A Conversation on the 4% Rule

 A Conversation on the 4% Rule

I had a brief conversation with Steve of the SteveArk blog, in his thought-provoking post on the 4% rule.

My initial comment was WAY longer than it should have been, but the thoughts and resources just kept pouring out of me, as I couldn’t help but think “what if somebody runs across this, a few years from now, and wants to know more?”

So I figured I might as well turn this into a post on my own blog! Perhaps I can do a better, more well-thought-out (and well-edited!) version here. So here goes:

How Investing Can Make You Rich

Wish you could see the power of money? Wonder how the rich make their money work harder than they do?

Ever felt overwhelmed by some decision, and just picked an option so you didn't have to think about it anymore?  It can be easy to get lost in numbers. And when your head is swimming, you won't make the best decisions! 

It helps to see this kind of junk displayed in a graph. As hard as it can be to imagine how compound interest works, graphs like this can make it easy to understand!

The Key to Success

The Key to Success

If you're at all like me, you've often wondered what the secret is to success. Why do some people, who are so blessed with intelligence, physical talent, and/or social support, fail where others--who lack these advantages--succeed? I've never seen a satisfactory explanation for this.

Until recently.

The dangers of prediction

Prediction isn't inherently dangerous. Any model is only as good as the data it's fed, and the person who developed/implemented the formula. However, the danger comes in when you put too much reliance on the predictions generated by a model--which may or may not be built on faulty assumptions. Furthermore, any model will always be based on past data, so the model may or may not be representative of future trends.

Find out more about the dangers of prediction in a good article here: http://awealthofcommonsense.com/forecasting-emotions/

The line "You can't predict. You can prepare" rings all too true!