Where to start learning -- personal finance/savings/retirement money/budgeting

[Anonymous]

I've never paid enough attention to my finances.

I made the obvious choices: always maxed out TSP, don't live above my means, have a very healthy emergency fund, etc. But I have a lot of money parked in stocks that were selected by the parent who died and left them to me over 10 years ago (and couldn't even tell you what they are), a TSP account distributed among funds based on some random choices I made over 20 years ago, no real budget and no idea how much of my income I spend on what, etc. DH is good enough with finance that friends consult him on it a lot, so I've left most household decisions up to him -- I couldn't even tell you our mortgage company. We are about to sell a house we have been renting out, so I'll be getting around $200k from that. So I need to decide what to do with that, and while I'm at it should probably take a look at everything else. And while I'm doing that, should probably look at budgeting.

I want to start educating myself on this stuff and take control of my financial life. Where to start? Podcasts? Books? Websites? Gurus? I know what I don't want -- one of those money-manager-in-a-box places like Edward Jones or whatever. DH and I are both lawyers in a practice area that is sort of finance-adjacent, so I feel confident that I can learn this stuff if I bother with it.

Advice?

[Anonymous]

It can get as complicated as you want it to be. Sounds like you are probably at 95% optimal already. Up to you if you want to spend the time/energy to manage the other 5%.

If your husband already knows what he is doing, probably not worth the effort, but may want to schedule an hour to sit down and go over all your holdings, discuss if you want to change it.

[Anonymous]

I feel like you're a Bogleheads dream. What I did was start reading their website and had a Word document where I copy and pasted various terms I didn't really understand or wanted to research more, and then copy and pasted the best explanations I could find, and collated all my notes. The Bogleheads forum is good too.

If I were you the first thing I would do is figure out all my holdings, especially the stocks, and determine whether you should sell them (and the tax implications of that) and put the money into an index fund.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like you're a Bogleheads dream. What I did was start reading their website and had a Word document where I copy and pasted various terms I didn't really understand or wanted to research more, and then copy and pasted the best explanations I could find, and collated all my notes. The Bogleheads forum is good too.

If I were you the first thing I would do is figure out all my holdings, especially the stocks, and determine whether you should sell them (and the tax implications of that) and put the money into an index fund.

Thanks. This is super helpful.

We are tax attorneys, so I have (or at least should have, lol) a good handle on that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like you're a Bogleheads dream. What I did was start reading their website and had a Word document where I copy and pasted various terms I didn't really understand or wanted to research more, and then copy and pasted the best explanations I could find, and collated all my notes. The Bogleheads forum is good too.

If I were you the first thing I would do is figure out all my holdings, especially the stocks, and determine whether you should sell them (and the tax implications of that) and put the money into an index fund.

OMG, that circa 2003 website! It hurts my eyes!

But I'll get past it and get to the content, lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like you're a Bogleheads dream. What I did was start reading their website and had a Word document where I copy and pasted various terms I didn't really understand or wanted to research more, and then copy and pasted the best explanations I could find, and collated all my notes. The Bogleheads forum is good too.

If I were you the first thing I would do is figure out all my holdings, especially the stocks, and determine whether you should sell them (and the tax implications of that) and put the money into an index fund.

I agree with this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like you're a Bogleheads dream. What I did was start reading their website and had a Word document where I copy and pasted various terms I didn't really understand or wanted to research more, and then copy and pasted the best explanations I could find, and collated all my notes. The Bogleheads forum is good too.

If I were you the first thing I would do is figure out all my holdings, especially the stocks, and determine whether you should sell them (and the tax implications of that) and put the money into an index fund.

I agree with this

Me too. Bogleheads is very sensible.

[Anonymous]

Bogleheads can be a helpful resource, but remember you're on the Internet, where anyone can expound on topics they may or may not actually know anything about. Consider the advice you receive, which will usually be presented as authoritative but with no necessary reason to assume it is, so take it with a grain of salt, and remember that suggestions and advice you receive there cannot possible take into account every aspect of your personal circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Yep, I started with Boggleheads as well. Very helpful community

[Anonymous]

The Bogleheads book on investing is a great place to start — so you’re not sifting through a million threads all at once!

[Anonymous]

Also A Random Walk Down Wall Street is a classic.

[Anonymous]

Congrats OP it sounds like your financial life is in good shape. Here are a few suggestions that wish I had known when younger.

Read Warren Buffet on how non professionals should invest in stocks. He seems to be the only one without a vested interest in his viewpoint.

Understand that you can and will lose money at times and that is part of the reason equities pay more over time.

With your level of experience you should probably not be picking individual stocks. Part of the issue with doing that is that to get sufficient diversification you need to pick 15-20 stocks at least.

This is not financial advice. Just a suggestion of where to start your research.

Warren says 90% VOO and 10% bonds. Rebalance quarterly. I add a little international exposure (vymi, vxus) and a little growth (vug), and broadening out your holdings with a total stock market fund (vti). I like these funds because they give you good passive indexing without much expenses. Expenses eat your returns over time. But voo should be the bulk of your holdings if you are a passive indexing investor.

Understand that bond prices move opposite rates, long term bonds move a lot more. You can lose money in bonds too! Unfortunately you can’t make it back so quickly because your upside is limited to what you can get from falling rates and clipping coupons. Look at a chart for any intermediate term bond fund (eg vcit) to see this. In Warren’s strategy the 10% in bonds is mainly there to be dry powder in a stock market drawdown. With the current combination of high rates and high valuations (not typical) I hold more than 10% in bonds. Anything I plan to spend in the next 24-30 months is in short term bond funds (eg vcsh, vusb, …)

Good luck op.

[Anonymous]

Pp here. One more thing. When buying an etf you should always always look under the hood at the top holdings to see what you actually are buying. Ask yourself if you are happy owning little pieces of those companies or not before you load up.

[Anonymous]

It's good to have a grasp on where your money goes. Not to be a Debbie downer but you should know a little bit more about the finances in case your spouse passes away unexpectedly (speaking from experience).

I love using the Fidelity website to track my spending, I believe it's the tab called Full View. You can add accounts and then see all of your spending put in categories.

I like using Boldin for retirement planning/taxes. They have a free trial and also a Black Friday special right now.

I am also a Boglehead and agree with the above statement about their website, it's painful. However, there is usually good advice posted.

Fidelity has some good money market funds that you can place the 200k in while you are waiting to decide what to do with the money. Or if you are with a different brokerage, they have comparable funds.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the recommendation for Bogleheads. But also, if your husband has been handling the household finances, and other people consult him, why wouldn’t you as well? Ask questions, ask him to teach you the basics.