Read any retirement planning guide, and at some point they'll talk about converting a "pile of money" into a retirement income (often referred to as a 'withdrawal rate' or 'the 4% rule'). This need to …
A 25% Bigger Raise This Year vs Last
Today's exciting post is about how your Elephant's Paycheck raises increase over time. We'll have a look at GE as a demonstration because I think we're in for some good news in December. I believe …
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What’s Your Number?
There's power in focus. If you're familiar with the activity band "craze", the Nike Fuelband (shown above) takes a different approach to "wearable fitness monitoring" technology than most of their …
Which Stock is Better, Apple or Microsoft?
When looking at Apple stock performance compared to Microsoft, people keep focusing on the wrong thing. They're looking at stock price and trying to infer if it'll grow more than some alternative. If …
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How You Can Get 15 More Pay Raises a Year
Getting more pay raises is quite simple & obvious. I'm really surprised it's not a common metric for evaluating investment performance since raises are so much fun to receive! Your Elephant's …
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The Single Most Ignored Metric by Investors
I woke up the other day to see Spectra Energy, one of the companies in our sample portfolio ((To get access to the sample portfolio, for now, you'll need to sign up for our free 10-part email …
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Million Dollar Myth
The million dollar myth, that a million dollars in the bank is "making it", seems deeply rooted in our culture. It seems a finish line of sorts. A measure of success. It is. With a million …
Introducing the Metric ‘Actual Return’
I believe we can use innovative ways of measuring our success to reinforce our motivation to save, especially when we're looking at a long time horizon (like saving for retirement). Imagine you …
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No Magic Calculations Needed
When you consider retirement, you probably think in terms of a "salary replacement" or how much money you'll need each year to have the retirement you'd like. Why then do you focus on how much …
Socially Responsible Investing is Better
I feel that many people believe that the simple act of investing is dirty. Engaging in commerce with the banks/brokerages is dealing with an enemy that should be given no quarter. What if I told …
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