The 15 Best Articles for Your Financial Health (Sept 2017)

The 15 (or so) Best Articles For Your Financial Health, September 2017

Is frugality an idol for some people? http://katesmalley.com/good-money/

https://chadashby.com/2014/02/18/is-frugality-really-a-christian-virtue/

How this guy and his spouse deal with $150,000 in student loan debt: http://commoncentsmillennial.com/10-ways-to-destroy-your-student-debt-lessons-from-a-bitter-postgrad/

• Dealing with debt? Check out my summary of two popular debt-destruction approaches, as well as my own advice, here: http://froogalstoodent.blogspot.com/2017/03/trick-yourself-out-of-debt.html

Don't let your behavior be dictated by what [you think] other people expect from you: https://www.ajourneytofi.com/refuse-let-others-influence-decisions/

Are you pursuing early retirement? Why? http://www.zencents.com/early-retirement-with-purpose/

Vanguard can save you thousands of dollars in fees, depending on the size of your investments: http://bucking-the-trend.com/how-vanguard-will-save-me-2700/ (hat tip to this post on jlcollinsnh, one entry in his evergreen—and extremely informative—"Stock Series")

Great minds think alike! 😉 http://thepowerofthrift.com/thriftygals-money-strategy/

• Also see https://froogalstoodent.blogspot.com/2017/04/should-you-trust-stock-market-pt-ii.html, not to mention the jlcollinsnh post linked above!
• Think you can pick only the winners and not the losers? Think again:  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-picking-stocks-is-only-slightly-better-than-playing-the-lottery-2017-06-28

The advantages of using an HSA as part of your health insurance: http://www.madfientist.com/ultimate-retirement-account/

"There is no claim or prediction in this blog or in my book that suggests that VTSAX will be the single best performing asset in 5, 10, 15, 20+ years. There will always be something that does better. But what that something will be is unknowable as we sit here today and, when we reach that future date and know it then, it will have zero predictive value..." http://jlcollinsnh.com/2017/08/21/stocks-part-xxxi-too-hot-too-cold-not-pure-enough/

A great perspective on the lottery, your dreams, and the power of habits from the always-insightful Jason Vitug: https://www.roadtofinancialwellness.com/win-life-losing-lottery-tickets/

Is failure a necessary ingredient for success? I argue that it usually is; Shark Tank's Robert Herjavec agrees: https://www.robertherjavec.com/dont-fail-wont-succeed/

Though I discourage people from trading individual stocks since the evidence indicate that nobody can reliably pick stocks over the long term, some people find it fun and/or profitable to do so with small sums of cash. Here's a review of some of the best online stock trading platforms: http://www.reviews.com/online-stock-trading/
     -Speaking of trading, it's a sucker's bet to trade against people who have more information and/or can react more quickly than you can: https://blog.quandl.com/alternative-data

Last but definitely not least, persistence is key! Even when you're tired and stressed and cranky, stay on the path: https://www.wealthwelldone.com/fight-your-way-to-wealth/

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BONUS: hat tip to @longterm_view on Twitter for providing this link to the Wells Fargo scandal: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/wells-fargo-scandals-will-take-clean-mess/

Edit to add this gem: "What do monthly payments and vacuum cleaners have in common? They both suck." https://moneybuffalo.com/thrive-on-35000-a-year 😂

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