Category Archives: Financial Independence

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Singleton Foundation for Financial Literacy & Entrepreneurship, the non-profit organization who uses the power of entertainment to engage and inspire viewers to take control of their financial futures, announces today their first Community Commitment pilot program will launch in the city of Tucson, Arizona. This free, first of its kind, six-month program offers every member of the community access to digital information and tools to develop the skills necessary to plan their financial futures with confidence. Together with local industry leaders, the foundation is launching the program with a full learning system to guide users through core financial and entrepreneurship topics and education with fun and entertaining content to encourage community members to view themselves as the CEO of their own lives. The program, which is available in both English and Spanish, is multi-faceted with inspiring and entertaining video content, interactive learning activities, hands-on entrepreneurship workshops and the Venture Valley mobile and PC game rolling out throughout this initiative.

With three major components to the Singleton Foundation's mission, community members can utilize and view the free- to- use content to open the conversation of talking about money, become more financially skilled and inspire entrepreneurism and small business ownership.The components are:

By going through instructional guides which combine inspiring entertainment content with learning activities, community members will get information geared directly to them which will equip them with a better understanding of financial issues and how to go about improving their financial situation.After completing easy-to-use programs, users will test their money smarts and set goals. Additionally, the Singleton Foundation will be hosting various workshops with different groups within the community to provide more in-depth training.

The guides will include modules that focus on the following types of users:

"The Community Commitment program is an important initiative for our foundation" said Shelley Miles, CEO of the Singleton Foundation for Financial Literacy & Entrepreneurship."Financial health and independence can best be achieved through both learning and applying financial skills. We believe that financial literacy and entrepreneurship are two sides of the same coin to effectively be the CEO of their life. We want to give everyone in the community the tools to succeed and we're doing it in a fun and engaging way. "

"We can't do this alone however," Miles adds. "We have an important team of Tucson community leaders who serve on our Steering Committee.They have embraced our program and taken a leadership role in bringing this initiative to life. Imagine believing in your community so much that an entire city is willing to take on the issue of financial competence.This kind of commitment to the wellbeing of the entire community is a very powerful statement. We are so fortunate to work with such an inspiring group. The Tucson Steering Committee members are:

"We are pleased to partner with the Singleton Foundation on this important community initiative" said Tony Penn, President & CEO of United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona. 'Financial Wellness is core to our mission at United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona.Our job is to unite people, ideas, and resources to build a thriving community and this partnership on community commitment is achieving just that."

This six-month pilot program will conclude in April 2022 during Financial Literacy Month.For more information about the Tucson Community Commitment please visit: https://singletonfoundation.org/tucsoncommunitycommitment/

About The Singleton Foundation for Financial Literacy & Entrepreneurship We're dedicated to inspiring entrepreneurship and making financial competence fun, engaging and accessible to all. Our goal is to help give everyone the financial skills they need to better manage their lives and their businesses.

Media ContactJeff Hare /The Singleton Foundation(818) 726-9238[emailprotected]

SOURCE The Singleton Foundation

http://www.singletonfoundation.org

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The Singleton Foundation For Financial Literacy & Entrepreneurship Announces The Tucson Community Commitment - PRNewswire

If you want it, fight for it, he told his union brothers and sisters of their doomed plant. Ill fight with you.

I began to understand why white workers tended to view the closure of the factory and the election of Donald Trump differently from their Black co-workers. Over the course of a decade, John had seen his wages sink from $28 an hour to $25 an hour to $23 an hour. After the plant closed, he struggled to secure a job that paid $17 an hour. His declining earning power hadnt been tempered by social progress, like the election of a Black president. To the contrary, his social standing had waned. Rich white C.E.O.s sent blue-collar jobs to Mexico. But when blue-collar workers complained about it, college-educated people dismissed them as xenophobes and racists.

Working-class white men at the bearing plant may not have wanted to share their jobs with Black people and women. But they had done it. And now that Black people and women worked alongside them on the factory floor, everyones jobs were moving to Mexico. It was more than many white workers could take. One white man at the plant quit and walked away from more than $10,000 in severance pay simply because he couldnt stand watching a Mexican person learn his job. Its depressing to see that you aint got a future, he told me. One of Johns best friends volunteered to train. I dont hate you, but I hate what youre doing, John told him. They never spoke again.

The union reps, nearly all of whom were white, saw training their replacements as a moral sin, akin to crossing a picket line. But many of the Black workers and women did not agree. It had not been so long ago, after all, that the white men had refused to train them. Black workers had not forgotten how the union had treated their fathers and uncles. Many considered the refusal to train the Mexicans racist. The most unapologetic trainers were Black.

The announcement that the factory would close, the election of Donald Trump and the arrival of Mexican replacements at the plant took place within the span of three months, in 2016, unleashing a toxic mix of hope, rage and despair. In the years that have passed since, the workers scattered like brittle seeds, trying to start their lives over again.

Economists predicted that theyd get new jobs even better jobs than theyd had before. Some did. But most of the workers I kept track of ended up earning about $10 an hour less than they had been making before. One started a bedbug extermination company. Another joined the Army. Another sold everything he owned and bought a one-way ticket to the Philippines, determined to make globalization work in his favor, for once. Wally made progress with his barbecue business, until an unforeseeable tragedy struck. John agonized over whether to become a steelworker again or take a job in a hospital that had no union. Shannon stayed jobless a long time, which made her miserable. The old factory continued to appear in her dreams for years.

Of course, for every story like Shannons, theres a story about a woman in India or China or Mexico who has a job now and more financial independence because of a new factory. Globalization and social justice have many sides.

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Opinion | What Killed the Blue-Collar Struggle for Social Justice - The New York Times

It's not about money, it's about having more choices.

The Real Estate Bug

I had read an investing book years ago called Rich Dads Prophesy by Robert Kiyosaki. The only thing I remember about the book was to stay out of the stock market and invest for cash flow. Real estate was going to be the ticket to freedom. A couple years later, I ditched my college career and accepted an oilfield job that required 100 hours a week swinging sledgehammers in sub-zero temperatures. I was finally going to make some money, and I knew exactly what to do with that money I was going to get into real estate.

