risks since they are a diversified holding with multiple companies, and also have lower taxes. Index funds follow a passive investment strategy. Warren Buffett, the greatest investor of all time, recommends dollar cost averaging into a low cost S&P 500 index fund - this is an investment fund with 500 large public USA companies so you are well diversified with 500 companies. A must read book for stock market and index fund investors - The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John Bogle

• Dollar Cost Averaging is a strategy that can make it easier to deal with uncertain markets by making purchases automatic. It also supports an investor's effort to invest regularly. Dollar-cost averaging involves investing the same amount of money in a target security/index fund at regular intervals over a certain period of time, regardless of price. By using dollar-cost averaging, investors may lower their average cost per share and reduce the impact of volatility on their portfolios. In effect, this strategy eliminates the effort required to attempt to time the market to buy at the best prices.

• If your employer matches your 401k/IRA contributions, you need to take FULL ADVANTAGE of this.  This is a free guaranteed return and it can't be beat.  Whatever dollar amount or percentage your employer matches is the amount that you should contribute and you should take full advantage of your employer's contribution matching.  You can't find a better risk free return anywhere than an employer match.

• Everyone should have a Roth IRA.  This is a retirement account that grows tax free which saves you an incredible amount of money on taxes.  This is the best investment vehicle out there and should be the core of everyone's retirement.  Once you turn 60, you can withdraw this money from your Roth tax free.  If you withdraw funds from your Roth prior to age 60, you will have to pay taxes and fees so don't touch your Roth until after you are 60 or older.  

• The stock market will go up and down and there will be booms and there will be busts during your lifetime.  The key is to have a long term approach and not panic when things are depressed.  When the stock market drops/busts, it's usually a great opportunity to buy for long term investors. 

• The older you get you should look at reducing your equities allocation and increase into more conservative holdings like bonds as you age to lower your risks.  Target date funds are a good way that automatically does this for you based on your age if you don't want to do it manually.  You should reevaluate your equity/bond allocation every 5-10 years. 

• Don't "trade".  Trading is about the short term and is a complete gamble.  You also pay short-term capital gains which are taxed at a significantly higher rate than long-term capital gains. Investing is about the long term. The key to wealth building is to invest for the long haul.  

• Never trade/invest on margin.  The risk/reward is not worth it.  You amplify both your gains and your losses while using margin and the high interest you pay on your margin balance eats you away over time.  When the stock market drops your losses can wipe out your entire account if you are borrowing money on margin.  Margin calls are not fun and I've seen people be completely wiped out trading on margin.  Don't do it.  

• Never short stocks.  Your losses are unlimited and your gains are capped.  Not worth the risk/reward.  Short squeezes have blown up people's accounts and it's simply not worth it.  There are easier and better ways to make money than shorting. Don't do it.  

• Don't trade options.  Trading options is a quick way to lose a lot of money.  

• If you want to invest in individual securities, The Giveback encourages you to only do this with a small percentage of your overall investable assets and to make sure you know what you are getting into - the vast majority of your public brokerage account should be in diversified index funds.  You should have an advanced understanding of accounting and financial statements if you are investing in individual companies and always do your research.   Cut your losers and let your winners run.  Always use limit orders. 

• Don't watch financial news on TV.  It's a waste of time with TV personalities trying to capture your attention to sell ads. Go read a book about finance or the stock market and you will learn 100x more than listening to that junk on TV. 

• Read books, listen to podcasts, and get to know everything and anything related to the sock market.

• Stock Market Pros - Your holdings are liquid meaning you can convert your shares to cash very quickly and easily.  By investing in the stock market you are participating in the growth and cash flows of large companies.  

• Stock Market Cons - Huge swings can have an emotional toll on an investor's psychology.  One day you're up big and the next your holdings are down a lot.  A lot of investors tend to sell at the bottom of market panics because they are afraid to lose more money.

Rental Real Estate Investing

• Investing in rental real estate can be a great way to build wealth over time - residential, multifamily, farmland, retail, office, industrial, etc.  There are many different sectors of real estate and you should learn the pros/cons to these different sectors.   

