Eric Tyson

Cheat Sheet / Updated 10-17-2024

Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and real estate — the allure of earning high returns from these investments gets people’s attention. However, folks also hear about the risks involved in chasing those greater potential returns when investing. Before you set out to invest, you must get your financial house in order and increase your knowledge to make your best investing decisions. The following list summarizes 20 key themes and actions that can help make you a successful investor.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 09-25-2024

Whatever reason you have for selling your business — finances, family, fatigue — you'll want to assemble the right group of professionals to assist you through the sale process, know which essential documents to have on hand, and understand how to value your business assets to ensure a successful sale.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 08-12-2024

If you’re searching for some helpful advice on how to manage your personal finances, congratulations! You’ve found it! If you’re like most Canadians, words like debt, RRSP, and credit score aren’t music to your ears. But no matter how much money you have, or how much you know about personal finance, there are many ways you can take charge of your money to improve your financial health. The following articles show you how, offering tips to help you tackle debt, understand RRSPs, and improve your credit score.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 05-07-2024

Taxes are a part of life. Love them or hate them (okay, no one loves paying them!), everyone has to deal with them. The Reducing Your Taxes For Dummies Cheat Sheet is here to help guide you with some straightforward strategies to reduce your taxes.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 05-07-2024

From searching for a business to buy, getting your finances in order to managing and marketing and everything in between, the world of small business can be both exciting and overwhelming. If you’re thinking about buying and running a business, check out the following list of tips to improve your chances of success.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 04-12-2024

From managing to marketing and everything in between, the world of small business can be both exciting and overwhelming. It’s a place where no two workdays are exactly the same and where unpredictable things happen. If you’re thinking about starting (or you already run and manage) your own business, check out the following list of tips to improve your chances of success.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 11-21-2023

Taxes are a part of life. Love them or hate them (okay, no one loves paying them!), everyone has to deal with them. The Taxes For Dummies: 2024 Edition Cheat Sheet is here to help guide you through tax challenges with some straightforward strategies.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 09-05-2023

A lot of financial advice ignores the big picture and focuses narrowly on investing. Because money is not an end in itself but a part of your whole life, connecting your financial goals to the rest of your life is important. You need a broad understanding of personal finance to include all areas of your financial life: spending, taxes, saving and investing, insurance, and planning for major goals such as education, buying a home, and retirement. The following keys to success aren’t a magic elixir, but they can help you get started thinking about the big picture.