Jumping Into Real Estate

I first went down the rabbit hole of flipping houses. Who was I fooling? I had no connections, I wasnt a handyman, and I was already growing tired of manual labor. I later switched to vacation rentals because I thought it would be less involved; boy was I wrong. There is nothing inherently wrong with flipping homes or short-term rentals; the problem was, I never stopped to ask myself WHY I was doing any of this. I can tell you first hand; I didnt enjoy any part of working in the business as a landlord. Nor was I good at it.

Burning Out

It took several years before I ran out of steam and burned out. It was at this point that I finally asked myself a very important question that all investors should ask themselves What are my goals and what investment strategy can help me get there?

This was the moment I discovered that my real interest was to be an investor; not a landlord. I was seeking was cash flow and financial independence, so I could live a life on my own terms. I didnt enjoy managing tenants or rehabbing houses, and I didnt have much spare time. My single-family rentals had become a second job, rather than an investment.

The Passive Investing Lifestyle

Around 2015, I was introduced to two gentlemen at a local real estate investing group who had sold their businesses decades ago and became full-time investors; mostly in multifamily syndications. They were passive investors in the sense that they did not actively participate in the business of real estate. They had simply invested in hundreds of real estate projects at this point, where they let the General Partners handle the heavy lifting and day-to-day operations. They were hands-off Limited Partners.

This was a game-changer in my life. Youre telling me I can invest in real estate, collect monthly cash flow, reap the tax advantages and I dont have to manage tenants, show up to closings, manage contractors, or rehab properties? Sign me up!

Between 2015-2016, I decided to sell off all my single-family rentals. Over the next year, I began investing in multifamily private placements AKA syndications one after the next until I transitioned my entire real estate portfolio into a hands-off cash flow machine.

In early 2016, something incredible happened. I sat down to crunch some numbers, and I found out that I could leave my job. I had more cashflow from my multifamily real estate investments than I had lifestyle expenses. Leaving my busy W-2 job single-handedly gave me my life back and allowed for a work-optional lifestyle. I wasnt ready to move into retirement in the traditional sense, so instead, I decided to pursue what truly interest me, real estate investing and educating others with my free time. This lifestyle change also allowed me to spend more time with the people I care about and start a new chapter with my girlfriend, who later became my wife, and will soon be a mother to our firstborn in January 2022.

What About You?

This is a story about building financial independence. The journey is open to you; its simply a decision. You and I have different goals and motivations, but one thing is for sure. It doesnt hurt to add a little passive income to your portfolio. Its not about money, its about having more choices and designing your own lifestyle.

You may not have worked in the oil industry, but I bet youve been overworked from time to time in your career. You may not desire the lifestyle that I have, but I bet spending more time doing what interests you would add value and happiness to your life. Even if you have a desirable lifestyle and career doing what you love, investing in real estate private placements can simply add diversification to an existing stock, bond and mutual fund portfolio and help grow your passive income.

Lets Connect

My mission is to educate and give back my time to others who are looking to create a life on their terms. Years ago, I made a decision to partner with Ashcroft Capital as an investor. Ive invested in more multifamily deals with Ashcroft compared to any other operator in the multifamily sector. There are many reasons I chose to work with Joe Fairless and his team, including their emphasis on capital preservation, a value-add cash flow business model, detailed monthly communication, and a solid track record. If you are an accredited investor and would like to learn more about investing in multifamily apartments with Ashcroft Capital, I would be happy to connect and learn more about you and your goals.

To learn more visit http://www.ashcroftcapital.com/travis

**Disclaimer: The content shared in this article is for informational purposes only. You should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Any reference to an investments past or potential performance is not, and should not be construed as, a recommendation or as a guarantee of any specific outcome or profit. Any ideas or strategies discussed herein should not be undertaken by any individual without prior consultation with a financial professional for the purpose of assessing whether the ideas or strategies that are discussed are suitable to you based on your own personal financial objectives, needs and risk tolerance.

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The Passive Investing Lifestyle - Think Realty

Culver City, CA, Oct. 05, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kristen Maroot-Rippee

Email: kris10maroot@gmail.com

https://liceclinicslosangeles.com

Lice Clinics of America Visalia and Fresno Owners Expand to Culver City

Culver City, CA Two years after opening their first Lice Clinics of America clinic in Fresno, CA in July 2019 and through a pandemic, owners Samson Mai, Phil Moon, and Kristen Maroot-Rippee have opened their third, expanding from their two clinics in the San Joaquin Valley to Culver City and the Los Angeles area.

The trio first got into Lice Clinics America after hearing a podcast hosted by another franchisee of the company. We were inspired by how she was able to work towards financial independence by running a business that makes a difference in the lives of her local community members, said Mai. It seemed perfect to them, as their professional backgrounds involve dealing with the school systems and families in various facets. The opportunity to make such a large impact on those around us in a safe way using non-toxic products is exciting. The Culver city clinic is the third opening for this trio of friends.

In the first six months after opening their Fresno clinic, Mai, Moon, and Maroot-Rippee found that they really enjoyed helping so many families get rid of lice. We have provided relief for customers ranging in age from infancy to a lovely ninety-three-year-old that had brought some lice home from a trip to Ireland to visit family. We visit elementary schools to give presentations to students and staff to educate on the basics as well as treatment options. We hope to have spot at camp fair in the spring. This prompted them to open their second clinic only 5 months later.

The decision to expand to the Los Angeles area came after the trio realized that there was a great need due to clinics that had closed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Were very excited to help a new region of customers, says Maroot-Rippee.

Story continues

Lice Clinics of America Culver City is located at 10200 Venice Boulevard, Suite 204, Culver City, CA 90232. Their website is https://liceclinicslosangeles.com.

