Rule #1: Buy shit that appreciates, avoid shit that don't

Stretch your budget when buying a house/rental, remodeling. Shrink it when buying cars, TVs...).

By far the easiest way to pay less taxes is to own your own business

Completely legal write-offs abound if you have a small business. But if your only income is W2 (employee) you have no options except mortgage interest on your home - if you rent then you have nothing. As a business owner, you can, within reason, make the rules on what is a business expense. Don't quit a good job - I'm just saying that it's a huge difference. Btw, this only works if your business is actually profitable, at least in most years.

Use ETFs (exchange traded funds) - everything else is bullshit.

The word is out that mutual funds with fees are a waste. Just buy ETFs w/ low/zero fees. As Warren Buffet suggested, open a vanguard account and put it in ticker symbol VOO which basically just tracks the market - low-ish risk (especially when held for 5+ years), great return. Done. If you want to play with an occasional tech stock, fine, but at least half should be in no fee ETFs.

Books to check out

• Millionaire Next Door - Basically tips on how to get rich slow
• Rich Dad Poor Dad - A bad title/premise but useful tools in there about how to invest with a goal of financial independence

Know how they are paid

It's totally your right to ask how someone gets paid. If it's based on a percentage of sale (commission) then they will have incentive to sell you that. Insurance, fund managers, lawyers all work on commission which, not always, but often, means that, by definition, its a total CONFLICT OF INTEREST. What's good for them may or may not be good for you. When you buy shit from people at least understand how they are compensated.

Investing is easy, but the entire industry seeks to obfuscate you

There are at least 2 names for the same thing everywhere (example - equities = stocks; P&L = income stmt; sales = revenues; mutual fund fees are called expense ratios, back-end & front-end load, sales costs.. they're all the same - 1/2 to 3% annual fees. The industry thrives on keeping the public confused, don't let it intimidate you.

Credit cards are fine/good, but you MUST pay them off every month

Never carry a balance on your CC. 20%! Having 1 is actually good for earning miles/cashback and they do establish a credit score. Btw, you only need 1 (don't get sucked into retailer cards) - shop the latest and greatest on several websites like nerdwallet.

Random rules of thumb

• 10 to 15% of your earnings should be saved/invested
• You should have 6 months worth of income in a liquid savings/brokerage account (like a Vanguard) - you'll sleep better
• You need 20x your annual income saved up to retire.

Oh yeah, marriage

There's not enough room on the internet to describe how important your choice of a lifelong mate is - we'll let your parents handle that one. But, since this is the $ page, know that this is also the single biggest financial decision you'll ever make. First, realize that the difference between a corporate shareholder contract and a marriage contract is zero. They are both 100% legally binding. Just like business partnerships, they are really easy to get into and really hard to get out of (aka divorce, which happens in over 1/2 of all marriages and the #1 reason why is.... you guessed it, $). So beyond the obvious personality flaws to watch out for (gold-digger/lazy ass et al), remember that half of what have and will carefully earn your entire life could, ya know, go away.

On the other hand, if you marry somebody cool, they'll be supportive of your career, they'll work hard too, you'll have shared goals and you'll allow each other the occasional indulgences. And you should love each other dearly and grow old together too!

Random quotes

• "The stock market has predicted 9 of the last 5 recessions." I.e. A huge drop in the market doesn't necessarily mean there's anything wrong with the wider economy, and it will soon pop back up.

Financial advisors aren't really financial advisors

Because they only advise you on instruments that they make money on - they're commissioned! That means they are incentivized to get you to put all your money with and through them, which is of course a conflict of interest. And, they never recommend real estate, which, IMO, is a better investment vehicle. They don't give you the whole picture.

More on depreciating assets.

It bears repeating that depreciating assets make you poor. A new car depreciates about 20% at the time of purchase. That's $1,000s in a matter of hours. Lease a new car through your small business as a write off or buy one after you're rich. Btw, TVs, clothes, a fancy dinner - they depreciate 100% at the time of purchase. All that said, it's obviously ok to be occasionally extravagant - reward yourself sometimes! You get the point.

Time, fuckin time

When you start saving is more important than how much you stash per month.

• At a 7% rate (very attainable in the stock market) your money doubles every 10 years.
• At a 3% rate (very attainable in real estate) your money doubles in 3 to 6 years, depending on down payment.

Just data

• Historical prime rate is 7%
• Historical inflationary rate is 3% (cost of living rate - that's why, on average, you should get at least a 3% raise each year)
• If you don't already know, all rates are annual

The 3 rules of real estate

Location, location, location; it's the first thing your realtor tells you. But it really should be like 85% of your buy decision.

The other major one, which is also relatively unchangeable, is size (sqft). Cuz you can always remodel but you might not be able to add-on.

Another good rule is never fall in love with a home.

Gambling - you won't win

It's not even close to 50/50 odds. Here's the avg losses per $100 gambled on the following games:

• Blackjack (normal play) - 15%
• Blackjack (prefect strategy) - 5%
• Craps (varies widely within the table) - avg 10%
• Roulette - 5%
• Slots - Avg 20%
• Sports - football/basketball (single bets) - 10%
• Sports - horse racing - 20%
• Keno - 30%

Example: Blackjack. Assume avg bet is $20. # of hands/hour is about 70. So that's $1,400/hour. Under normal play you'll lose about $200 per hour. Most people try to gamble through an evening, like 3 or 4 hours. DUMB.

The other thing is the gambling stories. SO many stories of people winning thousands - "paid for the whole trip!" Fine, but ask them how many times they've lost. If you gamble 10 times, one of those times will end up like that. But the other 9 were total losers.

All that said, gambling small amounts between friends is just fine/fun. That's true 50/50 odds. I like this old quote "Gentlemen should bet" - implying a little wager brings out your best efforts.