Mike Piper: Down To The Essence Of Smart Money Management

Mike Piper is a CPA and the creator of the Oblivious Investor blog, where he teaches a philosophy of simple and low-maintenance investing.

Mike’s simple philosophy distills down to three primary principles:

Diversify your portfolio
Minimize costs (commissions, fees, mutual fund expenses, taxes)
Ignore the noise.

Mike began his career as a CPA before realizing he could support himself by writing books. Surprisingly, he left his secure job during the 2008 financial crisis. He has gone on to publish seventeen books and is widely considered an expert in social security, tax, and a number of other personal finance topics. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Morningstar, to name a few.

Topics Discussed with Mike Piper

Mike’s career journey from accountant to full-time writer
Why Mike quit his job in the middle of the 2008 financial crisis
Content: what to monetize and what to give away for free
Mike’s climbing background
Social Security: Why it’s not going away, when you should take it, how much you should plan on receiving, and why you shouldn’t consider it a retirement plan
Mike’s thoughts on the FIRE movement and early retirement in particular
Spending considerations for a long retirement and how spending changes as we age
What Mike doesn’t like about the 4% Rule
Withdrawal rates: rules-of-thumb versus sophisticated modeling
What you need to know for investing in today’s market
Investing considerations for the self-employed
Understanding risk in the stock market for new or prospective investors
The importance of the “good enough portfolio”
How Mike manages his work and leisure time
So much more!

Mike Piper laybacking in the Red River Gorge, KY (Photo: Kalinda Piper). Clipping Chains. — Mike Piper laybacking in the Red River Gorge, KY (Photo: Kalinda Piper)

Mike Piper hanging out at the top of New Era, Garden of the Gods, CO. (Photo: Jack Haflett). Clipping Chains — Mike Piper laybacking in the Red River Gorge, KY (Photo: Kalinda Piper)

Get in Touch with Mike Piper

The Oblivious Investor Blog

Work with Mike

Mike’s Books

Mike’s Social Security Calculator (Open Social Security)

Resources Discussed

Social Security Administration (ssa.gov)

ssa.tools

Estimating the True Cost of Retirement (David Blanchett, Morningstar)

NewRetirement (Retirement planning tools)

Vanguard Life Strategy Growth Fund

Mind the Gap: A report on investor returns in the U.S. (Morningstar)

Bogleheads.org

Portfolio Visualizer (very cool!)

“A time to evaluate your jitters” (Bogleheads forum thread)

Other Episodes Mentioned

EP 3: Chris Mamula: One Bite at a Time

EP 60: What You Need to Know About Financial Advisors with Chris Mamula

A list of all Clipping Chains articles and podcast episodes here

Books

Remember, the best laid plans mean nothing if you can’t take action today. Have questions? Need some feedback? Hit us up on the contact page.

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe here for much, much more. And please, send this to someone who might enjoy or benefit from this content.

Support this free project:

Thanks guys, see you next week.

Affiliate links are used on this page. If you choose to purchase a linked product, you will incur no extra charges, but we will receive a tiny-baby portion of the sale. Those very small proceeds help us keep the digital lights on around here. We wouldn’t link to a product we wouldn’t buy ourselves. Tis all!