About Lice Clinics of America With more than 265 clinics in 20 countries, Lice Clinics of America (www.LiceClinicsOfAmerica.com) is the largest network of professional head lice treatment centers in the world. Its patented heated-air device, AirAll, has effectively performed more than 700,000 head lice treatments. Lice Clinics of America and AirAll (www.airalle.com) are brands owned by Larada Sciences, Inc., which is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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Lice Clinics of America Visalia and Fresno Owners Expand to Culver City - Yahoo Singapore News

Faiza Yousuf is the founder of WomenInTechPK, the biggest tech community for women technologists in Pakistan.

Education is the only way towards a better life, says Faiza Yousuf, founder of WomenInTechPK, the biggest tech community for women technologists in Pakistan.

For women in South Asia, especially, education is their ticket towards self-reliance and financial independence. I think everyone, no matter their gender, race, ethnicity, and abilities, should get equal opportunities for getting an education as well as to be financially independent, says the young Karachi-based changemaker.

Her organisation has been making waves in the local tech industry due to its programmes and activism. A postgraduate from NED University of Engineering and Technology in Karachi, Faiza completed the World Bank-funded programme WomenXPakistan and currently leads the product development wing for software development company Genetech Solutions. Her project portfolio includes programmes with USAID, UNEquals, and Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, among others.

Speaking with quiet, unassuming resolve, Faiza expresses her passion for education, seeing it as a ladder, even a magic wand that solves problems not just the basic ones of livelihoods or for fulfilling basic survival necessities, but also social issues.

Pursuing the path of education has changed my life, and the lives of numerous other people that I know, says Faiza.(She will be speaking at eShes South Asia Union Summit Led by Womenon October 3, 2021.)

Faiza finds that the South Asian social culture or belief system has prevented many women from gravitating towards careers in technology despite having the aptitude, although a change is slowly creeping in to counter this mindset. Women are usually encouraged to become teachers, nurses, doctors, and in most cases, homemakers. These professions are an extension of the roles women stereotypically play in societies and families as caregivers, she says.

Her organisation is trying to change this limited mindset: Getting a career in a field like technology has significant barriers, and one of the barriers that we are trying to break is not investing in girls technical education.

Faizas community-funded coding and business skills boot-camp CodeGirls teaches coding skills to girls and women in Karachi who have never had the opportunity to get technical education and proper mentoring. We have so far placed nearly 150 women in the local tech ecosystem, she says.

For Faiza, her work at WomenInTechPK started quite organically with a Facebook community, four years ago. Since then, it has turned into a nonprofit organisation. We do advocacy, collaboration, mentoring, content creation, and skill-based programmes focused on diversity and inclusion, mainly in the technology ecosystem in Pakistan. We have over 9,000 women members, and the community is a happening place for both existing and aspiring women in tech.

CodeGirls has received immense support from both local and international tech sectors in the form of sponsorships, outreach, and work opportunities. Their other popular programme is CryptoChicks Pakistan, which does blockchain and AI hackathons and runs online education programs for the CryptoChicks HQ in Canada.

Faiza sits on the Pakistan Software House Associations Diversity Committee, and WomenInTechPK plays an important part in the national discourse on diversity and inclusion in tech.

The organisation has also hosted focus groups, roundtables, and produced research and content with the sole purpose of improving gender parity in the tech ecosystem. The tech industry has a better payscale and better facilities than many others, and the industry can definitely use some gender parity, she says.

Her vision of transforming education in Pakistan is practical, clear, and centres around teachers, whom she considers building blocks of the entire education system. A good teacher has the potential to change lives, says Faiza, who often dons the cap of a teacher, trainer, and visiting professor for various local universities.

She believes education should be geared towards creative and analytical thinking as well as towards play and learn methodologies. The inclusion of coding skills would have been an excellent decision. I also believe that students should be taught in a blended way, both online and offline, as well as both in and outside the classroom, she shares.

In a region like South Asia where parents exert tremendous control over their childrens lives especially decisions about education and career, Faiza says theres a lot to learn from the European education system, which can be localised and adopted to the regional context. Focusing on low-hanging fruits such as replacing rote learning with creativity and also creating a culture of reading will bring about an immediate and positive impact, she suggests.

A South Asian Union on the lines of the European Union will benefit the education system in the entire region too. Faiza has a wishlist of some common elements in education that she hopes to see introduced in all South Asian countries: I hope there is increased mobility, especially for education and work so that we see more exchanges and learn from each others best practices. Another thing I wish for is free specialised or university-level education for all, since a large chunk of our population cannot afford private higher education. And I really hope we move from rote-learning to creativity and analytical thinking in the future. We must focus on learning productivity and self-learning too.

The governments, she says, must step in and take responsibility for changing the way people think by encouraging education and technology training for girls. Active investment in women-focused initiatives and running awareness campaigns will not just change lives of individuals, especially women in South Asia, but also catapult our region to a prominent and powerful position in the globe, she says.

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Education is the ticket to self-reliance and financial independence for women in South Asia - Moneycontrol.com

When he was 30, Yuiki Hotaka bid farewell to Japans notoriously long working hours and crowded commutes forever.

He wasnt merely quitting his job at a Mitsubishi group company he had worked for since graduating university. He was retiring after saving around 70 million ($637,000) in financial assets. Based on his calculations, that would allow him to live off stock dividends for the rest of his life and pursue his interests and hobbies: Farming, hiking and enlightening readers of his blog about the alternative lifestyle he practices known as FIRE an acronym that stands for financial independence, retire early.

To me, its more about securing time and freedom rather than money, says Hotaka, who now lives in the countryside in the Kanto region. I didnt want to spend my life tied to the corporate office.

Hotaka is among the pioneers of the nations FIRE movement a U.S.-born concept embraced mainly by millennials that involves minimizing ones expenses to maximize savings while accruing income-generating investments.

