Providing employees or plan participants with relevant and helpful retirement-saving information can be time consuming and difficult but provides so much value. Hopefully, these sources of information from Substack can help fill that need.
Substack is now officially a phenomenon. Whether you think it’s merely a 2001 era return to blogging or a mass exodus from social media, the fact is, Substack has a lot of writers. In fact, we wrote recently about how the graphics and ease of interaction might be changing your plan participants expectations from your benefits website.[1] And that includes great financial writers. In the past, we’ve provided information on financial educators on social media like TikTok and Instagram. To follow up on those articles, we’ve provided this list of financial educators providing retirement advice on Substack.
In case you need a refresher on what a Substack is, here’s the post from Investing on Substack:[2] “A Substack publication functions like a blog, but with email. Publishers can deliver posts to the web and email simultaneously, so you can find new readers while always reaching your existing audience. Meanwhile, your publication page on the web acts as a traditional blog would—a permanent online archive of all your posts. These posts can include podcasts, audio clips, video, file embeds, and more. Publishers choose whether to add a paywall to their posts or to make them free for all readers.”
Substack has some excellent options for readers interested in economics and advanced investing topics. If you’ve been following financial writers on other platforms for topics to cover in employee education sessions, it’s worth your time to consider what Substack writers have to offer. And, if you recommend accounts on your employee education pages, adding other sources with in-depth information may increase your employees’ knowledge base. When it comes to the basics of personal finance and retirement savings, these are our current top four writers:
1. Jordan Trevino writes Finessing Finance,[3] a weekly newsletter on Substack that covers the basics of saving, investing, and budgeting. His newsletter covers simple topics like negotiating so that readers can navigate personal finance with more ease and confidence. He also discusses tips for better managing credit card debt. His post on student loans could be of use to many employees.[4]
2. Ben Le Fort, a financial researcher, writes the newsletter The Making of a Millionaire[5] His goal is to help you get smarter with money. His posts cover important basic topics like “Here's How to Never Miss a Bill Payment Again and Focus on Your Savings Rate Not Your Investment Returns.
3. Zane D’Souza says he “turned Personal Finance from something I had to ‘manage’ to a passion that’s ever evolving.” His goal is to “help others do the same, creating a better relationship with money….” His newsletter Money Simplified[6] covers basic topics like the practical importance of planning as well as more complex ones, like how the Federal Reserve’s decisions on interest rates impact consumer saving and investing.
4. Cosmo P DeStefano, is a financial analyst and author of the book Wealth Your Way: A Simple Path to Financial Freedom. His newsletter Wealth Your Way Insights[7] has more nuanced topics and often includes diversified asset information. For example, his post “Weathering Financial Storms: Navigating Tail Risk with Confidence” discusses tail risk (or black swans) without alarmist language. Similarly, his post “Does Residential Real Estate Belong in Your Portfolio?” challenges some overgeneralizations on investing in real estate.
Providing employees or plan participants with relevant and helpful retirement-saving information can be time consuming and difficult but provides so much value. Hopefully, these sources of information from Substack can help fill that need.
[1] https://www.bcgbenefits.com/blog/benefits-boost
[2] https://invest.substack.com/p/faq
[3] https://finessingfinance.substack.com/p/the-credit-card-crisis
[5] https://benlefort.substack.com
[6] https://moneysimplified.substack.com
[7] https://cosmodestefano.substack.com/p/introducing
These articles are prepared for general purposes and are not intended to provide advice or encourage specific behavior. Before taking any action, Advisors and Plan Sponsors should consult with their compliance, finance and legal teams.
Before leaping into the unknown, we recommend a thorough examination of your plan. Because we are experts in the field, we know the marketplace and know what your existing vendor is capable of offering. Through this examination, we can help you optimize the service you receive.
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