What up, what up!!

Stumbled across my man Rob Wilson’s Insta feed this morning, and now want to share ALL HIS VIDEOS with you here!! They’re so good!!

But I’ll refrain from blowing up your inbox, and instead just share my two favorites with you today ;) But be sure to check out his feed afterwards as it’s legit!!

If he sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve featured him here on the blog before, as well as on my old podcast – The M.O.N.E.Y. Show – remember that one?* Here are the links:

• One-on-One with “Hip Hop’s Financial Advisor” (blog post)
• Hip-Hop’s Financial Advisor Spills Details on Managing Celebrity Money (podcast)

Now take it away, Rob!! Thanks for letting me re-share these here 👊👊

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5 Things I’d Never Do As a Financial Advisor

[Click to watch]

Here’s the transcript, along with my thoughts:

#1. I would never leave my 401(k) at my old job once I left and got a position at a new company

I don’t want my hard earned money sitting in some account that I’m not going to pay attention to, that’s also limited by the short menu of mutual funds that I can invest in. In that situation, I would always roll that account over into an IRA where I had much more control over the account, and the entire investing universe of individual stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, and options were all available to me and right at my fingertips.

[J$: Yes yes yes!! Not only does it give more control over everything, but it also helps with *keeping track* of it all too! What’s easier/more fun to do: monitoring 3 accounts with 401(k) funds, or just 1? It might be a bit annoying to do (paperwork and all), but it’s def. worth the one-time hassle. (And if you prefer to stay with 401(k)s over IRAs, you can still roll it over into your current 401(k) if it’s better…)]

#2. I would never invest in penny stocks

Being into penny stocks isn’t even investing, it’s gambling. And if you’re going to do that I’d much rather you buy a plane ticket, go to Vegas, have a nice dinner, and also go see a nice show because you’d have much more fun doing that than by losing all the money that you’re bound to lose by investing in penny socks.

[J$: Hahaha… agreed. Some people are good at it and have managed to come away on top, but for the majority of us I wouldn’t even TRY going down that path… So many other ways to win big, with much less risk!]

#3. I would never give a potential employer my salary history or my salary requirement

Look, what I made in the past has absolutely no bearing on what a potential employer should offer me today. And quite frankly, asking that question is why women and minorities in particular get stuck in this vicious cycle of wage discrimination. Now, the good news is that asking that question has been banned in 21 states, but just in case you live in a state where they can still ask that question, don’t answer it.

[J$: Didn’t know about any of this!! So helpful!!]

#4. I would never go through life and not have an estate plan

Look, I’ve seen families absolutely ripped apart because there was no directive on how they wanted the estate to be divvied up. I’ve also seen some ugly custody battles when something unfortunately happened to both parents, and they didn’t leave proper instructions as to who they wanted to care for their children if something happened to them. And of course, we’ve all seen the many Go Fund Me campaigns that occur when people don’t have adequate life insurance. So look, if you care for your family as much as you say you do, then getting your affairs in order is of utmost importance. And that means you have to have an estate plan.

[J$: I agree of course, having recently gotten our own wills and trust stuff set up, however I wouldn’t give yourself too much grief if it’s still on your list and you haven’t gotten to it yet. Make sure you do eventually, but if you still don’t have your career/savings/investments down (and/or don’t even have any assets or kids to begin with) you’re probably safe to wait until you’re more solid. We don’t live in perfect worlds unfortunately, so we gotta cut ourselves some slack :)]

#5. I would never not have multiple streams of income

You might feel like you have the best job in the world, but anytime someone else is signing your check, they can decide to stop signing it tomorrow. And even if you’re a business owner, you still want to have multiple streams because anytime you only have one source of income, whether that’s a salary from a job or your business income, you never know what can happen to it. During the pandemic, millions of businesses were shut down, and also lots of property owners couldn’t collect rent during the eviction moratorium. But at the same time that all this was happening, the stock market was hitting new all time highs. So for those folks that had an investment portfolio, they were able to use those gains to help them get to the other side.

[J$: Yup yup, again in a perfect world you’d have cash flying in from all over, but if you’re only able to manage just *one* right now, that’s okay too… Just keep working and doing your best and eventually you’ll get there!! And some *have* managed to come out just fine too btw by only focusing on one income – some even say it’s more powerful doing that than not giving it your all and tacking on side hustles on the side! So just keep doing your best and you’ll find that sweet spot. (A way to cheat in this too is to just *invest* your money as Rob points out which requires no consistent effort on your behalf – that’s mainly what I do now :) So if you are “just” a one-jobber you can at least take advantage of that and get the win!)]

So yeah – solid tips overall!

Here’s the next vid I liked, that all you stock pickers might find helpful… I didn’t know about any of these, perhaps because I’m an Index Snob?! ;)

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[Watch video here]

5 Secret Websites That Will Help You Become a Better Investor

1. Whale Wisdom — allows you to see exactly what famous investors like Warren Buffett or Ray Dalio are putting their money in inside of their real life portfolios.
2. Smart Insider — allows you to see exactly what investments members of congress are buying and selling, so you too can learn how to become a great investor by totally not using tax-payer funded insider information.
3. Guru Focus – allows you to see when corporate insiders like founders, executives, and board members use their own money to buy or sell their company stock. Putting their money where their mouth is, so to speak.
4. Bar Chart – gives you access to tons of free investment tables, charts, and research so that you’ll always know the current pulse of the market.
5. Toggle.ai – leverages the power of algorithms and artificial intelligence to help you identify potentially awesome investment opportunities.

Great great stuff all around… Thanks again Rob!

If you’d like to see more, you can check out his Instagram feed here: @RobWilsonTV, or his recent book here: Secure The Bag.

Hope you learned something new! Do you follow any of those tips or sites above??

*The M.O.N.E.Y. Show is now known as the “Afford Anything” show, with Paula Pant. We co-hosted it back in 2016 and then I dipped out and she took the reigns over and has been KILLING it ever since… If you’d like to check out all the shows we did together – about 30 of them – you can find them here: budgetsaresexy.com/podcasts