Despite the idea being around for a few decades, it has been rapidly gaining attention in Japan over the past year as a means of being liberated from the daily grind perhaps a reflection of the economic uncertainty many young professionals harbor as a result of nearly three decades of chronic deflation and low growth, a sentiment exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

More than a dozen books have been published in Japanese on the phenomenon, including one Hotaka himself has penned. Those who have fired also share their experiences in magazine articles as well as on their blogs and other social media platforms, often amassing hordes of followers interested in learning about the movement.

So how do people achieve FIRE? Proponents of the philosophy often refer to the 25x rule and 4% rule. The former helps estimate the total amount of money one needs to save for retirement, while the latter is the theoretical amount a retiree can withdraw from their portfolio in the first year of retirement and then withdraw the same amount, adjusted for inflation, for at least 30 years without running out of money. The figures are based on how multiplying 4% of something by 25 will get 100% of the original value.

In Japan, the 4% rule is often described as income generated from investments, with popular options including high-yield dividend stocks that arent as affected by short-term stock price volatility. For example, if a persons monthly living expenses came to 300,000, that would total 3.6 million annually. If one can manage to accumulate assets worth 90 million and garner a 4% annual return, they will technically be earning the equivalent of their living expenses without depleting their portfolio.

Hotaka says he invests heavily in high-yield and dividend growth U.S. stocks and managed to collect an average of around 200,000 a month after taxes from returns by the time he left his job in 2019. He says his assets have since topped 100 million, thanks to royalties from his book and income from writing gigs and advertisements on his blog. Hes enjoying a laid-back lifestyle now, helping out local farmers in his spare time for minimum wage.

I do it for the experience, not the money, he says. The rent is also cheaper out in the countryside compared to Tokyo.

Yuiki Hotaka says his assets have topped 100 million since he left his job in 2019, thanks to royalties from his book and income from writing gigs and advertisements on his blog. | COURTESY OF YUIKI HOTAKA

The personal finance strategy, however, is not for the indulgent since its based on the premise that one aggressively builds their nest egg during a relatively short period of time.

Hotaka, for example, says he saved around 80% of his income and significantly cut down on expenses while preparing for FIRE. He adopted a frugal consumption habit, avoiding buying products from convenience stores that are generally more expensive than supermarkets and carrying around a thermos instead of purchasing bottles of water.

For those who want to maintain a more typical standard of living, theres also side FIRE or barista FIRE, for example, which refers in Japan to those who take on side jobs and start small businesses to support themselves while pursuing early retirement. But whatever its called, opting out of the workforce well before retirement age seems like a radical prospect in a nation traditionally known for its lifetime employment system.

Fueling the trend may be the fear of retirement poverty as permanent jobs disappear and wage growth is limited, says Shunsuke Yamazaki, a financial planner who frequently writes about the FIRE movement in Japan.

An oft-cited 2019 panel report by the Financial Services Agency estimated that a couple who will live until 95 years old 30 years after retirement will need at least 20 million more than what their pension benefits will provide as the nation rapidly ages.

While the government effectively withdrew the report and played down this figure, I believe the incident was a wake-up call for the public, and a reminder that each individual needs to be more alert and proactive about securing adequate retirement funds, Yamazaki says.

In the meantime, a set of bills urging businesses to let employees work until 70 took effect in April as the nation seeks to expand the working population to cover rising social security costs in an era of 100-year lifespans.

Its not a very promising landscape from the perspective of young workers looking ahead, Yamazaki says. They must be asking themselves, Do I need to toil away for the rest of my life?

Advocates say that FIRE offers a chance to exit the rat race.

Last fall, Okeydon who uses a pseudonym to protect his privacy left the company he had worked at for 25 years after amassing approximately 100 million in assets.

In a book outlining his experiences, Okeydon says he left the company he had worked at for 25 years after amassing approximately 100 million in assets. | COURTESY OF OKEYDON

The 47-year-old now lives with his parents in the Kansai region, and says he earns on average around 350,000 a month: 100,000 from stock dividends, and the rest from writing assignments, his blog and the royalties from a book he published this year about FIRE, among other income streams.

In my late 30s, a retirement age system was introduced at my firm that would have cut my salary by 20% at the age of 55. In addition, regular working hours were extended, which was effectively a wage cut, he says. These things gradually affected my motivation to work, while I realized that investing in stocks would likely bring in more money than hoping for wage hikes.

Okeydon says he has been buying Japanese stocks since he was 25, and has since invested in a variety of shares, from growth and high-dividend stocks to small-cap and large-cap stocks.

He says he became aware of the FIRE movement when he was 39, and started buying foreign shares on the back of the U.S. stock markets bull run. He now invests in 17 countries and territories around the world, focusing on high-yield and dividend growth stocks in Japan and the United States.

The newfound freedom has allowed him to take care of his sick father and be more attentive to household needs, something that wasnt possible when he was a corporate employee.

I used to work my tail off when I was younger, convinced that a happy old age would be waiting for me if I made it to retirement. But despite giving it my best and being commended for my work, my salary didnt increase. Only my workload did, he says. I realized that I was harboring an illusion. Employees can no longer depend on their companies to take care of them. Perhaps thats whats driving people toward FIRE.

True, wage growth in Japan has been stagnant since the asset price bubble burst in the early 1990s. According to data from the labor ministry, inflation-adjusted real wages fell 1.2% in the whole of 2020, down for a second straight year and marking the fastest pace of decline since 2014 as the pandemic batters the economy.

The infrastructure surrounding asset management, however, has substantially improved over the past several decades, says Yamazaki, the financial planner.

The fees and other hurdles for investing in stocks, for example, were much higher when those in their 70s now were in their 40s and 50s, he says.

The government has also been promoting a shift from savings to investments, introducing private retirement products such as iDeCo, short for individual-type defined contribution pension plan, and a small-lot, tax-free investment program called the installment-type Nippon Individual Savings Account.

In a report titled Japans Asset Management Business 2020/2021, Nomura Research Institute describes how Japanese households have traditionally been wary of shifting their assets out of saving deposits to investment trusts or other investment products.

But that habit is changing, with more and more people starting to invest in risk markets in regular installments, it says. With securities investments public image improving households professionally managed assets will definitely grow over the long term.

