Late Bloomer Wealth

Late Starters

RE-Introducing myself to what I do, and WHY?

Sorry if I am projecting an unabashed self-centered blog post, but it is important to review who I am and what I stand for in writing this personal finance blog from consumer POV (that is, I am not nor will I ever be a professional financial adviser). You deserve to know! Being a non-professional in the financial industry provides a unique point of view that is not accessible from profit-motive financial blogs or financial advisers (and there are thousands of blogs and books and many of them are good). As you can see, I have no ads on my blog and I give away my two books.* My books have received great reader reviews on Amazon. Check them out, but don’t buy them as you can get them free here on my blog. Just click on the books on the right.

Therese’s Story

The next financial coming of age story has a frequent theme. Many people have money in different financial institutions, different banks, different mutual fund companies, different asset classes, sectors, or individual company stocks. Therese, my guest author, had little idea what, where and who was minding her money! Her money was so convoluted that a Rubik’s Cube was easier to solve. Soooooo, there is plenty of room for simplicity. Discover how Therese’s portfolio evolved from a complex and incoherent mess to a simple Vanguard portfolio after one visit with a fee-only financial adviser from Garrett Planning Network.

Investing Basics, Final Part 4

Part 4: Putting It All Together In Part I we discussed what to ignore in the enormous and complex financial industry and what to focus on–stocks and bonds. The proverbial “needle” in the “needle in the haystack” is found easily. Knowledge of ignoring the financial world ‘s “haystack” is the trick to finding the needle. …

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A Case For the Roth 457(b) at the Los Angeles Unified School District

  The guest author is a Los Angeles Unified S.D.’s (LAUSD) teacher at Hamilton HS. For the past few weeks, Larry and I have been emailing each other about making the Roth 457(b) a reality for all LAUSD’s employees. Our Retirement Investment Advisory Committee voted to approve the Roth option a year ago, but LAUSD …

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Los Angeles Unified School District 457(b) Plan Design Award!

During the summer of 2014, the Los Angeles Unified School District won a Plan Design award for its low-cost, broadly diversified offerings of the 457(b) plan. This table shows the investment choices and the total costs (table updated January 2017).   To discover and learn more about this plan, watch this 10-minute video interview. Sandy …

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Los Angeles Unified/Teachers Union Investment Planning Workshop November 15

Another great 403b/457b workshop is scheduled for Saturday, November 15 at United Teachers Los Angeles Headquarters. It’s another all day event with several presenters including Dan and I with light breakfast and FREE LUNCH! Dan and I will show and discuss what we did to plan for our retirement as teachers. We will also discuss …

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Retired teacher worries about running out of money & other tidbits

A former teacher worries about running out of money in retirement. Don’t we all? Look for this article in the Business Section of the LA Times this Sunday, September 28: Click here. Other tidbits in the investment world Some California Teachers wonder about Pension2 changes: If you are investing in Pension2, you have gotten a …

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Money Roundup: Portfolio Evaluation, CA couple saved 1.5M under 40 w/ 2 kids! & other tid bits.

Portfolio Evaluation Anybody? Listen to my friend Ron DeLegge of the Index Investing Show evaluate a listener’s portfolio. Ron just did his weekly Portfolio Report Card on a $95,0000 retirement portfolio for Charles – a farmer, in Sweetwater, OK.  If you want your portfolio evaluated, send your request to Ron and he will do it …

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John Bogle Says….

The future of the financial system will be smaller, leaner, low-cost, and less complex (thank goodness!).  Currently, the vast majority of retirement plans (403b, 401k, 457b*) are big, fat, high-cost and way too complex. Retirement planning should be about as difficult to discover and learn as our first day on the job. For teachers it …

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Free ebook, Calculators and another reference to connect with fee-only financial advisers

Stock Market Reaching New Highs! Isn’t the stock market going crazy! Our portfolio has made up about a 30% of the cost of purchasing our new Tesla electric car since we bought it two months ago. That’s how wealth building works with investments that grow with the economy (annuities don’t). If the market continues to …

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