We often exhort investors to keep up with their holdings. It makes sense. After all, you've got much of your life savings wrapped up in your investments. Shouldn't you be following their progress? Still, many people might rightly wonder exactly how they should go about doing so.
Smart investors like you want to build wealth for life by beating the market. You want to stay ahead of the masses who stash their money in savings accounts, bonds, and even index funds. You certainly don't want to lose to them. There's no feeling worse than knowing that you'd be doing better by doing nothing.
If you're earning less than 4% on your cash, you're not trying hard enough.
Kelli Grant said so in a recent Smart Money article, and she's absolutely right. I can tell that interest rates have been rising in recent years just by glancing at my checking account's interest rate -- it's nearly 1%! I'd be silly to leave too much money in that account, though, when there are so many more attractive options.
Concerned about what's on your credit report? If you're not, you should be. Your credit score is more important than ever to your financial well-being. It affects whether you can borrow to buy a house, your loan rates, if you can secure credit for future purchases, and if you can cover yourself in an emergency.
I have a close friend, "Charlotte," with whom I grew up. Charlotte and I worked at our first jobs together in high school, scraped together beer and gas money in college, and commiserated about our low-paying entry-level jobs after graduation. Fast forward a few years and now Charlotte is marrying a multi-millionaire, taking an around-the-world honeymoon, and complaining good-naturedly about how hard it is to decorate a 10,000-square-foot home. She's generous to a fault, but I'm discovering that I'm not; I want the old Charlotte back. I feel weird and uncomfortable with her now and can't seem to get over it. Do you have some thoughts about how we can remain friends?
For many -- if not most -- of us, the money we've socked away in our employer-sponsored retirement plan represents the biggest portion of our nest eggs. Trouble is, too few of us take maximum advantage of our plans. And even those who do might not be putting money to work in other investment vehicles that also provide tax-favored earnings growth.
Last summer, Warren Buffett made the largest charitable donation in history. His gift of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) stock will ultimately depend on the share price of the stock itself, but most have valued the contribution in the $40 billion range -- give or take a few billion. Not to be flip, but that donation matches the entire market cap of Corning (NYSE: GLW), a Fortune 500 company.
A regular feature of The Motley Fool Rule Your Retirement newsletter service is our success stories -- profiles of people who have become financially independent. One of the most remarkable stories involves Billy and Akaisha Kaderli, who, at age 38, left their fast-track lives, moved to the Caribbean, and started traveling the world.
