The Rob Berger Show

Retirement calculators can help us plan and prepare to retire. When we are years away, these online tools can help us determine how much we should be saving. As we approach our time to retire, they can help us understand how much we can spend each year and which accounts should fund that spending. Not all retirement tools, however, reach the same result. They take different approaches to what is a...

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Compound interest has been called the 8th wonder of the world. Understanding how it works and harnessing its power is key to building wealth. In this video will walk through 7 simple calculations that show the true power of compounding. I'll also show how to get a simple, free compound interest calculator. Join the newsletter: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

The rules of IRA contributions can be confusing. Get them wrong and you could make a costly mistake or lose out on a chance to save more for retirement. In this video we'll cover these 10 IRA contribution rules: 1. Contributions limits 2. Catch-up contribution limits 3. Income limitations on IRA contributions 4. Limits on deducting IRA contributions 5. Roth IRA contribution income limits 6. A...

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According to one study, cybercrime will cost the world $10.5 trillion a year by 2025. Today, every financial account from banks to credit cards to investments offer online access. For investors, the risk of loss from cybercrime ranks as the #1 concern. Fortunately, there are steps we can all take to increase our online security. For very little money, we can significantly reduce the likelihood tha...

Get free help with your 401(k) Rollover to an IRA with Capitalize: https://robberger.com/go/capitalize/y... When you leave a job, whether to retire, take another job, or leave the workplace for a time, an important question is what to do with your 401(k), 403(b) or other workplace retirement plan. In this video we walk through the three primary options: 1. Leave it with your former employer, 2. Tr...

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Investing for a child's education presents at least two challenges. First, we don't have a lot of time to save and invest. In most cases, we have 18 years, and in many cases, a lot less. Second, Once they graduate from high school, they need the money quickly over the next few years. In this way it's very different than retirement, where we plan to spend our nest egg over 30 years o...

As robo-advisors go, Betterment is one of the best in my opinion. It offers excellent features (e.g., automatic rebalancing, tax loss harvesting, excellent planning tools) at a reasonable price. But how does Betterment's Core Portfolio of 10 ETFs stack up to the simple, humble 3-fund portfolio? We put both to the test in this video. Join the newsletter: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm.....

I used Capitalize to Rollover a 401k to an IRA. It's totally free and very easy to use: https://robberger.com/go/capitalize/y... Get a free estimate of term life insurance in 20 seconds with Haven Life Insurance: https://robberger.com/go/haven-life/y... Join the newsletter: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

Investors today are nervous about bonds because of the historically low yields. The fear is that as interest rates rise, the value of existing bonds will fall. In this video we'll walk through bond investing for beginners. I'll cover how bonds work, my approach to bonds, and some suggesting bond funds. If you find this information useful, consider joining my weekly newsletter: Join the n...

With inflation and interest rates on the rise, many have asked me about bond alternatives. While I haven't changed my investments, including the bonds funds I own, I do understand the concern over bond funds that have lost money this year. So in this vide we will first looked at 4 alternatives to a traditional total U.S. bond fund. Then we'll look at four bond alternatives. And finally,...

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Personal Capital (Investment Tracking, Retirement Planning): https://robberger.com/go/personal-cap... Today we look at a portfolio constructed by an investment advisor. This is a person who has a fiduciary obligation to act in the best interest of their clients. The result? I high fee portfolio on top of the 1% advisor fee. As you'll see, this portfolio could easily cost an investor $500,000...

Several viewers have recently asked me whether it makes sense to claim social security at 62 if you plan to invest the money. At first, it seems like a solid strategy. While your monthly benefit will be lower, you get years of investment returns you'd otherwise forfeit. It turns out, however, that the issue is a bit more complex. First, depending on your investment returns, claiming social se...

Sallie Mae 2.20% No-Penalty CD: https://www.allcards.com/best-savings... Personal Capital Tesla Promotion: https://robberger.com/go/personal-cap... Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Harold Evensky, the father of the Bucket Strategy. Here are some resources from the show: --Mr. Evensky's newsletter: https://evensky.com/resources/ --His most recent newsletter: https://files.myprimitiv...

Defensive Investing--How to Prepare for a Market Crash (In Advance) With stocks, bonds and real estate at all-time highs, it's just a matter of time before we see a market correction, or worse. It doesn't help that our government is borrowing trillions of dollars, funded by a Fed who is buying bonds. The question for investors is whether we should make changes to our portfolio today in p...

The Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX) is a popular growth stock fund. In this video we take a deep dive on the fund to see if it's worth adding to our investment portfolio. In the process we'll look at growth vs value stock investing, active vs passive funds, and how to evaluate a fund's performance. Join the newsletter: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm...

Join the newsletter: https://robberger.com/newsletter/?utm... Click "Show More" to see Ad Disclosure Fidelity launched its ZERO index funds in 2018 to much fanfare. As their names suggest, these funds carry no expense ratios, a first in the industry. As great as a “free” mutual fund may sound, however, many wonder whether there is a catch. Recently a viewer named Samir asked the followin...

A viewer asked whether he could retire at the age of 49 with a 100% portfolio of VTI (Vanguard's total U.S. Stock Index ETF) using the 4% Rule. I think there are at least 3 big concerns with this plan: 1. The 4% rule assumed a 30 year retirement; 2. It found that a 100% stock portfolio could fail a 30 year retirement in some markets 3. A 100% U.S. stock allocation makes a big bet on the U.S....

Robo-Advisors can be a low cost way to get help with your investments. There are several that I like and have used: https://robberger.com/best-robo-advis... However, not all automated investing services are created equal. And some that are marketed as "free" actually have some hidden costs. In this video I take a look at SoFi Automated Investing and Schwab's Intelligent Portfolios t...

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A viewer recently sent me a portfolio with nearly 20 ETFs and mutual funds. She didn't create it. An advisor from a major bank recommended it. Ridiculous. The truth is that the number of mutual funds you own tells you nothing about how well diversified the portfolio is or what types of investments you have. A single mutual fund can give an investor exposure to U.S. stocks, bonds, internationa...

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