The Dough Roller Money Podcast

One of the conundrums faced by anyone who wants to retire early is the 10% additional tax on certain early distributions from many retirement accounts.  For example, if you retire at 50, you won’t be able to access pre-tax retirement accounts without incurring the 10% additional tax, unless you qualify for one of the exceptions […] The post 5 Ways Early Retirees Can Avoid the 10% Penalty on Early Distributions appeared first on The Dough Roller.

All to often we make investing far more complicated than it really is. I was guilty of this when I first started investing back in 1993. Like the search for the Holy Grail, I was convinced that there was a perfect asset allocation plan. And I searched for it. I spent hours upon hours trying […] The post The Perfect Asset Allocation Plan appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Imagine you spend 30 or 40 years saving and investing for retirement. With a long investing horizon, you stick with an aggressive asset allocation of 70% or more in equities. Now it’s time to retire and start spending some of your wealth. How should you invest? It’s a tricky issue. On the one hand you […] The post How to Invest During Retirement – An Interview with Dr. Wade Pfau appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Not everybody has the luxury to make a down payment of a home of more than 20%. But if you do, how do you decide just how big of a down payment to make? That’s the question we received recently from a reader named Kevin: Here’s the email: Hi Rob, My wife and I are […] The post How Much Money Should You Put Down on a House? appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Recently I read the 2015 edition of David Allen’s widely popular book, Getting Things Done—The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. The previous edition was an eye-opener for me, although to be honest, I didn’t implement his system. This time is different. I’ve jumped head first into the GTD cult. In this article I’m going to walk […] The post How To Apply ‘Getting Things Done’ To Your Finances appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Personal Capital first introduced what is by far the best financial dashboard I’ve used. It’s a free online tool that tracks everything from your bank accounts to your investments. It comes with great graphs and charts that show your asset allocation, investing costs, and cash flow. Now they’ve introduced an equally impressive retirement calculator. I […] The post The Ultimate Retirement Calculator (and it’s free) appeared first on The Dough Roller.

I’m of two minds when it comes to the world of free travel. On the one hand we can travel for free if we have the miles or points. And free is hard to beat. On the other hand, it takes a lot of time to build up the miles, mileage award tickets aren’t always […] The post How One Guy Traveled Around the World (21 flights) for Free appeared first on The Dough Roller.

In this podcast, we look at how you can increase your returns without increasing the overall risk to your portfolio. I call it the asset class swap, and it’s incredibly easy to do. Here’s how it works. From time to time an asset class becomes significantly overvalued or undervalued. This happened last year with REITs. […] The post A Simple Way to Increase Your Returns Without Increasing Risk appeared first on The Dough Roller.

A reader named Jen recently sent me an email about 401k retirement accounts. James Altucher, a former hedge fund manager, had posted a video on Business Insider on why you shouldn’t invest in a 401k. When I first saw the video, I thought it was a parody. I didn’t realize he was being serious! Here’s […] The post Calculating the Value of a 401k or IRA Retirement Account appeared first on The Dough Roller.

My brother and I were playing chess they other day. He had a winning move that we both missed. After the game we found it, and why we both missed is the inspiration for this article. The move we missed involved moving his Rook next to my King. My King would have been in check, […] The post What if . . . appeared first on The Dough Roller.

There are a lot of tools out there to track your investments. One of my favorites is Personal Capital. It offers a free online financial dashboard that automatically tracks your investments and your spending. Today I have another option for you–a free spreadsheet that tracks your investments and tells you when it’s time to rebalance […] The post An Awesome (and Free) Investment Tracking Spreadsheet appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Several friends have recently contacted me about their retirement accounts. They are planning to retire and want to rollover their 401k to an IRA. So far, so good. While they managed their 401k for decades, however, they are uncomfortable managing the rollover IRA. The combination of a lot of money to manage and the consequences […] The post How Advisors Kill Your Retirement Like The Walking Dead appeared first on The Dough Roller.

A listener to the Dough Roller Money Podcast recently emailed me about online security. He wanted to know whether our online financial lives—think banking, investing, credit cards, and the like—are safe. And what happens if a hacker does manage to compromise are accounts? Are just out of luck? To begin answering this question, I interviewed […] The post Interview with Green Dot’s Founder and CEO, Steven Streit appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Over the last decade, motivated individuals have invented plenty of creative ways to make money on the internet. One of the most popular strategies involves the online auction site, eBay. All over the web, you can find countless examples of people who have used eBay to build fortunes and even long-term sustainable businesses.   Many people […] The post This Mom Created a 5-Figure eBay Business in Her Spare Time appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Imagine if you could increase your investment returns without increasing your risk? Now imagine you can do this with very little effort – and at no cost. I know, it sounds like the start of a late night infomercial. It’s not; it’s what’s called asset location. Recently I received a voice mail message from a listener named […] The post A Simple Trick to Increase Your Investment Returns Without Risk appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Investing is an emotional experience. With so much at stake, it can be an emotional roller coaster to watch the stock market gyrate from day to day. The topic of emotional investing came up in a recent email from a listener named Joe. He asked the following question: I’m a big fan of your newsletter and […] The post 8 Ways to Avoid Emotional Investing appeared first on The Dough Roller.

A listener to the Dough Roller Money Podcast recently sent in a question about credit scores. He wanted to know how canceling a credit card can affect a person’s credit score. The question comes from a listener named Travis: I was curious how much closing a credit card can hurt your credit score? I understand that […] The post How to Cancel a Credit Card Without Crushing Your FICO Score appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Have you ever tallied up what it costs to own a car? I don’t mean on a year-to-year basis, but the total cost of owning a car over a lifetime? According to the American Automobile Association (AAA) it costs $8,876 per year to own and operate an average car. Now if you add that up […] The post The Surprising Lifetime Cost of Car Ownership appeared first on The Dough Roller.

Since launching the podcast in 2013, I’ve had the chance to interview folks about early retirement. It started with Mr. Money Mustache, who retired at the ripe old age of 30. Then we had Todd Tresidder on the show, a former hedge fund manager who retired at 35. More recently, we talked to Jason of […] The post DR 171: How to Retire at 40 – Interview With Chris of Eat the Financial Elephant appeared first on The Dough Roller.

With April 15th just around the corner, I jumped at the chance to talk with Mark Steber, the Chief Tax Officer with Jackson Hewitt. Jackson Hewitt is one of the largest tax preparation services in the country. Mark has been with the company for about a decade and has worked in various facets of income […] The post 10 Last Minute Tax Tips From Jackson Hewitt appeared first on The Dough Roller.