But today I received an email saying that it’s just around the corner, and this is great news. Now Joe Average can start to purchase pieces of Amazon, Tesla, Wal Mart, whatever, without having to have thousands of dollars to invest.

Ten bucks? Fifty bucks? Yeah, that’ll get you a piece.

And that’s awesome news for many.

I’ve become a huge fan of M1 Finance for this reason, plus the fact that it auto-adjusts with the market, and I get to watch my money grow over time.

As of now, you can get in line for the beta release of the fractional share capability – here’s link. When I got in line, I was the 289,642 person. So get over there quick!

The post RobinHood Introduces Fractional Shares appeared first on Will Hanke.

About M1 Finance

This app is mostly for investing in stocks, and I believe it’s for beginners as well as more seasoned individuals. The app is available on both iPhone/iOs and Android devices. Setting up an account is easy. The initial investment is $100, which I didn’t know when signing up, but it wasn’t a big deal. Hooking up your bank is easy and future transfers are a breeze.

The system only makes trades once a day. They promote ‘time in market’ over ‘timing the market’, meaning they look at investing as a long term strategy, and not a day to day check-your-numbers game. I’m of that mindset as well.

Sign up to M1 Finance here (aff)

Webinar Cons

They started 7 minutes late.

The sound was bad, the speaker was very quiet (had to turn my sound to MAX).

The platform was constantly buffering. I’m on a hard ethernet line and not wireless. No other problems with my connection. To be sure, I also connected to the webinar via my cell phone, not on wifi, and I had the same problems, so I’m pretty sure this was at their end.

Chat was disabled so I couldn’t even alert them to the poor sound or connection quality.  If they were recording it, I hope it was local, because the online version sucked.

Webinar Pros

The webinar (what I could understand of it) was pretty simplistic, explaining how to get started with the app. I’m a big fan of the app because of the ability to buy microshares, something that RobinHood (aff) does not let you do.

Also as a beginner, I’m a fan of the auto-investing feature, which lets me build certain risk percentages and then they invest the money I put in automatically. Yeah, I’m at the mercy of the system, but at this stage of my investing career I’m ok with that. It beats the nothing I’ve done for the last 30+ working years.

M1 does let you also automatically reinvest any extra cash that you have in your account. This typically happens when you own stocks that pay out dividends. You can opt to keep that money in an account (not invest it), automatically reinvest it (seems like this is the most sensible option), or reinvest after a certain threshhold.

Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of pros to go through because the quality was so poor that it timed out, and I didn’t want to keep chasing it down to listen. Hopefully they can redo it, or better yet pre-record it and let their users download it at their convenience.

Summary

While I’m new to investing, I often wonder why some of the financial gurus promote the fact that M1 is a more sophisticated investing tool to use. I’m a noob and found it easy to understand. Put money in, build your pie, and it does its thing. Maybe I’m too simplistic but I think for most new investors that just want to get something going, M1 is a great tool and easy to comprehend.

I have opted to fund my M1 Finance account over the next year because of the ability to do microshares, and I’ve stopped funding my RobinHood account for the opposite reason.

To get a free $10 to invest when you start a new M1 Finance account, click here.

To get a free stock via RobinHood, click here.

The post Review: Introduction to M1 Finance Webinar appeared first on Will Hanke.

Good news it, my business is doing well and because of the systems we’ve built, and the people I’ve hired, I have more free time to do things like this.

I’ve missed having a blog that’s not necessarily about just SEO. I’ve been blogging on the RCM site for around 8 years now, pounding out a ton of content.

Funny thing is, it still ranks well, and brings in decent traffic. Not bad for basically being abandoned for 6 years.

I did use the hiatus to do a few fun little SEO tests, including getting a few PBN links (which did bump the site’s ranking about a million points in aHrefs for a short time, and got me to page one of Google for some good SEO terms) but that was about it.

Nonetheless I’m back, and will be blogging mostly around business, finance, my kids (and grandkids), and probably other random things. I’ll probably share some good business tips from time to time, too.

For what it’s worth, this new theme is The7 from ThemeForest. I’ve probably built a good 30+ websites on this theme, and along with Avada that number is probably closer to 50. I love the diverseness of the theme, and with the new The7 Convert Plus built in I can now cancel my OptinMonster account, as it builds CTAs right on the site, and integrates nicely with ActiveCampaign.

The post Site Revamp – It’s About Time! appeared first on Will Hanke.

