​To get started and do your own investing I love Mutual Funds. As opposed to investing in individual stocks, investing in mutual funds allows you to pool your money into a fund that is managed by a fund manager and invested into multiple individual stocks. Thus, by investing in a mutual fund you are getting exposure to dozens if not hundreds of individual stocks across a multitude of sectors.  The diagram below illustrates this extremely well:

In addition, mutual funds provide diversification, which effectively means you aren’t putting all your eggs in one basket (i.e. One Company or One Sector). Stocks within different sectors don’t all perfectly correlate when markets go up and down, thus, you want to have money representing multiple sectors to spread your risk.

Now that we have outlined how mutual funds work, let’s look at the 8 key metrics I use to evaluate and filter good funds.  See below definitions for each of these 8 metrics:

1. Minimum Initial Investment - Meaning is exactly how it is spelled out.  Every mutual fund has a required initial investment that ranges from $0 to tens of millions.  
2. Expense Ratio - Is expressed as a percentage and is a cost for investing in the fund.  The people operating the fund have costs and need to pay employees etc.  It is calculated by dividing the operating costs and fees of the fund against the total assets or pool of money in the fund.  
3. Fund Returns - It is the percentage increase or decrease in the value of the fund’s assets under management during a defined period of time (i.e. 3-Yr Return, 5-Yr Return, 10-Yr Return etc).
4. Turnover - Is expressed as a percentage.  Essentially, mutual fund turnover typically measures the replacement of holdings in a mutual fund and is commonly presented to investors as a percentage over a one year period.  In other words, it is measuring the amount of trading activity that the fund is doing each year.  If fund managers are actively buying and selling stocks with the pool of funds the turnover will be higher.
5. Manager Tenure - This is a measure of how long fund managers have been managing the assets/pool of money for that particular fund.  
6. Yield - Expressed as a percentage and is the total amount of dividends/income generated from investments in the fund divided by the fund value.   
7. Load/No Load - Plain and simple a front or back end load mutual fund is a sales charge.  You want to look at funds that are “No Load”. 
8. Fund Diversification - The stock market and the public companies within it are broken into 11 different sectors that within them are broken down further into different industries.  They are as follows:

• Communication Services – 5 industries
• Consumer Discretionary – 11 industries
• Consumer Staples – 6 industries
• Energy – 2 industries
• Financials – 7 industries
• Healthcare – 6 industries
• Industrials – 14 industries
• Information Technology – 6 industries
• Materials – 5 industries
• Real Estate – 2 industries
• Utilities – 5 industries

Now that we have an understanding of the meaning of each of these metrics, let’s look at the targets I apply to these metrics to filter out the best funds.  See below:

• Minimum Initial Investment - This is all dependent on your level of savings and how much you are willing to invest.  I look at funds that have an initial investment between $0-$3,000.  Funds that require a higher initial investment does not mean they bring a higher return over time.  There are plenty of funds that I will outline that have low minimum investment and have solid returns over time.  
• Expense Ratio - Any fund that has a fee of less than 1%.  This does not mean that funds that have higher expense ratios are not good investments.  There are plenty of reasons for this, but I view a fund with a low expense ratio to be efficient and gaining returns without significant trading activity (i.e. Buy and Hold Strategy).    
• Returns - I don’t pay too much attention to more recent fund returns (i.e. Returns within the last 5 years or less).  I look at fund performance primarily over a 10+ year period.  When I invest in mutual funds I don’t intend on selling for a long period of time.  The S&P 500 and Dow Jones are indexes that you see on the news that measure the stock market performance.  Since inception of the stock markets they have averaged around 10% per year.  Therefore, when looking at 10-Yr and 15-Yr Fund returns my rule of thumb is if the returns are at 8% or above during that duration they appear to be a solid investment.    
• Turnover - Turnover ideally would be less than 40%.  For perspective if the turnover is 100% or over, the fund manager has effectively completed a combined value of trades on average (Buying & Selling) that is greater than the overall value of the funds holdings.  
• Manager Tenure - I target an average manager tenure of 10 years.  Some funds have multiple managers.  If the company has good returns and managers that have tenure, that provides me a level of comfort around future performance. 
• Yield - You can make an argument that this target depends on your overall investing strategy, however, I would want a target that has a minimum of 1% yield.  
• Load/No Load - Definitely no load funds are preferred unless the fund’s returns are extraordinary (net of load fees and annual expenses).  
• Fund Diversification - When you google and do research on a fund you are looking at take a look at how many different sectors that they are investing in.  The fund will typically have a breakdown of this.  Check out this link as an example.  Ideally, I like to see coverage across all sectors, and no more than 20% concentration of the assets to one particular sector.

