Cole’s Simple Money Guide
A roadmap to retirement.
Disclaimer: If you know me, you know that I’ve been writing for The Ascent, a personal finance publication, for years. I’ve picked up a thing or two about managing money. I’m putting the important stuff here to hold myself accountable and make it easy to share with friends and fam.
Table of contents
Tip: use CTRL + F to jump around the page.
- Quickstart Guide 💸
- Cole’s financial strategy 🗺️
- Cole’s financial products 🏦
- Product ratings ⭐
- Cole’s top 2 books on money 📚
👋 Before we begin…
You should probably know what sort of person you’re taking cues from. ⬇️
Who: Cole Tretheway, 27 y.o., disheveled writer. Enjoys writing, despite everything. Personal finance and other things.
Goal: Retire with enough to comfortably live on.
Time horizon: Decades, barring a zombie apocalypse. 🧟🔥
How: Long-term investing, aggressive approach, highly diversified stock portfolio, mix of individual companies and ETFs. Safety net = insurance and self-insurance. Loosely follows The Motley Fool Philosophy.
Status: Self-employed and employed part-time.
Revenue streams: Contract writing, kid-sitting, reselling.
Quickstart Guide 💸
If you were to (theoretically) copy/paste my financial strategy into your own life, here’s how you could (theoretically) go about doing so.
- 🏦 Banking: Open a free checking and savings account at the same bank. Set up auto-contributions to your savings account.
- 💳 Credit Cards: Open one credit card. Pay balances in full. Over time, open more cards if and when you feel comfortable managing them.
- 📈 Investing: Open a taxable brokerage account and an IRA. Prioritize IRA contributions. Set up auto-contributions to retirement accounts.
- 🚗 Car Insurance: Insure your car with a cheap online insurer. This is likely Geico or State Farm.
- ➡️ Sending Money: Open a free Venmo account.
- 🧠 Learn About Money: Open a free Zogo account with code CHIME.
I don’t recommend copying/pasting the exact products I use because chances are, your priorities differ from mine. But, you do you. I have no clue what you need beyond the basics. If you want to copy/paste, live your best life. YOLO, RIP, etcetera.
P.S. If you’re a friend or fam, text me with your random money questions. I may not have the answers, but I probably know where to find them.
Cole’s financial strategy 🗺️
My step-by-step plan to retiring with enough to live on.
- Make more than I spend. 🧑💼
- Contribute 10% of income to IRAs and 401ks. 💰➡️
- Diversify investments across 25+ stocks and ETFs. 📈➕
Breaking it down:
1. Make more than I spend. 🧑💼
Tough to save with money I don’t have. I’d like to earn $60,000 or more annually, but making more money shouldn’t come at the expense of saving less. Fun fact: I saved more on my first low-paying job than I did on my next, higher-paying job by virtue of budgeting better. My first job paid 44k per year, and I saved about 50% of that.
Things that make earning more than I spend much easier:
- 🏠🧑🤝🧑 Living with family (and family friends). The tradeoffs are steep, but there’s no doubt I save a lot on rent. At least $6,000 yearly.
- 🚗⚡ Leasing (and then buying) a cheap hybrid car. Gas, auto loans, and insurance are much cheaper.
- 🤖💵 Turning on auto-contributions. I save at least $5,000 more yearly when I turn on auto-contributions to savings and retirement acccounts. This is money I’d otherwise be spending on food and clothes.
2. Contribute 10% of income to IRAs and 401ks. 💰➡️
10% is comfortably within the range of what a twenty-something should expect to add up to a solid retirement fund. I’m happy with it. Setting up auto-contributions (taken from my paychecks) is what makes this doable.
3. Diversify investments across 25+ stocks and ETFs. 📈➕
Diversification is key to making sure I don’t lose savings to bad luck. Anything can happen to a single company over decades, but 25+ companies? Chances are good a couple will pull through. Since a few outperformers tend to be what makes or breaks a portfolio, I’d like to increase my chances of owning them 40+ years from now.
That’s it. That’s the plan. Simple, right?
I like simplicity. It encourages me to stay committed.
And, well.
Simple strategies are easy to adapt when things go wrong. 🤷♂️
Cole’s financial products 🏦
Disclaimer: These are accurate as of August 2024. Favorite products are bolded.
Banking 💰
Credit cards 💰
Discover it, Doordash Mastercard, Amazon Prime Visa
Investing 💰
Insurance 💰
Other 💰
Pending ♾️
Retired 👎
- Chime credit builder
- U.S. Bank checking / savings accounts
- Wells Fargo checking / savings accounts
- Wells Fargo financial advisory account
Product ratings ⭐
In which I rate the products I’m using, break down pros and cons, and go over why I’m using a product despite its warts.
