Journal Club 5-16-19

Every other week, I hold a JOURNAL CLUB. After manually filtering through the millions of articles out there on the web, I present a few that impacted my life this month.

Here’s our Journal Club for the week, enjoy!

• Give the government an interest-free loan? Heck no, says long-time White Coat Investor reader and finance blogger, Ryan Trevttevik. In this blog, he explains why getting a $9,000 tax refund doesn't outweigh the benefits of the alternative– a tax bill.

• Why is investing so difficult? Can I Retire Yet?'s Chris Mamula describes the difficulty of taking control of his investment portfolio, which he believes is indicative of the experience felt by others. While challenges are derivative of meeting a status quo, it becomes even more clear why the lack of education on investing stifles progress.

• How long would it take for you to run a full 26.2-mile marathon? According to this data chart, identifying these criteria, the median time was 4 hours and 32 minutes. But how does this information apply to finance? When using the data to improve finish time, you need to focus on the things you can control. At least that's what 4 Pillars Freedom suggests in this awesome blog.

• Like getting a reward or two or ten for just living life? Dr. McFrugal says you can by taking advantage of these credit card rewards programs. By leveraging bonus reward categories, like buying gift cards or earning sign-up bonuses, you can earn up to 5-10% back. Sounds pretty great.

• Becoming a better money manager starts with a good strategy. Millennial Money Man creates this perspective by sharing his 50/30/20 Budgeting Plan. The overall idea is comparable to 50% for the essentials, 30% for extras, and 20% for debt and savings. How well are you managing your everyday money?

• We usually succumb to society's expectations about mostly everything. Not ideal, but we're human. Chief Mom Officer shares her perspective on the expectations of money that we may or may not be aware of and what we could be doing better. 

• If you haven't heard of the Doctors Unbound Podcast, you're missing out on doctors doing things outside of clinical medicine that you've never thought imaginable. Dr. Dave's latest guests were (also one of our favs) the physician real estate power duo, Semi-Retired MD. They talk about FAST FIRE and retiring before the kids graduate.

• Seen (or already read the book), Financial Freedom: A Proven Path to All the Money You Will Ever Need? DiverseFI's podcast, What's Up Next, recently had its author, Grant Sabatier, on to discuss what it means to achieve real financial freedom and the life of your dreams.

A little bit of motivation below. Enjoy and have a great weekend!