At 46 years old, I’ve always heard that credit cards are bad, bad, bad. Because of that, I’ve avoided them like the plague. I’ve had one or two over the years, but didn’t manage them well, and they damaged my credit. So I’ve always avoided them, and probably for the right reasons – they can be a great way to get into more debt, and never get out.

And until a mere three weeks ago, that’s what I’ve always thought. The finance gurus tell you to pay them off and cut them up, so I just figured they were best avoided altogether.

About a month ago, though, I decided to take a more proactive approach to my finances.  I’ve always been really bad at finance. I can program computers, rank websites high on Google using really technical algorithms and techniques, but when it came to finances my brain shut down. I told myself I just couldn’t (and wouldn’t ever) understand it.

But enough of the excuses. Like it or not, you have to know what your money is doing.

And for me, it was really doing very little. You could even say it was unemployed.

Luckily I started watching videos on financial freedom and education. In particular, I’ve learned a lot about debt weapons from Matt Pillmore at VIP Financial Education, and a few others. It seems like most of these gurus like real estate, but I’m no where near thinking about that.

I just want to pay my bills on time and have money at the end of the month.

Ok, back to credit cards.

The ‘trick’ I learned a few weeks ago is to use your credit cards as a way to pay your bills AND increase your credit at the same time. It’s so simple, I can’t believe I never knew it.

I literally sat in my front room, mouth open, as I watched Laura Pitko explain the how I can pay my mortgage off in 5-7 years, and difference between revolving and static accounts.

Moving money, debt weapons, etc. It blew my mind.

How can a guy, at 46 years old, not know this? That was the most embarrassing part. All these years and I’ve never heard of this. It’s so simple. Can finances really be that simple? (well, no, but since it was dumbed down I finally got it)

And how do people that know this not share it? Or did I just not hear it until I decided to? My friend told me last week that he’s known this since his 20’s. He’s never paid a cent in interest on a credit card and has a great credit score, I’m sure.

As an aside, he told me that the banks call people that pay their credit cards each month deadbeats. Interesting how they use mind games to make you feel bad for doing what’s right (and bad for them).

The other thing about being this age and just learning it is that I may have missed my opportunity to teach it to my kids. They’re in their 20s, have established credit, and are playing the same game we did all those years. It’s my hope that I can continue to learn the real game and teach them, so if nothing else they don’t have to struggle for as many years as we have.

The post I Finally Got My Financial Education at Age 46 appeared first on Will Hanke.

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Nothing.

No, I mean it. Nuh-thing.

You see, there’s something that happens inside when you become a parent. I wouldn’t call it strange, or weird, it’s just…well, different.

In an instant, whether you feel it or not, everything changes.

No matter what your plans were before, how many mountains you were going to climb, those promotions you were going to seek, or those salaries you were going to make, they all fall to a distant second behind making your child happy.

And for the most part, in most homes, I’d say as they grow up they’re happy.

As a toddler they cry for ice cream or a cookie and you get it. Happiness accomplished.

When they hit middle school and someone breaks their heart for the first time, you want nothing more than to restore happiness with a hug and a “it’ll be ok”.

Restoring happiness is always the goal.

Yeah, there are other goals along the way. Soccer championship. Saving enough for a car. Meeting the right mate. Buying a home.

But if you look at those, their core driver is still happiness.

When they turn into young adults, and life kicks them in the ass, you still want to step in. Its what good parents do.

Or want to do.

At some point, they’ll have to start choosing their own happiness.

They’ll be making decisions that affect their happiness, and you’ll just be an observer.

What a crock.

This position between letting them grow up and you stepping in to restore happiness is one no parent desires.

Do they really have to learn these lessons? Do they really have to go through this?

Yes, of course they do.

And they’ll be better for it.

But it hurts.

It hurts because their happiness is your fuel. It’s your reason for being. Its the only thing that makes the universe right.

Without it, things are askew. Your life is off kilter.

Even our last moments on earth are yet another point in their life when unhappiness could abound.

They’ll be unhappy because their lifelong defender will have gone away.

Is there anything we can do about that?

Not at that moment, no. Its too late.

But if we do it right, I think we can leave them in a way that also makes them happy. We can teach them truths that give them freedom from fear, their future, and even death.

And if we teach them those things, I believe they’ll always be happy.

And that means our mission will have been accomplished.

The post Happiness is the Goal appeared first on Will Hanke.