Short answer: Almost certainly not. The Wall Street Journal was out with a piece this morning, which describes a new product from mortgage lender Better.com that will allow Amazon employees to use their personal holdings of Amazon shares/RSUs as collateral for home purchases. If you’re an Amazon employee, should you consider kicking the tires on this new product if you are looking to buy a home? It’s pretty simple: I really don’t think you should do that. Despite the stock being down. Despite this crazy housing market. Despite interest rates skyrocketing. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons to not to use your Amazon stock or RSUs as collateral for a mortgage: Here’s why you should consider using …
GET or DreamAhead for College Savings? Choose Neither
It’s (still) a mess, and Washington state taxpayers should be pissed. I’m not going to give you a great breakdown on how to choose between Washington’s two plans, GET and DreamAhead. No, this post is a short dispatch on why you should consider other options. Let’s take a quick, 30,000-foot view of the situation: Washington really screwed up its first shot at its GET (Guaranteed Education Tuition) program, a system designed to let residents prepay for college credit as an alternate means of saving for college. To put it nicely, this made for a chaotic experience for those looking to plan for college in the state. Here’s an example of how bad things were: So, yeah, that wasn’t good. Then …
Should You Buy Uber? You Probably Won’t Have a Choice
Uber shares for everyone! Love them, or hate them, Uber is out of the gate and now trades publicly on the New York Stock Exchange. It was the ninth-largest IPO ever. As with any hot new public offering of shares, many investors want to know if they should get a piece of the action. The verdict: If you own any kind of passive index fund, you’re going to own it. (And if you choose not to own index funds, then I wish you luck in your uphill battle) The same goes for any other mega-IPO. These companies debut at huge valuations and will be added to indexes, like the S&P 500, within their first year of trading. Remember Facebook a …
About That “Consider Firing Your Male Broker” Op-Ed
Hopefully you’ve also fired your Mail Broker by now. Stamp prices are at record levels this week and he’s just sitting around doing nothing about it! This aggression cannot stand. In all seriousness, I’m actually referring to the controversial New York Times opinion piece penned by a financial advisor in New Orleans this month. To sum it up, she makes the case to fire your “male broker.” Wading into this topic is fraught with peril, but I’ll do it anyway because it’s my blog. Don’t mistake my maleness for generating my reaction. It’s my status as a fellow fiduciary fee-only advisor (and also a fellow CFA Charterholder!) that draws out my serious criticism here. Ms. DuQuesnay says she didn’t write …
Q4 Client Letter
2018 wasn’t an awesome year for investors. Let’s chat about it.