Every week I find a few great articles I feel are especially valuable. Following are this week’s best. I hope you find them as useful as I did.
This week’s favorites include what does success look like for you, ways to connect with your family, how to bribe your kids to do what you want, should you ever rebalance your portfolio after you retire, and creating a safety net for your life.
Happy reading!
We all have a different definition of success. Have you ever really nailed down what your definition is? For example, if you define success as earning $500k per year, but you are miserable doing it, are you a success? One Frugal Girl answers the question What Does Success Look Like and How Does it Feel? If you can clearly define your idea of what success is and what it is not, you will have a much easier time finding it.
Many people tell me they want to do “X” for their family. They then do “X”, but it doesn’t involve their family or increase the time spent with them. I think now is the time you should start making better connections with your family. You don’t need to wait until you retire, or get your side gig running, or cut back at work…… Marriage Kids and Money shares with us Twenty-Nine Fun Ways/Activities to Stay Connected to Your Family. How do you stay connected? I especially like to do #13 on the list and do it several times a week.
Sometimes it seems like a losing battle to get your kids to do what you want them to do. But when we remember the old adage “What’s in it for me?” and think about it from your child’s point of view, we can get the job done. We set up a rewards system with our kids as laid out in the book Positive Parenting with a Plan that worked like a charm. Budgets are Sexy shares some examples of how he rewarded (bribed) his kids to behave in his article The Power of Rewards. What method do you use?
For those who have a set ratio of stocks to bonds in their portfolio, the notion of how often to rebalance is frequently debated. During the accumulation phase of your investment life, regularly rebalancing makes sense as you are always buying stocks and bonds when they are down to add to your portfolio. But does it still make sense after you switch to the spending phase of your retirement plan? I haven’t put any new money into my retirement plan for years, as now I am in the position to take money out. Do I need to keep rebalancing? FI Physician tackles this question with Should You Rebalance Your Portfolio in Retirement? The answer might surprise you.
It is much easier to do something you are afraid of if you are doing it over a safety net. Like knowing you have disability and health insurance when you take a ride on your motorcycle. Physician on FIRE shares with us one of Passive Income MD’s articles on Creating a Safety Net for Your Life. Do you have all your nets in place?
I hope you enjoy these articles as much as I did. I look forward to updating you again next week with a few more articles I find especially interesting. If you read an especially good article, send me the link so I can share it with others.
