All tagged invest

Love Makeup? You Can Invest in Cosmetics and Beauty Companies

Love Makeup? You Can Invest in Cosmetics and Beauty Companies

Catherine Agopcan
Alternative Lifestyle, Financial Education

Do you love makeup and beauty products?

Makeup and beauty products typically depreciate the moment you open it. They expire and it’s hard to get your money back on them. If you use them, then you can get your dollar’s worth, but for many of us, some of our makeup languishes at the bottom of our drawers especially if we have a lot of options to choose from. That’s just the nature of a consumer product. Today though I want to introduce you to the concept of buying beauty and cosmetic stock for every cosmetic product you buy. The goal is to buy assets that have a potential to appreciate which means money in your pocket for the future.

How to Invest Responsibly with People, Planet, and Profit in Mind - A Primer

How to Invest Responsibly with People, Planet, and Profit in Mind - A Primer

Catherine Agopcan
Conscious Consumer, Socially Conscious Series

“Invest in the world that you want to live in.”

How can we invest and pursue financial independence with people, planet and profit in mind? It’s time we start investing in the world that we live in, but aligning our investments with our values. In this post, we provide options for alternative investments as well as some ways we can improve our current investment portfolio using various resources.

Book Review and Summary: The Do Gooder's Guide to Investing by Adrian Reif

Book Review and Summary: The Do Gooder's Guide to Investing by Adrian Reif

Catherine Agopcan
Financial Books, Financial Education, Conscious Consumer, Socially Conscious Series

“It turns out you can give your money to a project positively impacting the world with the goal of earning a financial return.

Can you grow your money while investing in positive change for people and the planet? I believe that we can and this book The Do Gooder’s Guide to Investing by Adrian Reif provides a roadmap on how we can do all that.

The word “investing” can sometimes get a bad rap because it’s associated with Wall Street, but it’s absolutely possible to invest in affordable housing, renewable energy and local communities and still grow your money. The Do-Gooder’s Guide to Investing provides a comprehensive list of these investing options. Even if you are not ready to invest yet in these organizations, I highly recommend reviewing and learning more about the organizations that Adrian lists as it will give you some hope about the future.

Book Summary: The Little Book of Common Sense Investing

Book Summary: The Little Book of Common Sense Investing

Catherine Agopcan
Financial Books

“The two greatest enemies of the equity fund investor are expenses and emotions.”

In honor of the passing of John C. Bogle, found of Vanguard and father of index funds, I picked up the updated edition of his book “The Little Book of Common Sense Investing.” I’ve heard of this book before, but never got around to picking it up. It’s a worthwhile book to read especially for those new to investing or those that need a refresher on the value of investing.

Investing 101 for Women: Resources for the Beginner Investor

Investing 101 for Women: Resources for the Beginner Investor

Catherine Agopcan
Financial Basics, Financial Education

The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.

There is absolutely no shortage of investing materials on the internet, but the problem is that there’s too much, it can be overwhelming where to even start. So to help you with that, we’ve compiled a list of resources, from YouTube videos, blog posts and books to help you navigate the world of investing. These are not your mother’s resources.

When A House is More Than An Investment

When A House is More Than An Investment

Catherine Agopcan
Alternative Lifestyle, Financial Education, Financial Basics

“After you leave home, you may find yourself feeling homesick, even if you have a new home that has nicer wallpaper and a more efficient dishwasher than the home in which you grew up.”

Next week, my parents will complete the sale of their home and journey back to the Philippines. Whether they end up staying in the Philippines for the remainder of their retirement or come back is yet to be decided. For the past few months, our entire family has gone through the exercise of cleaning out the house that we’ve called home for the past 23 years.

Why Take Advantage of a 401K Match: It's Part of Your Compensation

Why Take Advantage of a 401K Match: It's Part of Your Compensation

Catherine Agopcan
Financial Basics

Without vision you don't see, and without practicality the bills don't get paid.

If your employer told you you would get a $5000 bonus each year, would you take it? Of course we all would, but we would ask the question, what do we have to do to get the bonus? How much to we have to meet in sales? How many projects do we have to complete? What performance metrics would be tracked and what do we have to do to meet it?

Guess what? That $5000 bonus is actually easier to get than you might think. All you have to do is to save money. Easy right? The reality is that many people don't do this because they don't understand what a 401K is or why they should take advantage of it. Today, we are going to breakdown why you should be taking advantage of your 401K to build your nest egg, to build your retirement accounts and get you to financial independence faster.

Total Stock Market Investing As a College Student or First Time Investor

Total Stock Market Investing As a College Student or First Time Investor

Catherine Agopcan
Financial Basics

There are things we don't know we don't know.

Investing is a scary act. It involves risk and reward. It involves research. It involves understanding how companies work and how company information is presented in financial statements. There's an old advice out there that says "invest in what you know" meaning support the companies that you would buy from. For a period of time, I invested heavily in an index that tracked against the growth of the S&P 500. This was a hands off approach and one that I would recommend to those just starting out. There's a lot of volatility (ups and downs) with investing in single companies so instead the idea is to invest in an index fund or a mutual fund that already has a diversified list of companies (meaning the basket consists of various companies from many industries.)

Track Your Finances For Free With Personal Capital And Get to FI Faster

Track Your Finances For Free With Personal Capital And Get to FI Faster

Catherine Agopcan
Financial Basics

There are these billboards on the highway close to where we live that says we spend more time liking photos on social media, than planning for retirement. This sounds scary to me. I will also be the first to admit that sometimes I get lost on social media. I've learned to strike a balance though by using a financial app that's as easy to use and as aesthetically pleasing as the feeds I see on Instagram.