Banking: Chime 🏦
- Goal: Free banking with zero annoying fees.
- Product: Chime
- Satisfaction: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — mostly satisfied.
Cheap and easy banking app. I switched from U.S. Bank to Chime because it looked simple and it advertised itself as fee-free. Spoiler: It actually is fee-free. My wallet weeps with joy. Good for simple banking.
✅ Standout feature: Auto-deposits into savings account. You can enable this in the app. I auto-deposit 10% of every paycheck into my savings account, which I use to pay taxes.
❌ What could be better: Customer service is meh. The one time I called to close a secured credit card, they read from a script. Annoying. Chime successfully closed the card, but the app now displays a banner along the top. Eurgh. To get it removed, I’ll need to call customer service... Sigh.
Also, the APY is so-so. If the APY were better, and if I could open multiple savings accounts with Chime, I’d rate my app experience as very satisfied (despite weird banners).
Credit Card: Discover it Student -> Discover it 💳
- Goal: Open first-time credit card w/ strong rewards.
- Product: Discover it Student -> Discover it
- Satisfaction: ⭐⭐⭐ — barely satified.
Passable beginner-friendly credit card. I originally applied for the student version, and I was upgraded to the standard Discover it card. It’s my oldest card, and it’s served me well. That said, it no longer meets my needs. If it weren’t such a huge part of my credit history, I’d cancel it. Instead, I’ll use it just enough to keep it from falling off my credit report.
✅ Standout feature: You can apply to the Student Discover it card without a credit score. It’s great for when you’re a college student applying for your first card. Very easy application, and your limit rises automatically.
❌ What could be better: Rotating rewards are a huge pain. I can’t be bothered to keep track of the current rewards category. Doing so would be a big time-sink. Frankly, I don’t care. Which means I usually get 1% rewards when swiping the card. Unless Discover switches to flat rate rewards (and pigs fly), I’ll continue to use this card less and less.
Credit Card: Doordash Mastercard 💳
- Goal: Best possible Doordash rewards.
- Product: Doordash Mastercard
- Satisfaction: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐— very satified.
A solid card for earning Doordash rewards. The rewards are top-tier, and other Doordash-specific perks are great. Just what I was looking for. Unfortunately, I’m canceling the card anyway. It’s great for what I was looking for, but I failed to realize it would enable my Doordash spending habits. I’m canceling it so I have one less excuse to order delivery. Since this is a me problem that falls outside the scope of what I wanted from the card, I’m not factoring this into my rating.
✅ Standout feature: Great rewards at Doordash.
❌ What could be better: Honestly, it’s pretty much perfect. Sure, it comes with typical store credit card isues (rewards are crap everywhere else). But that’s fine because I only got the card for one thing — Doordash.
Credit Card: Amazon Prime Visa 💳
- Goal: Make Amazon cheaper.
- Product: Amazon Prime Visa
- Satisfaction: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ — very satified.
A solid Amazon rewards card. Since I spend so much on Amazon, I figured I might as well earn rewards for it. This card promised me rewards, and it delivers. The points are better than the competition (including what you get from the standard Amazon Visa). The cincher was that I already subscribe to Prime, a prerequisite for using the Prime Visa. Kind of a no-brainer.
✅ Standout feature: Great rewards at Amazon.
❌ What could be better: I really dislike marketing gimmicks advertised as “features.” In this case, it’s 10% back on select products when using the Visa. I’ve never come within sniffing distance of this promotion, and I use Amazon weekly. The veil is thin, Amazon.
Investing: Robinhood 📈
- Goal: Invest in stocks cheaply and easily.
- Product: Robinhood
- Satisfaction: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — mostly satified.
A cheap and easy place to buy stocks. I got lucky with Robinood. It was the first thing that came up in the App Store when I was in college (and knew nothing about stocks). Competition has grown, but it’s continued to impress me with first-of-it’s kind perks that are… (drumroll please)… actually useful.
✅ Standout feature: IRA match. Robinhood matches all your IRA deposits 1%. As a contractor, I love this. I even bought Gold, the monthly premium subscription, to increase my match to 3%. Far as I’m aware, it’s the highest match you’ll find of any brokerage.
❌ What could be better: Robinhood advertises margin accounts in the app. If you don’t know what margin is, think of it as the Devil’s wallet. Money goes in, infernal flame comes out. I’ve lost a lot of money using margin on Robinhood (my fault). I’d rather Robinhood not tempt clueless noobs into the same fate — people should not be pressured into leveraging money. I could list more things I wish Robinhood would improve, but then I’d feel obligated to list all the things it does right, and that would occupy the remainder of this page. If you want to know more, read my review.
Investing: Coinbase 📈
- Goal: Buy crypto safely.