• Cash Flow Producing Rental Real Estate - When The Giveback thinks of real estate investing, we think of cash flow producing rental real estate like a rental house or duplex that you rent out to a tenant that pays you rent every month or an apartment complex with hundreds of tenants paying rent to you as the landlord every month.  These types of rental properties are income and cash flow producing assets where the income from tenants covers all of these expenses including your mortgage and you generate positive cash flow.  The great thing about cash flow producing real estate is that you pay down your mortgage balance every month with your tenant's rent check so your equity in the property grows every month.  

• Being a landlord has its pros/cons and the management of owning real estate can be a huge pain so it's not for everybody.  If you don't have interest in being a landlord but you're interested in investing in real estate, you should look into REITs which are "Real Estate Investment Trusts" and these are publicly traded.  Some REITs own office buildings, some REIT's own apartments, some REITs on industrial warehouse spaces, and there are even REIT index funds that own a little bit of everything.   

• Always run your numbers and know your numbers inside and out.  

• You make your money when you buy. Not when you sell.  Make sure to buy at a good valuation (the lower you pay the better), have a good margin of safety and don't overpay so you have a healthy basis.  

• BRRR aka Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance - This is a strategy where real estate investors focus on buying value-add properties that need work, then rehab them in order get higher rents, rent them out to cover their mortgage, do a cash-out refinance and use the proceeds from the refi to repeat it all over again with another property. Some people love this refinance strategy and some people don't like the refinance part to take on additional debt and prefer to just pay down their existing mortgage and build more equity.  It's up to you if you want to refinance and take on more debt and there is not a "right" or "wrong" way of choosing to refinance or not - it's simply a personal preference.  

• You should also get very familiar with basic real estate terminology like NOI, ARV, Cap Rate, price/ft, DSCR, ROI, MOIC, IRR, RevPAR, NNN, etc.  You need to learn the basics before you do your first deal.

• Read books, listen to podcasts, and get familiar with all aspects of real estate.  

• Find a mentor who owns a lot of real estate to talk to and help you on your real estate journey.  

• Do your research and buy your first deal!  You can read all the books in the world and talk to 50+ real estate investors but you need to do your first deal in order to truly understand what real estate investing is all about.  You make your money when you buy, so make sure you get in at a good basis.  

• Short Term Renting (STR) a home or a room via Airbnb/VRBO has been a great way for thousands of hosts to generate income on their property.  

• Be careful buying condos/homes with strict Homeowner's Associations (HOA).  HOA's can have a ton of power where you as the owner of the property essentially has zero control.  If you do decide to buy a condo/home in a HOA, make sure to read the bylaws, covenants, and to also review the HOA's last 3 year historical financials and current budget and request a "Reserve Study" from the board.  Know what you are getting into before you buy in and a lot of condos are severely under capitalized meaning you as the new owner will have high association dues and most likely have to do capital calls for special assessments. 

• Never buy a timeshare.  A timeshare is NOT an investment - It's a prepaid vacation and they are extremely illiquid and you will most likely lose a lot or all of your money "if" you are able to sell it.  Don't get trapped into buying a timeshare from tricky and pushy sales tactics. 

• Real estate is very cyclical - there are good times and there are bad times.  Sellers markets and buyers markets come and go.  Know where you are in the cycle and it will help with decisions on when to buy and when to sell.   Buy when markets are depressed and sell when markets are exuberant. 

• Personal Residence - Home ownership that you live in is a lifestyle decision and it's not the best investment.  Owning your personal residence is not a fantastic investment because it doesn't generate any income or cash flow and you have to pay for all expenses, maintenance, taxes, mortgage, and insurance out of pocket without any income coming in on your residence.  Compare that to buying a rental property that generates rental income every month via a paying tenant.  Your personal residence is not a cash flow producing asset vs. a rental property is a cash flow producing asset.   Everyone needs a place to live so whether you decide to rent or own that's up to you and it's a living expense we will all have.  The less expensive your home/living expenses are, the lower your monthly payments will be which will give you more money each month to invest.  Living beneath your means and investing the rest is a sure way to financial freedom.  

