I Will Teach You to Be Rich, Second Edition: No Guilt. No Excuses. No BS. Just a 6-Week Program That Works

Vanguard offers funds with names like “Target Retirement 2040,” “Target Retirement 2045,” and “Target Retirement 2050.” The main difference among these funds is how they’re allocated: The larger the number (which represents the year you’ll retire), the more equities (stocks) the fund has.

I urge you to stick by tried-and-true rules, like 20 percent down, a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, and a total monthly payment that represents no more than 30 percent of your gross income.

Some companies call them “target date” funds, while others call them “target retirement” or “lifecycle” funds. They’re all the same thing.

ideally the total price shouldn’t be much more than three times your gross annual income.

If you have a big pile of money to invest, what’s the better option: Dollar-cost averaging it or investing the entire lump sum all at once? The answer might surprise you. Vanguard research found that lump-sum investing actually beats dollar-cost averaging two-thirds of the time. Because the market tends to go up and stocks and bonds tend to outperf

Divide the number 72 by the return rate you’re getting, and you’ll have the number of years you must invest in order to double your money. (For the math geeks among us, here’s the equation: 72 ÷ return rate = number of years.)

Think of savings accounts as places for short-term (one month) to mid-term savings (five years).

Don’t make the first offer. That’s their job. If they ask you to suggest a number, smile and say, “Now come on, that’s your job. What’s a fair number that we can both work from?”

You could cut your monthly expenses down to $3,000.