I hope this provides you with some insights into how I approach mutual fund investing.  Keep in mind there is no perfect approach and is just one way of analyzing funds.  In addition, you may like a fund that meets the majority of the criteria, but not all of them.  

If you want to take more risk there are funds that are purely sector focused and a majority, if not all the assets under management are diverted into that sector.  Check out this Vanguard Fund that focuses specifically on the Healthcare sector.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post.  You can employ this approach as you commence your investing independently.  Also, for the folks that are not where they want to be financially or for retirement, I strongly encourage you to take the #htfinance20 challenge.  Start making the incremental changes to your financial future!

I was thinking about things recently and as I am 35 years old and wanting to retire in my mid-50s, I was asking myself what can I invest in now that will potentially allow me to make extra-ordinary returns in the stock market over the next 10-20 years.  Put another way, what industries or technologies are going to play a large role in our lives over the upcoming decades?  My initial evaluation based on everything I have seen are as follows:

• Healthcare - Especially in the USA baby boomers are coming of age where their reliance on healthcare and healthcare services is only going to increase.

 

• Technology - This is a given obviously.  Think of the rate of advancement between 2000-2020.  Imagine where we will be in 2040 considering the rate of technological advancement is happening at an incredible rate.  Areas of growth include:
  1. AI
  2. VR
  3. Voice
  4. Cyber Security

 

• Retail eCommerce - If you look at the past 10-20 years, look at the impact that the likes of Amazon and Alibaba have done to the consumer buying patterns and how they learn about and receive their products.  What will the next 10-20 years look like?  Will we see a continual market erosion of brick and mortar shopping experiences.  Will some Commercial REITs be at risk?

 

• Renewable Energy
  1. Solar
  2. Wind
  3. Electric Vehicles

 

• Space Exploration - Strongly believe we will have commercialized space exploration over the next 10-20 years, if not sooner.  

 

• Storage - Population is growing.  Recent CNN article shows our population is in a growing pattern at least for the next 50 years.  In particular, I believe we need to focus on food storage.  More people means more mouths to feed. 

 

• Industries Impact by Changing Work Environment - I believe we were already on the path to a flexible work environment, however, COVID-19 pandemic has fueled this conversation.  Working from home is going to become more prevalent.  What industries will be impacted by this?  Less traffic and impact on infrastructure and transportation. Commercial properties will take a hit.  Restaurants and surrounding commerce to businesses will suffer.  

Obviously, knowone knows which particular industries and trajectory of growth of companies that exist or will exist in the future.  However, I want to focus on Healthcare for this blog post.  There are two things guaranteed in life.  Death and taxes!  The US population is aging, in particular Baby Boomers.  Let's look at some quick facts about Baby Boomers in the USA:

• Baby Boomers are the group individuals born between 1946 and 1964.  In 2020, that puts Baby Boomers in the age range of 56 to 74 years old.  

 

• Average life expectancy in the USA is 78 years old.  Therefore, Boomers on the older spectrum of this age range are accessing healthcare and healthcare facilities more regularly.   

 

• According to the U.S. Census Bureau, by 2050, there will be 83.7 million people aged 65 and older, almost double the 43.1 million seniors in 2012. Such a dramatic increase is expected to have a huge impact on the healthcare industry, not only due to the sheer numbers, but also because of the rapidly declining health of those over the age of 65.

 

• In 2018, more than $3.6 trillion — or almost 18% — of GDP was spent on healthcare in the U.S. Going by data from the  Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), healthcare spending will grow to $6 trillion, or 19% percent of the economy, by 2027.

 

• Projections from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that in 2034, for the first time in U.S. history, older people will actually outnumber children under age 18.

 

• The American Hospital Association (AHA) figures that by 2030, a quarter of all boomers, about 14 million, will live with diabetes, and 33% (21 million) will be obese. About 50% of these boomers will find themselves suffering from arthritis, while 60% of them will seek out treatment options for their multiple chronic disorders.