The FIRE movement is a U.S.-born concept embraced mainly by millennials that involves minimizing ones expenses to maximize savings while accruing income-generating investments. | GETTY IMAGES

Still, the FIRE movement may not be for everyone. Intense frugality is called for to save at the rate necessary to retire early. Achieving financial independence will also require an income large enough to cover regular expenses while saving, and theres always the possibility of unexpected setbacks health issues, job changes and so on derailing plans.

I understand the appeal of being free from work and financial worries, but doubt that its a lifestyle many can adopt, says Yuki Honda, a professor at the University of Tokyo and an expert on the youth labor market.

Wages arent rising and many younger workers are struggling to make a living. A fair amount of knowledge on financial markets is also imperative for the practice to yield results, she says. Is FIRE the right answer for those dreaming of escaping the vicious cycle of work life? I dont know.

Theres also the fear of a looming stock market crash. Hotaka says his portfolio took a hit when the stock market tumbled last year due to pandemic-induced panic selling, but has recouped his losses by investing primarily in U.S. stocks during the downturn. He has since cashed out a chunk of his assets.

At one point, around 90% of my assets were investments, but Ive cut down on that ratio to prepare myself for the unexpected, he says. And even if my assets became valueless, I think I can live with it. Ive learned a lot by adhering to this lifestyle. Im sure Ill be able to make a living somehow.

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How to retire in Japan decades earlier than you think - The Japan Times

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Congratulations! Youve hit a big financial milestone. Youve saved up $1,000.

Now its time to take the next step in your journey toward financial independence. And that means making your money work as hard for you as you do for it. How? By investing wisely.

Check this out: If you can invest $1,000 every year and thats just $3 a day and earn 15% on it for 30 years, youll end up with more than $500,000! Thats a game-changer.

But how the heck can you earn 15%? No guarantees, but here are some ideas that will allow you to get started for $1,000 or less.

It used to be that investing in commercial real estate, like apartment or office buildings, required lots of money and lots of expertise.

Not anymore.

Today, thanks to an online investing platform called Fundrise, you can invest in commercial real estate for as little as $500.

Fundrise combines state-of-the-art technology, in-house expertise and low fees to put you into institutional-quality real estate, including private projects that arent available on public markets. These are the types of deals previously reserved for only the wealthiest investors.

And the returns? According to Fundrise, the average investor in their projects was up 26% over three years and more than 50% over five years.

You should never pin your hopes on past performance because its never a reliable indication of future results. Nonetheless, thats a nice track record, one that takes almost no effort and comes without the ups and downs of the stock market.

Dont sit on the sidelines. If youre ready to become a real estate investor, get started now.

In the past, figuring out what to do with your money was as simple as deciding whether to put your money in a savings account or the stock market.

Over time, though, investing has gotten a lot more complicated. You can invest in mutual funds, ETFs, cryptocurrencies, precious metals, bonds, real estate investment trusts, stocks or myriad other choices. And you can choose lots of ways to do it, including in a regular IRA, a Roth IRA, a regular or Roth 401(k) or 403(b), 529 college savings plans, health savings accounts and more.

Not sure where to start? Save yourself the headache and enlist the help of a professional; maybe not with your first $1,000, but as your savings start accumulating. In fact, even if you only have $1,000, using some of it to buy a financial plan that can help guide you isnt a bad idea.

The value of working with a financial adviser varies by person, but according to an independent study, people who work with a financial adviser feel more at ease about their finances and could end up with about 15% more money to spend in retirement.

Finding the right financial adviser is easier than you think. With a free matching service called SmartAsset, you can be connected with fiduciary advisers in your area; that means theyre legally required to put your interests ahead of theirs. You can also typically get a free appointment before deciding.

A good investment professional will help you establish goals and put together a plan that makes sense for your personal situation.

If youre ready to be matched with an adviser that can help you make the right decisions, get started now.

You have a lot going on. You have a family to take care of, a house to clean, a job to do and a million other things on your plate to keep track of. Life insurance shouldnt be one of those things.

Life insurance is an important part of any financial plan, but that doesnt mean you have to jump through hoops to get it. With a company called Bestow, you can get a term life insurance policy in minutes for just a few bucks a month.

Bestow is known for its no-hassle approach to insurance. You dont even need a medical exam to get started. Just enter a few key pieces of information about your health and family, select a coverage amount between $50,000 and $1.5 million, and theyll give you a fast and hassle-free quote.

Its free to get your quote online, and it only takes two minutes.

You wish you could find a savings account that paid 5% interest. These days, youd be lucky to find anything close to 1%. Well, now there is something you can do about it.

Worthy is a new way to earn up to 5% interest on your cash while helping small businesses grow. Thats right, thats 5% fixed interest, compounding daily.

Worthy offers bonds that are qualified by the Securities and Exchange Commission and that focus on small businesses with community impacts.

On top of that, there are no fees and penalties, and you have access to your money at any time.

Yields are 5% annually, allowing you to get more from your money than you would with some other types of bonds and certainly beating high-yield savings accounts.

If youre ready to join Worthys community of over 100,000 American households, visit Worthy to learn more and get started.

If youd invested $1,000 into Apple stock when it first went public back in 1980, you know what it would be worth today? About $1.2 million. Thats an annual rate of return of close to 20%.

Obviously, not all stocks are home runs like Apple, but theres no reason to stay on the sidelines while you watch companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon double and triple in value.

The good news is that you no longer have to have a ton of money to get into the stock market. With an investing app called Stash, you can invest in virtually any company with as little as $1. So your $1,000 can easily buy you a diversified portfolio of companies.

Of course, stocks sometimes go down as well as up, so stay informed and dont put so much into the stock market that it stresses you out. Dont get ahead of yourself.

Depending on the stocks you choose, you can even receive regular dividend payouts as a part of quarterly profit-sharing plans just for owning a small portion of the company. Reinvest those dividends and keep your portfolio balance growing.

