Category Archives: Financial Independence

ATLANTA, July 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --SFA Partners, a family of companies focused exclusively on empowering independent financial advisor businesses, today announced the recruitment of four wealth management firms: Kolinsky Wealth Management, Lehner Carroll Shope Capital Management, OakPoint Investment Partners and Life Income. Together, the offices have over $585 million in client assets more than $200 million of which has been added to platforms under the SFA Partners brand.

Clive Slovin, President and Chief Executive Officer of SFA Partners, said, "I am overjoyed to welcome these great teams to the SFA Partners family. They are prime examples of how we are ramping up long-term growth in 2020, even as the ongoing pandemic poses unprecedented challenges for the industry. As entrepreneurs and independent business owners, these teams have no shortage of choices in deciding where to affiliate, so their faith in us is a testament to our broad platform of investment solutions, unwavering commitment to providing excellent service and history of empowering independence."

SFA Partners encompasses The Strategic Financial Alliance (SFA), a leading independent broker-dealer and corporate RIA; Strategic Blueprint, an independent RIA geared to serving fee-based advisors; and SFA Insurance Services.

More background on the new teams:

Jamie Mackay, SFA Partners Vice President of Business Development, said, "The fact that these teams have transitioned to the SFA Partners family is proof not only of our ability to grow despite the challenges of the current environment but also of our adaptability. Whether it's a hybrid seeking to scale up their advisory business with better technology, a practice wanting to focus solely on their advisory business through our independent RIA, or someone with their own RIA who needs a capable broker-dealer partner, these additions prove that we are well positioned to serve a variety of business models."

David Pittman, Strategic Blueprint Executive Vice President, added, "In today's rapidly changing environment, advisors are increasingly looking for a firm that can quickly help them adjust to the new realities of doing business. Strategic Blueprint is honored to welcome these new teams to the SFA Partners family, and we look forward to doing everything possible to support their continued success, including giving them the added freedom and flexibility to manage portfolios, share information and run their businesses in the most client-friendly manner possible."

About SFA PartnersSFA Partners is a master brand encompassing independent advisor-focused entities wholly owned by SFA Holdings, Inc., including The Strategic Financial Alliance, Inc. (SFA), Strategic Blueprint LLC, and SFA Insurance Services, Inc. SFA is a privately owned independent broker-dealer and Registered Investment Adviser, which as of June 30, 2020 serves approximately 150 independent financial advisors across the country, collectively supporting approximately $5 billion in advisory and brokerage assets. Strategic Blueprint provides independent advisors the advantages of having their own RIA but none of the hassles through a range of services, including turnkey compliance, supervisory and back-office support; expert due diligence; an integrated technology stack; and a broad universe of asset management services. SFA Insurance Services empowers holistic financial planning by helping advisors match clients with insurance solutions that fit their needs.

Media Contacts:

Stephanie SchieleSFA Vice President of Marketing [emailprotected]678.954.4067

SOURCE SFA Partners

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SFA Partners Adds Four Wealth Management Firms And More Than $200 Million In Combined Client Assets To Platform - PRNewswire

PHOENIX and ATLANTA, July 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Advisor Group, the nation's largest network of independent wealth management firms, and network member firm Triad Advisors today announced the successful recruitment of Professional Planning & Wealth, LLC ("PP&W"). PP&W has affiliated with Triad Hybrid Solutions, its corporate registered investment adviser, as well as with Triad's broker-dealer platform. The announcement reinforces Triad's longstanding position as the leading destination for independent hybrid advisor businesses, while underscoring the enhanced value it offers to financial professionals through the scale and resources of its parent company, Advisor Group.

In addition to Triad Advisors, Advisor Group also includes FSC Securities Corporation, KMS Financial Services, Royal Alliance Associates, SagePoint Financial, Securities America, Securities Service Network, and Woodbury Financial.

Based in Greenville, S.C., PP&W is an independent practice that includes two financial professionals and oversees $130 million in total client assets. It offers comprehensive financial planning and wealth management services, along with custom retirement plan programs for business clients. The practice primarily serves working professionals and business owners in the southeastern United States. With 25 and 11 years' experience, respectively, in the wealth management space, Managing Partners Chris Beard and Jesse Hansford started PP&W recently after working side-by-side at another practice in their area.

Triad CEO and President Jeff Rosenthal said, "From our first meetings with Chris and Jesse, we could tell that their focus on serving their clients with integrity while ethically and diligently growing their business would fit right in with our culture at Triad. When we bring new financial professionals on board our platforms, we are looking for people who are willing to roll up their sleeves for the long haul to achieve their goals. Chris and Jesse fit this description, and we are thrilled at the chance to collaborate with them and work towards our mutual success."

Mr. Beard said, "Triad is the gold standard in the industry when it comes to helping practices like ours to thrive, so when it came time for us to make a strategic move, the firm was the logical choice. We pride ourselves on doing our jobs with honesty and transparency and working tirelessly to further our clients' best interests through the provision of candid, unbiased financial guidance. To reach our fullest potential, we knew we needed the support of a great partner, and we found that in Triad and their excellent team. We look forward to building a fruitful relationship for years to come."

