An HSA is one of the best-kept secrets out there because of its versatility. My current employer offered an HSA back in 2016 but I brushed it off to opt-in for the PPO plan. In 2019 when I did more research into what an HSA is and how it was helpful to the future financial goals I was determined to
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An FSA or a flexible spending account is an arrangement set up by your employers to help you pay for qualified medical and dental expenses. Funds contributed to your FSA account are deducted from your paycheck and are not subject to income and payroll taxes. The funds can be used like a debit card for qualified expenses and are not
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It pays to get your PharmD from the cheapest pharmacy school you can find. As a pharmacist, the number one thing that keeps me up at night is the balance of my student loan. As an aspiring pharmacist, you can make this one decision that can affect your financial well-being many years down the road. You can choose to go
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I made my first backdoor Roth IRA mistake and I’ll share it with you in this post along discussing my portfolio strategy for my Roth IRA account. Backdoor Roth IRA Before diving into how and what I am investing inside my Roth IRA account, I wanted to share with you my first mistake when contributing to a Roth IRA account.
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What is HENRY? High earner, not rich yet (HENRY) is a term a came across with reading an article. Investopedia states that a 2003 Fortune Magazine article defined families earning between $250,000 and $500,00, but don’t have much to show for it after taxes and costs of living. This term is applicable to professionals such as lawyers, doctors, dentists, and
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10 Ways to Boost Earnings for pharmacists What if you love what you’re doing as a pharmacist but you’re looking for ways to boost your earnings as a pharmacist? Here is the list of ways you can improve your earnings as a pharmacist. Start a side hustle, These side hustles can be related to your pharmacy skills set or it can
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You’ve probably have heard of more people moving to various Texas cities lately where there seems to be an exodus of people and companies becoming more interested in the state. I read an article that piqued my interest in this topic. LinkedIn came out with a report ranking the top cities with the most newcomers and Austin, TX was ranked
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How Does Fundrise Work? Fundrise takes commercial projects across the states and turns them into Electronic real estate investment trusts (eREITs). This is in contrast to regular REITS whether privately or publicly traded REITS. You can think of this as similar to an index fund where each eREITS is a basket of various commercial real estate projects. Fundrise has declared
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The most challenging part of running a social media campaign is fresh social media content ideas. Great social media content is very important for the growth of your brand. However, you are expected to be consistent in providing high-quality content across your social media channels. It can be tough, and to help you, I have provided a few social media
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In this post, I will cover some of the most important money moves you need to take at the end of the year. It is always a good idea to monitor your personal finances throughout the year. As we are heading toward the end of the year it’s equally important to work on certain things and make plans for the
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Simple Steps for Branding Your Passive Income Business Sometimes it’s nice to have an extra source of cash flow. Maybe it’s for a new home. Or to save for your daughter’s college tuition. The whole idea of a passive income is that it’s your side project. Flexibility with it is essential. This is why a lot of people opt to
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Can pharmacists retire as a 401k millionaire? The answer is a resounding yes! In fact, non-pharmacists can become 401k millionaires as well. Let’s find out how! 401K Millionaires It turns out American millionaires have a lot of things in common. According to a survey conducted by Ramsey Solutions from personal finance expert, Dave Ramsey found out that: 79 percent didn’t
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Low-Cost Index Funds When it comes to investing, for the majority of people, low-cost index funds are the way to go. Low-cost index funds offer the following advantages. An index fund is like a basket of stocks that you can buy into. When you buy a share of that fund, you own a small portion of the basket of stocks.
