I love love and index fund investing <3

Happy Valentine’s week, my loves. I hope you are pampered by your loved ones on Friday. What would I like for Valentine’s Day this year you ask? Oh, nothing much, perhaps a full night of sleep? I’d settle for a nap even.

One year my dear, dear husband bought me an extra large Big Mac from McDonald’s and honestly? I loved it. My love language is obviously rest and greasy food.

Quick question: What are you getting your spouse/partner/children? Do you go big or keep it small? I’m more of a “keep it simple” kind of gal. For me, quality time spent together is what’s most important. And chocolate. Always chocolate. I have a two year old with a peanut allergy so if I’m going the chocolate route, I like Vermont Nut Free Chocolates. High quality. Delicious. Easy for me to sneak bites when she’s not looking. They aren’t a sponsor of this newsletter, but honestly they should be because I love them.

ANYWAY!

Let’s finish our index fund investing discussion so you can get back to panicking about what to get your family for the Hallmark Holiday this week:

If you missed my deep dives into index funds, I highly suggest going back in the archive and reading the last two week’s editions.

To finish my thoughts on index fund investing, I’ll give you my general rules of thumb on this topic (Disclosure: this is for educational purposes only and not investment advice!):

1. Don’t overthink it - choose an index fund based on the goals for this pot of money, your risk profile, and the quality of the fund. Overthinking leads to analysis paralysis and the longer you wait to invest, the worse off you’ll be. The time is now!

2. Keep it low cost and low key - check out the fund’s expense ratio and how it’s performed relative to the index it’s supposed to be tracking.

3. Dollar-cost average - we haven’t covered dollar-cost averaging yet, but all it involves is investing regularly over time (aka every two weeks you put the same amount of money into your 401(k) investments - that is dollar-cost averaging!)

4. Diversification - pick broad-based index funds that will give you a good amount of diversification. More eggs in more baskets.

5. Patience - we invest for years and decades. It’s not easy, but you can’t react to every piece of news, your feelings, other people’s feelings, any tips or tricks. The key to building wealth is to regularly invest into your chosen funds. Don’t try to "time” your investments. Don’t change your investing schedule based on your fears or emotions. Keep it regimented and disciplined.

6. Index funds are for every type of account - whether you have investments only in retirement accounts (401(k), IRAs, SEPs, etc.) or in taxable accounts (individual, joint, etc.), index funds are an easy way to invest your money in most kinds of accounts without having to become an expert.

A few things you should know this week:

1. CPAs’ Advice for Tax Season

2. How Do Tariffs Actually Work?

3. This episode of Money for Couples - I love it when we can deep dive into the psychology of money and how our childhood has impacted our ability to manage money. FASCINATINGGG.

Oh hey, one more thing…I have some REALLY exciting news regarding the show I wrote Vape! The Grease Parody. On March 11th, Vape! will be on Broadway for one night only at The Town Hall!!! This is beyond my wildest dreams.

We are planning to fully open off-Broadway in May/June, but this gives us the opportunity to really test out the show to an audience of 1,500! The show will be a benefit concert, so a portion of the proceeds will be donated to charity. It’ll be star-studded event (can’t tell you who yet…it’s a secret). If you are in or around NYC on Tuesday, March 11th - please come! Tickets will be on sale very soon and I’ll be sure to post to socials and link them here. WOOHOO!

Love to love ya!

-Catie