It only takes a couple of minutes to sign up, and you could be well on your way to reaping the benefits of owning a chunk of a major corporation.

Plus, youll get a $5 welcome bonus after you deposit $5 into your account.

Are you earning as much interest on your savings as you could be? The national average annual percentage yield (APY) among savings accounts is a puny 0.06%. At that rate, a balance of $10,000 earns just $6 a year!

Instead of settling for a minuscule yield on a more traditional savings account, open a rewards checking account with Axos Bank and earn up to 20 times the national average.

When you combine the best services and accounts, including rewards checking, at Axos Bank, you could potentially earn up to 1.0% APY. Best of all? There are no monthly service fees, and there are unlimited ATM fee reimbursements, so you can access your money from anywhere.

Plus, each account is backed by a 100% risk-free return and is FDIC-insured. No more risk, lots more reward.

So, if youre ready to beat the local banks and earn up to 1.0% interest on your insured savings, open an account today.

While you dont have to obsess over the news, it pays to visit expert sources to make sure youre up to date on the latest techniques to make more, spend less and invest wisely.

Solution? Subscribe to the totally free Money Talks Newsletter. More than a million Americans have, and theyve reported saving an average of $991.20 each just from following our news and advice. So maybe next time youll have $2,000 to invest instead of $1,000!

It takes less than five seconds to subscribe and, if you dont like it, less than five seconds to unsubscribe. Sign up for our free newsletter right now, and see what youve been missing.

Disclosure: The information you read here is always objective. However, we sometimes receive compensation when you click links within our stories.

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Chart 2 Percentage of Homeowners Seeking Ways To Earn in Retirement

DENVER (PRWEB) September 29, 2021

A large segment of American homeowners is uncertain about their retirement finances and actively looking for new ways to earn money in retirement, according to a nationwide study released today by Silvernest. The study also found an increased interest in homesharing among older homeowners as a means to generate passive income, gain companionship and age in place. In fact, 88% reported that they'd like to remain in their homes as long as possible as they age.

The study of homeowners ages 55-85 reveals that 49% are worried they dont have enough or know they dont have enough set aside for retirement. Women are particularly uneasy about their retirement readiness, with 53% worried or unsure about their finances, compared to 43% of men. COVID-19 has also been financially detrimental for some, with one in 10 indicating that the pandemic forced them to eat into their retirement savings.

Many Working or Seeking To Work in RetirementA large segment of retirees is still working part time, presumably to maintain a sense of purpose as they age or to make up for retirement savings shortfalls. While 34% of those surveyed are fully retired, 27% report that they are holding down part-time jobs in retirement. Additionally, a sizeable 71% said they are actively seeking ways to earn extra income in retirement. This is surprising, considering that just one-fifth expressed an interest in pursuing an encore career.

Longevity is at an all-time high, which means retirement periods are now upward of 20 or 30 years. Thats not something people anticipated when they were younger, so were seeing more retirees looking at gig work, the sharing economy and other creative ways to boost their income and gain financial independence, said Silvernest President Riley Gibson.

Interest in Homesharing Swells, Driven by Economic Need and CompanionshipOne means to earn extra income and save in retirementhomesharingis seeing heightened interest. The study found that older homeowners are increasingly open to homesharing as a way to generate supplementary income, benefit from the companionship and remain in their homes as long as possible as they age.

Of those surveyed, 10% reported that they have been in a long-term homesharing arrangement in the past five years. However, nearly half (44%) said are open to the idea of homesharing and 26% said they are more likely to consider it now than they were five years ago.

A large percentage also has the ability to leverage their homes as assets through homesharing, with 50% indicating they have extra space in their homes that could be rented out. This correlates with a finder.com analysis of U.S. Census data suggesting there are 33.6 million spare rooms across the country.

Among those who have homeshared, most found the extra income and companionship to be the top benefits, cited by 90% and 55%, respectively. Splitting chores and peace of mind were also called out as important benefits by more than one-third of respondents. Those yet to homeshare ranked income as their top perceived benefit, with help around the house ranking second, companionship third and peace of mind fourth.

The nice thing about the extra income that can be generated through homesharing is that its passive income, so youre earning without having to put much effort into it, plus splitting household bills with someone, said Gibson. That said, our study shows the potential payoffs go far beyond these financial perks. Companionship is also viewed as a major benefit, partly because the number of solo agers is on the rise, but I also believe its because weve all experienced the pain of social isolation in recent months.

Altruism and Age Factor Into Willingness To HomeshareAmong the 44% who would consider homesharing, altruism and affinity play significant roles. More than three-quarters are open to homesharing with nurses, teachers, essential workers and/or Service Year members. And while 80% are willing to rent to a younger housemate, only 33% would consider renting to someone older than themselves, suggesting that ageism still presents some barriers in homesharing situations.

How Homeowners Would Use Homesharing IncomeSilvernest data shows that homeowners can earn an average of $10,000 a year from renting out unused space in their homes. Those surveyed were split in how they would use that regular income. One-quarter would allocate it to general living costs, 16% would use it to pad their retirement savings, 11% would put it toward mortgage payments, 9% would pay bills and 5% would make home modifications. Thirty-two percent noted that they would use it in other ways, potentially indicating a desire to use it for more wants vs. needs.

Among Housing Options, Aging in Place Most Attractive The study also looked at housing options and preferences and found a large majority (79%) of homeowners are looking to remain in their homes as they age. Approximately half are considering downsizing, 36% are considering retirement or age-restricted communities, and 31% are interested in village communities. However, there is also a good deal of uncertainty, with 36% saying theyre still trying to figure out a plan. Living in an assisted living facility or nursing home ranked at the bottom of the list.

Home Modifications Challenge Those Wanting To Age at HomeDespite the strong desire to age at home, about half dont feel prepared to do so. Fourteen percent indicated that major modifications would be needed, and another 29% said theyre either not ready or theyre unsure if theyre ready. On the other hand, one-quarter say they are prepared right now, and 32% only need to make minor modifications.