Jamie Price, CEO and President of Advisor Group, said, "On behalf of the entire Advisor Group network, we welcome PP&W to the family and congratulate Triad on the recruitment of two financial professionals of Messrs. Beard and Hansford's caliber. Our goal is to provide each of the more than 11,000 financial professionals affiliated with our wealth management firms with the services, platforms and technology they need to grow their businesses. Our financial professionals bring the drive, dedication and commitment to client service, and together we forge ahead to new levels of success. As always, we are in our financial professionals' corner and stand ready to support them in their ongoing growth."

About Triad AdvisorsTriad Advisors is part of Advisor Group, one of the nation's largest networks of independent financial professionals. Headquartered in Atlanta, Triad is a national broker-dealer as well as a multi-custodial registered investment adviser firm that was an early pioneer and continued leader in the hybrid registered investment adviser marketplace. The company has more than 600 financial providers on its platform and provides a comprehensive set of products, trading and technology systems, as well as customized wealth management strategies. For more information, please visit http://www.triad-advisors.com.

About Advisor GroupAdvisor Group, Inc. is the nation's largest network of independent wealth management firms, serving approximately 11,300 financial professionals and overseeing over $450 billion in client assets. The firm is mission-driven to support the strategic role that financial professionals can play in the lives of their clients. Cultivating a spirit of entrepreneurship and independence, Advisor Group champions the enduring value of financial professionals and is committed to being in their corner every step of the way. For more information visit https://www.advisorgroup.com.

Securities and investment advisory services are offered through Advisor Group, Inc. subsidiaries, FSC Securities Corporation, KMS Financial Services, Inc., Royal Alliance Associates, Inc., SagePoint Financial, Inc., Triad Advisors, LLC, and Woodbury Financial Services, Inc., broker-dealers, registered investment advisers, and members of FINRA and SIPC. Securities services are offered through Investacorp, Inc., Securities America, Inc., and Securities Service Network, broker-dealers and members of FINRA and SIPC. Advisory services are offered through Arbor Point Advisors, LLC, Investacorp Advisory Services, Inc., Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management, Inc., Securities America Advisor, Inc., SSN Advisory, Inc., and Triad Hybrid Solutions, LLC, registered investment advisers. Advisor Group, Inc. is a holding company. Advisor Group, Inc. is separately owned and other entities and/or marketing names, products or services referenced here are independent of Advisor Group, Inc. 20 E. Thomas Rd., Ste. 2000, Phoenix, AZ, 85012. 866.481.0379.

Media InquiriesJoseph Kuo / Chris ClemensHaven Tower Group424 317 4851 or 424 317 4854[emailprotected]or [emailprotected]

SOURCE Advisor Group; Triad Advisors

http://www.advisorgroup.com

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Advisor Group And Triad Advisors Announce Recruitment Of Professional Planning & Wealth, A Hybrid Advisory Practice With $130 Million In Client...

A big part of Pettigrews mission in championing female-minority entrepreneurs is through helping them create secondary sources of income to feel more optimistic in their financial independence, a stable living, and breaking free of the prevailing wage gap.

The system thats just been unfair has no power over you anymore and cant intimidate you the same way because you had something going on that was making money for you, she said. That mindset of thinking about how differently you want to walk, that energetic point of view requires people to feel safe and confident in taking care of themselves.

Even funding opportunities puts a developing business at a standstill. The average loan amount for women-owned businesses was 31 percent less than the amount generated among their male counterparts ($70,239) in 2018 according to Biz2Credit, an online business credit provider that studied 30,000 companies in more than 20 industries.

Pettigrew noted that the lending gap is more pronounced among Black and Brown women and recalls the experiences several women in the National Association of Women Business Owners shared about getting denied from their institutions.

Most people dont have money theyre sitting on to start businesses. They may be really passionate about an idea or about a concept, but quickly the business can get away from them, she said. Women just need, and brown women especially, a fair opportunity at access to the cash. They need assistance in applying for it. So there should be more vehicles for helping women get access."

Like the wage gap, access to finance for women- and minority-owned businesses still has a long way to go in order to level the playing field among entrepreneurs. Reasons such as no bankroll, lack of collateral, or a complex application process intervenes in the path towards business growth and development. The U.S. Senate kicked a breakthrough in 2019 by passing a bipartisan legislation aimed at improving the underfunding gap by increasing access.

Through all the challenges minority-female entrepreneurs endure in their careers, Pettigrews concept for Beyond Blind Spots allows women to recognize the value they have in society and support each other to achieve the freedom and flexibility they want.

I do believe that every person is born worthy, youre born worthy and deserving of your chance, your opportunity, your paths, she said. Which circles me right back to, we have to do this ourselves. Women have to support other women.

