Last month we shared new research on money and happiness and updated Rule 7 of our 10 Rules for Life to, “To be wealthy, spend money on what you love.” After updating the rule, I read through all of our previous Personal Kaizen financial advice blog posts to see what other information might be outdated or need an update. This post is a nice summary of all things financial.
Personal Kaizen Finance Blog Posts
Here is a list of our previous long-form posts related to finances and money:
- Personal Kaizen Rule 7: To be Wealthy, Spend Money on What You Love
- Achieve FIRE: Financial Independence, Retire Early
- Five Easy, Low-Cost Investment Strategies for FIRE
- Stop Wasting Money with These 8 Simple Tips!
- Debt Reduction: Pay Less Interest and More on What You Love
- Ways to Stop Wasting Money on Insurance and Warranties
- Putting Lazy Money to Work for You
- How to Improve Your Credit Score and Save Thousands
- Take Advantage of the Secret Benefits of Credit Cards
- Travel for Free with These Simple Tips
These posts were all written and shared with our audience receiving the free Personal Kaizen newsletter over 2-4 years ago. We will run through each of these posts below and share any new thinking based on recent experience. I will also provide updated data and links.
Updated Financial Tips and Advice
Achieve FIRE: Financial Independence, Retire Early
The FIRE movement remains popular, but some young investors have now experienced market losses and higher-than-average inflation for the first time in their lives. I see way too many social media posts with either get-rich-quick schemes or doom-and-gloom topics. My personal goal is to become wealthy and financially independent but not retire early.
Five Easy, Low-Cost Investment Strategies for FIRE
The input from this post is all still sound today for the average investor. Vanguard recently stopped offering individual 401(k) plans, so I switched my account to Fidelity. I also moved my Health Savings Account from HealthEquity to Fidelity. I am very happy with the change, especially eliminating my HSA fees!
Stop Wasting Money with These 8 Simple Tips!
If you read only one post about money, this is the one. It is mentioned elsewhere, but I highly recommend you use a tool to track your spending and savings. The Personal Capital software we use was purchased by Empower, but I still use the planning software for free and think you can too by visiting the link above. If you sign-up, expect to be offered fee-based financial services. Accept a meeting and decline the services.
Debt Reduction: Pay Less Interest and More on What You Love
All still great tips to reduce debt, but I am not sure the correct advice for college loans. We currently have two kids in college, and I recommend they accept any subsidized loans that they are offered. These loans do not charge any interest while you are enrolled in school and during a six-month grace period after you finish school. There are many state programs that offer debt repayment, so check to see if you qualify.
Ways to Stop Wasting Money on Insurance and Warranties
We continue to follow the advice in this post. One of our vehicles is probably old enough now to have comprehensive insurance removed, saving us a few hundred dollars per year.
Putting Lazy Money to Work for You
One investment tip not discussed elsewhere is the benefits of a Health Savings Account (HSA) with a High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP). A HDHP typically costs less per month for the premium but requires you to cover most of your healthcare expenses. The key benefit is that it allows you to fund an HSA (2024 limits are $4,150 as an individual or $8,300 as a family). The money you invest is reduced from your taxes and you don’t pay taxes on the money when you use it!
We are now investing our HSA in index funds (through Fidelity) and watching it grow! The $35,000 we have contributed over the past 7 years is now worth $60,000! We have learned the importance of saving your receipts for medical payments, even if you leave your money in the account so it gains interest.
How to Improve Your Credit Score and Save Thousands
Our youngest son just turned 20 and already has several credit cards that he sets to automatically pay off each month. I was very surprised to learn that his credit score is already over 740! That seems like a very high score to be given without much history.
We researched his score and found that his credit history is based on a card we opened eight years ago that we made him an authorized user for when he turned 18. I suggest you do the same for any teenage kid – add them to your account so they gain experience in using a credit card responsibly and benefit from your history.
Remember to review credit report annually for free at AnnualCreditReport.com.
Take Advantage of the Secret Benefits of Credit Cards
We still use the credit cards mentioned in the post, and I still churn through 2-3 new credit cards every year. Chase continues to limit you to 5 cards, but I applied for a Capital One card recently and was denied due to having “too many new accounts in the past 24 months.”
I recently signed up for the Amex Gold Card, despite the high $325 annual fee, after being offered 90,000 bonus points for spending $6,000 in 6 months. I am already finding it harder to find places that accept Amex cards, as we usually meet spending limits by charging our health and auto insurance plans on credit cards.
Overall, I plan to simplify a bit and apply for fewer cards in 2025. I have also recently canceled several cards to avoid paying extra in annual fees.
Travel for Free with These Simple Tips
We continue to travel for free, with an upcoming trip to Chicago costing only $22.40 for two round-trip tickets on Southwest and $0 for the hotel room. My Southwest companion pass has expired, but my spouse applied for the credit cards last year to earn one and uses me as her companion.
I will likely travel abroad in 2025 on a free flight using the Amex points above. Why not?
Summary
Overall, I was very pleased that little of our advice from 2021 and 2022 needed to be updated. I will schedule to provide another update 2-4 years from now, or if anything major changes before then.
Please, please, please share any tips you have with me and the rest of the Personal Kaizen community by leaving a comment below. I am especially interested in any thoughts and advice in the following areas that I want to learn more about:
- Investing in real estate
- Paying off college loans
- Angel investments in a start-up business
- Smart tax strategies
- What age to begin social security benefits
Thank you!
