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Composer: An Investment Platform For The Future

Published: 08/31/2022 by Financial Samurai 6 Comments

With heightened stock market volatility, more investors are looking for ways to hedge their portfolios or find some way to outperform the broader indices. Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to interview Ananda Aisola, the co-founder of Composer, a new investment platform.

For 13 years I worked in the equities department at two major investment banks. And since 2001, I’ve lived in San Francisco, the tech startup capital of the world. Hence, whenever there is an equities-related startup, I’m intrigued!

Equities account for roughly 30 percent of my net worth. Of the 30 percent, roughly 75 percent is invested in index funds. The remaining 25 percent is invested mostly in individual stocks.

First, a brief overview of Composer, a Financial Samurai sponsor. We’ll then go through a Q&A with its co-founder, and then I’ll end with Composer’s equity outlook over the next 12-24 months.



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NewRetirement Updates And New Features: A Great Retirement Planner

Updated: 09/15/2022 by Financial Samurai 30 Comments

What is the one thing you can do today to ensure better financial decision making, habits, and outcomes? You can build and maintain a holistic financial plan. And one way to do that step-by-step is using the NewRetirement Planner.

It’s been over 1.5 years since I did my first review of their platform. So I reached out to their team to get some updates on their growth and new features, highlighted below. They’ve made some notable enhancements that are worth checking out. NewRetirement is one of the best retirement planners today.

What does their software do exactly? With the NewRetirement Planner, you get to take financial wellness into your own hands. Their powerful tool enables you to track all of your accounts (savings, stocks, real estate investments, crypto, and more) in one place. But, the system goes way beyond savings and investments.

You can use their technology to keep track of and strategize your time, income, taxes, debt, goals, insurance, benefits, and more. The tool can also help you find your path to the future you want.

It’s up to you to follow (or break) every rule in the book as appropriate to your values and priorities. NewRetirement is a Financial Samurai sponsor.



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Fundrise Innovation Fund Review: Disrupting Venture Capital

Published: 07/27/2022 by Financial Samurai 17 Comments

The Fundrise Innovation Fund is a new fund investing in mid-to-late-stage private tech companies. More broadly, the fund intends to focus on companies within specific sectors that have strong macro tailwinds, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. The goal is to invest in long-term trends that expand over the next several decades.

Since 2010, Fundrise has focused on disrupting the commercial real estate market. Now they see an opportunity to disrupt the venture capital market.

I was surprised when I first heard Fundrise was launching a venture capital fund. My first thought was this didn’t seem like a logical move. After all, Fundrise’s expertise lies in real estate, especially investing in Sunbelt single-family and multi-family properties.

David Packard, of the computer company Hewlett-Packard, once said, “More companies die from indigestion than starvation.” His idea being that if a company acquires too large of a company or too many companies, the acquiring company’s management could lose its focus. Too many integration issues and moving parts could cause problems.

But after listening to Ben Miller describe his vision (Apple podcast) and touching base with the Fundrise team, I’m more enthusiastic about where the Fundrise Innovation Fund will go. After all, Fundrise is starting this new tech fund initiative from the ground up.



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Masterworks Performance Review And 2022+ Art Market Outlook

Published: 06/08/2022 by Financial Samurai 17 Comments

As a partner with Masterworks for the past few years, I’ve been following their growth in recent years. It’s been a while since I’ve published a deep dive on the company. So this post provides an update on their Masterworks performance, growth, track record, and explains how art could help improve your portfolio.

Masterworks is an art investing platform. It was founded in 2017 and began launching offerings through the SEC in 2019.

I first connected with CEO Scott Lynn in 2020 and caught up again in 2022 with the Masterworks team to get many updates for this performance review. Now let’s jump right in.



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What’s New At CrowdStreet? Commercial Real Estate Outlook 2022

Updated: 07/07/2022 by Financial Samurai 13 Comments

Investing in commercial real estate entails substantive risk. You should not invest unless you can sustain the risk of loss of capital, including the risk of total loss of capital. All investors should consider their individual factors in consultation with a professional advisor of their choosing when deciding if an investment is appropriate. An investment in a private placement is highly speculative and involves a high degree of risk, including the risk of loss of the entire investment. Private placements are illiquid investments and are intended for investors who do not need a liquid investment.

During times of uncertainty, I prefer owning real assets. Roughly 50% of my passive income comes from physical rental properties and investments in private commercial real estate.

Therefore, I thought it would be an opportune time to reach out to CrowdStreet for an update on how they closed out 2021 and their views on the commercial real estate market going forward. CrowdStreet is one of the leading real estate investing platforms today and a Financial Samurai sponsor.



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RealtyMogul Overview 2022: Platform Improvements And New Initiatives

Published: 05/06/2022 by Financial Samurai 13 Comments

Several years ago, I had lunch with Jilliene Hellman, CEO and Founder of RealtyMogul in San Francisco. Back then I was impressed with her in-depth knowledge of commercial real estate. Further, I liked her focus on building a sustainable business versus having a “growth at any cost” type of mentality.

Given it’s been a while, I thought it would be a good idea to do another deep-dive into RealtyMogul’s platform. For investors looking to earn passive real estate income, a lot has changed in the past couple of years for the better.