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Minority Consultant Shares Thoughts on Dynamics in Entrepreneurism - The Real Chi

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The Financial Independence Retire Early movement, or FIRE, is a group of people trying to gain financial independence by amassing enough wealth and cutting their expenses so that they can retire extremely early. Many FIRE proponents are looking to retire in their 30s or 40s.

So how do people in the FIRE movement achieve their goal, and what are the drawbacks?

The FIRE movement centers on taking control of your finances, and proponents focus less on increasing their earnings than on spending less. FIRE participants focus on two areas, which are really two sides of the same coin:

By saving and investing their money, participants grow an amount of money that can generate enough income to sustain their lifestyles. They use detailed spreadsheets and financial plans to model out how theyll be able to meet their needs based on their income and the rate of return they can expect from their savings and investments in stocks or stock funds.

To meet their goals, FIRE participants must take on extra risk by investing in stocks, and that means understanding how the stock market works and having a brokerage account. They wont be able to rely on the low returns and absolute safety of a bank account to amass their fortune.

And by spending less, they reduce the level of savings they need in order to retire early. While some FIRE critics say that FIRE participants live a too-frugal lifestyle to reach their goal, many proponents say that theyre not making extraordinary sacrifices. In fact, they say by spending on what they really love that they actually derive more enjoyment from those things. Plus, they enjoy moving toward independence, when they can do what they truly love.

But however they approach it, FIRE participants see the lifestyle as a way to spend their time doing what they really want to do rather than what society tells them they should want.

Because of their desire to retire early, many participants wont be able to take full advantage of employer-sponsored retirement plans such as a 401(k). They may or may not be able to take advantage of plans such as an IRA, depending on whether they earn income in retirement. Instead, theyll need to save in taxable accounts or in accounts such as a Roth IRA, both of which offer access to cash (at least at some level with the IRA) without any penalties.

Financial independence is not something that usually drops in your lap, and the FIRE movement works hard to achieve its dream, thinking years out instead of whether they should buy that new car this year. The movement is also really supportive of members who have started the journey, and members provide spreadsheets and other tools to help each other.

This social solidarity helps FIRE participants realize that there is a community that values what theyre trying to achieve, making it that much easier to do.

While these savers are all classified in the FIRE movement, there are many different subsets of the movement. Theyre all striving for the ultimate goal, but participants have different objectives and approaches, based on what they see as valuable and the sacrifices theyre able to make.

But they can be divided into some key groups based on their approach:

And FIRE participants can also be divided into how they want to spend their independent lifestyle:

In both cases, these new retirees now with financial independence can do what they really want without worrying about where their money comes from. Not only do they have their emergency funds stocked with cash, they know where next years income is coming from, too.

Criticisms of the FIRE movement generally fall into one of two key categories:

Some early retirees, for example, may assume that they could generate the kind of returns that investors saw in stocks in 2019, when the S&P 500 rose a whopping 29 percent. Thats well above the markets long-term average of about 10 percent annually. Or perhaps some may rely on their ability to pick stocks and have had a few lucky years.

Critics also say that FIRE participants are not factoring in the longer-term costs of major expenses such as health care and housing, which have continued to increase substantially. Plus, leaving the workforce may create an employment gap that many employers will view negatively. For sure, staying out of the workforce will ding the amount of Social Security income you can draw later in life, and thats when those on a fixed income may most need the money.

These are all relevant concerns, but many in the FIRE community say they have considered these scenarios and have planned accordingly. They may cite their financial models as proof that they have been realistic, pointing to detailed projections of their income and expenses.

In any case, a major decline in stocks, which typically occurs as part of a recession, will stress-test these plans and forecasts, and may challenge the security of many early retirees.

The FIRE movement has attracted a lot of attention in recent years some of it negative. Yet its hard to see how people consciously spending their money and time on what they truly love is anything but a net positive, even if it does have some costs along the way.

Read more from the original source:

What is the Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) movement? - Bankrate.com

Helicopter parents. They never let their kids out of sight. They fret at the possibility of any potential danger, striving to protect their snowflake charges from harm, reassuring the child so they know just how special, precious and helpless they are and that they can never, ever fail.

Of course, this backfires horrendously, resulting in what we see today: leaders who are entitled silver-spoon-fed adolescents conditioned to require constant coddling not to mention the fact that their parental stimulus packages have taught them that everything in life is free. Including bailouts. Money please!

And who are they really protecting anyway? Kids are resilient. Its adults who struggle with change.

As the United States celebrates Independence Day, I ask the question: Do you feel independent?

Or is your government a helicopter parent, standing over your shoulder and second-guessing every financial decision you make?

Youre reading Cointelegraph Magazine. So Ill make an educated guess.

Its time for a change in your relationship. Its time your government allowed you to grow up.

For Americans, Independence Day is supposed to be about hot dogs, fireworks, and the celebration of the birth of a new nation founded on principles of freedom and equality.

Obviously, that was pre-COVID. Now were asking to unhuddle our masses through social distancing, and while we may still yearn to breathe free, were on physical lockdown as well as suffering increasingly draconian financial oversight from a variety of acronymed bodies.