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My Social Security Social security is an important component of retirement planning. As such it is a good to question its sustainability. First off, since social security is important it’s a good idea for you to create an account to monitor and utilize the resources afforded to you from the social security website. The government’s social security website give you
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Everyone makes mistakes, all kinds of different mistakes and financial mistake is one of them. In this post, I will list all past mistakes that I made and I hope that you can learn from them and to avoid making the same mistakes that I did. Financial Mistake #1: Racking up Credit Card Debts Everyone has credit card debts but
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How Much Money Do Pharmacists Make? In this post, I will explain why how much money a pharmacist make does not matter and what you should focus on instead. First off, let’s acknowledge that money is important. Numerous studies have shown that in fact, money does bring happiness. A study published recently found that among people age 30 and older,
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Wealthy vs Rich Is there a difference between being wealthy vs rich? As it turns out, there is a key difference between the two, and I will discuss it with today’s post. In 1997, Robert Kiyosaki published a personal finance book called Rich Dad, Poor Dad. The book instantly became a phenomenal success and in no time catapulted Kiyosaki to
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Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps Dave Ramsey is a well-known money expert, he has written numerous personal finance books and is best known for his 7 baby steps. By the way, if you haven’t read his book: The Total Money Makeover, I highly recommend it! 7 Baby Steps Baby Step 1. Save $1,000 for your starter emergency fund. Baby Step
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Vanguard funds are well known for its low-cost and broad diversity, in this post, I will list the best Vanguard funds you should buy and hold. Vanguard offers a variety of index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETF). Why Vanguard Funds? Vanguard offers 75 ETFs and 160 mutual funds to choose from. Which Vanguard funds should you buy? You should buy
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I personally believe it is important for pharmacists to have different sources of passive income. Why? It is one of the best ways for pharmacists to achieve financial freedom and choose to work on your own terms. We all know the high demand and stress of being a pharmacist. Wouldn’t it be nice to cut back on your hours by
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In order to know when is a good time to buy a house, you need to look into the costs associated with buying and own a home and other factors. In this post, I will discuss all the factors associated with buying a house and the costs associated with buying and owning a home. What are the costs associated with
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How did pharmacist salary change in 2020? In this post, I will visit popular pharmacist salary databases to determine the average latest pharmacist salary numbers. Pharmacists are among the many essential workers out there working during the pandemic. They work during the day, night, weekends, and holidays providing important healthcare need to the American people so their compensation is justifiable.
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Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about how pharmacists can build wealth and I’ve come to the conclusion that getting rich slowly is the key. You’ve heard it on the radio, you heard it on television, or perhaps read it in a blog just like this one-uncover this secret, buy this and that to get rich quickly! That is not
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Pharmacist Jobs Projection One of the reasons why I got into a career in pharmacy is the plethora of pharmacist jobs and the career opportunities available. When I matriculated into pharmacy school, the jobs market looked differently then what it is now. According to the bureau for labor statistics (BLS), job growth for pharmacists is at 0% with little or
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In today’s post, I will list seven different finance books that may change your life completely if you take the time to read or listen to them. I highly recommend that you do so! I have paid hundreds of dollars purchasing these books and others in order to broaden my knowledge and understanding of personal finance. These seven books definitely
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A 529 plan is a great tool for saving for college. So should you open a 529 plan for your loved ones? According to NerdWallet, there are two different kinds of 529 plans. 529 Savings Plan 529 prepaid plan 529 college savings plans are the most common type. Investments grow tax-free and can be withdrawn tax-free for educational expenses like tuition,
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Can you earn money from YouTube? Can you earn money from Youtube? Have you ever wonder how much money YouTubers earn? I wondered about it too, but today my friends, I have some data to share with you! First let’s start off by offering some basic regarding how you can start to earn money from YouTube. You have accumulated 240,000
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How much cash cushion do you need? In light of the recent current pandemic that’s creating an economic uncertainty, a cash cushion is crucial to your financial health. First, let’s discuss the difference between a cash cushion versus an emergency fund. According to the balance: In general, a cushion is a small balance (less than $1,000) that you maintain in your checking
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What You’ll Learn There’s no one biggest factor in determining mortgage price There are many factors that help lenders set interest rates Some of the factors are within your control There are a lot of different factors that decide the price of your mortgage. Some factors depend on you, the homeowner. Some depend on the particular property you have in
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US News and World report released it’s best pharmacy schools list in 2020 recently. Are you an aspiring pharmacist and wanted to do research on your prospective pharmacy schools and wanted to see which school or colleges of pharmacy best fit your needs? Usually finding out the rankings of pharmacy schools is a good place to start when I am
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Recently I came across an article discussing legal tax loophole in the states. It’s an article from MSN and for some reason, they love slideshow. I’m going to summarize some of my favorite tax loopholes discussed in this article in one post to save you from all that clicking! Tax Loopholes The internal revenue services (IRS) allow for legal tax
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Have you ever wondered if the car you’re driving is a reliable car? I love my Honda and think they’re one of the most reliable cars out there. But is my trust in Honda misguided or is there some truth in that? Let’s find out! Top 10 Most Reliable Cars Who made it to the top 10 most reliable cars?
