The Best Way to Invest $10,000 You'll Need in Five Years
There's no single best way to invest $10,000 for five years — the right mix depends on how much the number can move before you need it. Here's the mechanism.
Topic
Investing basics
13 articles.
How to Start Investing With $100 a Month (And What It Grows Into)
How to start investing with $100 a month: how the account, the automatic transfer and fractional shares actually work, plus worked examples of where the money could land over 10, 20 and 30 years.
Why the 4% Rule Breaks Down If You Retire at 45
The 4% rule was built around a 30-year retirement. Here's what changes in the math — and what actually breaks — when the horizon is 45 to 50 years instead.
How to Build a Bond Ladder That Pays Your Retirement Bills
How to build a bond ladder for retirement income: how rungs, maturities, and reinvestment turn a stack of bonds into a paycheck, plus a worked example with the math shown.
How to Stop Lifestyle Creep the Month Your Raise Hits
How to stop lifestyle creep the moment a raise lands: the automation mechanism that redirects new income before it ever touches your checking account.
Overpay a 3% Mortgage or Invest? Run These Numbers First
Is it worth overpaying a 3 percent mortgage instead of investing? Here's the mechanism behind the comparison, with worked examples you can rerun with your own numbers.
Investing Your Bonus When the Market Is at an All-Time High
How to invest a work bonus when the market is at an all-time high: what the lump-sum-vs-DCA math actually shows, and how the mechanics work either way.
How to Roll Over an Old 401(k) Into an IRA Without a Tax Bill
The mechanism that keeps a 401(k)-to-IRA rollover tax-free: direct transfers, the 20% withholding trap on indirect rollovers, and the pro-rata rule explained with worked examples.
When It's Worth Leaving Your Target Date Fund for a Three-Fund Portfolio
The mechanics of when to switch from a target date fund to a three fund portfolio: what changes, what it costs, and how the switch actually works depending on account type.
How Many Years It Takes a Roth Conversion to Pay for Itself
How long it takes to break even on a Roth conversion depends almost entirely on where the tax money comes from — and in one very common case, there is no break-even year at all. The formula and two worked examples.
Reinvested Dividends Are Still Taxed: How DRIPs Work in a Taxable Account
Automatic reinvestment doesn't defer anything. Here's how dividend reinvestment is taxed in a taxable brokerage account, how each DRIP purchase changes your cost basis, and why the same dividend inside an IRA behaves completely differently.
Withdraw From an ISA Mid-Year? Here's What Happens to Your Allowance
What happens to your ISA allowance if you withdraw money mid-year comes down to one word: flexible. Here's how the rule works, with worked examples for cash, stocks and shares and Lifetime ISAs, plus the 5 April deadline that quietly closes the door.
The #1 money mistake people make in their 30s
A raise arrives as one number and gets spent as another. The arithmetic of splitting it: what a $20,000 raise is worth after tax, what half of it becomes over 33 years, and the five ways the rule fails.