All Forum Posts by: James Park

@Brian Armstrong

Financial Advisors come in three forms: dealer broker, fee based, and fee only. You want to go with a fee only financial advisor, not with a dealer broker and the best place to get a referral would probably be  your trusted CPA or an estate attorney.

Also, I don't know about California, but in the state of Georgia we have a state funded HOPE Scholarship where your child will get 75-80% tuition waived to any Georgia state school if they maintain a 3.0 GPA in high school, regardless of how much income your household makes. If your child gets accepted to a fine private university, your costs can be potentially be $250k or more per child for 4 years so planning in advance would be a very wise decision. 

My two boys still have 13 more years before applying for college and the investor in me hopes they both go to Georgia Tech since it is one of the best schools in terms of "value for money". :)

I know that you will not pay the early 10% penalty for traditional and Roth Ira for education purposes, but what about having a solo 401k account? Do the same rules apply for the solo 401k where you will not be hit with an early withdraw penalty of 10% if the funds are used to education purposes?

mike,

I think brian is asking if he can use the funds in his Roth Ira account to pay for his son's college education. 

According to the irs publication it appears that you can use your Roth Ira funds for your son'sson's education expenses without incurring the 10% penalty for withdrawing before you are 59.5. This applies to all Ira accounts.

Brian, I don't personally have a 529 plan for my children but I am very involved in growing my Ira portfolio and maybe a good alternative.

-duplicate

@scott trench,

What are your goals and vocation aspirations in the next 5-10 years? 

I may be better answer your question depending on your response.

-james

@Ryan Esslinger,

You have already received a lot of great advice above. 

Hopefully the chart below should give you one more reason why should get your CPA license. Below is a survey taken by 185 multi-millionaires. Mean income $407,800, Mean discretionary income $358,864, mean value of household assets $3.6M.

These multi-millionaires were surveyed to whom is their primary source for investment advice. Surprisingly you will see your spouse, financial planner, and investment / asset manager at the bottom of the list. Real Estate agents came in at #7, not bad, but only 25% of the multi-millionaires found their investment advice to be valuable. You can the #1 spot on the list is a licensed CPA. 

This is why I encourage you to pursue both.

-James  

Thanks for the great replies on what success personally means to you.

Let me also share my definition of success. My old definition of success used be measured by income and net worth but this has changed quite a bit over the years for me. I have thought a lot about what success truly means to me.

Success is not about money. Success is finding purpose in what you do. Success is who you become. Success is an expression of passion, the realization of a sustainable business. Success is contributing to the lives of others. Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. Success is the accomplishment of God's will in your life. Success is making the most of what you have. Success is a journey. And ultilmately, I believe that success is generating enough income to fund your ideal lifestyle.

The most successful people in the world are those who have taken the time to figure out exactly who they want to become and what they want to achieve. They then invest the hours of their days in activities consistent with these ideals.

-James 

Success has a different meaning to different people. What does being successful personally mean to you?