PPP064: Excelling in Investments with Todd Tresidder

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Todd Tresidder is the man behind The Financial Mentor and has decades of experience coaching average people on how to improve and best manage their finances. If you want to learn more about investing and managing your hard earned dollars, tune into this week’s amazing episode with The Financial Mentor.

What We’re Chatting About This Week

This week we focus on a couple of important personal finance topics. Todd is a pioneer in financial coaching, moving into an industry typically dominated by financial advisors in the late 90s. His goal was to offer a separate financial education service to remove conflict of interest.

Speaking of conflicts of interest, this is a major discussion point in this week’s episode. We get into the issues with choosing an advisor who is a fiduciary, or someone who is required to put your best interests first, versus a non-fiduciary who can invest your money in a way that earns them the biggest commissions and fees.

Next, we get into the financial independence / retire early movement, known online as FIRE. Bloggers like Mr. Money Moustache are well known in this financial strategy focused on cutting expenses as low as possible so you can stretch every dollar and retire early.

Choosing the best asset classes for your unique needs comes up next, as we discuss where investors should put their money to get the best return. Of course, there is no investment perfect for everyone and your portfolio should be optimized for your goals.

Earning more versus spending less is another topic we touch in in our discussion. I’m a big fan of earning more and side hustling in addition to smart budgeting. Cutting expenses and managing your expenses is vital to long-term financial success. However, you can only cut your spending by so much and your earning potential is unlimited.

Finally, we get into the best place to start: understanding where your finances currently stand. Like me, Todd suggests looking at your finances like a business. My favorite tool for this is Personal Capital, which offers its core financial dashboard and analysis products completely free.

This Week’s Sponsor

This week features Personal Capital, which I have personally used since October 2012. Shortly after signing up, I looked at my portfolio and investment fees in the free portfolio analyzer and found I was overpaying on my fees! I made a few changes based on what I learned in my Personal Capital dashboard to save $300 per year. So far, that is worth nearly $1,500 not including investment gains. Did I mention it’s free? Give it a try today.

This Week’s Guest

Todd Tresidder is the founder of The Financial Mentor and a well regarded personal finance author and blogger. With multiple books and decades of experience as a financial coach, Todd and his site are a wonderful resource. I’m thrilled to welcome him as this week’s guest.