• Real Estate Agents/Realtors - Always negotiate your realtor/broker fees and listing agreement and have a real estate attorney help you with this. You need to make sure your property gets in the local MLS and these are items we recommend negotiating in a listing agreement when selling a home:

  • • • Negotiate your commission rate - this is one of the most important steps that can save you tens of thousands of dollars in fees.  The more expensive the home, the lower your commission rate should be.  6% is what your realtor will try to get you to sign but they are also trying to make as much money as possible in commissions on the sale of your home - Negotiate a lower rate and you can even do a flat fixed fee instead of a percentage of the sales price.  Realtor commissions are negotiable by law!  Read the following article from Realtor.com about negotiating realtor commissions - Click Here 

      • Include an “Easy Exit” clause on every listing agreement so if you are not happy with the performance of your agent you can cancel your listing agreement at any time with no obligations.  

      • Include a clause for no “Double Ending” of a transaction - if the buyer is not represented by a buyer’s agent then you do not pay this buyer's rep agent fee.  

      • Include an exclusion list so you can sell your house for free if you want the option to sell your house to a family member, friend or a potential buyer you have already been dealing with then you have the right to sell your house to them without paying a commission.  You will need to list the names of these people in the “Exclusion Section” of the listing agreement prior to signing.

      • Ensure you get professional photography of your home.  You do not want agents taking cell phone photos for your listing photography.  You may have to pay for this professional photography but it is money well spent and you can even pick your own photographer if you would like.  Having excellent professional photos is critical to selling your home.

  • Buying real estate - If you are a first-time homebuyer and have never purchased a home before you should use a real estate agent to assist you on the purchase of your first home.  If you have purchased a home before and understand the home buying process you do not have to use a real estate agent to purchase your next home - find it online, tour it and submit an offer.  I have purchased multiple homes without using a real estate agent and simply used an attorney at an hourly rate to assist the process/contract.  The seller saves +/-3% in buy-side commissions if you don't have a buyers rep agent so the seller will love your offer because it saves them a lot of money.  When I make offers on new houses/buildings I clearly write in the offer, "Buyer is not represented by a buyers rep agent and wishes for the 3% buyers rep commission savings to be passed on to the seller."  Get creative and think outside the box!  

• Rental Real Estate Pros - Excellent store of value, inflationary hedged asset, real estate is a scarce asset, it's a great way to build additional streams of income, easy to leverage, you can see and touch your investment, and you're in full control.

• Rental Real Estate Cons - Real estate can be a pain to manage and operate so make sure you know what you are getting into and doing - it's not for everyone.  Unexpected repairs and maintenance can be very expensive so you must keep adequate cash reserves.  Most real estate investors take on debt which can get you into trouble if you're over leveraged and can't find a new tenant.  Real estate requires a lot of capital to get into.  Real estate is very illiquid and can take months/years to sell a property.  Transactional costs of selling real estate are very high which can cost you anywhere from 1%-8% of the sales price in fees/commissions/closing costs.  

Starting or Buying a Small Business

• While starting a business can be risky, requires an entrepreneurial spirit and an enormous time commitment, it can also be a fantastic way to build wealth.  Most successful businesses take years and years of hard work and dedication but many people do it and build significant wealth over time through their own business.  There are thousands and thousands of business models out there so find something that works for you.  Becoming a franchisee of a proven concept is a model that has worked for many small business owners .  Know your market, industry, and competition extremely well and be ready to give it everything you got.  There are roughly 25 million individuals in America who own their own business which is roughly 7.5% of the American population.  When you look at the Forbes Billionaires list showing the wealthiest people in the world, almost all of them got on this list by starting their own company.  Starting your own business is a dream for millions of people and The Giveback encourages you to pursue your dreams.  Best of luck with your endeavors!

Other Investments:

• There are many other things you can invest in out there so make sure you fully understand what you are getting into before you invest your hard earned capital.  Remember that index funds/stocks (public companies), rental real estate and owning your own business have been excellent wealth builders over time so if you stray from those investments you are taking additional risks with your hard earned capital.  