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FarmTogether Review: A Sustainable Farmland Investment Manager

Updated: 01/05/2023 by Financial Samurai 27 Comments

Waianae Mountain Range
Waianae Mountain Range

My grandfather used to own a small, 8-acre fruit and plant farm on the western side of Oahu. It was a magical place nestled next to the majestic Waianae mountain range. The farm was part of his retirement income strategy as he rented out a portion of the land to his neighbors who grew green onions.

When I was going through my quarter-life crisis in 2001, I thought about quitting finance altogether and moving to my grandfather’s farm to help him maintain the crops. I longed for a simple life where I’d clear the brush and water the trees in the early morning, eat mangos and papayas for brunch, take a midday nap, box up the fruit to sell at the local grocery store, and then go surfing in the early evening before coming home.

Unfortunately, I never made the move. And as my grandfather grew older, the weeds started to overtake much of the plantation and we eventually sold the property. In retrospect, I wish I had at least taken a sabbatical to live on the farm and help out my grandfather.

Given my connection with farming, I was intrigued when Artem Milinchuk, founder of FarmTogether, asked if he could sponsor me to do some research about the benefits of farmland investing. Here’s a post about what I learned about the asset class. Here is my FarmTogether review for 2021 and beyond.



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How To Avoid Financial Fraud And Protect Your Investments

Published: 02/09/2022 by Financial Samurai 7 Comments

Are you aware of the risks you take online? Nearly half the U.S. population was impacted by identity fraud and financial fraud in 2020, responsible for $56B in losses. And the truth is, you’ve never been a bigger target.

Technology is woven into our lives. From remote work to shopping to banking, we can send/receive money and share sensitive information at the touch of a button. But behind the convenient reality of the digital age lurks a dark underbelly of hackers and sophisticated con artists. 

Everyone wants to protect their children, families, and financial assets from scammers. Unfortunately, modern-day con artists have grown to become more advanced. With various types of manipulation style phishing and brute force password attacks, hackers don’t need much to steal your data, access your online accounts, and wipe out your finances.

Avoiding financial fraud isn’t easy, but it’s achievable. It’s time to get familiar with what you’re up against. Read on to find out how to avoid financial fraud and protect your investments.

The following is a guest post from Aura, a leading identity and financial fraud protection company.



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Empower Review 2023: Best Personal Finance Tool

Updated: 03/01/2023 by Financial Samurai 66 Comments

I’ve been using Empower’s free financial tools, previously know as Personal Capital, to track my net worth, manage my cash flow, and optimize my investments since 2012. Let me share with you the most thorough and honest Empower review about their free financial application.

From 2013 – 2015, I was also a consultant for the firm. Therefore, I have intimate knowledge of their people, their technology, and their product. I still keep in regular contact with all the senior management.

It’s my belief that Empower Personal Capital is hands down the best free financial tools platform you can find online. It helps you manage your finances and achieve a more secure retirement. I’ve tried everything from Excel, to Mint, a plethora of other financial apps, and nothing comes close to Personal Capital’s tools.

With the Empower Personal Dashboard, you can do the following things for free:

  • Automatically track your net worth
  • Analyze your investment portfolios for excessive fees
  • Analyze your investment portfolios for proper asset allocation
  • Track and manage your income and expenses
  • Run various retirement planning calculations to ensure a better financial future

Empower Personal Capital currently has $1.3 trillion plan assets administered and $284+ billion in assets under management. And over 17.8 million Americans trust Empower with their finances to create the future they want. This amount is a testament to their money management capabilities and product offerings.

Their competitive advantage is that they built their company from the ground up with technology at its core. As a result, they are much more flexible in tailoring offerings to meet consumer demand. Let’s move onto the detailed Personal Capital review.



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Titan Review: A Modern Way To Invest Your Money

Updated: 04/04/2022 by Financial Samurai 30 Comments

Looking ahead, the investing landscape seems more difficult, especially after three robust years of equity returns. More capital preservation strategies should be considered. At the same time, corporate earnings are still growing. Further, the long-term trend for stocks is up and to the right.

What is a person who doesn’t want to actively manage their money, but who also wants to hedge against downside risk to do? Find an investing platform that does these things.

In 2021, I was introduced to Titan Global Capital Management (Titan) by an old VC friend of mine, Mark G. He was an early investor in Personal Capital and acted as their CMO for several years. Mark and I actually overlapped at Personal Capital for a couple of years while I did some consulting.

Given Titan was founded only three years earlier in February 2018, I decided to see how they’d do for another year before sharing their work. I’m happy to say they’ve grown tremendously. Further, I think the timing is right to talk about their product now as the markets get more volatile.

Titan is an investment platform bringing premier, active investment management to everyone. Here’s Titan sharing their value proposition in their own words.



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Top Product Reviews

  • Fundrise review (real estate investing)
  • Policygenius review (life insurance)
  • CIT Bank review (high interest savings and CDs)
  • NewRetirement review (retirement planning)
  • Empower review (free financial tools and wealth manager, previously Personal Capital)
  • How To Engineer Your Layoff (severance negotiation book)

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