Below are the top financial products I use or have used to help me achieve financial freedom. Each product provides an actionable solution that is synergistic to the advice I provide in my articles.
There are literally thousands of products to choose from and I’ve passed on 99% of them. Let me help you cut through the clutter by highlighting only the top financial products after hundreds of hours of research.
I’ve met with with the senior management from most of these companies given I live in San Francisco and used to travel to conferences several times a year. I believe in looking into the whites of each CEO’s eyes before making any recommendation.
With a global pandemic upon us, now is more important than ever to save money, reduce expenses, stay on top of your finances. The top financial products can help you build more wealth.
Full disclosure: all products are affiliate partners of Financial Samurai. With every sign up, Financial Samurai may be paid a referral fee.
Top Financial Products For 2022
Let’s take a look at the top financial products today to help you achieve financial independence sooner. To achieve financial independence, it’s important to optimize your investments, minimize your cost of debt, and make solid strategic career moves.
Most Attractive Investment Opportunity 2022
Fundrise – Fundrise, founded in 2012, is my favorite real estate investing platform for investors who wish to diversify their real estate exposure. Instead of concentrating your risk and money in one property, with Fundrise you invest smaller amounts of money (as little as $10) in a portfolio of properties with potentially higher returns across the entire country. The average historical range is around 8%, although investors made over 20% in 2021.
With stocks now highly volatile and valuations at the top end of the range, I much prefer investing in real estate in 2022. Real estate is tangible, less volatile, provides utility, and generates income. In an inflationary environment, real estate is my favorite asset class to own as inflation whittles down the cost of a mortgage and boosts the value of the property.
After selling my rental house in San Francisco for 30X annual gross rent in 2017, I reinvested $500,000 of the $1,800,000 proceeds in real estate crowdfunding. It is great to earn income passively and consistently, no matter the economic environment.
Most of the investments went into properties in the heartland of America to earn 100% passive income. It makes sense to arbitrage the valuation and net rental yield differentials between expensive coastal city real estate and inexpensive heartland real estate. Thanks to the pandemic, the migration out of urban areas is real.
Real estate can help shelter your investments from volatility due to the income and shelter it provides. Notice how much Fundrise outperformed in 2018 when the stock market went down.
Here were the overall returns by investment plan objective for Fundrise client accounts in 2021. Fundrise invests predominantly in single-family and multi-family rental properties.
Fundrise is free to sign up and is available for all investors – accredited and unaccredited investors alike. For most people, investing in a diversified fund is the way to go.
Best Life Insurance Marketplace 2022
PolicyGenius – In the past, you’d have to call a life insurance carrier one by one, fill out an application form, wait for a while, and not know whether the quote you received is any good or not. PolicyGenius lets you see multiple real quotes at once so you can make a more informed decision.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned during the pandemic and now a senseless war, it’s that tomorrow is not guaranteed. If you have kids and/or debt, please get at least a term life insurance policy to take care of your surviving loved ones.
During the pandemic, my wife was able to get double the amount of life insurance coverage for 30% less money using PolicyGenius. At the end of 2021, I was able to get a new 20-year, $750,000 affordable policy thanks to PolicyGenius. I’m thrilled because I have two young children and my 10-year term policy is expiring in January 2023.
Based on my recent checks, it looks like term life insurance rates have come down in 2020. This is great because we now all have serious fears about our health due to the global pandemic.
Here’s my comprehensive PolicyGenius review. To be able to get free, real insurance rate quotes so you can easily compare is great. After you get your life insurance needs locked down, make sure you write your will, create a death file, and set up a revocable living trust.
Best Personal Loan Lender 2022
Interest rates for credit cards and other types of debt is going up. If you don’t have enough cash to pay down your high interest rate debt, consider taking out a lower interest rate personal loan. You can get free personal loan quotes with Credible.
Credible has the most comprehensive marketplace for personal loans where up to 11 lenders compete for your business. Get real personal loan quotes in just two minutes after you fill out the application.
Take a look at the below chart. The spread between the average credit card interest rate and the average personal loan rate is over 7%. As a result, those of you with expensive credit card debt should consider consolidating your debt into a lower interest-rate personal loan.
Best Free Wealth Management Tool 2022
Personal Capital – Personal Capital has the best free wealth management tool for investors and people who are the most serious about planning for a healthy retirement. You can easily x-ray your portfolio for excessive fees, get a snapshot of your asset allocation by portfolio, track your net worth and plan for your retirement.
Think about Personal Capital as a sophisticated version of Mint or an interactive version of Excel. I spent two years consulting for them in their San Francisco and Redwood City offices. I’m also a shareholder in the company since 2014.
When there is so much uncertainty in the world, you absolutely must stay on top of your finances. Understand where your risk exposure is. Stay on top of your cash flow. Personal Capital’s free tools will help you bring calm to the chaos. Sign up for free here.
Once you link you portfolio(s) that have at least $100,000 in assets, you can also get a free portfolio analysis session with one of their advisors worth $799. I’ve used Personal Capital since 2012.