 

• In 2018, there were an estimated 142 million visits to emergency rooms in the United States, up from 100 million in 2008. Hospital admissions are also set to double by 2030.

So what does this all mean?  In my view it is simple, over the next 10-20 years we are going to see an ENORMOUS amount of spending around healthcare and healthcare facilities.  The question is whether we will be able to keep pace with the demand of hospitalizations, prescription drugs, assisted living facilities, aged care etc.  Based on this, I believe Healthcare is going to have a large growth trajectory from a sector standpoint within financial markets. From an investment standpoint, when I read these bullet points the first thing that came to mind was Healthcare REITs.  The last bullet point alone should scare all of us.  If it holds true that means an estimated 284 million emergency room visits will be occurring annually by 2030.  According to American Hospital Association, there are a total of 6,146 hospitals in the USA.  Simple math, assuming no new hospitals (very unlikely), would say that would mean each hospital would take in an additional 23,104 ER visits annually or 63 visits per day.     

By 2030, the baby boomer age range will be between 66 and 84 years old.  This is a MASSIVE opportunity to get invested into Healthcare REITs.  The easiest way to do this without having to put forth many hours of research is to look for an ETF called “The Long-Term Care ETF (Symbol: OLD).  Parent company is Janus Henderson Investors, and based on the ETF overview on their website, “The Long-Term Care ETF seeks exposure to companies globally that are positioned to profit from providing long-term care to the aging population. These include companies owning or operating senior living facilities, nursing services, specialty hospitals or senior housing, as well as biotech companies for age-related illnesses and companies that sell products and services to such facilities.”


Relatively new ETF that up until this year was trending nicely from a return standpoint:

​​After careful consideration and research I have landed on my HTF Top 10 Fund Picks for 2020.  There were so many funds that meet my criteria to qualify to be on this list.  The criteria is to ensure a higher degree of confidence that these investments can sustain in a long term view.  I am NOT a believer that active investors or managers have a consistent track record of beating the market and/or the performance of passively managed mutual funds/ETFs.  Just to be clear, I am talking about returns AFTER fund fees and potential tax implications from short and long term gains.  With all that said, my criteria for the HTF Top 10 Funds are as follows:

• Minimum Investment - Between $0-$3,000
• Load - Preferably no load, but have one exception in my list.
• Expense Ratio - Less than 1%
• Turnover - Less than 50%
• Average Manager Tenure - Greater than 10 years.  I do have two exceptions that I will discuss further with each fund breakdown below.
• Fund Returns - Greater than 7% since fund inception.
• Fund Inception - Only includes funds that have been in existence for 15 years or more.  This is to ensure that these funds have a track record of going through at least ONE recession.  

Based on this criteria here is my HTF Top 10 Picks for 2020:

As you can see based on the fund categories there is a heavy focus on funds that invest in larger stable companies that not only provide growth opportunities but also regular income streams through quarterly and annual distributions.  Further, I am including 3 healthcare funds as I strongly believe these funds will continue to outperform over the next 10-15 years with baby boomers being in the 65-85 year old age.  In addition, with the current pandemic I believe there is going to be considerable investment in biotech research and disease prevention.  

To give more detail outlines for these funds based on the criteria see the following:

Non-Return Criteria

​Note: These figures above were pulled as of April 2020.  As such, adjustments may have occurred over the past two months.

Load for AMRMX - This is the only fund in the Top 10 that has a load %.  Even with the one-time 5.75% fee on initial investment, this fund is phenomenal.  Fund has been around for 70 years and has an annualized return since inception of over 11%!  In addition, ongoing annual expenses are very manageable at 0.61%.  

Tenure Requirement for HOVLX - Prabha S. Carpenter is the longest serving current manager at 6.1 years.  Prior to Carpenter’s arrival as Portfolio Manager the fund had three managers that served for 10+ years.  Carpenter has maintained the performance of this fund since assuming the role in 2014 with a top quartile ranking among large value funds for 0 to 5 year annualized returns.    

Returns

​My wife asked me a few weeks ago who is my target audience is.  I have a very clear mission in that I want to be able to serve people who may not be where they want to be financially and are looking to get on the right track and need guidance of where to start.  I want to be able to be a support system and sounding board of how we can work together to achieve a common goal of financial freedom.  In addition, I know I do not have all the solutions so I want this to be a collaborative forum where we can share ideas.  