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Who is the pharmacy disruptor? In this blog post, we’ll take a look at who is the most promising pharmacy disruptor to date. Every industry has its own disruptors, in the technology sector you’ve got Facebook, Google, and YouTube leading the way. Pharmacy is an old industry long dominated by brick and mortar stores. They generate their revenue from dispensing
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Are You Ready to Buy Your First Home? Many renters opt to remain renters for a long time for different reasons. Some of them value the flexibility of having a landlord take care of some of the headaches that come with living in a house or apartment. Others find it convenient to be able to relocate to another place with
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I can’t believe it’s already time for the December 2019 net worth update! My last net worth update was back in August 2019. I have made some good progress on my investments and savings but I’ve learned and accepted that market conditions will derail some of my progress. August 2019 net worth recap My first net worth update was back in
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What is a backdoor Roth IRA? In today’s post, I will discuss my experiences with my first backdoor Roth IRA and a subsequent step-by-step guide. In my opinion, Roth IRA is one of the most versatile tax-advantaged retirement account you can take advantage of today. If you’re interested, I discussed in more detail about Roth IRA in another post and
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Three years ago, my current employer introduced a health savings account (HSA) as an option for my medical benefit. I briefly went over the plan but ultimately chose a PPO version. It’s not until recently that I discovered that HSA plans offer so many benefits and can be used as my third tax-advantaged plan. Some even called the health savings
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In this post, I am going to compare a Roth IRA versus a 401k plan and recommend which one is better for you in your situation. What is a Roth IRA and 401k? Roth IRA (Individual Retirement Account) is essentially a self-directed retirement account. A 401k, on the other hand, is an employee-sponsored retirement account. These are two main ways
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There are many ways to invest in real estate. In today’s post, I am going to go over 5 ways to invest in real estate. Real estate can be argued as a part of a well-balanced investment portfolio and is a good asset class for diversification. Investment in Real Estate-traditional route Traditional real estate investment is self-explanatory. You acquire a
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In this post, I am going to discuss the differences between term life insurance and whole life insurance. Insurance is one of those things in life that’s necessary because of life’s uncertainties. I could finish this post, go outside for a walk and get hit by a car, and that’s all it takes. Most likely we’re all eventually going to
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In this post, I will go over the top five takeaways from Ramit Sethi’s book: I will teach you to be rich. I will teach you to be rich Becoming rich isn’t something that only happens to Ivy League graduates, elite athletes or lottery winners. Anyone can become rich. What you need to do is to define what being rich
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Today we’re going to talk about the controversial topic of pay off debt or invest? The fundamental question is should you pay off your debt first or should you take that money and invest it? Debt is bad Debt sucks! Debt is the worst! There’s definitely good debt and there’s definitely bad debt. In general, most people don’t want to
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This is the top five takeaways summary of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. No matter which track you choose to follow in order to get rich. Becoming a trader, a value investor, a real estate pro, a chief executive or perhaps an entrepreneur, you must have the correct mindset. Due to the law of averages, some people may
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Today’s guest post on how to plan a realistic budget and create a debt reduction plan comes from Catherine, a freelance writer. How to plan a realistic budget and create a debt reduction plan Are you struggling to repay debt? Don’t worry! Continue reading to know about what to consider when you’re planning a budget and how to create a
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In this blog post, I will list 18 tips for how to save money fast! There are many good reasons to start saving money. Maybe you suddenly got slammed with an unexpected bill, or maybe your friends just invited you on a trip of a lifetime. Or perhaps, you want to buy a house and you have to save for
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What are the best investing apps out there in 2019? When it comes to investing, yup, you guessed it right, there’s an app for that! In traditional investing, you need a couple of thousand dollars to get started with either through ETFs or index mutual funds. Enter micro-investing apps. In today’s high-tech world, there are easier ways for you to
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In this post, I wanted to look at the average net worth by age in more detail and provide you with an update of my net worth as of August 2019. Let’s start by reviewing some basics. The average net worth for an American to consider wealthy is $2.27 million according to Charles Schwab. Net worth means assets minus liabilities,
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In today’s post, I am looking at what are the causes of and how to prepare for a recession. Our economy is cyclical, we have had times of great economic prosperity for the past 10 years. Eventually, we will have a contraction, where we see unemployment rates go up, consumer confidence fall and possibly leading to a decline in GDP.
