DMD 004: Improved communication = more income for you
Fascinating interview with former TV personality Kraig Kann turned entrepreneur on how to stand out from the crowd
Issue #4
What if I told you that as much as 85% of your income and long term wealth is tied to how well you communicate? You might think that sounds crazy.
In this issue of DMD you will hear from former on air TV personality Kraig Kann join me in studio to discuss how to create the best image of yourself to truly stand out from the pack.
Kraig has interviewed the likes of Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, four U.S. presidents, and numerous other celebrities/personalities. The shoe is on the other foot as I interview Kraig who will give you valuable insight on the how to begin crafting your own personal story by identifying your specific super power.
Want to kick butt in an interview? Want to start your own side hustle or small business and need to speak to potential customers by text, email, phone or in person? Want to move up in your company? Be a better communicator in any social setting?
Listen to my interview with Kraig below to help you do all of that and increase your bank account along the way.
It’s truly a fascinating interview and I learned a lot too!
Market Watch - Stocks and Crypto
The S&P 500 (where most of the stocks in your ETF’s and mutual funds are located) is up 2.6% through Feb. 10, 2025.
Gold trades at all time high of nearly $2,900 per ounce. 12 months ago, gold was trading near $2,000. Wow!
Bitcoin trades around $97,000 with it’s all time high (ATH) at $109,000.
Top alt coins Ethereum, Solana, and Chainlink trade at $2,660, $200 and $18.50 respectively with total crypto market cap at $3.3 trillion - about $600 billion shy of an ATH. These prices shift quickly as with all crypto.
Pro tip #1 - when you automatically invest weekly or monthly into solid growth stock ETF’s and mutual funds you don’t have to worry about the ups and downs of the stock market. Time, based on history, does the heavy lifting of wealth creation for you. Stocks are your foundational investment to winning the money game.
Pro tip #2 - Crypto is to be viewed as a low risk/high reward asymmetric investment account to potentially accelerate your investment returns.
MY INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO (Stocks & Crypto)
Below, I share my personal investment accounts of stocks and crypto and any sales or buys I make each week (if any) with you, and my reasons for those decisions. I automatically invest weekly or monthly into my Roth IRA and SEP-IRA and one of my personal investment accounts. I also list what investment companies I use.
STOCK PORTFOLIO
ROTH IRA (held with T. Rowe Price)
Science & Technology mutual fund (PRSCX)
Growth Stock ETF (TGRW)
Money Market (cash)
I SOLD my Alibaba (BABA) stock for a 13% gain and I pay no capital gains tax because a ROTH IRA is a tax advantaged accounts.
SEP-IRA (held with the Acorns saving and investing app) - this my “401(k)” because I’m self-employed
Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO)
iShares Core S&P Mid-Cap ETF (IJH)
iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF (IJR)
iShares Core Total International Stock ETF (IXUS)
iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG)
Personal investment accounts (Acorns, Robinhood & E*Trade)
Moderately aggressive portfolio (mix of stock and bond ETFs) inside my Acorns account along with individual stocks of Tesla (TSLA), Nvidia (NVDA), Stryker (SYK), Adobe (ADBE) and Visa (V). This is another long term investment account and I do not trade in this account because it does not allow you to (which is a good thing).
MARA Holdings, VXX and Money Market (cash) inside my E*Trade account. Another long term investment account and I do not trade in this account.
I bought and sold short term call options on Palantir (PLTR) on a quarterly earnings report for a 100% + gain in my Robinhood account.
I bought short term call options on Robinhood (HOOD), the stock, inside my Robinhood account based on anticipation of a positive quarterly earnings report on Feb. 12. I will sell these options on Thursday Feb. 13 regardless of what the stock does after earnings are released. Robinhood is my short term trading account but I may soon be transitioning my Roth IRA over to this platform from T. Rowe Price. I am a big fan of it’s intuitive platform via app and web.
Young Money University (owner of DMD) and Acorns have an exciting partnership that gives anyone a $40 bonus just for opening up their first Acorns investment account as long as you set up at least a $5 weekly or monthly recurring investment (which is a big foundation to what we teach).
I have two Acorns investment accounts (Acorns Invest (personal) and Acorns Later - my SEP-IRA) so I am certainly walking the talk with all of our subscribers.
Here’s the link to get started - $40 Acorns Bonus
Crypto Portfolio
No new buys or sells of my crypto this week. I am waiting on how the current administration may bring transparent regulation to the crypto market and any updates on potentially creating a Bitcoin reserve.
Bitcoin (BTC)
Chainlink (LINK)
Ripple (XRP)
Ondo Finance (ONDO)
Internet Computer Protocol (ICP)
Immutable (IMX)
Render (RNDR)
Parsiq (PRQ)
Our stance on crypto as an investment. Crypto is asymmetric investing which means you can risk a small amount of money ($500 - $1000) for the potential of higher outpaced gains than traditional investing in stocks. Which means, you can find new projects/organizations that are using blockchain technology for legit long term use cases and value for the world we live in. Crypto is no different then if you put small investments into smaller unknown companies that are publicly traded stocks and are trading below $10 per share that you have conviction in.
With the knowledge ahead of time that can lose your investment. That is why you start with little money that you can afford to lose.
Always have your automated stock investments, as I list above, in place first before you venture into crypto or any other asymmetric investment opportunity.
POPULAR Q&A
Question: “What is the difference between saving and investing my money when it comes to using it for big purchases like buying a car or house?”
Answer:
Part 1: Buying a car and a house will likely be your two biggest purchases in your life. The quick answer is that saving money, as we teach inside of DMD, is for purchases and goals of 5 years or less.
If you hope to save for a decent down payment or able to pay cash for a car within five years than you should save your money in a high yield savings account and name that account “New Car”. Don’t lump all your savings into one savings account as it will cause tension.
Divide your savings into multiple named savings accounts that line up with your life such as clothes/shoes savings account, car repair/new car savings account, travel savings account, education savings account, concerts savings account, etc… I have many named savings accounts and one of them is a golf savings account because I like to play golf with family and friends.
As noted in a previous issue of DMD titled Todd's Simple Guide to Choosing Where to Bank I share that I am a fan of credit unions first and then online banks. Most, if not all credit unions, can provide you several named savings accounts where you can save transfer money automatically from your checking account into your new named savings accounts each month. And the only minimum balance requirement for most credit union savings accounts is $5.00. Saving money automatically this way is one of the power steps of what DMD teaches to gain more control of your short term money.
Part 2: If you are saving to buy a house 5 years or more from now than I would recommend you invest your money to potentially accelerate your returns for that down payment. Savings account returns (in the form of interest) in a credit union or any bank really, will be much less per year, on average, than annual ROI from investing in a high growth stock ETF or mutual fund. So a general rule of thumb is to invest your money for goals of five years or more.
KEY LESSON and ACTION STEP
As noted from my interview with Kraig Kann, learning how to be a better communicator is paramount if you want to increase your income and long term wealth.
Learning how to be a better communicator will give you significant confidence in the work you do (as an employee or entrepreneur) or in any social setting.
Start creating some named savings accounts and maybe check out a local credit union to help you begin to do your money differently.
Stay on the look out for the next weekly issue and special updates from DMD on all things money, investing, side hustle and personal development to help you achieve a life you desire.
Let’s go!
Todd