Chuck Donalies: The Frugal Planner's Weekly Dispatch - Personal Finance, News, Ideas, & Things I Find Interesting

See this 10-23-3015 message from Bloomingdale resident and Certified Financial Planner Chuck Donalies:

The Frugal Planner's Weekly Dispatch Personal Finance, News, Ideas, & Things I Find Interesting Issue 5 October 23, 2015 Like what you see? If so, please share with your friends & family!

Why I Love Vanguard Clients have heard me talk about my strong preference for investing in Vanguard ETFs and mutual funds. I have three reasons for this: The majority of Vanguard's ETFs and mutual funds are solid investments. The expenses on Vanguard's investments are usually the lowest in the industry. Remember, I'm frugal. I like it when things are inexpensive. If you adhere to the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) the likelihood of success when picking individual stocks is low. Note: Call me a pessimist (my wife does), but my belief in the EMH has been shaken after reading about high frequency trading in Michael Lewis's Flash Boys. Want to learn more about Vanguard and its founder, Jack Bogle? Listen to (or read) this segment (5:34) recently aired on NPR. The Things You Own End Up Owning You The headline of this article is a quote from one of my favorite movies, Fight Club. Actually, I'm breaking rules one and two of Fight Club by writing this post. Don't judge me. Anyway, I was reminded of the quote after reading a blog post by Brandon Marcott, a fellow financial planner and one of my colleagues in the XY Planning Network. In his post titled "The Diminishing Returns of Stuff" Brandon writes about how the things we buy, such as the latest version of the iPhone, make us happy...for a while. After the initial joy wears off we work hard to earn money so we can buy the next shiny new thing. And the cycle begins again. I've come to believe experiences are more valuable than material things. Yes, I still buy new gadgets, but not as often as I used to. Do yourself a favor: Take a few minutes and read Brandon's post. He writes about this subject far better than I could. P.S. Keep up the good work, Brandon! Everyone Makes Financial Mistakes Everyone makes mistakes with their money - even me. I know, you're shocked. How could anyone in the financial services industry make a poor decision about personal finance? The answer is simple: I'm human. Here's an article from Business Insider where financial planners share some of the mistakes made by their clients. The stories are funny and sad at the same time. Thankfully, none of my clients have made mistakes like the ones highlighted in the article. Lesson: It's okay to make mistakes with your money. Just try to make small mistakes rather than big ones.

Share Tweet Forward Copyright © 2015 Donalies Financial Planning, LLC, All rights reserved. Chuck Donalies, CFP® CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER Professional Donalies Financial Planning, LLC chuck@donaliesfp.com  www.donaliesfp.com 240.888.2573 @frugalplanner