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The Intelligent Investor In today’s post, I will summarize and discuss the top takeaways from the book, “The Intelligent Investor” by Benjamin Graham. Warren Buffet, one of the most successful investors the world has ever known has this to say about the book. The best book on investing, ever written. Warren Buffet Investment vs. Speculation Graham defines investment as: One
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If you have been keeping track of the stock market’s volatility lately, like most investors, you’ll probably want to take a peek your portfolio, asset allocation, and performance. Particularly, if you’re a fan of the three-fund portfolio, you’d wanted to know how it’s performing and make sure that you have the ideal asset allocation. I recently finished listening to The
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You may already own a car, and know somewhat the costs associated with car ownership. But have you ever asked yourself this question: how much car can I afford? In this post, I’ll discuss the 20/4/10 rule and how it applies to the process of buying a car. If you can afford to buy a car with cash that’s the
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What is the 50/30/20 rule budgeting rule One of the most important things in personal finance is to get intimate with your expenses and have a budget in place. And one of the simplest budgeting rules of thumb is the 50/30/20 system. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren coined the 50/30/30 rule in her book “All Your Worth: The
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What is the true cost of car ownership? Believe it or not, owning a car is expensive. You probably already know that but do you know what’s the real cost of car ownership? An article from MSN shed light on the average cost of a car. Car gurus estimate the average cost to operate and maintain a car is $9,576
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Continuing with my book review series, in this post I will summarize and showcase the top 5 lessons from The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason. It’s true that money principles derived thousands of years ago can still be relevant and applicable today. Let’s dive into the top 5 takeaways from this book. Richest Man in Babylon Lesson
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I have to confess, I have to Google the routing number to Wells Fargo every time I needed it. I have been with Wells Fargo since 2002 so that’s a lot of Googling! That is why I am creating this post for my own reference and you’re welcome to use it as well. History of Wells Fargo Wells Fargo is
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Ever wonder how financially literate you are? Take the financial literacy test here and find out! The quiz is from The National Financial Capability Study (NFCS) is a project of the FINRA Investor Education Foundation (FINRA Foundation). For your convenience, here are the questions: Financial Literacy Test: Question 1. Suppose you have $100 in a savings account earning 2 percent
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How does your 401k balance compare to your peers? Tax advantage plans like 401k and Roth IRA are one of the simplest and best ways to invest for your retirement. Do you wish to know how much you need to contribute? What is a 401k? A 401k is an employer-sponsored retirement plan. Employees can automatically deduct a portion of their
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7 Types of Income Streams It is often said the average millionaire has 7 types of income streams. The average person typically has 1 stream of income, usually from their job, and this can put them in a vulnerable position financially. If you take a look at the average millionaire, it is true that they have multiple streams of income-generating
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In this post, we’re going to focus on top digital passive income ideas that you can start today. While there are hundreds of ways to earn passive income, the focus of this post is on five actionable digital passive income ideas for busy professionals. So-called internet gurus are painting the picture of you sipping mai tais on the beach with
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I just finished listening to The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley on audible and I want to share with you some of its key takeaways. The Millionaire Next Door When you think of a millionaire, did you think of the people living on the Upper East Side in New York City or the residents of Beverly Hills California? The
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In this post, I will review financial engines also known as advised assets group and decide whether or not it is worth it due to their fees and other factors. What is Financial Engines (FE)? According to its website, they are founded in 1996. They described themselves as: We provide objective, fee-based advice and asset management, with an aim to
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I will have paid off my student loan at the end of July 2019. My next major financial action is an early mortgage pay off. Early Mortgage Pay off Strategy Early Mortgage Pay off using HELOC Surveying the inter-web there are many options and strategies in which to to pay off my mortgage early. The first option I stumbled upon
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Enjoy this week’s top financial articles from the likes of Forbes, Fortune, etc. 10 Money Mistakes to Avoid in Your 30s From a financial standpoint, your thirties are the most critical decade of your life. By avoiding the items on this list you’ll radically improve your financial future and even position yourself for early retirement. High-Earning Millennials Have a Debt Problem!
