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2017/01/05

How My Son Doubled His Money

Manward Digest

An Essential Money Skill That Every Man Should Have

 
Know-How
  
  Rooster's Crow
  One place your money will be treated quite well is a 529 account. These college savings plans aren't just for parents with school-aged kids. They're great tax shelters for grandparents and other retirees. Not only will you be able to potentially help a loved one or friend avoid one of the nation's greatest - and most depressing - financial burdens (college loans), but you'll save on federal and, likely, state taxes. Best of all, the money remains yours. If you need it five years from now... no worries. It remains under your control, in your name. Here's a site with more info.
  
What's the one skill that will lead you to a happier, more fulfilled life? Above all else, what skill does it take to find true liberty?

As you know, we like our skills at Manward. We're convinced the average man today knows far less about the way things work than his grandpa did.

That's what this passion project of ours is all about. It's why we put on our armor early each morning and go to battle to share vital knowledge - knowledge that we're convinced will ultimately lead men to a more fulfilled and successful life.

We do it with a sense of duty.

Today, we turn our gaze to a skill that far too few folks grasp - the art of investing.

Cavemen had fire... we have asset allocation.

Both will cook your food when done right... and singe your hair when done wrong.

A Family Tradition

The ability to stash away a little now to get a lot later is a skill I've been working to teach my young son.

He hit the jackpot over the weekend...

He found a bank account that will pay him far more interest than the going rate. Thanks to the Bank of Dad (no, it's not FDIC insured), he'll double his money with each deposit.

That's right... 100% interest. For every dollar he puts in his new savings account at the local bank, I'll toss in another.

So far I'm on the hook for just 26 bucks. But I've got his grade-school brain thinking.

"Will I get a bill each month?" he asked.

I explained how the system works and his face went blank. "You mean the banks want my money?" he said. "They'll pay me?"

My goal with the project is simple. I want to teach my son the skill of saving and investing - of knowing and spotting where his money is treated best.

I mustn't let him succumb to our gimme-now culture.

I think I've got him hooked, just as so many of us who have made a career of investing were hooked at a young age.

I'm not quite sure who instilled a passion for investing in me. I suspect it was a lot of folks. But one man stands out - my grandfather. He was the "millionaire next door" type. He worked hard, bought a farm and never gave up the attitude that made him rich.

A patch on his clothes wasn't a sign he was broke... it was a sign that he'd been broke.

To him, investing wasn't something done by the greedy elite. It was something everybody must do... something everybody needed the skill to tackle.

Finding the best return on his money was no different from having the skill to plant and grow tomatoes.

Sadly, that's not the case today.

Just as we pay a plumber to unclog our sink, we hand our cash to somebody else and close our eyes. After all, who's got time for investing when there's a new series on Netflix?

It's a dangerous idea.

If you don't have the skills to invest your money wisely... you certainly don't have the skills to spend it wisely.

Machine Smarts

As I've been studying this trend, I've dug deep into the idea of automated investing systems, particularly funds that are leaning entirely on machine learning to make their moves. The only human input is the programmers. The machines do the rest.

Sounds neat, right? The machines can adjust their programming based on what they've experienced. We lead them to a trough of raw data, and they use trends, correlations and historic moves to magically see into the future.

Trouble is, investing isn't about being the fastest man to the market or about squeezing into ultra-short-term anomalies.

No, investing is about harnessing the age-old skill of knowing where your money is treated best. It's a skill we must not lose.

In our case, I spent $26 teaching my son a skill he needs to make smart money decisions. No doubt that outlay has the potential to compound many times over between this generation and the next.

For you, investing may mean aiming for strong returns from the stock market... it may mean keeping what's yours by putting cash in conservative bonds... or, as we too often forget, investing may mean simply spending your money wisely.

Know what path to take and why that takes skill... not technology.

Look around, and you'll see what we're seeing. The skill of investing - the skill of putting your money where it's treated best - is quickly becoming a lost art.

That's no good.

That's know-how we'll fight for.

Be well,

Andy
 
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