MISCELLANEOUS FINANCIAL ADVICE

Net Worth:  

• Your net worth is calculated by taking all of your assets minus all of your liabilities/debt.   The Giveback recommends that everyone calculate their net worth and update this once a year - Excel or Google Sheets are both great for a net worth calculation.  List all of your itemized bank accounts, real estate holdings, stock account/s, other investments, etc. and then sum those up for your total assets and then list all of your liabilities/debt like your credit cards, student loans, car loans, and mortgages and then sum those up for your total liabilities.  The difference between your assets and liabilities is your net worth. If your assets exceed your liabilities, you will have a positive net worth which is good. Conversely, if your liabilities are greater than your assets, you will have a negative net worth which is not good. If your net worth is negative that means you need to work on building your assets and also reducing your debt.  Your goal should be to have a positive net worth and increase your net worth every year.  Anytime you borrow money from a bank you will need to provide your net worth showing all of your assets and liabilities to the banker so it's good to keep this updated once a year.  Excel Net Worth Template

Allocation of Assets:  

• What's the correct allocation of stocks, real estate, cash, etc. that you should own?  There is no right or wrong answer to this question.  Some people prefer a higher allocation to stocks, while others prefer a higher allocation to real estate, and some people have everything in their own business they started.  You need to do your own research and figure out what percentage works well for you and what makes you sleep best at night.  

Compound Interest:  

• Compound interest (or compounding interest) is the interest on a loan/deposit/investment calculated based on both the initial principal and the accumulated interest from previous periods.  Compound interest can be thought of as "interest on interest," and will make a sum grow at a faster rate than simple interest, which is calculated only on the principal amount.  The key to building wealth is taking advantage of compound interest and reinvesting your proceeds from your existing investments into new investments that earn you even more income.  

Valuation:  

• Valuation is the analytical process of determining the current (or projected) worth of an asset or a company.  The valuation that you pay for an investment is absolutely critical to the success of the investment.  Buy great assets at low to fair valuations.  Don't overpay.  "Price is what you pay, value is what you get."

Living Will & Last Testament Will:  

• Everyone should have a Will once you're 30 years old.  There are many websites that offer basic Wills for the price of a nice dinner and you can even find some websites that offer this service for free.  Even if you don't have a lot of assets or net worth, it is highly recommended to have a Will in case anything were to happen to you.  Attach a print out of your Net Worth spreadsheet to your Will so whomever handles your estate knows all of your assets and liabilities.  As your net worth grows, you should look into hiring an estate planning attorney.

Taxes:  

• Always pay your taxes and file an annual tax return every year.  You do not want to mess with the IRS.  

• Always hold investments for longer than 1 year.   Your taxes are much lower when you are able to take advantage of long term capital gains which require you to hold an investment for longer than 1 year.  Short term capital gain taxes are much higher than long term gain taxes.  

• When you do sell something at a gain, be prepared to pay taxes on that gain so you need to keep adequate cash from the sale in order to pay your taxes.  

Financial Advisors:  

• Financial advice is almost never free.  A lot of times advisors earn a commission on products they sell you or take a percentage of your investments as a fee.  If you need or want to have a financial advisor, that's up to you but make sure to ask them exactly how they get paid and to read the fine print.  Advisory fees can eat away at your long term returns.

Inflation:  

• The government will always devalue the currency over time.  Being invested in inflationary hedged cash flow producing investments (like stocks and rental real estate) is the best thing you can do to protect yourself from inflation over time.

Cash:  

• Cash is king.  Always keep ample cash in your checking and savings account so when an opportunity comes up you have cash available to invest.

• Inflation will make the purchasing power of your cash deteriorate over time so you can't tuck all your money under a mattress and expect to grow your wealth.  You must invest your cash into productive assets in order to generate income and wealth.   

• FDIC only insures up to $250,000 of cash for individuals or up to $500,000 for joint accounts.  If you have more cash than that in your account, you are not insured on that excess amount and if the bank fails there is a chance you will lose cash in excess of those amounts.  Move your excess cash around into different banks and/or buy treasuries.  

Insurance:  

• Life Insurance - You should get a life insurance policy when you get married and/or have kids.  Having life insurance provides a security blanket for your loved ones if anything were to happen to you.  It's recommended to have a life insurance policy that is equal to 10-20x your current salary/income.

• Health Insurance - Always have health insurance.  This is invaluable and an absolute must with the expensive costs of healthcare.  Without health insurance, a minor incident could cause you to go bankrupt due to excessive medical bills.  