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Continuing on my investing series, in this post I will show you exactly the strategy on how I will invest in Vanguard Index Funds. Advantages of Vanguard Index Funds Investing in index funds might the best, easiest, safest long term investment out there for most people. It’s one of my favorites ways to invest. This investment strategy requires very little
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Step by Step on How to Invest Your Money In the post, I will show you exactly how to invest money in seven steps. Starting with the lowest risk and progressing to higher risk forms of investment. How to invest Money Step 1: Low-Risk Investment Here, you’re looking for a basic place to put your money. The number one choice
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Pharmacist House: How much house can a pharmacist afford? I currently own, have a mortgage on a home and I want to retrospectively go back in time as a new pharmacy graduate and crunch some numbers to see what is a good price point if a pharmacist wanted to buy a house. I will also discuss if it is a
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You are familiar with a resume but you may or may not be too familiar with a pharmacist cv (curriculum vitae). This post will guide you on the best practices on how to write a pharmacist CV and resume based upon my own experiences and research. What is a Pharmacist CV? A summary of a job applicant’s professional experience and
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What is Fiverr? Is Fiverr a viable side hustle? Apparently, it is, you can earn a lot more than $5, in fact, you can be a Fiverr Millionaire! In this post, I will summarize how four individuals were able to scale their Fiverr freelancing work and earned seven-figures to become a millionaire in the process. Fiverr is a global online marketplace
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I signed up for a free trial of Audible and got a free audiobook. Due to the high recommendations from friends and other personal finance bloggers, I chose Rich Dad, Poor Dad as my starter audiobook. As a busy pharmacist, while maintaining a nascent blog, I find myself with less and less time. I turned to podcasts and now Audible
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I opened an account with Betterment 7 years ago in 2012. In this blog post, I will document my experience with Betterment. Betterment along with Wealthfront are the two best and most well-known of the so-called robo-advisers. They are called robo-advisors because they decided to cut the human middle man out of the equation and instead relied on its own
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Enjoy the current edition of the Sunday reading for pharmacy professionals, which features interesting articles and topics from the world of personal finance. Average 401(k) Balance by Age The average 401(k) balance may be at an all-time high, but you’ll likely be surprised to see just how low that number actually is. View the chart to see how you compare
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What’s my net worth in May 2019? When I graduated from pharmacy school in 2011, I had a negative net worth of $218,000 with a combination of student loan and credit card debts! It has been a humbling experience clawing my way of that debt to having a net worth of $241,451 at the end of May 2019. I was
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Podcasts have been around for a while now, a quick google search has podcasting, known then as audio-blogging starting as early as 2004! Like most pharmacists, I commute to and from work every day. You’re lucky if your commute is less than 30 minutes per round trip! I have done it all, at first I was listening to music, but
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Congratulations! After four years of hard work filled with sweat, and tears, you graduated from pharmacy school! You’re ready to conquer the world but what’s next? Hopefully, you didn’t have a hard time passing your NAPLEX or MPJE exams. Now that you’re officially a pharmacist and started a job, how are you going to deal with your personal finance? I
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What is FIRE? FIRE is a fairly new phenomenon, it stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. The financial independence movement started about 5 to 10 years ago. I only learned of the FIRE community when I read news articles discussing about Mr. Money Mustache and other millennials retiring in their thirties. Recently, Your Financial Pharmacist blog posted a really good
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High-yield savings are a fantastic way to stash your free money wasting away in your checking account. This Sofi Money Review will go over the pros and cons of opening an account with Sofi Money. You typically earn an average of 2.20 % APY or more dependent on which savings account you pick. One of the problems with keeping cash
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I came across an interesting article from Bloomberg discussing the definition of being wealthy across different age groups. The data came from the 2019 Modern Wealth Survey from Charles Schwab. The online survey was based on answers from a cohort of 1,000 respondents, age ranged from 21 to 75 years old. Below are some interesting findings: 59% of Americans live paycheck