The full report can be accessed at: https://f.hubspotusercontent00.net/hubfs/2448101/Silvernest%20Study_Aging%20in%20Place%2c%20Retirement%20and%20Homesharing.pdf

The survey was conducted online in June and July 2021 through a third-party survey platform. The 305 participants are homeowners ages 55-85 who are not Silvernest users. Respondents represented a cross-section of incomes, U.S. Census regions and education levels.

About SilvernestSilvernest was created to change how we can live by delivering the many benefits of homesharing (independence, housing choices, financial wellness, powerful social connections) at scale through an all-in-one online homesharing platform. Features include roommate matching via a proprietary compatibility algorithm, in-app messaging and background screens, a lease creator, rent auto-pay, insurance and an online hub of resources and tools. To date, weve helped homeowners and renters recognize over $50 million in rent income and savings by homesharing with a compatible roommate. Visit us at http://www.silvernest.com, read our blog and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

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New Silvernest Study Finds Growing Interest in Homesharing Among Americans Seeking To Earn in Retirement and Age in Place - PR Web

Albert Einstein is widely credited for calling compound interest the most powerful force in the universe, and it's easy to see why. A few big winners can supercharge your portfolio and set you on a path to financial independence. For instance, $100 invested in a stock that doubles becomes $200; but at that point, the stock price only needs to rise 50% to add another $100 to the total sum. In other words, the baseline changes as the stock price rises, meaning you start earning money on your earnings.

However, the magic of compounding doesn't happen overnight. It requires patience and a long-term mindset. Building on that idea, we asked three Motley Fool contributors to pick tech stocks that could grow threefold over the next five years. Keep reading to see why CarParts.com (NASDAQ:PRTS),CrowdStrike Holdings(NASDAQ:CRWD), and Teladoc Health (NYSE:TDOC) made the list.

Image source: Getty Images.

Jeremy Bowman (CarParts.com):E-commerce has been the source of numerous monster stocks. Of the bunch,Amazonis the best known, but companies like MercadoLibre, Shopify, Etsy, andWayfair have all made investors rich as online retail continues to grab share from tradition channels.

That's one reason why investors should take a closer look at CarParts.com. If you're looking for a stock that could triple in the next five years, the pure-play auto parts e-commerce stock could be it. CarParts.com has a market cap worth less than $1 billion currently, but is chasing an addressable market worth $500 billion. As the larger e-commerce companies did before it, CarParts.com is helping the auto parts market shift from brick-and-mortar sales to e-commerce.

The company is targeting long-term revenue growth of 20% to 25% and an adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or EBITDA, margin of 8% to 10%. Recent growth has been strong but demand has outstripped supply. The company is remedying that by expanding a warehouse in Texas, opening one in Florida, and adding another in the Northeast next year. The company now has more than 1 million square feet of warehouse space and growing, and each new expansion helps shorten delivery times and improve inventory and selection, creating a virtuous cycle that brings more customers into its ecosystem.

While the direct tailwinds from the pandemic may be fading, the average age of a car on the road in the U.S. is now 12 years, meaning demand for replacement parts will be elevated for the foreseeable future. The company is also beta testing a mobile mechanic, sending someone to your house to install the parts you ordered from CarParts.com, another sign of its potential as a disruptor.

The stock also has the potential to be a three-bagger because it's still affordable at a price-to-sales ratio of less than 1.5, giving it plenty of room for multiple expansion. If CarParts.com can deliver on its long-term guidance, its stock should be significantly higher in a few years.

Image source: Getty Images.

Eric Volkman (CrowdStrike Holdings): CrowdStrike is hardly the cheapest stock, either on a raw share price level or by valuation. But it's an effective and highly admired operator in a hot sector that will scorch for years to come. So I'm confident it can be a three-bagger no matter how high its current numbers go.

CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity company whose anchor product, the Falcon security platform, is a cloud-based solution. There are a host of advantages to this. An important one is that it makes for relatively quick and painless adoption by clients, who benefit from not having to install and run traditional on-site security solutions.

Another huge plus is that the Falcon platform is modular. This not only makes it easy for clients to add functionalities as their security needs expand, but also provides low-hanging fruit for the company to increase revenue from those additions.

CrowdStrike also relies on the subscription model. This is appealing for investors, as it provides the company with a steady revenue stream that's also durable -- after all, it's unwise to let the payments to your solutions provider lapse, particularly in the business-critical cybersecurity space.

The company has been attracting droves of clients. During the most recent quarter, CrowdStrike added 1,660 net new subscriptions, bringing the total to 13,080 customers. Meanwhile, that recurring subscription revenue investors love comprised nearly all (93.5%) of the $337.7 million total revenue for the period -- which, by the way, represented a mighty 70% increase on a year-over-year basis.

Looking back on the past few years, CrowdStrike has been a paragon of rapid revenue growth; from just under $53 million in 2017, the company shot to $874 million in fiscal 2021.

That's great, but some investors may be concerned by the company's lack of profitability. Yes, CrowdStrike is still well in the red according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), but losses have been narrowing lately. In 2021, the $93 million loss was a great improvement over the $130 million-plus losses during the three preceding years. That's largely because the company's revenue growth is now outpacing that of selling, general, and administrative expenses, an encouraging sign.

Still, the company continues to shovel capital into research and development, keeping it on the cusp of cutting-edge technology in a rapidly changing field. This strategy seems to be working, as Falcon generally gets very high marks from users and other cybersecurity experts. The good reputation the company has built should keep attracting those subscription-paying and module-adding customers.

Image source: Getty Images.

Trevor Jennewine (Teladoc Health): Teladoc is a tech-powered healthcare company. Its virtual-first platform allows patients to engage in remote visits with clinicians, and its product portfolio ranges from general health and wellness to acute and chronic care.

Last year, the pandemic put this company on the map; the share price skyrocketed 138% in 2020. However, the stock has underperformed the broader market this year, and it currently sits 56% below its all-time high. What changed? Growth has slowed, so many investors have labeled Teladoc as a "pandemic stock," but I think that's a mistake.