Article / Updated 08-23-2023

Investing appears to be complicated and complex. But if you can take some relatively simple concepts to heart and adhere to them, you can greatly increase your success. Here are ten time-tested principles of investing success. Following these principles will pay you big dividends (and capital gains) for many years to come. Regularly save and invest 5 percent to 10 percent of your income Unless you enjoy a large inheritance, you should consistently save 5 percent to 10 percent of the money you’re earning. When should you start doing this? As soon as you begin earning money on a regular basis. Preferably, invest through a retirement savings account to reduce your taxes and ensure your future financial independence. You can reduce both your current federal and state income tax bills (on the contributions) as well as these ongoing bills (on the investment earnings). The exact portion of your income you should be saving is driven by your goals and by your current financial assets and liabilities. Take the time to crunch some numbers to determine how much you should be saving monthly. Understand and use your employee benefits The larger the employer, the more likely it is to offer avenues for you to invest conveniently through payroll deduction, and with possible tax benefits and discounts. Some companies enable you to buy company stock at a reduced price. Often, the most valuable benefit you have is a retirement savings plan, such as a 401(k) plan that enables you to make contributions and save on your current income taxation. Also, after the money is in the account, it can compound and grow over the years and decades without taxation. If you’re self-employed, be sure to establish and use a retirement plan. Also take time to learn about the best investment options available to you — and use them. Thoroughly research before you invest The allure of large expected returns too often is the enticement that gets novices hooked on a particular investment. That’s a whole lot more appealing than researching an investment. But research you must if you want to make an informed decision. Be sure you understand what you’re investing in. Don’t purchase any financial product that you don’t understand. Ask questions and compare what you’re being offered with the best sources I recommend. Beware of purchasing an investment on the basis of an advertisement or a salesperson’s solicitation. Shun investments with high commissions and expenses The cost of the investments you buy is an important variable you can control. All fees must be disclosed in a prospectus, which you should always review before making any investment. Companies that sell their investment products through aggressive sales techniques generally have the worst financial products and the highest fees and commissions. Invest the majority of your long-term money in ownership investments When you’re young, you have plenty of time to let your investments compound and grow. Likewise, you have time to recover from setbacks. So with your long-term money, focus on investments that have appreciation potential, such as stocks, real estate, and your own business. When you invest in bonds or bank accounts, you’re simply lending your money to others and will earn a return that probably won’t keep you ahead of inflation and taxes. Avoid making emotionally based financial decisions Successful investors keep their composure when the going gets tough. You need the ability and wisdom to look beyond the current environment, understanding that it will change in the months and years ahead. You don’t want to panic and sell your stock holdings after a major market correction, for example. In fact, you should consider such an event to be a buying opportunity for stocks. Be especially careful about making important financial decisions after a major life change, such as marriage, the birth of a child, a divorce, job loss, or a death in your family. Make investing decisions based on your plans and needs Your investment decisions should come out of your planning and your overall needs, goals, and desires. This requires looking at your overall financial situation first and then coming up with a comprehensive plan. Don’t be swayed and influenced by the predictive advice offered by various investment pundits or the latest news headlines and concerns. Trust that you know yourself and your financial situation better than anyone else does. Tap information sources with high-quality standards You need to pare down the sources you use to keep up with investing news and the financial markets. Give priority to those that aren’t afraid to take a stand and recommend what’s in your best interests. The public clearly has an appetite for opinion shows; on the political left, you have programs on CNN and MSNBC. On the political right, FOX has some popular conservative opinion shows. Political partisans distort the news rather than report the news, and they prevent you from better understanding what’s really going on so you can make informed decisions. Political partisans overstate the impact that the president and others can have over our economy and financial markets. Stay away from outlets that cater to advertisers or are driven by an ideological agenda. Trust yourself first Look in the mirror. You’ll see the best financial person you can hire and trust. What may be missing is enough education and confidence to make more and better decisions on your own, which this book can assist you with doing. If you need help making a major decision, hire conflict-free advisors who charge a fee for their time. Work in partnership with advisors. Never turn over or abdicate control. Invest in yourself and others Don’t get so wrapped up in making, saving, and investing money that you lose sight of what matters most to you. Invest in your education, your health, and your relationships with family members and friends. Having a lot of money isn’t worth much if you don’t have your health and people with whom to share your life. Give your time and money to causes that better our society and our world.

Article / Updated 08-15-2023

Having a sense of what you own (your assets) and what you owe (your liabilities) is important because it provides some measure of your financial security and your ability to accomplish financial goals such as buying a home, starting a business, or retiring someday. Define net worth Your net worth is quite simply your financial assets (for example, bank and investment accounts) minus your financial liabilities (debts such as student loans and credit-card debt). Net worth does not refer to personal possessions. Your car, clothing, television, computer, and other personal items all have some value, of course. If you need to sell them, you could get something for them on Craigslist or eBay. But the reality is that you're unlikely to accumulate personal items with the expectation of later selling them to finance such personal goals as buying a home, starting a business, retiring, and so forth. After all, these things are investments that decline rapidly in value after purchase and use. Figure what you own: Financial assets To calculate your financial assets, access your bank statements and investment account statements, including retirement accounts and any other documentation that can help you. You may have only one or two accounts, and that's fine. Add up all the values of these accounts to find out what you own. It's common for most young adults to be in the early stages of accumulating assets. This book helps you change and improve upon that. In addition to excluding personal property and possessions because folks don't generally sell those to accomplish their personal and financial goals, you also probably should exclude your home as an asset if you happen to own one. (You can include it if you expect to downsize or to rent in retirement and live off of some of your home's equity.) One exception to something that isn't generally thought of as a financial asset, which you may or may not want to include in this category. Some people have valuable collections of particular items, be they coins, sports memorabilia, or whatever. You can count such collections as assets, but remember that they're only real assets if you'd be willing to sell them and use the proceeds toward one of your goals. Determine what you owe: Financial liabilities Most people accumulate debts and loans during periods in life when their expenditures exceed their income. You may have student loans, an auto loan, and credit-card debts. Access any statements that document your loans and debts and figure out the grand total of what you owe. Net the difference After you total your financial assets and your financial liabilities, you can subtract the latter from the former to arrive at your net worth. Don't worry if you have a small or negative net worth (where you have more debt than assets). There's no point wringing your hands over the results — you can't change history. And, it doesn't matter how you compare with your peers even if we can accurately define exactly who your peers are. This isn't a competition or test. But you can change the direction of your finances in the future and boost your net worth surprisingly fast to work toward accomplishing your personal goals.