The Dough Roller Money Podcast

This past weekend I spent several hours going through long forgotten papers. Like an old friend I haven’t spoke to in years, the paperwork brought back memories. The papers relating to finances were particularly interesting. For example, I found the sales receipt for a new 1965 Mustang my grandfather purchased for my step-mother when she […] The post How Thinking Long Term Can Help You Manage Your Money appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Whether to pay off a mortgage early is an important decision. For some it’s a question of whether to allocate some extra cash each month to the mortgage. For others it’s a question of whether to pay off the home loan all at once. The lump sum approach often becomes an option from an inheritance […] The post 5 Reasons Never to Pay Off a Mortgage Early (and 1 Reason You Must) appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Josh Peters is director of Equity Income Strategy for Morningstar, and has been for over 10 years. He is also the writer and editor of Morningstar DividendInvestor, the newsletter that is built around the portfolio that he manages. He is also the author of The Ultimate Dividend Playbook. His strategy is to emphasize the production […] The post DR 167: Interview with Josh Peters of Morningstar appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Imagine retiring at the age of 33, after just 10 years in the workforce. A fantasy you think? Hardly. I interviewed Justin, founder and owner of the blog RootOfGood.com, where he discusses the financial aspects of early retirement, as well as the psychology behind it. This was an enlightening interview on a number of fronts. […] The post DR 166: How a Husband and Father of 3 Retired at Age . . . 33 appeared first on The Dough Roller.

How much should you be saving? It’s a question that we ask a lot, and there are a number of rules of thumb. One answer is based on the 50/20/30 budgeting system. Popularized by Senator Elizabeth Warren, this rule of thumb suggests we should be saving 20% of our income. Any general guideline, however, has […] The post Financial Freedom Calculator – How Much Should You Save? appeared first on The Dough Roller.

In his book, Money–Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom, Tony Robbins describes what he calls an All Weather Portfolio. It’s very heavy in bonds, commodities, and gold, which makes it a questionable approach to investing. Yet it’s loosely based on an investing approach called risk parity that’s used by Ray Dalio of […] The post DR 164: Risk Parity Portfolio Construction with Dar Sandler appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Davd Swensen manages more than $20 billion in assets as the Chief Investment Officer of the Yale endowment fund. Several years ago he distilled his investment knowledge and experience into a book, Unconventional Success, for the average investor. The book is an excellent guide to low cost, passive investing. One of the many great aspects […] The post DR 163: The David Swensen Unconventional Success Portfolio appeared first on The Dough Roller.

This could be the million dollar question itself, since it’s something that so many people want to know. And actually, at least mathematically, it’s a question that has an easy answer. It just depends on how much money you save and what you earn on your investments. But before we get into the mechanics of […] The post How Long Does it Take to Become a Millionaire? appeared first on The Dough Roller.

What’s the best way to save for a child’s education? We compare three options–a 529 Plan, a Roth IRA, and a taxable account. Is it better to save for a child’s college education with a 529 plan or a Roth IRA? That’s the question that Dan, a listener to the weekly Dough Roller Money Podcast […] The post 529 Plan vs. Roth IRA—How to save for college appeared first on The Dough Roller.

There are three major tax preparation software packages on the market that most do-it-yourself tax preparers will use – TurboTax, TaxACT and H&R Block. Comparing these three options to find the cheapest can be a real chore. Each has several editions with varying features. As a result, it is important to compare competing editions between […] The post The Cheapest Tax Software of 2016–TurboTax vs TaxAct vs H&R Block appeared first on The Dough Roller.

In what order should you pay down your debts? For those working hard to get out of debt, it’s an important question. Often we focus on either the amount of our debt or the interest rates. But what if the interest rate on a loan can change, either because it’s a variable rate or perhaps a […] The post How to Use the Debt Avalanche with Variable Rate Loans appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Investing in a 401(k) plan at work can be a lot like eating at a cheap buffet. There are a lot of options, but they’re all bad. For those trying hard to keep investing costs down and to invest with a solid asset allocation plan, having bad options in a 401(k) or 403(b) is like finding […] The post How to Make the Best of a Bad 401(k) appeared first on The Dough Roller.

When you look at your investment portfolio, does Rube Goldberg come to mind? Goldberg was a Pulitzer Price winning cartoonist famous for drawing complicated contraptions designed to perform a simple task.  In fact, Webster’s New World Dictionary defines a “Rube Goldberg” as a “comically involved, complicated invention, laboriously contrived to perform a simple operation.”   […] The post Was Your Portfolio Designed by Rube Goldberg? appeared first on The Dough Roller.

The tax implications of mutual funds and ETFs can make the tax code look simple. Unlike investing in individual stocks, mutual funds can generate capital gains even when you haven’t sold any shares of the fund. These distributions make asset location–whether to hold certain investments in taxable or retirement accounts–critical. To help us sort through […] The post How to Limit Taxes from Mutual Funds and ETFs–An Interview with James Rowley of Vanguard appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Credit Card signup bonuses offer significant benefits.  Many cards offer bonus miles or points worth $400 or more in statement credit.  Other cards simply offer bonus cash or free airline tickets. A reader named Ben wrote to me recently asking about these bonuses: I’ve been curious about credit card sign on bonuses for a long […] The post List of Credit Cards that Offer Signup Bonuses appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Imagine that could use an online tool that could help you choose the asset allocation for your investments, whether in an IRA or a taxable account, reinvest all of your dividends, rebalance your portfolio as the value of your investments change, and perform even more complicated strategies, like tax loss harvesting. Now imagine that this tool […] The post Interview With Herbert Moore of WiseBanyan appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Tax loss harvesting is one of the few free lunches in the world of investing. With a little planning, you can reduce or even eliminate your capital gains in any given year. In some cases, you may also get a deduction from ordinary income of up to $3,000. Tax Loss Harvesting, sometimes abbreviated TLH, has come […] The post A Guide to Tax Loss Harvesting & Robo Advisors appeared first on The Dough Roller.

So much of our lives are lived on autopilot. We go about each day pretty much the same way we lived the previous day, and likely how will live tomorrow. From our morning routine to our drive to work, to our coffee break mid-afternoon, to dinner with friends in the evening, our habits control many […] The post 7 Ways to Harness the Power of Habit appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Two of the biggest robo advisors are Betterment and WealthFront.  At first glance they may appear to be virtually identical.  Both create diversified portfolios with similar low cost ETFs.  Both rebalance your portfolio, reinvest your dividends, and offer tax loss harvesting.  Both have slick, easy to use websites. But there are some significant differences between […] The post Betterment vs. Wealthfront appeared first on The Dough Roller.

There’s been a steady rise in “victim mentality” propaganda.  We hear it a lot from certain politicians who want to convince us that the “system” is rigged or that “income inequality” keeps us from improving our lot in life.  Some talk about wanting to give us a fighting chance, as if America hasn’t already served […] The post Are 401(k) and IRAs a Fraud? appeared first on The Dough Roller.