The tools of decentralized trade, however, may yet overcome the tyranny of our financial system, enabling a reformation of economic interaction that steers us away from centralization and toward more just and equitable means of controlling our own financial futures.

The first stage of this growing up process, Barney Mannerings, co-founder and CEO of decentralized derivatives exchange Vega Protocol explains, came about through the creation of Bitcoin: a peer-to-peer network that enables the permissionless and trustless exchange of value.

This early step in the democratization of money was followed by the tokenization of assets and the decentralization of a range of financial tools. The next step, he feels, is the decentralized exchange. Such exchanges allow peer-to-peer trade without the need for any central intermediators to hold our hands and ensure our safety.

DEX (decentralized exchange) technology allows participation on equal footing with the bigwigs, Mannerings says. Users need no longer be railroaded into a prescribed batch of menu offerings from a select group of dominant companies; instead they can access a smorgasbord of investment choices to suit different appetites for risk and reward.

Mannerings explains that some centralized services allow users to take positions with low or no fees because they pick up money on the flipside for helping their clients to bet against the crowd.

Look at Robinhood, he says. They make money by selling your order flow to some hedge funds. They dont even make money off charging you a fee, they make money because the hedge funds want to know what youre doing so they can make money. That means youre not playing the same game as everyone else and youre not on an even footing.

With a DEX, everyone gets the same information, the same tools for risk, and a range of tools that are normally hidden from people in traditional markets, Mannerings says. This theoretically offers a stronger guarantee of fairness without the possibility of front-running.

Mario Blacutt (often writing as Berzeck) is the founder of the Nerve Network and the decentralized exchange NDEX. He explains that DEXs can offer unique opportunities for new projects as well as investors. Small projects with strong potential can be listed on decentralized exchanges without having to wade through a slow application process, and without paying large entry fees that can be unreasonably demanding especially in the early stages of a projects development.

There are a lot of stories of smaller, good projects that do not maximize their potential because they never get the opportunity to be listed. We wanted to break that pattern and offer smaller projects the opportunity to be listed for free on our exchange.

Its not just centralized exchanges that stand in the way of financial autonomy, either. Governments have been known to meddle in pocketbooks from time to time too. Mannerings explains that its Like what happened in Europe after the financial crisis; some governments took money off some of the wealthiest people to help pay for things. When they decide thats going to happen, or that you cant spend it a certain way, or that they want to freeze your money, you suddenly discover its not really yours. You dont really have that full control.

The individuals power over their own finances has essentially been granted (or withheld) at the whim of banks, financial institutions, and governments. Kain Warwick, founder of the Synthetix asset platform, explains that its only in the last few years that this has begun to change. The promise of decentralized self-sovereign tech is being realized, which is exciting.

If you have your funds in the bank, PayPal, Venmo or other centralized services and they decide they dont like what youre doing, they can just cut you off, Warwick says. Youre guilty until proven innocent. Censorship-resistance is a critical feature of decentralized platforms, he continues. Thats one of the huge promises of Bitcoin originally that you could make payments anywhere over the Internet and you didnt need to rely on some third party as an intermediator.

Loi Luu, co-founder and CEO of Kyber Network, seconds this message of financial independence. With Kyber, users can make connections on the blockchain that are fully transparent and permissionless. Regardless of where you are, whats your background, you can always interact with Kyber, because its fully powered by blockchain. This has the added advantage of making trading safer, easier, and more accessible, he says.

And its all about user choice for Alex Wearn, co-founder and CEO of IDEX. The teams goal is to build an exchange that has the same user experience as centralized offerings, but doesnt require you to hand over control of your private keys. Users can choose their own custody solution, whether it be hardware wallets for retail clients or large-scale custodial solutions for institutional needs. Its really all about giving users that choice and catering to their needs rather than forcing them into a one-size-fits-all option of the exchange holding funds.

Warwick explains the problem of centralized crypto custody. We see it every day. Someone puts value into a centralized service or to a custodial platform and they lose access to their coins. If you dont have the private key to your assets, then youre relying on someone else to keep them safe. In some cases thats fine, but ultimately, the ability to have control of your own assets, to make that decision for yourself to have full self-sovereignty, is where the power comes from.

Its time for governments to treat us like adults, Mannerings says. Users should be able to evaluate their risks and choose products and services that offer freedom and control.

Loi Luu advises users to be their own advocates throughout this learning process and to approach the newfound tools with caution. Controlling your own wealth is good if you know what youre doing, as in, you know what is required to be fully in control of your wealth, you know how to keep your private keys safe, you know how to do a backup, and you know which site is a phishing site, so youre not falling for scams. But if you dont have enough knowledge or technical background, controlling your own wealth on blockchain might be risky.

Berzeck explains its a pillar of the blockchain technology ethos:

You own your money, but you have to be aware of the responsibilities of owning your own money. You have to be careful with that freedom.

This transition to greater individual monetary responsibility will take time, he says probably more than we want to believe it will. He suggests it will take at least a generation to change societys ingrained mindset about how banking and money works today.

