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Welcome to this session of grand rounds, a collection of posts I have found in the blogosphere that I found of interest and hope you do too.
Guest post extraordinaire, Gasem, has already eloquently described in this blog several methods of helping your portfolio’s survivability when facing the dreaded sequence of return risk using “portfolio insurance” and “the lifeboat“.
Michael, from Financially Alert, gives another potential way (a method which I personally am using) to protect your portfolio in the post, “How To Mitigate Sequence Risk With Real Estate.”
Generating passive income can certainly help your portfolio survive during market downturns as you can rely on this money to create a base income floor to live off of before needing to sell equities and lock in the losses.
Before you jump aboard the passive income train, bear in mind potential pitfalls including the ones listed in, “7 Myths About Passive Income You Can’t Afford To Believe.”
Real estate has started to become a major component of my passive income machine.
I have invested on a crowdfunding platform before (RealtyShares) and have had great experiences (although now I am solely concentrating on real estate through private syndication).
As these crowdfunding platforms gain in popularity and start to go mainstream there is potential for problems that can precipitate a downfall.
Dr. Linus, of Dads Making Cents, warns us of this very scenario in his post titled, “Storm Brewing in Crowdfunded Real Estate?”
Some of my lucky readers may have qualified for, or are currently drawing, a pension (a retirement vehicle that is becoming mythical in its rarity as the corporate world has been shifting the burden of retirement investing on to the individual, namely by replacing pensions with the 401k).
However even pensions are not entirely without risk and it is wise to have backup passive income streams/retirement funds to hedge your bets.
In, “The Pension Crisis Is Worse Than You Think,” several key points are made that can stress many large pension funds to the brink of collapse, with many state and local pension funds soon to be woefully underfunded.
The Health Savings Account (HSA), which, if used correctly, can be the best retirement vehicle available with a “triple tax advantage” (contributions, growth, and withdrawals are not taxed if used for medical expenses).
However even this “stealth IRA” is not completely free of problems with an unintended side effect.
Our Next Life shines a light on this darker side of HSAs with, “The Problem With The HSA (Health Savings Account) Isn’t The HSA.”
And last, but certainly not least, Ryan Inman of Financial Residency has been making a name for himself in podcasts and has been gaining a ton of traction (ranked in the top 75 for all investing podcasts on iTunes) and it is easy to see why.
As someone who was interviewed on a podcast a few months ago, I will tell you it is no easy task to come across as smooth and professional as Ryan makes it look sound.
In Stretch Your Stash! How to Make Your Money Go Further Ryan and his guest Joe Saul-Sehy (of Stacking Benjamins fame) give some great tips that physicians can employ to get the most bang for their buck.
I am particularly drawn to this particular podcast because one my posts was selected in the inaugural Journal Club segment of Ryan’s podcast.
I truly am honored for this distinction.
So please do yourself a favor and check it out.
Your wallet will thank you.
Well I hope you found these posts and help guide you on your path to financial independence and retirement.
Have a great weekend.
(and please don’t forget to subscribe to my blog. I get great satisfaction knowing that this blog is entertaining/informative enough for you to invite me into your inbox).
NOTE: The website XRAYVSN contains affiliate links and thus receives compensation whenever a purchase through these links is made (at no further cost to you). As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Although these proceeds help keep this site going they do not have any bearing on the reviews of any products I endorse which are from my own honest experiences. Thank you- XRAYVSN
Thanks for sharing!
I love the theme of the grand rounds! Thinking about future outcomes of your decisions today is just as important as the basics of financial planning (budgeting, saving etc)
Thanks Dr. Linus for stopping by and taking the time for a comment 🙂 Yeah, sometimes I am lucky and happen to have some posts that go well together and form a theme. Can’t always promise it happens (b/c it is quite hard to get 5-6 quality articles with a central tying theme) but when it works it really works well (I was a big fan of the previous grand rounds where it looked at psychology and money)
Thanks for drawing my attention to the HSA post from Half Life Theory. I feel like I need to read it again to fully digest, but it’ll definitely play a role in our decision making! I still think an HSA is a smart choice for us specifically, but appreciate this comprehensive look at HSA aspects that are often glossed over.
SHOOT I meant from Our Next Life *facepalm* — this is what I get for having 23945 tabs open and reading two articles side by side haha. Whoops.
LOL. Well Half Life owes you for the traffic he is going to get from your comment. lol 🙂
Our next life definitely raises some interesting points and it is a good article to read for sure.
Hope your honeymoon went well, now get back to publishing some posts of your own on your blog! 🙂
WOooooooff, you’re right – the hiatus was nice and the honeymoon perfect, but coming back and getting organized has been rougher than I thought it’d be. I need to get back to the grind and actually publish! On that note, going to stop reading other blogs now …
ok, you can stop reading OTHER blogs now, just mine. 🙂
Well this is a fun new place to meet other blogs! Cool! I’m digging this idea of mixing up the pot with a bunch of different bloggers on one post, lots to get into here! Alright, enough typing, time to read!
Thanks captain DIY (love the name btw) for the visit and great feedback. If you really want to knock yourself out, I created “The Hospital” which is essentially a continuously updating feed from EVERY PHYSICIAN Blogger I could find (right now it is up to 70 I believe). If you haven’t check it out here:
https://xrayvsn.com/2018/09/24/introducing-the-hospital/
https://xrayvsn.com/the-hospital/
The link will also be in the top menu bar (now you really have a ton to read ) Have a great one!
HSA is an excellent medical hedge if you wait long enough. At age 65 you can use it to pay Medicare A, B and D. In addition you can use it to pay a HMO supplemental (not MEDIGAP). You’re spouse can use it also when they hit 65. Properly invested over 25 or 30 years the compounding is not trivial. $25K left to grow over 30 years is $150K of which 83% is accumulated interest. If your medicare expense and qualified expenses as a couple is $10K per year, that $10K does not count toward taxable income for the year.… Read more »
Very insightful comment. One of the common complaints of HSA is that someone has to keep all the medical expense records while they are working to claim later tax free withdrawals. I personally have been keeping records, but honestly I think studies have shown that a couple age 65 will have $250k of medical expenses during their lifetime. I would think even if you didn’t keep a single receipt, that amount alone would be enough for the HSA to be drained tax free. I have always paid for medical stuff now out of pocket while I am earning a good… Read more »
Your HSA sounds promising. We do not have those in Canada.
Btw XRV- why did you not go to FinCon? You would have had a crap ton of fun. You are extremely social and a master networker. You are exactly who should attend these events.
I read what you wrote about being new to blogging. No one would have cared. You have amassed a lot of blogging friends XRV!!
Thanks MB for the kind words. It’s funny you mentioned it but I was moved to write a post about not going to Fin Con this year (I think by the time I have it done it will be on the docket 2 Thurs from now. But yeah I agree that I indeed missed on what would have been a really fun 4 days with people with similar mindsets. Already made up my mind to attend next year (barring any weird schedule conflict). The HSA is probably one of the best retirement vehicles we have here. You need a high… Read more »
Thanks for the mention, XRAYVSN! Are you here at FinCon this year? There’s a whole army of physicians here. ?
You are more than welcome. Unfortunately I am not in Orlando. Definitely regret not going this year but will try my best for the next one. Have fun!
Nice little roundup of some useful information found on blogs I may have missed. Thanks for playing solid goal line defense against any blog posts I may have missed!
Appreciate the comment. Yeah there are way too many blogs to keep track of with great content so I like blog round ups on various sites that help with this.