To be clear, financial freedom in my mind is not to become insanely rich.  My definition is much simpler.  Financial freedom is the ability to achieve a standard of living that you desire to live a fulfilling life.  Whether that is to travel, to retire early, use your money to feed into your hobbies, or whatever your heart desires.  

Therefore, in order to achieve financial freedom you have to put your money to work.  There are many ways you can do this.  Whether it is putting your money in the stock market, contributing more to your retirement, buying investment properties, or starting a business, all avenues have the potential to provide a return on investment that can further you in your goal of financial freedom.  

Over the coming 6-12 months I am going to be putting out content that lays the framework to assist you in different ways you can put your money to work and the things I look for in certain investments.  Whether it be investing in individual stocks, mutual funds, ETF’s, investment properties, CDs etc.  Along the way I would love to get your feedback and ideas that you have and we can work together collaboratively towards a common goal of financial freedom.  

Hope you are having a great day as you read this post and let’s get after our financial goals.  It’s hammer time!

What is the Stock Market?  How does it Work?

I have done some research on the best way to portray what the stock market is and how it works.  Many sites provide a great explanation across the spectrum of simplicity to complex.  Also interchangeably referred to as a stock exchange, the stock market is a place where companies can offer an avenue to raise capital (i.e. Money) to use for the objective of putting into business operations and/or fund growth.  

Companies get on the stock exchange by doing an initial public offering (IPO).  This is a fancy acronym that effectively means the process of going from a private company to a public company.  A private company is a firm that is privately owned.  When a company does an IPO they are offering their shares to the public, allowing the general public the ability to have an ownership stake in the company.  The level of ownership in the company is based on how many “shares” you buy and own.  

Guess you are wondering what shares are?  A share is the mechanism or unit of a person’s ownership in a company.  If you buy 100 shares of a company’s stock that represents a certain percentage ownership stake in the company.  A company has a certain amount of shares outstanding or available that the public can purchase.  Therefore, if the company has 100,000 shares outstanding you would have a 0.1% ownership stake in the company (100 Shares/100,000 Shares).  

How do you Invest in the Stock Market?

If you have a retirement account or 401K you are very likely to already be invested in the stock market.  Within retirement/401K accounts you typically see your money in mutual funds or ETFs.  I will be discussing the different types of investments later in this blog series.

You can purchase individual stocks through a brokerage account or an individual retirement account like an IRA.  An easy way to get started is through online brokerages.  Brokerages act as the intermediary between you and the stock exchange.

So you are probably asking yourself if you should do your own investing or have someone else manage my money?  Stay tuned for future Blog Posts.  

Really hope you are having a great day and look forward to getting your feedback.  If you have any questions you can email me at [email protected] or go on my facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/HammerTimeFinance) and send me an IM or post on my page.

​It is insane to me that I am now 33 years old with a family and two kids.  It feels like yesterday I moved to the United States from Australia.  Last month marked 12 years since I moved to  the US.  I was 21 when I first moved and obviously as most people that age believe they are invincible.  There is no concept of time in your 20s.  You have in the back of your head that you have such a long life ahead of you.  I was not thinking about cherishing everyday.  Appreciating the opportunities that I had in front of me and the phenomenal people had around me.  Knowing that what I had achieved as a Hammer Thrower in Track & Field was something I could be proud of and being able to compete at the collegiate level in the US was a gift and shouldn’t be taken for granted.  Now all of a sudden I am 33 and I am looking back and asking where the time has gone.  

Time is the only thing that matters in our lives.  The question is how do we want to spend that time.  Do we want to work to live or live to work?  Do we want to spend our time creating experiences with who we care about?  Ultimately our time will come to an end and the question is will there by those voices in the back of your mind saying “what if” or “should of”.  