Mannerings worked in traditional finance, which he admits offers technologies that are incredibly useful but deeply inaccessible to those on the outside. In his line of work, managers would sell derivatives to small companies but were buying them from a different desk, in a chain of buyers and sellers who all skimmed profits in additional layers of transactions. The size of the difference between the market price and what these people were getting it for was huge. That was a problem but there wasnt an obvious solution until the crypto stuff came along.

Vega co-founder Tamlyn Rudolph witnessed this privilege of access during her time in traditional markets. When she was trading, she was able to register directly and trade on her own account, unlike most people. She saw the huge discrepancy between her own knowledge and access to the market compared to the paltry offerings her family and friends accessed.

A decentralized platform puts tools into the hands of the people, Rudolph says. With the Internet of Value, parcels of risk can now be swapped around, allowing users to carve out risk for themselves. Own your own financial risk, be able to understand it, carve out what you dont want, and take on other peoples risks that you want to help with.

Berzeck speaks from an entirely different experience, having lived under what he describes as a corrupt regime in Bolivia until a recent coup began to change things for the better, he says. Many bought the socialist dream, he recalls, but it followed a catastrophic path similar to the one Venezuela faces now. It works at first but long term, it always fails. Its been proven again and again in many different countries. The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, enforced the heavy centralization of markets, controlling every aspect of the financial system ostensibly for the protection and safety of the people, Berzeck says.

Cryptocurrency offers the exact opposite of overbearing governments, he suggests. Banks closed my accounts because they wanted to protect me Ive seen firsthand what total centralization and control can do to individuals. Thats why I value the kind of freedom that blockchain offers.

The future is looking very bright for the DEX movement, Loi Luu says. The Kyber Network has enjoyed an incredible eight to ten times growth year-over-year due to massive expansion in DeFi and related applications. When DeFi grows, Kyber grows, he says. The ease of use of decentralized applications has improved significantly in the last couple years, too.

Both Luu and Berzeck caution that decentralized solutions wont take over completely any time soon. Both solutions will co-exist, with centralized solutions remaining the main regulated on- and off-ramp for fiat to crypto interaction. Berzeck explains, We should be aware that centralized exchanges and DEXs will coexist and probably complement each other. We should not try to artificially accelerate the process. The technology just isnt there yet.

Synthetixs Warwick agrees. Its still very high friction to use a DEX, he admits. A user may choose to use a DEX, but its not the solution for everyone. I think thats coming. With scaling and other things were seeing, we will get to a point where the status quo moves to DEXs.

Darren Liu, lead developer of Binances DEX solution, Binance Smart Chain, says technology tends to move in waves, with DeFi currently drawing the most attention and activity. The Binance Smart Chain offers new tools for DeFi that he says will enable more users to join the trend.

For true mass adoption to happen, Berzeck says its all about what works for users. If it reduces costs to clients, they will be interested in it.

Thats what companies want. They dont care about dogmatic things. They dont even care about decentralization. The only thing they care about is to reduce costs and increase income.

So, we give them a way to reduce costs and prove that blockchain technology is able to reduce costs for them. Thats the way we should face this problem of how to increase mass adoption.

Banks and financial institutions still hold the monetary keys in the form of liquidity, Mannerings explains. Money is controlled in just a few places, giving those parties the power to run the show. That power is almost accidental. They were in the right place at the right time, they have support from regulators, but theyre fundamentally not doing anything super-special.

Its probably one of the reasons why finance has been less disrupted by the Internet than most other aspects of the modern economy, he suggests. Yes, you can go on online banking, but the actual conduits of money have not changed much as a result of the Internet, just the way you present it to users.

Its waiting for this decentralized technology where you can say, we no longer need a bank, we no longer need an exchange to sit in the middle as an organization controlling this. Theres a protocol that sits in the middle and satisfies all the different players, and now all the people who might want to trade can get together and say hey this is a thing we want to trade now and they can trade. And they dont have to trust each other, they can put up their margin on a decentralized protocol.

They can do that without asking someones permission and without enriching those guys in the middle.

Kybers Luu is excited to see this transition taking place. You really feel the freedom. The fact you can do a loan and then contribute to some asset management protocol blockchain within one or two minutes without waiting for weeks to get approval from banks or financial institutions, its just mind-blowing.

Were all familiar with the concept of helicopter money, in the wake of the massive economic stimulus packages (bailouts) of 2009 and 2020. Free markets arent free. Theyre coddled by the Fed, given sugar by tax-cutting politicians, and only one billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya seems to have the adulting skills to suggest that we should just let the failing companies and executives learn by failing.

Who cares? Let them get wiped out. Who cares? They dont get to summer in the Hamptons? Who cares?

It all traces back to those helicopter parents that end up doing their child a disservice in the name of safety. Theres a tendency to assume people need to be protected from themselves. Mannerings says. The problem is the more you go down that route, the more it looks like they needed protecting.

When everyone is told that every financial product in the world is safe and one turns out not to be safe people will lose funds, resulting in the clamor to control and regulate even more, he says. Its a well-worn road that leads to totalitarianism.