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I am sure there are a lot of reviews for both Mint.com and Personal Capital out there. However, as with everything, everyone has a different perspective and this is my honest review of two free and most popular personal finance tracker out there. Mint.com I have been a long-time user of Mint. I don’t quite remember when I started using
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Welcome to the first edition of the Sunday financial reading for pharmacy professionals! These are some of my favorite articles I read this recently. Happy reading! Which Should You Fund First: Your 401k or IRA? Article Intro When saving for retirement there are many different strategies and savings vehicles available. The two most popular are 401 (k) and IRA. He’s
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I recently ran an analysis through my 401 (k) provider to check what is the optimum age for me to retire at. My 401 (k) provider, Empower advised me to retire at the age of 70 to get the full retirement benefit! Well, you might be thinking about how long can I live to enjoy that retirement? As you can
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Let’s learn different strategies for your investment and saving today! Disclaimer, I am not a personal finance expert. If you’re a personal finance newbie just like myself, the SEC has a really good resource called introduction to investment for you to peruse. Because I’m not an expert I have to do a lot of reading on personal finance from various
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In this post, I will describe 5 five ways pharmacists can generate passive income. There are two types of income sources: active and passive income. Pharmacists get their active incomes from working their full-time jobs. You can get creative with this. I have personally known pharmacists who are trying to earn extra income in a variety of different ways. First,
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In this blogpost, I’m continuing my how-to series on WordPress. Specifically on optimizations via WordPress plugins. Interested in starting a blog just like this one? Read more about it here. It’s probably best to go with as few plugins as possible due to the fact that too many plugins can slow down your website. Find out which ones are most
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What is the average pharmacist salary in 2019? In this blog post, I compiled pharmacist salary data from top salary sources. Pharmacists consistently ranked among the most trusted health care professionals and also among the top earners. How much money do pharmacists actually make? I have researched this topic since 2011 and have a deep interest in it. I know
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In this blog post, I’ll describe a few of my strategies for monetizing this blog. Are you interested in creating your own blog? Please read my post about how to create a blog just like this one. Google Adsense I came across a really good article regarding Adsense from google research. Here adsenseninja gave a thorough explanation of adsense. My
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Do you know which pharmacy school is the top pharmacy schools in Texas? Ever since high school I’ve been infatuated with college rankings. In particular, I love browsing through the US News rankings. There are other college rankings out there but US News is probably the most known and widely cited. They have been ranking colleges since 1983! The latest
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This top ten list is not any particular order. The following are blogs that are my favorites when it comes to personal finance, pharmacy or both! Money Under 30 This is one of the highly recommended personal finance blogs online. Frugal Asian Finance The title is self explanatory! Another FIRE participant with very interesting topics. Financially Alert Follow the very
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This post may contain affiliate links, please read our affiliate policy for more details. Starting a blog ranked highly in most recommendations for a side hustle. While it is tough to stand out in a crowded arena if you find a good niche and put forth a genuine effort. I believe you can be successful. I started this blog as
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If you’re a pharmacist who’s interested in personal finance then you’ve probably have heard of a side hustle. A pharmacist side hustle is anything that you’re doing on top of your full-time pharmacist job in order to earn additional income. I think it is a growing trend amongst millennials who wanted to pad their savings for investments or working toward
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In this post, I will document my student loan journey and how I paid off my student loan in 2 years. MyFed Loan accounts Many college graduates are familiar with this loan servicer. My initial loan started with approximately $29,000 subsidized loan after my graduation in 2006. Student loans are usually subdivided into three different types of loans. After my
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