Dessy John
Stories (7)
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An Honest Look at My Money Mistakes En Route to F.I.
I swore I wouldn’t center my writing around personal finance given the amount of garbage already in this crowded space, but my brain goes where my brain goes. In the pursuit of optimizing your life for challenge, growth, rest, joy, wealth, serenity, relationships, and purpose, getting your financial health in order (or at least getting it off life support) is the prerequisite for everything else whether we want to admit it or not.
By Dessy John4 years ago in Trader
The Immigrant Mentality to Hustling
I am a first generation American of Indian descent. My parents moved to the U.S. in the early '80s in hopes of a better life for themselves and a wealth of opportunities for their children. As any child of immigrants probably understands, this is not something that their parents take lightly.
By Dessy John4 years ago in Families
Why I’m Paying Off My House This Year
My wife and I bought our house in 2019 in the Bay Area. While that immediately signifies a massive purchase price, we secured a home we love for under the median price for the region. As we conducted our home search, we knew we would aim to buy far less house than we could afford, with aspirations of early financial freedom.
By Dessy John4 years ago in Trader
The Case for Robo-Advisors
Anyone who has latched onto the Financial Independence (FI) movement has probably discovered that a core tenet of scaling net worth is predicated on minimizing investment fees. The clearest and obvious way of doing so is to simply invest in an index fund that tracks either the total U.S. stock market, the total global stock market, or a large and representative subset, like the S&P 500. Maybe add a total bond market index fund to hedge volatility, particularly as you get closer to withdrawing from your portfolio.
By Dessy John4 years ago in Trader
You Need to Diversify Beyond the S&P 500
Diversification is one of the first principles of portfolio management. Intuitively, we know that putting all of your eggs in one basket carries inherent risk and puts too much of your financial security at the whims of a single company or asset.
By Dessy John4 years ago in Trader
3–6 Months Savings is Not an Emergency Fund
Whether you are early in your wealth-building journey or on the cusp of retirement, the importance of an emergency fund cannot be understated. If you are early in your journey, common advice is to build up this emergency fund prior to paying down debt or investing. This is to ensure one can cover basic expenses in the event of a job loss or to cover any large unexpected expense such as a big medical bill. If you are in the later years of your journey, then an emergency fund is also critical in order to have a safety net to withdraw from in the event of a market crash. This will allow an investor to avoid selling assets at a loss and instead give them time to recoup their market value.
By Dessy John4 years ago in Trader
Trading Income For Time
School, then job, then bigger job, then bigger job, then bigger job, then financial independence and retirement. Maybe sprinkle in a spouse and kids along the way, a mental breakdown or two, but as long as we grow throughout the process then (we’re told) it’s ok. The painfully ironic piece of this equation is that the end game is gaining more ownership of our time, something we started with an abundance of.
By Dessy John4 years ago in Trader
