invest Archives - FIREd Up For Allied Health

The summer has come to an end so quickly! And what better way to end the summer by exploring more of Colorado, and making our way across the country to the East Coast.

Boulder, CO

We started off September going on a hike with my husband’s sister and her puppy in the mountains of Boulder! Boulder situated right along the mountainside just under 30 miles northwest of Denver. It’s a gorgeous college town, with so many hiking trails with stellar views of the city!

Denver, CO

We got to go to the Friends Experience during its tenure in Denver! We got to explore replica sets from the famous TV show. From Monica and Rachel’s kitchen, to Joey and Chandler’s living room, to hanging out on the couch in Central Perk… we felt like we were in the show!

Conifer, CO

We spent Labor Day weekend dog sitting for our friends in their home in the mountains! It was a great getaway, and we got to spend the time relaxing and being in the outdoors. The fact that hiking trails are just a few minutes away, we had to give into the temptation to go hiking. The weather was great – when there’s a heat wave in Denver, the weather in the mountains is perfect!

Orlando, FL

We made our way to Orlando for a few days to attend FinCon, a conference for personal finance creators. I learned SO much from this conference. It got me so excited to continue working on this blog and helping other allied health professionals get their personal finances in order.

Fairplay, CO

We capped our last weekend in Colorado with a weekend up in the mountains! Fairplay is about 1.5 hours outside of the city of Denver, and is known for its old timey western downtown area. We rented a house out there for the weekend, where we spent a lot of time relaxing and enjoying the peaceful outdoors.

We hiked up to Crystal Lake, which although just a moderate gradual incline, felt much harder due to the elevation. The start and end point were over 11,000 feet! But the views of the mountains were so worth it.

Kansas City, MO

We drove across eastern Colorado and all the way across Kansas to get to Kansas City, Missouri! We spent a weekend here eating our way through all the Kansas City BBQ and enjoying this small city.

The downtown area was full of cool breweries and distilleries, and the River Market area had an amazing farmer’s market held weekly! The view from the WWI memorial of the city skyline at night was a great way to cap off the weekend.

West Plains, MO

A little over 4 hours south of KCMO is the small town of West Plains, where we visited some of my husband’s family. We got to see the town where his grandpa grew up, and we learned more about his side of the family and their history. The area is lush and green and full of trees, and the local springs here are truly a gorgeous site to see. I had no idea how beautiful it is here!

Chattanooga, TN

Next we headed to Chattanooga, where we visited some of my family! My aunt enjoyed sharing her hometown with us, and took us all over the city. My uncle, a retired history professor, enjoyed sharing the history of the area with us as well.

It was nice and sunny while we were there, so we got on the pontoon and explored Chickamauga Lake! We went up to Point Park, where we got amazing views of the city of Chattanooga, and all the surrounding foothills.

We also went on a hike, where we got to see the Blue Hole and enjoy the lush, green nature of the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. Deeks enjoyed the ride, too!

As September comes to a close, we will be settled in New York City for the whole month of October. We’re looking forward to revisiting our old stomping grounds – this amazing city is where my husband and I first met 🙂

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updated September 26, 2022

As allied health professionals, we are BUSY, amirite? We don’t have time to sit at a desk all day and day trade!

And let’s be real, if you’re not in that realm (and even if you’re in that realm – cue the distain from those people lol), it’s a HUGE gamble.

Actually, most professional investors tend to not even keep up with the market in the long term. So since we can’t control the market, let’s focus on what we can control, which are the fees! And this is done by investing in index funds.

What are Index Funds?

Index funds are mutual funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that are designed to track the performance of stock market (or bond market) indices such as Dow Jones, NASDAQ, and the S&P 500.¹ So instead of hand-selecting the stocks you hold, the fund’s manager buys all (or a representative sample) of the stocks or bonds in the index it tracks.

Index funds are a form of passive investing. It puts emphases on diversifying your portfolio, and with low portfolio trading activity. This allows the risk adverse (aka, me) to let their money grow with enough return to meet their financial goals.¹ It allows you to pay low fees and brings diversification of a few asset classes. The end goal is that you hold onto this for the long term.

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A post shared by Veronica Crass, PT, DPT (@firedupforalliedhealth)

Index funds allows you to not worry about spending your precious time researching different stocks. You don’t have to pick and choose which ones you think will do well. For me, I prefer to invest as passively as possible. And this is because I’d rather spend time doing other things that I enjoy more. This is why index funds work for me!

What Is The Most Popular Index Fund?

The most popular fund that JL Collins in his book, A Simple Plan to Wealth, advocates for is the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSAX).

It is designed to provide investors with exposure to the entire U.S. equity market. This includes small-, mid-, and large-cap growth and value stocks.

Because of this broad diversification, it is a great way to diversify your portfolio in one easy fund. And you can automate putting money into it monthly, so you never have to think about it!

How Are Index Funds Fees So Low?

When John Bogle founded the investment management company Vanguard in 1975, he wanted to make investing easy and accessible to the common folk (aka, you and I). Bogle wanted to return net profits to its shareholders in the form of lower costs. So he did so by creating index funds, which eliminate sales commissions and minimizing operating expenses.¹

The average Vanguard mutual fund and ETF (exchange-traded fund) expense ratio is about 83% less than the industry average – 0.09%, while the industry average is around 0.54% . This means that over time, as your money grows, this low expense ratio is saving you thousands of dollars!

Warren Buffet even stated that, “A low-cost fund is the most sensible equity investment for the great majority of investors… By periodically investing in an index fund, for example, the know-nothing investor can actually outperform most investment professionals.”³

As a know-nothing investor, I think I’ll be taking my advice from the legendary investor Warren Buffet on investing in index funds!

Which Index Fund Do I Choose?

So I can’t tell you what to invest in (see my disclaimer below). We personally have selected Vanguard as our primary, and we took that advice from not only JL Collins, but from ChooseFI and Invest Like A Boss.

Other companies such as Fidelity have their own index funds as well, but do your own research and see what would work best for you personally. I have only highlighted Vanguard because that’s what I currently invest in and what I know the most about.

Like what you read? Check out some of my other most clicked blog posts!

If you want to learn more about investing in low cost index funds, or if you want mentoring in your finances, let’s work together to help you on your personal finance journey! Click here to sign up for your FREE 20 minute consult.

Resources:

Vicki Robin, Your Money or Your Life, Revised edition (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2018)
John C. Bogle, The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way To Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Marker Returns, 2nd edition (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2017)