As an extension on my post about mutual funds, I think it is important to talk about a specific type of mutual fund that I do the majority of my investing in: Index Funds. As mentioned, John Bogle created the first low cost index funds and it wasn’t until late with Fidelity has anyone ever competed with Vanguards investor friendly fees. So what are low cost-index funds? So let’s break it down, an index fund is portfolio made to track a specific market index. The most common market indexes being the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and the NASDAQ. All of which we have seen at one time or another in the…
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The Power of the Mutual Fund
In memory of the great Jack Bogle, this seemed like as good of time as any to start talking about mutual funds. As the founder of Vanguard, Jack Bogle, is often credited with being the father of low cost-index funds which is a type of mutual fund. Mr. Bogle passed away this year on January 16th , 2019. So, what is a mutual fund? The best way I view a mutual fund is as a pool of money that is created from contributions from individual investors like you or me. This pool of money is then used to create a portfolio of different stocks and/or bonds managed by the mutual fund company.…
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The Dirty Math of Traveling Healthcare
To fully understand the financial benefit of traveling therapy we need to first understand the math behind the salary of a full-time physical therapist. Especially someone just starting out. I’m going to use my own math for this example, but understand, that my situation may be different than yours based on setting, location, and experience. To start, according to Payscale.com, the average entry level physical therapist makes around $66,830 before taxes. This is below my state of MN, but above other states I have worked in such as MA. I still don’t understand how you can afford the cost of living, pay off your student debt, and start out making…
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My First Assignment
My First Assignment As I mentioned here, I finally made it to South Carolina. And now…we back up in this story. Housing With travel therapy, your company will find you housing if you want them to. This definitely cuts down on the stress of finding a short-term lease while you are in a place you have never been to before. However, when this occurs, you surrender your housing stipend to your company. So, by finding my own housing, the excess money I don’t spend on housing goes into my pocket. Obviously, this was the route I chose. I began searching the normal places Craigslist, Air B&B and Zillow. Eventually, I found a place on Air B&B…
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Starting Traveling Healthcare
As I mentioned in my previous post, I had begun to become impatient in my wealth accumulation phase early on, so I began exploring other options for work. As every physical therapist or student knows, travel therapy is often viewed as a lucrative yet risky career path. Everyone has heard the horror stories of showing up to an understaffed clinic in pure chaos or hearing about the clinician who moved across the country only to be cut from their assignment and jobless. This does happen but with the right questions and communication it can often be avoided. So, I did exactly what I always do when I don’t know much about something.…
