Zeke Zimmerman
Need a financial planner who not only can educate you while advising you, understands your unique & holistic needs, AND lives your pain points?
Then you have GOT to contact Zeke Zimmerman.
Zeke focuses on insurance planning, savings/investment planning, cash flow management, special needs trust funding, and retirement planning.
Why is that?
Because he knows that taking care of special needs children is a lifelong journey and that there is only 1 family pot of money to manage all the needs of the entire household, so it has to be used wisely.
He also understands the pain points and importance of ensuring care is provided to your special needs loved ones for their entire lifetime.
When it comes to understanding what is important to you and your special needs family members, Zeke “gets it”.
How does he know and understand this SO well?
Because like you and me, Zeke is also a parent of an autistic child.
He appreciates firsthand the unique pressures that special needs families face in order to provide for their disabled children’s lifetime financial needs while also ensuring you take care of your own financial needs at the same time (you know, it’s like the “instructions for applying an oxygen mask on an airplane” analogy… am I right or what? 😊).
If you want to learn more about him and what he can help you with, check out his bio and contact info here.
Empower (formerly Personal Capital)
One of my favorite financial tools for money management!
This tool link all your accounts into 1 place, help you create and track budgets, monitor your retirement progress, and calculate your net worth and so much more!
Plus, Empower also a nice-looking budget dashboard that also enables you to keep tabs on your cashflow and where your money is being spent.
Lastly, Empowers also offers a suite of financial management tools enables fast and easy management of your hard-earned money AND is also a full-featured robo-platform where if you have at least $100,00 in savings you can get access financial planning professionals.
It’s a great all-in-one solution for the do-it-yourselfer.
The best part……. it’s free! The majority of what Empower offers is available with its FREE service and have a premium offering (aka you pay money to use) for its robo-advisor service.
M1 Finance
Another of my favorite investing tools!
M1 Finance allows you to setup your portfolio virtually any way you want in any configuration you want.
Through the use of “pies”, you can create custom portfolios for a variety of purposes that will automatically allocate any new investments you add to your portfolio AND are easy to setup.
Want to invest some money in stocks and some in index funds? M1 Finance can help.
Want to create a savings fund with one set of investments and an investment fund with a totally different set of investments? M1 Finance can help.
How sweet is that!
But that’s not all!
You can also setup an M1 Savings account that offers a very competitive rate.
PLUS, they have a TON of articles at your fingertips that you use to research and learn more about investing.
How can you go wrong?
Fundrise
Are you looking to get started in real estate investing but struggling to find the upfront money to place a down payment?
Do you want to own a rental but don’t have the time to vet / manage properties?
Then you’re in luck!
Fundrise can do all the vetting, deal-making, and property management for you and all you have to do is select which property(ies) you want to invest in!
The best part is you can get started for as little as $10!! Yes, that’s right, just $10 can get you started in the world of alternative investments!
It’s crowdfunding real estate at its finest!
You can add money to your account in lump sums or a little each month.
Whatever you choose is fine with them! 😊
I have been following this site for 5 years and love their philosophy, investing strategy (focuses on “Smile” states throughout the lower half of the U.S.), investment choices, and property selection.
Ben Miller (Fundrise CEO) and his team have been around for over a decade and have billions of dollars in real estate property under management.
You can select portfolios focused on growth, income, or a little of each! You can even focus on different parts of the U.S. if you choose. The selections are HUGE!
Whatever your goals are they can help!
The best part is that, in general, when the stock market is down for the year, Fundrise’ s portfolios (on average) are UP for the year!
THAT is the beauty of real estate investing. Not only does it diversify your investments, but it’s a great hedge against the stock market! 😊
Fundrise focuses their selection process on multi-family rentals, apartment-type buildings, and commercial real estate which, in my opinion, provides you the most bang for your buck.
I just started investing in real estate through them and have been pleased with my experience.
Recently, they have also started to invest in private venture capital lending. In the past, this was reserved only for those people with at least multi-million $$ in assets AND you needed to know the right people to get in on the action.
Not anymore.
Fundrise uses a similar vetting process for this private lending as well and Ben Miller, in my opinion, knows how to ask the right questions and find good deals.
Plus, the cost to get started as an individual is low. For as little as $10 you can leverage Fundrise’ s knowledge and expertise to help you get started in diversifying your portfolio today!
If interested in dipping your toe into this new crowdfunding investment (like me!) then look no further than Fundrise to get you started.
I’ll be honest, I just started researching this new investment, but I like what I am seeing and will be taking the plunge in the near future.
Arrived
If investing in apartments, multi-family unit is not for you, and you want to focus on owning single-family homes and vacation rentals then look no further than Arrived!
They are new to this segment (about 2 years) but are gaining momentum quickly!
Backed by Jeff Bezos (founder and former CEO of Amazon) and Spencer Rascoff (former CEO of Zillow), this company is growing FAST!
They are managing about $165M+ in real estate and growing.
The best part is that you can get started for as little as $100!
Plus, you invest in the actual property you select!
Just pick the property you want to invest in, select the amount you want to invest, and Arrived does all the tenant vetting, property management, and property selection.
How can you beat that?
This is another great example of crowdfunding real estate at its finest and is a great diversification from what Fundrise has to offer (more commercial and multi-family real estate offerings)! 😊
Fidelity
This is my go-to brokerage account for all my investing needs.
They have great service, great offering of account types (including options trading), good research information, AND offer a credit card that provides 2% cash back on EVERYTHING…. No Restrictions!
Plus, I have it setup so all my cash back rewards go to my Fidelity brokerage account automatically!
Then, I invest the cash back to grow my net worth (free cash is beautiful! 😊).
Vanguard
My go-to brokerage for great, inexpensive index funds.
It’s a great combination of long-time, consistent performance, choices, and value.
You can’t go wrong with that! 😊
Motley Fool
If you want to level up your stock investing knowledge and not sure where to go to start learning, then I’ve a great place for you to start!
If you want to start improving your knowledge in stock market investing and are starting from scratch, you can’t go wrong with The Motley Fool.
I started following them years ago and subscribe to their Stock Advisor flagship service to get the latest stock research and recommendations that may offer great long-term potential.
Looking for the next stock that may take off is about practicing sound fundamentals when investing in stocks and learning how to look for smaller companies that may grow in value in the near future than looking for a “hot stock to ride the wave with”.
They do NOT preach “hot stock tips” to sell. Rather, they look for companies that practice sound fundamentals, have strong leadership, a sound future vision, and offer a great product or service.
If just starting out on your investing journey and looking for a team that practices what it preaches, you can’t go wrong reading with all the articles and seeing all the YouTube videos The Motley Fool has to offer.
They offer a ton of FREE educational material to help you on your investing journey.