Let’s put time into perspective no matter what age you are reading this article.  According to the CDC in their 2017 Mortality Report the average life expectancy in the United States for males is 78.6 years old and for females it is 81.1 years old.  The average combined life expectancy between the two sexes is 78.7 years old.  These numbers might not surprise many of you, but let’s think about these numbers based on your current age and the percentage of time you are through your life assuming you will live to the combined average listed above.  Let’s break it down below:

20 Years Old - 25.4% through your life
30 Years Old - 38.2% through your life
40 Years Old - 50.9% through your life
50 Years Old - 63.6% through your life
60 Years Old - 76.3% through your life
70 Years Old - 89.1% through your life

I am 33 years old.  Assuming I live to the average combined life expectancy I am approximately 42% through my life.  This almost made my heart drop when you look at it in this context.  Obviously, I hope I am not just at the average, but holy shit I feel like my life is still in its infancy.  I only got married 5.5 years ago and have two young kids.  There are still things I want to get achieved and things I want to experience in my life.  This realization has given me a greater sense of urgency that I want to retire as early as possible so I can experience life with no restrictions.  However, in order to have these experiences and have freedom requires financial independence.  What things can my wife and I do now financially to put us in a position so we can have this independence and retire early and take advantage of everything life has to offer.  

I want to take you on this journey with me because I want everyone to have the same opportunity.  I want you to remember that time is all we have and nothing else matters.  I hope you can learn from me and vice versa on the financial investments and ideas that can bring us all one step closer to freedom.  

I have spent a lot of time lately listening to podcasts and YouTube videos of motivational speakers.  The likes of Les Brown, Eric Thomas, and Tony Robbins.  The biggest themes that they talk about especially when it comes to making money is:

What is your why or your passion?  
How much effort are you willing to put in to reach your goal?

As it relates to my “why” or passion I still don’t think I have completely found it.  I know there are things that I absolutely love doing from a hobby standpoint, but nothing I have ever felt I could do for a living and monetize.  I know that I want to impact people’s lives in a positive manner.  I am just not sure what that “impact” is.  This is another theme that is brought up in that doing something for self reward only is not going to be fulfilling.  Major hurdle we need to overcome is how can our passion serve others.  I believe that is what brings true happiness.  I know it sounds cliche, but I believe the most fulfilling life is one that we try to make people around us better.  Feeding that passion with serving others won’t only provide fulfillment internally, but also financially.  

So you are probably wondering how this relates to HTF and my journey to financial independence.  Well one of my passions is financial markets and money since I was a kid.  My level of engagement on staying up to date with latest market trends and the state of overall global economics since I have started my career, met my wife, and started a family has been limited.  However, recently I have a new found awareness that I want to live my life on my own terms and not on someone else’s.  I have had a fear of what if I do not have the money to retire?  What if my wife and I are not setting ourselves up for financial success now in our 30s to get where we need to be in our 50s.  

I don’t want to work into my 60s.  I want to be able to have a degree of freedom that will allow my family and I to experience everything life has to offer.  Travel the world and interact with other cultures.  Be servants to our community we live in.  Give back to people who have supported us.

With that said I need to expand my horizons on what financial investing and income streams are available to me.  I read an article recently that outlined the results of an actuarial study of the largest US Pension Funds.  Results showed that those who retired at 65 or normal retirement age received pension cheques on average for 18 months prior to death.  However, results showed that those who retired early in their mid-50s enjoyed retirement on average until they were 80, or 25 years!  After reading this I feel a greater sense of urgency to get my act together. 

I would love to get your thoughts and let me know what your passion is.  What drives you everyday?  I know this is something I need to keep working at.      

It is incredibly sobering and surreal with everything going on right now around the world with the spread of the Coronavirus.  No less than two and a half months ago I was going into the office for my full time job and going along business as usual.  It is insane when I look back at the past 60 days how much I was taking for granted in my everyday life pre-COVID.  From the simplest of things as human interaction in person, to personal hygiene, to finances and our safety net, and ultimately my own mortality.  The last two points really drive it home for me.  This virus is so unpredictable that it doesn’t discriminate by health of an individual, race etc.  When faced with ultimate uncertainty and safety, what is driving you and your decisions for you or your family? 

FINANCES

So let’s talk about finances during this time.  Our family is fortunate enough that even with everything going on right now that I have kept my job and my wife has been able to take the kids and pulled back on her business that she has grown exponentially over the past 2-3 years.  She is also 8 months pregnant, which just adds another layer of complication into this conversation.  We have a good safety net in place, which takes the pressure off the family and my wife.  However, if these factors didn’t hold true, OUR situation and OUR financial decisions we have made would be quite different.  

If we were in the latter position above, I completely understand that a significant number of people and business owners want the economy to re-open.  If I needed money to survive and pay the bills and support my family I would be pounding the pavement to find any work that was out there.  I can’t fault people for wanting to support themselves and their family even if it means putting themselves in harms way or potentially their families.  