Mannerings compares a night out bowling to a day out skiing as an analogy for financial awareness. You go bowling, you dont expect it to be dangerous, he says, you just go have fun and get drunk and its fine. But if you go skiing, you know its dangerous, and so you treat it with the right respect. You might take lessons, start easy and avoid difficult runs until you are ready.

Its not that the people who go skiing are smarter than the ones who go bowling, its that they understand what the risks are and because they know they are risks, the vast majority of them properly evaluate what they can do, and dont do things they shouldnt.

The same is true, he says, of finance. Stop treating people like babies and educate users with greater access to information.

I think youll find people dont need anywhere near as much babying as some people like to make out, if you arm them with information.

Independence Day is a great time to reflect on that. Americas been founded on the very idea of freedom Youve got to trust your citizens and give people that freedom. And they wont let you down.

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Are You Independent Yet? Financial Self-Sovereignty and the Decentralized Exchange - Cointelegraph

Jackie Cummings Koski has been a member of her local investment club for 11 years and is now on the board of directors but when she first started out, she had little money to her name and no clear path to financial freedom.

Koski joined the club so that she could improve her knowledge about investing, but it was also where she was able to openly talk about her divorce and find meaningful ways to provide security for herself and her young daughter. Each fellow member became something of a mentor to her, and the discussions were inviting. It was all very uplifting, she said.

Joining the investment club, along with following a budget and spending well under her means, has made the former saleswoman financially independent. In the last 11 years, the single mother has gone from $20,000 in her 401(k) at the time of her divorce to $1.3 million, and shes now a financial counselor to others. She reached financial independence at 46, and retired three years later.

See: This early retiree found her calling during the COVID-19 pandemic

Mentorships, whether one-on-one or in a group, can be crucial to achieving goals. Connecting on a personal level helps. When Koski works with her clients, including high-school students and those in underserved populations, she talks about growing up in rural poverty, with a single father who had a sixth-grade education and was raising six children.

All of those things play into how hard it was in the very beginning, she said. Going from poverty to financially independent thats a path that most people Im working with can get and connect with.

The FIRE movement, short for financial independence, retire early, has no shortage of inspiring stories about people who cut their spending in half, downsized their homes or took on numerous jobs to save as much as possible. But not everyone can follow that path. Some FIRE bloggers may also not be aware of the subtle advantages they had growing up, such as starting out in a middle-class family or living in an area with public transportation to get to the library or a job.

Koski has followed a few of the mainstays of the FIRE movement, however, such as slashing spending and investing much of the rest. As a sales representative at LexisNexis, her salary varied from year to year with an average of about $80,000, but she spent between $40,000 to $45,000 a year and put the rest away.

The early retiree pointed out that this wouldnt be possible everywhere she lives in Ohio, where home prices are not nearly as high as some major hubs like New York City or San Francisco so her mortgage, taxes and insurance amounted to about $1,000 a month. Still, she was careful with her money. Shed buy a luxury vehicle, but one that was three to five years old and with a price tag half of what it was when it was new. She worked only a few miles away from home, so gas wasnt a huge budget item. She didnt deprive herself of spending on food, and would go out to eat for lunch or dinner.

I didnt design my life to live off of $45,000, she said. I backed into it and discovered that my expenses were $45,000. At the same time, she was maxing out all of her investment accounts, including her 401(k), individual retirement account and a Health Savings Account.

Immersing yourself in an environment that supports the same values and goals is important. Koski was the first in her family to graduate college, and didnt have many sources for advice about finances when she was starting out so she figured it out on her own. By changing my environment, I was exposed to different things, she said.

Also see: Im a 32-year-old stay-at-home mom, and my husband earns $150,000 a year. Will I ever be able to enjoy a retirement?

The COVID-19 crisis has the potential to worsen future retirement security, and in some cases has already deteriorated Americans current well-being, but people may be able to use this time to learn more about money and their own personal finances, Koski said. People can turn to the internet, books or maybe even an investing club (socially distanced, of course) to learn more about saving, budgets, investing and personal finance topics.

Savers can also use this time to reflect on whats working financially, what isnt, what goals theyd like to achieve and dig into why they behave the way they do with their money. Breaking down what it would take to reach that goal is an eye-opener. For example, Koski tells students and aspiring investors that saving $50 a week for 40 years can get someone to $1 million.

Youre not going to be saving or investing unless in your mind you believe it will make a difference, she said. It may take a while to really get your head around things like me, but it happens, and when it does, it is very, very powerful.

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This single mother started with $20,000 and is now an early-retired millionaire heres one thing that helped her - MarketWatch

Part of the job of a financial adviser is focused on helping clients achieve financial independence and to accumulate a sufficient amount of resources to fund the retirement lifestyle they desire. Arising out of the 2008 financial crisis, the FIRE movement - which stands for financial independence, retire early, has caught the attention of many, from Gen Xers to millennials.

Here are some thoughts on how to advise clients who might be embracing the goals of the FIRE movement.

