Fawcett’s Favorites 8-10-20

Each week I run into a few articles that I feel are especially valuable. Every Monday I would like to share some of the best with you, my readers. I hope you find them helpful.

This week’s favorites include how owning individual stocks can destroy your portfolio, how to overcome financial mistakes, making a financial plan during a pandemic, burnout is not due to a lack of resilience, and how I got a $145,000 interest free loan from the IRS.

Happy reading!

My investing strategy is to buy and hold mutual funds and real estate. I once dabbled in buying individual stocks. The results were not pretty and you can read about it here. But having a few stocks to play with can seriously hurt your portfolio. Millennial Revolution shows us with a great example of How Owning Individual Stocks Can Destroy Your Portfolio. I have done almost exactly what he talked about. Kept buying more of a “good” stock when the price dipped. Today I still own the stock and it is worth nothing but the company is still in business. Buying individual stocks is just playing craps with your future, and that is not investing. Stick to mutual funds. 

Everyone makes mistakes, like when I bought the individual stock I mentioned with the last article. The White Coat Investor has also made some mistakes (although I think he made a mistake in listing one of his mistakes that was not actually a mistake, but I could be mistaken) and they did not sink his finances. He lists a few of his mistakes and what to do about them in his article How to Overcome Financial Mistakes. Have you ever made a big financial mistake? If so I would love for you to contact me so we can share the story and help others avoid that mistake. 

Planning for the future in uncertain times is difficult. MSN Money has put forth a helpful guide on How to Make a Financial Plan When the Pandemic Has Made Planning Seem Impossible. One of the key things to remember is not trying to predict the near future. In the long run, I believe you can expect things to continue to increase in value. But no one knows what will happen in the short term. Keeping your thinking long term as you plan will help. If you find yourself trying to plan your way out of a personal financial disaster, like job loss, get a copy of my newest book, The Doctors Guide to Navigating a Financial Crisis and get yourself back on the right path to success. 

Burnout, despite all the articles published about it, is still a big problem in medicine. Learning to be more resilient is not the answer.  A recent AMA article explains that Burnout Isn’t Due to Resiliency deficit. It’s Still a System Issue. If you are burned out and considering leaving medicine, don’t make a move before you read The Doctors Guide to Smart Career Alternatives and Retirement. You do not want to make an irrevocable move without being sure of your options. 

We all like free money. I never pass that up. XRAYVSN likes it also and he came up with a way to pick up some free money and tells us all about it in Gaming the Tax Code: My $145k Interest Free Loan. I have used this technique myself when I knew I had a windfall for the year. This is also a great tip for those of us with a variable income. It is hard to be sure you paid the right amount of taxes when you don’t know what you will earn. So why not pay the minimum amount that will avoid penalties? Don’t miss out on this opportunity.

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.