Do safe investments exist?

The short answer is no because every investment involves some level of risk, which means it can lose value. But the relative risk of investments varies widely. Some investments are inherently more risky than others, like betting an individual stock on a certain day will go up or down -- risky. Compare that to FDIC-insured (and NCUA-insured, the National Credit Union Administration) deposit accounts like money-market accounts, savings accounts and certificates of deposit. You would be insured against a loss of principal up to $250,000. Of course, in exchange for all that safety, you get lower returns, often less than 1%.

I've been doing what I call "investment banking" for a friend's company (I say it that way because the work I do is almost definitely not what you probably think of when you hear the term), and I get this question almost every day:

"So, I guess you know a lot about investing!"

Well, I know more than perhaps most people about investing. But, again, it's not what you think; I'm not doing any research into public companies, and I'm never, ever picking stocks professionally. Most of the work I do is with deals that have closed long before or deals that are only imaginary.

People ask me, often, "So, you're an investment banker? What should I invest in?" My response isn't what they're expecting, even though I think it's the best advice:

This story is from Karl Boericke. He is the author of The Frugal Berry, money-saving tips of all kinds for home, office, and small business.

In 1990, I was honorably discharged from the Navy and quickly found a job in an electronics manufacturing company as a technician in their test department. While renting an apartment at the time, I wondered how I would ever be able to afford to buy a house with my meager salary. I had heard that buying a duplex was an inexpensive way to live and build equity in a home.

After looking at a few mobile homes and quickly realizing the long-term downside to such an "investment," it became clear that buying a duplex was my best realistic ticket to home ownership. I lucked out in finding a great real estate agent who gave me some sage advice. Even though I could buy a duplex with a VA loan with almost NO cash up-front, she advised me to use an FHA first-time buyer mortgage. This would cost me some money at purchase, but it would give me the possibility of using my VA loan in the future for my "next duplex." This thought stimulated my imagination, and seemed like an impossibility at the moment, but I followed her advice and kept this long-term idea in storage for another time.

Investing isn't new to me. I opened my first CD in high school back in the good old days of 5 percent interest, and I started contributing to my 401(k) as soon as I was eligible (at age 21). I did everything right according to the articles I read. I:

• Contributed enough to get the maximum employer match
• Saved/invested around 10 percent of my income
• Opened up an IRA

Before I break my arm patting myself on the back, let me tell you that I made a huge error. I stopped too soon in my investing education. Instead of continuing to learn, I rested on my investing laurels -- and who knows how much money I've lost out on because I forgot that no one cares more about my money than I do.

And my huge error led me to make many mistakes. For instance, I didn't realize until (embarrassingly) recently that different funds in your 401(k) have different fees. Selecting funds with low fees can make a huge difference in returns. Or "buy and hold" is not the same as "buy and forget about it." And then there's the issue of investing and taxes.

Whether you can retire, and whether your money will last after you retire, starts with a very simple maxim: spend less than you have. However, once you start actually crunching some numbers, you find that the equation of retirement is actually quite complicated, with many variables that have different consequences. And that's a good thing, because it gives you options -- different levers you can pull to shore up your retirement security.

What are those levers, and which will have the biggest impact on your retirement? As with many things regarding financial planning, the answers depend partially on your unique circumstances. However, in this article we'll discuss the factors common to most retiree-wannabes, and quantify their results for two hypothetical workers - one 35-year-old and one 50-year-old -- using the "Am I saving enough? What can I change?" calculator found on Fool.com. That calculator produces results in terms of the number of months your retirement will be fully funded. As the tool estimates the impact each variable has on our test subjects, we will report the results in terms of additional years of a fully funded retirement, just so you don't have to divide the results by 12 in your head (not that we don't trust your math skills -- we just think it makes more sense to think in terms of years).

And now, let's lay out the starting point for each of our guinea pigs, whom we'll call Fergie and Madonna.

When we decided that we were going to start investing more in 2013, I didn't know where we would find the money in our budget. My personality embraces risk… as long as all our other savings goals are met and our bills are paid. So, because I wanted to have fun investing (and not lose sleep at night), I knew I could not cut our retirement contributions or our savings deposits. What I hoped was that I would find "invisible" money in our budget; money that we spent mindlessly that would now have an investing job.

Our spending record

I have recorded our spending for brief periods of time, especially when money was very tight, but I had never done it for a year. I knew it was a good thing to do, but it's a pain. In 2012, however, I created a spreadsheet and faithfully entered every dollar that we made or were given. I tallied every purchase made by check, debit or credit card and most of the ones made with cash.

I'll spare you most of the gory details, but we weren't as smart with our money as we thought we were. Granted, there were things out of our control: Our septic system needed to be replaced, and we had some unexpected medical bills. Most things, though, were in our control, including the ridiculous $36.75 I spent at the vending machine. Even though that's not a lot of money, it's more than I thought I spent on Wild Cherry Pepsi. Continue reading...

Hiring a financial advisor is difficult. Common questions include: How much do financial advisors make? How much of that is my hard-earned money? What's a reasonable fee?

Way back in the '90s -- a primitive time when a mobile phone could only be used to talk to another phone -- I was a broker (i.e., salesman) with Prudential Securities.

There are plenty of possible reasons you could want to leave the U.S. Perhaps you've always dreamed about making the sand and surf your front yard or longed to master a foreign tongue. Maybe you've been offered a job abroad. Maybe you feel your taxes are too high. I'm not here to question your motives, traveler. I'm just here to pass along what I know and help you get to your new home with your personal finances in order.

Settling Your Accounts

You're going to need a bank account when you first land on that once-foreign soil. Common expat advice is to set up an online savings account before leaving. Start out by keeping your money with a well-established and nationally available bank -- at least until you get a good sense of the banking landscape in your new home.

Be aware, though: If you're still a U.S. citizen while living abroad and ever wind up with more than $10,000 in your new accounts, you'll need to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts with the stateside IRS. You can be hit with serious penalties for neglecting to do this, so do the paperwork or renounce citizenship before you start making any serious money.

In 2006, my husband and I bought our first rental property. We put 10 percent down ($8,500) on a small brick ranch in the same Midwestern community that we call home. I had gotten my real estate license several years prior, so I had some basic knowledge to build from. We still weren't 100 percent sure about what it meant to be a landlord, but we thought that it would be a great opportunity to build long-term wealth. We also hoped that the home would provide a passive income stream for us once it was paid off. A few months later, we converted our starter home into our second rental, and we bought and moved into our third home, where we currently reside.

So, there we were - 27 years old, with two rental properties and high hopes that everything would turn out as planned. Another landlord we know gave us a copy of his lease to use, and we got lots of advice from other friends who own rental property. We placed ads in the local newspaper and signs in the yards of both homes. Luckily, they both rented out quickly for the amount that we asked without much effort. We were young, dumb, and in love...and we thought that we were real estate moguls!