The FIRE movement embraces the goals of achieving financial independence at a relatively early age and then retiring early. Both the FI and RE parts mean different things to those trying to achieve FIRE as the saying goes.

The premise of FIRE is that by slashing expenses and saving and investing a very high percentage of their income, these folks can achieve financial independence and be able to retire at a much younger age. This might be as much as 70% of more of their annual income that goes toward saving for retirement. FIRE disciples hope to accumulate enough to retire early and live off of their nest egg. How early is early? Ive read about some folks pulling the plug in their 30s and 40s, and in some cases in their 20s.

As with any client, you need to help them define what financial independence means for their situation and what early retirement means. Often, early retirement doesnt mean a total cessation of work for FIRE disciples, but rather it means retiring from the 9-to-5 daily work grind. There are many FIRE folks who earn money writing about their experiences on blogs, discussing them on podcasts, providing coaching to others looking to achieve financial independence and selling courses on the topic. Others may use their exit from being an employee to pursue self-employment of other types in areas of interest to them. Others do truly retire in the traditional sense as well.

Regardless of your clients goals, it's important to work with them to define the amount needed, when it is needed and how it will be invested both before and after their retirement -- whatever that looks like.

A concern for those retiring at a more traditional age, in their 60s, is whether or not they will outlive their money. Given current life expectancies, the financial aspects 20 or 30 years of retirement funding takes planning. A retirement that might last 40 or 50 years (or even longer) takes a ton of planning.

Its important to ensure that clients looking to go the FIRE route, in whatever format they choose in terms of total or partial early retirement, understand the stress that the normal ebbs and flows of the financial markets over a long time horizon will put on their retirement savings. Asset allocation for these clients will need to focus on growth potential within their level of risk tolerance.

In advising clients looking for an exit from the corporate world at an early age as part of their FIRE goals, there are some issues that these clients need to consider. Some of these include:

Health insurance is always a consideration for anyone leaving the conventional workforce prior to Medicare eligibility. If the client is a married couple and only one spouse is going this route, they could use the other spouses employer healthcare plan if that spouse will remain employed. Otherwise it's important that the client consider what they will do to cover this necessity, a serious illness without adequate insurance can be financially devastating.

For clients who have been using tax-deferred retirement plans such as a 401(k) to accumulate funds for their early retirement, they will need to have a plan to tap these accounts early if needed. Money in a traditional 401(k) or IRA will be subject to both taxes and potentially a 10% penalty if tapped prior to age 59. Roth accounts do allow the withdrawal of contributions if certain conditions such as the five-year rule are adhered to.

Overall, the issue of where the money will come from to support their needs once they leave their job is a huge planning issue that you can help these clients with. Which accounts should they tap first? If they are going to be doing something that generates income, will this income be enough to meet their needs?

The FIRE movement is exciting and appealing for many people these days. Like anything else in the financial planning realm, successfully achieving a very early retirement takes planning. For any clients looking to go this route, your expertise and perspective can be crucial to their success.

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Advising Clients Interested in FIRE - TheStreet

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have a whole new set of holidays to celebrate now that they're living in the United States and that, obviously, includes, the Fourth of July. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, however, most traditional Fourth of July activities, like barbecues and big, community fireworks displays, are off the table.

So how are the Sussexes planning to celebrate their first Independence Day together in America? Royal expert Katie Nicholl says the couple will be keeping things low-key and enjoying some family time with their one-year-old son, Archie Harrison.

"I think he is just about walking," Nicholl told ET Online of Archie. "He's a very happy little boy, he's loving life in L.A. and they are still staying at Tyler Perry's house. I'm told they haven't found their forever home yet, they're still looking. They really do love that family time and they've had a lot of that recently. They both feel very grateful for that time they've had at home with Archie, watching him achieve all of those milestones."

Even though Harry and Meghan are loving the quality time they've been spending with Archie, Nicholl says they're getting antsy to get back to workespecially now that they're working toward financial independence following their step back from royal work.

"They do need to make money," Nicholl explained. "They've been in L.A. since March, they left the royal family at the end of March, and as yet, they haven't actually earned anything."

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Using rental properties to generate passive income has been a popular strategy in the financial independence, retire early movement. The coronavirus pandemic is threatening it.

Many property owners have seen their rental streams dry up or slow as unemployment has surged and businesses have closed, leaving landlords with tenants unable to pay, either in part or in full. While more households paid their rent in May as unemployment benefits and stimulus payments kicked in, the level of delinquencies is still elevated and landlords are having to adjust to the disrupted income streams.

Even so, Brent Sutherland, a certified financial planner and founder at Ntellivest, believes its still a good time to be invested in rental properties. Sutherland is an adherent to financial independence and owns rental properties himself, so he offers these tips for managing real-estate investments during this economic downturn.

Be honest with your tenantsand your lenders. Whether dealing with tenants who cant pay, or your mortgage broker, Sutherland recommends opening up lines of communication early.

