Blog

Pay Fewer Fees by Reverse Engineering Retirement Date Funds

Written by Adam on March 22, 2018. Updated January 8, 2023.
6 min read. Investing, Blog, Canonical. 17 Comments

This past week I was looking over the funds offered in my Fidelity 401k. A number of the funds listed are the very-easy-to-use “target-retirement” date funds. I love these funds. Mostly because they are a great place to point people to who are just getting started.

Unfortunately, when I looked at the expense ratio, it was 0.75%! Considering that a similar portfolio could be pieced together with an average expense ratio of around 0.06%, I was shocked.

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11 Mistakes Made By First-Time Investors

Written by Adam on March 19, 2018. Updated January 8, 2023.
8 min read. Investing, Blog, Canonical. 3 Comments

When I started investing after a windfall, I made a bunch of mistakes. Trying to navigate the investing landscape is daunting for a first-time investor, and I was no different. In the 12 years since I started investing, I’ve learned a lot about how to build wealth. I’ve realized that the same mistakes I made are all-too-common. Here are some of the most common mistakes that I’ve seen by first-time investors, myself included.

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Be Mindful of False Productivity

Written by Adam on March 8, 2018. Updated January 8, 2023.
4 min read. Mindfulness, Goals, Blog, adamfortuna. 2 Comments

Striking a balance between feeling productive and feeling refreshed & happy is a delicate line. Over optimizing too much of my time can lead to feeling artificially stressed, but optimizing too little can lead to feeling under accomplished. Finding the right mix that makes you feel amazing is going to be much different from person to person. One thing that is the same from person to person through is the idea of false productivity.

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Why I’m Loving Apartment Living After 35 Years in a House

Written by Adam on March 5, 2018. Updated January 8, 2023.
6 min read. Personal, Minimalism, Blog, Canonical. 23 Comments

At the end of 2018, we sold our house and moved across the country into an apartment. After owning a home for the past 11 years, and living in one growing up, the only time I’d ever lived in an apartment before was with roommates in college.

I always assumed I’d want a house. Homeownership is a path to wealth, and at first, it made financial sense to have one. What I found in those 11 years of homeownership was that I really didn’t like being a homeowner.

I knew I didn’t like being a landlord after an earlier experience, but being a homeowner was completely different – right? Turns out a number of the things I didn’t enjoy about landlording are actually just part of homeownership. After almost 3 months in an apartment, I’m absolutely loving it. Here are a few things I’m happy about.

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March 2018 Goals – Slow Movement

Written by Adam on March 2, 2018. Updated January 8, 2023.
5 min read. Goals, Blog, adamfortuna, Personal. 4 Comments

Every month I review how I did during my last month and plan out my focus for the next month. Since I do these goal posts monthly, you might want to read them all by checking out the goals category. For February, I focused on Using Everything and gave myself about a D for my efforts. I overextended myself a little too much, so March the focus is more about getting back on track. Here’s what I’m focusing on for March.

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February 2018 Goals Review – Use Everything

Written by Adam on February 28, 2018. Updated January 8, 2023.
6 min read. adamfortuna, Personal, Goals, Blog. Leave a Comment

Every month I review how I did during my last month and plan out my focus for the next month. Since I do these goal posts monthly, you might want to read them all by checking out the goals category. For February, I focused on “Using Everything” – an intentional focus to think about what I have and remove possessions, services, digital files, food and websites I visit and determine which ones I use and which ones I should stop using.

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