- Product: Coinbase
- Satisfaction: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — mostly satified.
A safe place to buy crypto. Coinbase is one of the most heavily-regulated (read: safe from U.S. governement) exchanges in the world. Since so many cryptocurrencies are scammy and weird, I rely on Coinbase to vet them, which it does. The Coinbase app works but is slow and sometimes janky. It’s not cheap to buy crypto through the Coinbase app (the Pro version is cheaper), but it’s the safest and easiest way to buy crypto I’ve come across.
✅ Standout feature: Coinbase Learn. You can earn crypto by taking bite-sized lessons on the Coinbase app. It’s a neat way to check in on what’s going on in crypto and earn a couple dollars for your time.
❌ What could be better: Fees. They’re high. I get it, Coinbase is the safest crypto exchange, etcetera etcetera. Still irritating, though. I buy Bitcoin and Ethereum (my biggest crypto investments) through Robinhood because it’s cheaper. Another thing that could be improved is speed. The Coinbase app is slow to load. Not terrible, but it’s very noticeable.
Investing: Titan 📈
- Goal: Dabble in venture funds.
- Product: Titan Invest
- Satisfaction: ⭐⭐⭐⭐— mostly satified.
A brokerage with neat perks. Titan is one of the few places non-accredited investors can take stakes in private companies via ARK Venture. Since I opened an account with it, Titan has pleasantly surprised me with it’s Smart Cash product. The account APY is excellent, and I happened to be grandfathered in to a no-fee model. Call me pleased.
✅ Standout feature: Smart Cash. Smart Cash moves my money between cash reserve and high quality Treasury Money Market Funds to earn me the best rate. Basically, it optimizes my APY for me, and it does so in a way that considers what I’d earn after taxes. This saves me time I’d otherwise spend moving money between savings accounts to earn the best rate, a number that changes with the seasons (and Federal Reserve statements).
❌ What could be better: It takes time to send money from my Smart Cash account to my checking account — about 3 business days. This is usually okay, but honestly? It feels like Titan Invest is totally diconnected from the rest of my finances. For that reason, I’m not completely satisfied with it.
Insurance: Geico 🚗
- Goal: Cheapest insurance possible that covers all the basics.
- Product: Geico
- Satisfaction: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — mostly satified.
One of the cheapest insurers in California. I’ve looked — no other insurer beats Geico’s prices on car insurance, State Farm included. To be honest, I have little trust for insurers, but Geico won quite a bit after it handled my first car accident with aplomb. Filing a claim was easy, I did it all online, and, well. They got me my money back. Good enough for me.
✅ Standout feature: Easy claims filing. You can do it all online, and you get a Geico rep to text you, hold your hand, and blow you soap bubbles during the stressful claims period. Thanks, anonymous claims guy.
❌ What could be better: I barely drive. You’d think I would get a serious discount for this, but nope. Geico doesn’t do pay-per-mile insurance. A bummer, because car insurance in California is really expensive right now.
Other: Venmo ➡️
- Goal: Send money to friends and fam.
- Product: Venmo
- Satisfaction: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐— very satisfied.
An easy way to exchange money with people. It’s mostly free.
✅ Standout feature: None that I can think of?
❌ What could be better: The instant deposit fee is annoying. I’m nit-picking because Venmo does what it says on the tin, and it does so very well. I haven’t looked deeply into the Venmo non-core features, and frankly, I don’t care to.
Other: Zogo 🧠
- Goal: Learn a bit more about money.
- Product: Zogo
- Satisfaction: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ — very satisfied.
Bite-sized financial lessons on your phone. It’s free with code CHIME. I downloaded it out of curiosity and stayed for the informative content. It’s actually good, and lessons are small enough to binge. Get me my education like I get my Netflix, please and thank you.
✅ Standout feature: Leaderboards. I love seeing how I place on the leaderboards. Makes me feel like a smartypants, and more importantly, encourages me to get through lessons and stick around.
❌ What could be better: You can earn rewards exchangeable for gift cards. They’re not worth much, though. You need to put quite a few hours into the app to earn enough to get a $5 card. It doesn’t motivate me. Thankfully, the leaderboard does, and I like Zogo’s content.
Cole’s top 2 books on money 📚
I have two recommended reads:
- Atomic Habits by James Clear. It’s helped me build good, sticky financial habits (and break bad ones).
- The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. It’s helped me rethink my financial priorities. It’s both reasonable and actionable.
These are the books I return to when I’m stuck in a financial rut. I’ve found them useful, and they’re both well-written. Atomic Habits isn’t strictly about money, per se, which speaks to just how useful the damn books is. 🧠💪
Have a cookie 🍪
You’ve made it to the end. Well done, hero.