Here’s my comprehensive Personal Capital review.
Real Estate Investing For Accredited Investors 2022
For accredited investors who are able to invest $10,000 – $25,000 per deal, check out CrowdStreet. CrowdStreet has a direct-to-sponsor model where investors invest directly with the real estate sponsor, thereby improving efficiency and communication. Further, investors are not charged a fee to invest. Instead, the fee is borne by the sponsor.
I like CrowdStreet because their focus is on “18-hour cities.” 18-hour cities are also known as secondary markets that have lower valuations and higher cap rates. Due to strong demographic shifts, upside could be higher too.
There is a “fanning out” of the American population as remote workers look to save money. The global pandemic has helped accelerate this trend as many companies have permanently allowed their workers to work from home.
CrowdStreet is also free to sign up and explore. You can build your own select real estate fund with CrowdStreet. Occasionally, CrowdStreet will also have specialty funds to choose from.
Refinance Your Mortgage Or Get A New One
Mortgage rates collapsed to all-time lows in 2020 as capital has rushed to the safety of bonds. However, mortgage rates have shot back up in 2022 due to higher inflation expectations, rising energy prices, and pent-up demand. You should shop around as much as possible to get the lowest mortgage rate possible.
Personally, I was recently able to get a 7/1 jumbo ARM for only 2.125% with no fees. You want to match the fixed-rate duration as close to how long you plan to own the home or keep the mortgage. Paying a higher interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage when you only plan to own the home for 10 years is a suboptimal decision. Hence, I think getting an adjustable rate mortgage or a 15-year mortgage is better.
Given mortgage rates have rocked higher in 2022, refinancing no longer makes much sense. 90%+ of mortgage holders have a mortgage interest rate below 5% and the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage is over 5.5%. Hence, I would wait to refinance in 2023 or later for now.
- NMLS ID# 1681276
- Address: 320 Blackwell St. Ste 200, Durham, NC, 27701
Best Career And Severance Negotiation Book 2022
How To Engineer Your Layoff – I have spent 10 years crafting and updating this 200+ page ebook that teaches employees how to negotiate a severance and be free. Not only can you receive a severance, you may also get healthcare benefits, keep all your deferred compensation based on the regular vesting schedule, and be eligible for unemployment benefits.
Having a nice financial runway to move on to the next career, start a company, retire early, take care of a family, or simply travel the world is priceless. I personally negotiated a severance that paid for five years of living expenses. This allowed me to travel the world and work on Financial Samurai without stress.
If you are going to quit anyway, you might as well try and negotiate a severance. You have no downside to fighting for your rights. The book is now in its 5th edition and fully revised with two new chapters, additional case studies, updated resources, and more. There are a total of 200 pages of actionable advice.
As unemployment claims rise, now is the time to try and work something out. Managers need to cut costs and would welcome volunteers in exchange for a severance. Further, the value of a severance package has gone up due to enhanced unemployment benefits. You can buy my book directly here. Use “savefive” to save $5.
Best Personal Finance Book 2022
On July 19, 2022, I will be releasing my latest book with Portfolio Penguin Random House entitled, Buy This, Not That: How To Spend Your Way To Wealth And Freedom. In the book, I share my 70/30 decision making philosophy to help you make more optimal decisions.
Achieving financial freedom sooner is the goal. But enjoying the journey while tackling some of life’s biggest dilemmas is also important. Think about my book as your secret weapon for developing more wealth, more freedom, and more courage to change your life for the better.
You can pre-order a hard copy today on Amazon or wherever you buy books to ensure delivery upon release date. If you pre-order four copies, I’ll send you a free copy of How To Engineer Your Layoff. Just shoot me an e-mail at sales AT financialsamurai DOT com. I believe the book will provide at least 100X more value than its cost.
Use The Top Financial Products To Improve Your Life
Ever since I started Financial Samurai, my motto has been, “achieve financial freedom sooner, rather than later.” By using the top financial products today, you will drastically improve your chances of achieving financial freedom.
The top financial products should help you save more money, make more money, and give you more confidence in managing your finances. Once you are confident about your finances, you can focus more on what truly matters: your friends, your family, and your purpose.
If you would like to keep in touch, join the 50,000+ people and subscribe to my free newsletter. I send one out once every one or two weeks.
About the Author:
Sam worked in investment banking for 13 years at GS and CS. He received his undergraduate degree in Economics from The College of William & Mary and got his MBA from UC Berkeley. In 2012, Sam was able to retire at the age of 34 largely due to his investments that now generate roughly $300,000 a year in passive income. His main passive income focus is on real estate crowdfunding to take advantage of cheaper valuations and higher cap rates in the heartland. He spends time playing tennis and taking care of his family.
Financial Samurai started in 2009. It is one of the most trusted personal finance sites on the web with over 1.5 million pageviews a month. Financial Samurai likes to highlight the top financial products to help people achieve financial freedom sooner, rather than later.
