← Back to timeline
Erik’s Finances

2022-12-28

Erik’s Finances

Keep at least 1 year of expenses in cash. Put that cash in a high yield savings account such as Ally (other options are Wealthfront or Robinhood). - Historically, I have kept 30% of my net worth i

Money Rules

  • Keep at least 1 year of expenses in cash. Put that cash in a high yield savings account such as Ally (other options are Wealthfront or Robinhood).
    • Historically, I have kept 30% of my net worth in cash and 70% in investments. I do not own a home.
  • Save at least 10% and invest 20% of gross annual income
  • Buy the best and keep it as long as possible; key metric: cost per use
  • Never question spending money on health, books, and appetizers
  • Discuss anything over $100 with Lauren

My Finance Stack

  • Banking
    • Ally: primary bank account with multiple checking/savings accounts, direct deposit goes here and is used as my primary high yield savings account.
    • Wells Fargo: brick-and-mortar bank account for ATM deposits/withdrawals. I have a checking account with less than $2000 here.
    • Wealthfront: most of my cash goes here, since I’m getting the highest yield for savings. I also use their automated bond ladder product.
    • Fidelity (Cash Management Account): typically keep ~$5000 in here put into SPAXX (competitive with high yield savings accounts) and offers free ATMs worldwide with their debit card
    • SoFi: testing this out
    • PayPal (for online deposits)
    • Venmo (for easy transfers)
  • Credit Cards
  • Investing
    • Fidelity (Primary): Individual, HSA, ROTH IRA, Traditional IRA, 401k
      • Max out 401k, Max out Backdoor ROTH, Max out HSA, $1000 monthly into Individual Brokerage
    • Robinhood (automatic investments into market & crypto, and options playground)
      • $20 daily into overall US market (VOO, VTI)
      • $8 daily into crypto (BTC, ETH)
    • Wealthfront (Robo Investor)
      • $250 biweekly into automatic investments
    • Carta (Stock Options Plan)
  • Tools

Extras

My Freebies

Tips

  • Vision
    • Create a financial vision board (use something like Canva) and imagine what your rich life looks like. What do you really want to do with your life?
    • Refer to Ramit’s Rich Life article rather than all of the lame vision board articles out there
  • Investing
    • Be your own financial advisor (unless your NW > $5M), saves you ~1%/year on fees
    • Max out retirement accounts (401k, ROTH)
    • Set up automatic investments into brokerage
    • Diversify investments that are not in yourself
  • Spending
    • Put a waiting period on purchases (I recommend 48 hours)
    • Cancel all unused subscriptions (use RocketMoney)

Resources

Real money stories from behind closed doors

All The Hacks: Upgrade Your Life, Money and Travel

To Add