If you havent already, reach out to tenants and ask them if financial hardship will prevent them from paying their rent. If yes, consider working with them to create a payment plan for when they do go back to work, or offer rent forgiveness for a period of time, contingent on the tenant signing a lease extension. Vacancy is a top concern for rental property owners, Sutherland says, so confidence in having tenants in the future may be worth low cash flow now.

If reduced rental income has made mortgage payments difficult or impossible to make, talk to your lender as soon as you can. All federally backed mortgages are eligible for forbearance during the crisis. Lenders may be willing to offer forbearance or loan modification for loans that arent federally backed, as well, given the magnitude of the economic crisis.

Dont panic, but reassess. Downturns are a natural part of the economic cycle and can be a good opportunity for investors to reassess their assets. If an investor cant sleep at night knowing whats happening with their investments, its likely they were in the wrong asset mix to begin with, Sutherland says.

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He urges investors to avoid a fire sale of their properties if they can help it. However, once market volatility has stabilized you can give your investment strategy and risk tolerance an honest evaluation. At that point, he says, if you realize you no longer want to take on the risks of rental property ownership, you can pursue the sale of your properties in favor of other investments.

Sutherland believes rents will rise again as the market starts to recover and social-distancing measures allow people to start working again. In the meantime, the advisor says people may need to find ways to replace lost rental income, including taking up a freelance side gig or selling less volatile securities, such as bonds, in order to have more cash on hand.

Make the most of current conditions. One positive aspect of the current downturn is that interest rates are at historic lows, making borrowing cheaper than ever before.

For those whove already built up equity in a property, taking out a home equity line of credit, or Heloc, could help cover living expenses for a while, if necessary. That Heloc could also be used to make improvements to a rental property thats sitting vacantsprucing it up to add to its rental or resale value in the future.

For those looking to increase their holdings, desirable properties may be newly within reach for those with the extra cash to buy them. Not only are interest rates low right now, home prices in some areas could also fall. That combination can be a boon for a savvy investor, Sutherland says. I rather welcome downturns. This is where better investments can be had.

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Early Retirees Were Supposed to Be Able to Depend on Rental Income. What They Should Do Now. - Barron's

Were halfway through the year and what a six-month period it has been for most FTSE 100 investors. The pandemic has had a significant impact on equity markets. Following the initial rapid falls in broader indexes in February and March, many shares have since come back to recover some of their losses.

I believe the current volatility is likely to be a near-term headwind. Most economies, as well as FTSE 100 shares, will improve in due course, possibly sooner than later. In the past, stock markets worldwide and in the UK have created massive wealth for long-term investors. They are likely to do so in the future, too. Lets take a closer look.

Market crashes, in general, provide an opportunity to buy FTSE 100 stocks at cheaper valuations. Therefore, investors with a long-term horizon should do their due diligence to identify stocks with strong fundamentals, growth potential in their respective markets, and robust cash flows.

For example, let us assume you had invested 1,000, 10 years ago, in July 2010, in several FTSE 100 shares. Below, Id like to show you how much your investment would be worth now, based on a buy-and-hold strategy and share price appreciation:

Put another way, a modest investment in a range of companies would have meant a sizeable capital appreciation. And these numbers hold despite the market drop since early 2020

If history were to repeat itself, we could expect many FTSE 100 shares to make new highs within the decade. And if there is another market crash in the rest of the year, or at a later date, seasoned investors realise that it means the opportunity to buy solid companies at a discount. And that would mean the road to greater wealth in later life.

Warren Buffett is one of the worlds most renowned investors. One of his famous quotes is, Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful. In other words, those investors who buy shares when others are selling en masse are likely to do well in the markets.

I expect the stocks whose names and metrics I have listed above to do well in the coming years, too. Therefore Id look to buy the dips.

We mostly invest for future goals, such as saving for a deposit on a home, for retirement, or simply gaining financial independence. As part of your investment aims, are you looking for defensive names that are likely to provide stable returns coupled with dividends?

Then there are several other FTSE 100 stocks Id consider buying as well. I believe theyd help ready my portfolio for whatever comes next.I regard AstraZeneca, BAE Systems,British American Tobacco,GlaxoSmithKline, National Grid, Pennon Group,Unilever,andVodafoneas solid picks for a long-term personal portfolio.

Finally, investors who dont have the time or expertise to keep track of individual stocks can invest in FTSE 100 trackers or liquid exchange-traded funds. For example, theiShares UK Dividend UCITS ETF is a basket of the 50 highest-yielding stocks from the FTSE 350 Index. Such a dividend-oriented ETF could be appropriate for most portfolios.Another ETF to consider could be the FTSE All-World ETF, tracking the performance of a large number of stocks worldwide.

The post FTSE 100 crash! Heres why Id buy cheap shares in July to get wealthy in retirement appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

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tezcang has no position in any of the shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK owns shares of and has recommended GlaxoSmithKline and Unilever. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Halma, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, and Pennon Group. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

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FTSE 100 crash! Here's why I'd buy cheap shares in July to get wealthy in retirement - Yahoo Finance UK