019R | Index Investing | How to buy VTSAX

019R | In our Friday roundup Jonathan and Brad discuss the highlights and takeaways from the Monday episode with JL Collins. Then the podcast is opened up and crowd sourced to the community. Find out the specific travel reward perks that are available for active duty military and how to get started with VTSAX if you don't have $10,000 to invest The Friday Roundup #8: Review of podcast with Jim Collins Jonathan’s baby was born! And he’s here recording the Friday Roundup two days later 2nd Generation FIRE and the impact on Jonathan with his new son The value of starting a child on the path to FIRE from the very beginning Index investing as one of the main ‘pillars of Financial Independence’ Jim’s Stock Series changed the trajectory of Brad’s investing life and will benefit him to the tune of millions of dollars in his lifetime There are no investing gurus out there who will help you outperform the market over decades when including fees into the calculation Jim is such a fantastic storyteller Fidelity study of the classes of investors who do the best: dead people and those who forgot they had accounts The best thing that can happen to someone who is young is for the market to drop while they are pumping money into the market. Index investing: Losers can only go down 100%, but winners can go up indefinitely. The index is self-cleansing Why stock picking contests promote the wrong behavior The stock market always go up over decades. You only lose money in the market when you try to “dance in and out of the market” Warren Buffett will invest in a Vanguard S&P 500 index fund Vanguard is growing faster than all of its 4,000 competitors combined (to the tune of 8.5x) Feedback Stitcher reviews – thank you for leaving them and letting us know they exist! Sharing ChooseFI with friends and family Feedback from Steve and Amy on the action they’ve taken since first listening to ChooseFI How police officers and firefighters can access their 401K’s without penalty Travel Rewards and Investing Questions Travel rewards question about travel in Europe for hotels and Ryanair from Anthony and Abby Question from Alyssa about different retirement account options and different investing options and how to get started for younger listeners who don’t have $10,000 to invest in VTSAX in one lump sum The standard advice doesn’t apply for people on the path to FI, so they should max out traditional IRAs and 401k instead of Roth-IRAs Links from the show: The Stock Series at JLCollinsNH.com ChooseFI podcast with JL Collins Vanguard is Growing Faster than Everyone Else Combined at the NY Times Neal Landfield article HR2146 how cops, firefighters and EMS can access their 401Ks without the 10% penalty Friday Roundup 7 talk about hotel redemption options including Hyatt and Starwood AwardMapper to see reward hotel options Award Wallet to track rewards programs for free Books Mentioned in the Show: The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins