Mortgage Blog

The month of May passed so quickly, and we were back and forth between those schools my daughter applied. And sometimes, the final decision is very simple: we just want to be close to my daughter so that she can stay in California. This is a very obvious reason, and we di not realize it until the last minute.

I asked my daughter another question yesterday, will she be regret since she did not go to Cornell, RISD, CMU or USC? And she said that there is no chance of "do-over", she will just take advantage of what UCLA offers.

There are a survey to some retirees: if they had a do-over, what would they do for the retirement planning? Here are some of the answers:

1)I knew about the "Rule of 72", I wish I could invest in low-cost Vanguard funds earlier

2)After losing a huge sum when the .com bubble bburst, I realized that I had no idea what I was going and that it was not working. I wish I could read Bill Bernstein's book: The intelligent Asset Allocator earlier. I am on my way to a very comfortable retirement path now.

3)I wish I could rebalance my portfolio every a few years.

4)The lesson I learned was make a plan and stick with it. I purchased Cisco and Harley in 1993, and kept them for 10 years, and I funded all my kid's education with those two stocks. Another lesson: do not trade too much. You will pay the hefty fees.

5)I regret that I was not "brave" enough to invest in stock market when I was young. I should invest aggressively.

6)I have enough savings for my retirement, my biggest regret is not investing in long-term care insurance when it was more affordable.

7)Our biggest mistake was buying/moving to a different house every three years until we ended up in a large place with great amenities. Our net worth is in the mid/upper seven figures as we turn 66, but would have been twice or three times that if we had put more into Vanguard index funds and less into lifestyle.

And there are more and more interesting stories.