Here are the notes on the topics discussed:
1. Seeing birthdays on the Facebook App
For some reason, the FB app doesn't allow you to go to the events tab and see your friends' birthdays anymore. Obviously, it's a cool feature to have, so I'm not really sure why they did away with it. You can easily see it on the web-based version when you login. Unless I'm just missing it, I cannot find it anywhere on the app. If you go to someone's profile, it still tells you that it's their birthday, but how do you know to go to their profile?
2. The wrong ways to be diversified
Here are a couple of myths about what people think it means to be diversified.
1. Holding accounts at different firms is safer and adds diversification.
WRONG. The laws are the same for the large custodians (Vanguard, TD Ameritrade, Schwab, Fidelity, etc.) and you're not offered a higher level of protection by having accounts all over the place. I use TD Ameritrade Institutional to hold my clients' money, and they offer the standard SIPC coverage of $500,000 AND offer additional coverage to each client of $149.5 million. Unless you're an ultra high net worth investor, it's generally better to keep it simple and use one platform. You're able to hold the same investments on all platforms.
2. Buying real estate (hard assets) adds diversification.
NOT ALWAYS. Example: if you have $1 million that's invested in a low-cost, globally-diversified portfolio, you probably own a small chunk of 500-5000 different companies. If you take 30% of your portfolio and buy real estate with it, you're actually becoming less diversified as now you've tied up $300,000 in one thing. The moral here is that you shouldn't buy real estate just to try to be diversified. Don't get me wrong, buying/investing in real estate (for income or flips) *can* be a great way to add income to your plan, but it has to be profitable and you have to be willing to handle the maintenance that goes along with it. I hate when I hear that people should pick one or the other (real estate OR the stock market). It's not an "or" decision. I have savvy clients that understand the ways to utilize both options to build wealth. What matters is that you are putting yourself in the best position to meet your goals.
3. The best place to take notes
People are forgetful. Sometimes the best thoughts come to me when I'm half asleep and I forget them by the time I wake up. What's important to me in the note taking world is the ability to share with other people in real time. I also like the ability to have lists and check items off as I go. My favorite place to store notes is Google Keep. We also mention Evernote and OneNote (by Microsoft).
Google Keep is a simple solution for me that allows me to access my notes on all devices, share in real time, make lists, and search for notes I've previous written. All-in-all I've come to the conclusion that making notes is a helluva lot better than trying to remember everything.