Whenever I talk about investing with someone, risk almost always comes up at some point. Investing can be risky especially in the short-term. Life is inherently risky which means that life can certainly teach us valuable lessons about investing especially around the concept of risk.
Morgan Housel, one of my favorite authors and speakers, wrote a blog in 2020 about the most significant moment in his early life. That moment changed his perspective on risk forever and changed the way he invests. The blog is a must-read in my opinion. Get a tissue ready! Find the blog here.
How to Buy Treasury Bills
To combat inflation, the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates at an alarming rate. This has sent significant shocks to the stock market over the past 9 months. The S&P 500 is down 25% year-to-date. Much of this is related to those higher interest rates. It makes bonds more enticing to investors, slows the housing market and consumer money access, and makes it harder and more expensive for businesses to fund their growth.
I’ve talked about the I-bonds opportunity in the past. The rate remains at 9.62% until the end of the month. These bonds need to be purchased on October 29th to lock-in that rate. The new rate will likely be 6.48%, but we won’t know for sure until November.
Short-term treasuries are looking more and more enticing. The rates for 1-month sit at 3.2% and 1-year rates are at 4.5%. This is substantially higher than banks will give for certificates of deposit (CDs). The process is a bit different, but should produce a better return with essentially no risk. Find a great explanation of how to buy here.
Getting a Tech Job without a Degree
The conventional wisdom is that you need to have a college degree to get a good-paying job especially in tech. This simply is not true anymore. The need for tech workers is very high and the skills needed are constantly changing. Companies are providing so many resources to help people switch careers so they can have more workers. Getting certifications in tech can help put you on a path to a new high-paying career.
Salesforce provides free access to their learning platform to help people prepare for certifications. The need for qualified workers who know the Salesforce platform is high. Get started at https://trailhead.salesforce.com/. Many of these jobs pay very well.
The cloud also has a very high need for workers with many paths to learning the needed skills. https://acloudguru.com/
Please respond to this newsletter for more details and resources for how to approach this career change.