Gold/Silver/Precious Metals:  

• Gold/Metals do not produce anything and don't generate any cash flow so The Giveback does not recommend it as an investment.  It is true that gold has been a store of value for thousands of years while paper fiat currency has deteriorated in value due to inflation.  Just being a store of value does not mean it's a great investment though.  While gold has kept up with inflation pretty well over time, the goal of investing is to beat inflation and not just keep up with it.  If you really want to own gold, The Giveback suggests only a tiny tiny percentage of your investable assets be allocated to gold.  This gives you a small allocation of your overall net worth to gold while maintaining the majority of your investments in cash flow producing assets like stocks and rental real estate.  Don't forget that every time you sell gold, you need to report it to the IRS and pay taxes on this transaction.

Crypto/Bitcoin:

• Crypto/Bitcoin doesn't produce anything and doesn't generate any cash flow so The Giveback does not recommend it as an investment. It's impossible to value crypto because there are no earnings, revenue, income or cash flows so you are simply buying it under the assumption that someone else will buy it from you at a higher price at a later date which is the greater fool theory. If you really want some exposure to crypto, The Giveback suggests only a tiny tiny percentage of your investable assets be allocated to crypto. This gives you a tiny tiny allocation of your overall net worth to non-income producing crypto while maintaining the majority of your investments in cash flow producing assets like stocks and rental real estate that produce goods and services that generate cash/income for you. Do not borrow money or trade on margin to buy crypto - This is a recipe for disaster.  Don't forget that every time you sell or use crypto, you need to report it to the IRS and pay taxes on each transaction.  Just because your neighbor gets rich off of something doesn't mean you have to do the same.

Collectibles:

• Art, stamps, baseball cards, comic books, antiques, beanie babies, etc. do not produce anything or generate any cash flow.  The Giveback recommends staying away from these collectible items as an investment because they are not income/cash flow producing assets.  

Accounting:

• Accounting is the language of business.  Get familiar with basic accounting terminology which will help you with your investments for the rest of your life.  Learn how to read a balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement.

Negotiate:  

• Learn how to be a good negotiator and this will help you with negotiating a higher salary, buying/selling real estate and running your own business. 

Get Rich Quick Schemes:

• Stay away from anything that sounds too good to be true.  So many people fall victim to "get rich quick" schemes and lose all of their money going for the fast/easy path that practically never works out.   Also, stay away from pyramid schemes & MLM - if there is an upline, downline, and you are asked to recruit, stay away from it.   

Get Rich Seminars/Courses:

• Stay away from these expensive and over hyped courses/seminars. The people running these seminars and classes care more about making money off of you than they do in teaching you.  There are also a ton of scam artists in this space.  You can pick up a $5 book and learn more in a couple hours reading on a subject that you are interested in than their thousand+ dollar get rich seminar.

Gambling:

• Stay away from gambling - Casinos/Bookies/Lotteries always have the odds in their favor and the house always wins long term.  Instead, you want to invest in cash flow producing assets where the odds long term are in your favor. 

Healthy Lifestyle:

• Eat healthy, exercise, get your sleep, don't do drugs, etc.  A healthy lifestyle can make a big difference with your personal finances and your long term wealth building. 

FAMOUS INVESTING QUOTES

“Earn as much as you can, save as much as you can, invest as much as you can, give as much as you can.” -  John Wesley

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” -  Jim Rohn

"Be fearful when others are greedy.  Be greedy when others are fearful." - Warren Buffett

“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn’t, pays it.” - Albert Einstein

"Rule #1 of investing is don't lose money.  Rule #2 is don't forget rule #1." - Warren Buffett

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

You can buy used books off of eBay and Thriftbooks.  Amazon is a great source for new books.  Give your books away to a friend or family member after you've finished reading them to pass on the knowledge. Personal finance isn't taught in schools and you need to do your own research on what strategy works for you.  Read, read, and then read some more - Learn something new everyday!  ps - I don't make a dime from the links below and have zero affiliation with the authors/publishers.  They are simply books that I have read and recommend.  

Basic Stock Market Index Fund Investing:  The Little Book of Common Sense Investing

Basic Rental Real Estate Investing :  Rental Property Investing

Basic Personal Finance:  The Millionaire Next Door , The Richest Man in Babylon , Poor Charlie's Almanac

Basic Negotiating:  Never Split The Difference

Advanced Stock Market Investing:  The Intelligent Investor , The Essays of Warren Buffett

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