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anything by Rod Machado

@Will Kumley, here is a general rule that you should apply: Never fall in love with a deal. Since this is a first airplane it is especially exciting and you will be tempted to comb these responses for comments that are soothing and best-case. This is called "confirmation bias." Don't do it...

The title "financial advisor" is often misleading. Critters using that title are often just investment advisors. The typical brokerage house financial advisor is almost always just an investment advisor and of dubious quality anyway. A good financial advisor is involved with all aspects of...

+1 There are some knowledgeable people here but the forum purpose does not select for financial planning expertise. There are resources for finding advisors who are not trying to sell anything. https://www.garrettplanningnetwork.com/ is well spoken of, as are www.xyplanningnetwork.com and...

Don't put anything labeled "Radio Shack" in or on an airplane that you will fly in. I would have either chucked or returned the wire as soon as I saw the marking.

I read a board where it's common for people to agonize when the simulation gives them 95% instead of 100%. My view is that these calculators, including the Monte Carlo ones, really can only say one of three or four things, like: "Doesn't look good," "Probably OK with a little luck," and "Looks...

Agreed rel The Intelligent Investor. That's a 70 YO book and things have changed a bit. Be sure to get the edition with Jason Zweig's updating commentary.

This. When the SHTF, the lawyers sue everybody. Even if you beat it, you'll be down the road big bucks for lawyering. The sometimes-unrecognized beauty of having insurance is that they pay the lawyers. Not aviation-related but I got sued in my company one time and our insurance paid for an...

Exactly. This. $20M portfolio is still a retail investor. Add a zero and you start to talk institutional investors. I used to play around with private equity, though at the time it was called "private placements." All local stuff, deals put together by people I knew or at least knew of...

It does make a big difference, but what makes a bigger difference is intelligent asset allocation. At 35, 100% equities is a good strategy and one is young enough to ride out pretty much anything. At 55, one should be holding cash suitable for his/her retirement horizon. Retiring soon, more...

IMO thinking like this is not realistic. Every single market dip in history has been followed by a recovery. Sometimes it takes months, sometimes it takes years. I simply think of these cycles as periods when some of my money is temporarily unavailable. The only people who actually "lose"...

Yes. Also, @ Lachlan, I'd suggest this book: "The Coffee House Investor" by Bill Schultheis https://www.coffeehouseinvestor.com/ (This is Bill's first book; read it before reading his second one.) The book is very low key but does a good job of dealing with the feelings you're having. It...

With respect, why would you do that? Hedge fund fees are dropping because that majority of people have noticed that they are not good investments. IIRC CALPERS has completely eliminated hedge funds from their portfolios. With those REIT fees I'm guessing that this was not a small local deal...

Good. Interestingly, it assumes that the user has already vanquished some of the ripoff artists: "An important note: This calculator presumes you are shopping only for no-load, no-transaction-fee funds — mutual funds that don't charge a sales commission or fees for purchase or sale of shares."

Too bad they're too small to file a full 990. Income number is odd; that should be dues plus flying hours. Try subtracting out your estimate of dues and dividing by an average airplane rate to get an estimate of flown hours. Small number, I think. Why? Owners of leaseback airplanes flying...

https://www.guidestar.org/ is a great resource for checking this kind of stuff out. They have a database of all US nonprofits (not churches) and for ones large enough to file tax returns you can download the returns. These show things like expense items, whether board and officers are getting...

Yes; Nassim Taleb has written several worthwhile books though he can be kind of a lunatic at times. Quibble: Title is actually "Fooled by Randomness." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fooled_by_Randomness) Taleb's main theme in the book is the risk arising when someone has gotten lucky and...

Absolutely. That is the grandaddy of them all. That said, though, IMO the new edition of Ellis' book is the current best choice between the two.

Complex subject, obviously. This stuff is kind of a hobby of mine. One of the things I do is to differentiate "Investment Advisor" from "Financial Advisor." The former concentrate strictly on investments; often they are employed by a brokerage house. Usually they call themselves Financial...

And your point is? The IRS letter says 503(c7). End of story.