The things that come to my head when you are reviewing your monthly expenses and how you and your family could preserve cash during these times are as follows:

Food - Outside of your mortgage/rent, food is probably your 2nd or 3rd highest monthly cost.  Adjustments you can potentially make:

Substituting Beef for Chicken - Raw meat is going to be one of your largest grocery items.  Our family are big meat eaters (Taco Meat, Homemade Beef Patties, Pasta, BBQ Chicken).  Based on current meat markets you will see a greater favorability or bang for your buck with buying chicken.
Stay Home/Eat Out Less - Obviously this is something that you hear EVERYONE saying.  Nonetheless, from personal experience just ONE date night for my wife and I on a “cheap date” was $30-$40.  Any discretionary spending adds up REALLY quick.

Review Your Bank Statements - You may be surprised by a frequent number of small charges for Mobile Apps and other subscriptions that you don’t use.  CANCEL them!  We have been doing this lately and the number of Apple and Amazon charges is insane.  Monthly cloud storage, Apple Music, Linkedin Premium, Adobe Photoshop, etc. 

Review Any Debt You Have - Financial institutions may be giving you a break regarding payments and payment terms, but that is going to end sometime soon and don’t be mistaken the majority of the “breaks” you are given truly aren’t “free”.  Interest will still be accruing!  If you are concerned about where you are, I would recommend talking to a debt advisor.  

Cost Compare - There are a ton of resources available online to review and cost compare any items you are looking to purchase.  It takes time, but it could provide meaningful savings over time and multiple purchases.  

MORTALITY

It has never been more evident than recently that this virus has the potential to end the lives of people prematurely.  This has given me pause in that it has forced me to evaluate everything I am doing in my life.  Asking myself questions and critically thinking of if I am doing what I want to do professionally?  Am I serving others?  Am I putting myself and my family in a position to support ourselves if something like this happens again?

(Insert ideas)

I hope that the posts that I write will continue to assist anyone willing to read them about ways to start getting ahead financially.  Every single person has the ability to make the choices to get on track financially. I want to be able to use my experiences and background along with any feedback from within “our” online community to make a difference.  

Hope everyone is staying safe and staying posted for my upcoming blog posts!

Jarrod               

I am sure this has happened to a number of individuals and couple’s when it comes to discussing or reviewing the “B” word.  BUDGET!  Depending on the individual, budgets can be extremely useful.  For my wife and I the monthly budget review and finances update can be a point of contention.  Without a doubt the following statements/questions are made when reviewing budget and monthly spending with my wife:

• “Did we really spend that much on coffee?”
  
• “Man we ate out a lot!”
  
• “You spent $300 at target last month!  What did you need?” 
  
• “We are not putting enough away to savings.”
  
• “Do we really need to be spending money every month on this?”
  

Note: The third bullet point doesn’t normally go down well :)   

Almost straight after we do our review we always say we will do better.  And in certain areas we definitely do make the adjustment.  In an effort to do better it almost ALWAYS comes down to discretionary spending between my wife and I.  Our main areas we look at are:

1. Coffee Charges
   
2. Fast Food Charges
   
3. Restaurant Charges - Date Nights
   
4. Beauty Charges - Hair & Nails
   
5. Sports - My Golfing Addiction
   
6. Clothes - Work or Personal
   
7. Misc Purchases - Usually from Target
   

In any given month we probably spend anywhere from $500-$600 between these 7 categories.  As of late, we are trying to commit to ourselves to try to cut $100 per month from our average spend in these categories.  That is $1200 per year!  We realize that we will never cut back hard and become complete minimalists.  We want to have date nights and spend money on things that make us feel good, which is even healthy.  With two toddlers my wife and I need to have our own one-on-one time every month to just catch up and continue to work on our relationship in the midst of our hectic lives.  In my view, the big question is what is a “need” vs. “want” when it comes to discretionary spending?  

I would love to hear from you all regarding your experiences when it comes to budgeting whether you are single or in a relationship with a joint bank account.  I have met married couples that have been together for decades that still have separate bank accounts.  Does that work?  One thing my wife and I have found is we have multiple accounts that we transfer money to every month that makes money out of sight out of mind.  We don’t have debit cards for these accounts so we are not tempted to withdraw the money.     

​