Top Financial Products

Dear Readers,

The following 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 discarded 99.9% of them. Let me help you cut through the clutter by highlighting only the best 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 travel to conferences several times a year. I believe in looking into the whites of each CEO’s eyes before making any recommendation.

Full disclosure: all products are affiliate partners of Financial Samurai. With every sign up, Financial Samurai may be paid a referral fee.

I do not refer credit cards, credit counseling, and payday loans because these are extremely high fee and interest rate products. I want people to save money and earn more money, not pay more money.

You only need one credit card at the end of the day, which should always be paid in full. And you should never borrow money you can’t pay back.

Most Attractive Investment Opportunity 2019

Fundrise – Fundrise, founded in 2012, is one the best platforms for investors who wish to diversify their real estate exposure. Instead of concentrating your risk and money in one property, with Fundrise you can surgically invest smaller amounts of money (as little as $500) in several properties with potentially higher returns across the entire country. The average historical range is between 8% – 15%, and unlike P2P lending, there’s a physical asset that actually has value.

After selling my rental house in San Francisco for 30X annual gross rent, I reinvested $500,000 over the $1,788,000 proceeds in real estate crowdfunding in the heartland of America. It makes a lot of sense to arbitrage the valuation and net rental yield differentials between expensive coastal city real estate and inexpensive heartland real estate.

Check out Fundrise’s 5-year annualized returns compared to the S&P 500 and the Vanguard Real Estate ETF. The outperformance in 2018 of 14% was incredible.

Fundrise is free to sign up and is available for all investors – accredited and non-accredited. Of course, there will always be investment risk and platform risk to be aware of.

Best Free Wealth Management Tool 2019

Personal Capital – Personal Capital has the best financial tools 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 almost two years consulting for them in their San Francisco and Redwood City offices and have sat down with all senior management. I’m also a small shareholder in the company.

Here’s my comprehensive Personal Capital review. The just raised another $55 million in capital in 2019 and are preparing for an IPO.

Best Digital Wealth Advisor (Robo-Advisor) 2019

Betterment – Based in New York City, Betterment was founded in 2008 and is the leading pure robo-advisor today. They have the largest assets under management out of all the pure robo-advisors. Betterment will build you a customized investment portfolio tailored to your risk tolerance.

They charge a low fee of only 0.25% versus 1% – 3% by traditional wealth managers. They currently have a promotion where you can get 1 month up to 1 year of free money management, depending on your asset amount.

Here’s my comprehensive Betterment review.

Best Online Savings Bank

CIT Bank is currently my favorite online bank where you can earn maximum interest in a money market account or 12-month CD. Because they are an online bank, they don’t have expensive physical store overhead. As a result, they can pass on their savings to you.

My favorite product of theirs is their savings builder account. They are paying a very healthy 2.2% APY if you maintain a $25K balance or deposit $100 a month. 2.2% is huge because the 10-year bond yield is only at ~1.75%, while the Fed Funds rate range is only at 1.75% – 2%. This is a positive arbitrage opportunity, with zero lockup period.

You can finally take advantage of higher interest rates by making a higher rate of return on your money. It feels great to earn a risk-free rate of return after such a strong bull market since 2009.

Here’s my comprehensive CIT Bank review.

Best Rewards Credit Card

_{Disclosure: Financial Samurai has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Financial Samurai and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.}

I’ve been a client of Chase for over 10 years and have been very happy with their credit cards, rewards program, and service. My favorite rewards credit card is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. Highlights of the card features include:

• Get 60,000 points if you spend $4k in the first 3 months of activation (=$750 in travel rewards)
• Earn Rewards 2X Fast On Travel And Dining
• Redeem 25% More Value On Travel Rewards
• No Foreign Transaction Fees
• Built-In Travel And Purchase Protections
• Transferable Points To Frequent Travel Programs
• Earn Up to 75,000 Bonus Points For Inviting Friends

This popular credit card is great for those who love to travel and want a reliable card with a strong rewards program. Learn how to apply here.

Best Mortgage Lender 2019

LendingTree – LendingTree was founded over 20 years ago and is a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ with a market capitalization of over $4 billion. It has one of the largest online mortgage marketplaces where lenders compete for your business.

Mortgage rates have collapsed to 2-year lows in 2019 as the Fed announced on June 20, 2019 they would be taking a very accommodative stance going forward. The Fed is on a rate cutting path like through 2020.

Every time you are looking for a new mortgage or want to refinance, it behooves you to first get free quotes so you can use the quotes as leverage to get the best rate possible from potential lenders. Get something in writing is very powerful for negotiations.

Here’s my comprehensive LendingTree review.

Best Car Insurance Provider 2019

Esurance – Esurance is known for its user-friendly website, interactive tools and top-notch mobile apps. It’s best used by people who like to manage their own policies, have straightforward insurance needs and prefer to get quotes online. Esurance is owned by industry giant Allstate and provides for free some of the most competitive rates online.

Here’s my comprehensive Esurance review.

Best Life Insurance Finder 2019

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 helps you see multiple quotes at once so you can make a more informed decision. I recently had dinner with both founders, Jen and Francois in San Francisco, and they are experiencing explosive growth.

Here’s my comprehensive PolicyGenius review.

Best Career Advice Book 2019

How To Engineer Your Layoff – I have spent seven years crafting this 180-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 so I could comfortable work on this site and travel the world.

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 3rd edition and fully revised for 2019 and beyond.

About the Author: Sam worked in investment banking for 13 years at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse. 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 $250,000 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 was started in 2009 and is one of the most trusted personal finance sites on the web with over 1.5 million pageviews a month.

_{Disclosure: Financial Samurai has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Financial Samurai and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.}