Teladoc makes healthcare cheaper and more convenient. During 2020, the median response time between a member's request and a telehealth visit was just 10 minutes, which is less time than you might spend in the waiting room during a traditional office visit (not to mention driving there and back). And for general medical appointments, Teladoc's clients save $472per visit compared to alternative solutions, according to Veracity Analytics.

Last December, Teladoc acquired Livongo, a company that specializes in chronic illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, and mental health conditions. This move expanded Teladoc's expertise in chronic care and reinforced its position as the most comprehensive telehealth platform, but it also added new patient data to Teladoc's artificial intelligence models. And over time, as it adds more members and collects more data, Teladoc's AI models should continuously drive better outcomes for all patients on the platform, creating a network effect.

During the most recent quarter, membership growth slowed to just 1%, but that's not surprising after the supercharged growth seen during the pandemic. Despite this, Teladoc still posted strong financial results. Total visits climbed 28% to 3.5 million, and the utilization rate reached 21.5%, up from 16% last year. As a result, revenue skyrocketed 109% to $503 million.

Teladoc is well positioned to maintain that momentum. Management puts the company's market opportunity at a $250 billion, leaving Teladoc with plenty of room to grow its business. More importantly, the value proposition is clear -- telehealth is more convenient and less costly. And given its strong competitive position, Teladoc should see strong demand in the years ahead. That's why this tech stock could triple by 2026.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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3 Tech Stocks That Could Triple in 5 Years - The Motley Fool

Alan Steel, investment advisor known for his straight-talking about the financial industry

Died: September 15, 2021

Alan Steel, who has died aged 74, was an investment advisor known for his straight-talking about the financial industry. He was the first person in the industry to expose the Equitable Life scandal and was also highly critical of any products he considered poor value for money, including endowment mortgages and with-profits bonds.

For most of his career, he ran his own company Alan Steel Asset Management, which he set up in his hometown of Linlithgow in 1975. Three times voted the best investment IFA in UK-wide industry polling, the firm today employs 41 staff managing more than 1.5 billion of client assets.

Born in Boness, West Lothian, to Alan Steel, a bricklayer, and Laura, a bookkeeper in a solicitors office, the family moved to Linlithgow when Alan was six. He attended primary school there followed by Linlithgow Academy.

After leaving school, he studied geography at Edinburgh University before training as an actuary with Scottish Widows but it was not for him. In his own words he discovered that he had a personality. And so he launched his asset management business at a time when practically no one else did.

The UK stock market at the time had reached an all-time low that it has never seen since and it was a period when new investors were very few and far between. Undaunted, he moved into an office space given to him by his old Linlithgow Academy school friend and former Hearts and Scotland footballer, Donald Ford. Donald had an accountancy practice in Linlithgow High Street at the time.

Alan set about building a personal bank of industry and investment technical knowledge by immersing himself in business books to give himself a competitive edge. This thirst for knowledge never left him and inspired many of the articles that he wrote regularly for the financial press. This increased knowledge, allied to his original actuarial training, ensured that he better understood and identified the flaws in the technicalities behind some of the financial scandals of the 80s and 90s long before they reached the attention of the media.

Alan was also driven to expose these scandals to a much wider audience, one which was way beyond his own customer base. He was the first person in the industry to expose the huge Equitable Life scandal and the first to shout down the poor value represented by endowment mortgages.

He went on to expose the smoke and mirrors that would eventually lead to the poor performance of one of the industrys then bestselling investment products, the with-profits bond. And his affinity for maths enabled him to publicly challenge the workings of the split capital investment trust, workings that subsequently proved to be totally flawed

The financial scandals now recognised as amongst the biggest of all time. It is therefore to Alans enormous credit that he challenged them all in public before anyone else.

Alans media crusades often created dangerous enemies for him amongst the big financial institutions but despite threatened court action against him Alans constant pursuit of customer protection remained undaunted.

He became a regular commentator in all the UK financial press and broadcast media where he always put his points across in a language all readers, viewers and listeners could understand.

Those who were privileged to receive copies of his regular Letter from Linlithgow each month would laugh out loud at his writing, especially when he often referenced his Grannie McKays sayings to make an important point.

He was very much in demand as an after-dinner speaker and proudly claimed to be the only individual ever to give the main speech in the same year at the two significant historical events that were local and always very dear to him, the Linlithgow Marches and the Boness Fair.

When asked what his life was like outside financial services, he would simply say family, music, my moothie , Ibiza , red wine and Oliphants pies. Oliphants was his local Linlithgow baker.

His longstanding friend and fellow Linlithgow financial services stalwart John Allison said of Alan that he was successful and innovative in business but still humble. He was kind, loyal, generous, honest and a thoroughly decent man, said John.

Alan always remained totally true to his working-class upbringing. But, unknown to most, he was also a significant financial benefactor and quietly, behind the scenes, he gave great financial support to many local institutions and events.

Steve Forbes, who has been managing director of ASAM since 2005, said he and his colleagues were always impressed by his vast technical knowledge, the camaraderie of his staff and, his sense of humour.

Together we wanted to help him try to make his dream of retirement financial independence for Alan Steel Asset Management clients come true, said Steve, He was a one off and a genius, of that there is certainly no doubt, but he was also a great visionary. Several years ago, he deliberately stood back from the day to day running of the business and assumed the role of company chairman. He couldnt keep away from the office, of course, and each visit was always a breath of fresh air.

His sudden passing has certainly hit us all very hard, but we take great comfort from the fact that his corporate vision and DNA are forever installed in all of us here in Linlithgow. Upholding these ideals now and well into the future will be our lasting tribute to a truly unique individual.

Alan Steel is survived by his wife Fran, son Malcolm and daughter Catherine together with son in law Dylan and daughter in law Helen and his five grandchildren, Hannah, Cameron, Jackson, Frankton and Daisy.

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Obituary - Alan Steel, investment advisor known for his straight-talking about the financial industry - HeraldScotland