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John Schmidt

Former Retirement and Investing Editor

About

John Schmidt is the Former Assistant Assigning Editor for investing and retirement. Before joining Forbes Advisor, John was a senior writer at Acorns and editor at market research group Corporate Insight. His work has appeared in CNBC + Acorns’s Grow, MarketWatch and The Financial Diet.

  • Best Investments For A Stock Market Crash

    Sooner or later, every investor will experience a stock market crash—when markets plummet quickly and unexpectedly. Let’s take a look at a few of the best investment choices you can add to your portfolio now to help your portfolio survive...
    Best Investments For A Stock Market Crash

  • Roth IRA vs. Traditional IRA

    Individual retirement accounts (IRAs) are a key part of your retirement strategy. But before you open an account, you need to understand the differences between a Roth IRA and a traditional IRA. Each has its own advantages, and saving in...
    Roth IRA vs. Traditional IRA

  • Roth Conversion: Move Your Money To A Roth Account

    The more money you’ve saved in an individual retirement account or a 401(k), the more you might want to consider a Roth conversion. Why a Roth conversion? There are a few good reasons, chief among them managing taxes and required...
    Roth Conversion: Move Your Money To A Roth Account

  • Self-Directed IRA: Invest In Alternative Assets For Retirement

    Individual retirement accounts are a great way to invest for your golden years, but certain assets are off-limits for a regular IRA. If you want to invest in assets like precious metals, real estate and cryptocurrencies, you'll need to open...
    Self-Directed IRA: Invest In Alternative Assets For Retirement

  • Backdoor Roth IRA Guide

    Making direct contributions to a Roth IRA is off-limits for people with high annual incomes. If your earnings put Roth contributions out of reach, a backdoor Roth IRA conversion could be a great way to benefit from the tax advantages...
    Backdoor Roth IRA Guide

  • Precious Metal IRA: How To Invest For Retirement With Gold And Silver

    When the stock market gets rough, some investors seek out safe-haven investments like precious metals. While gold, silver and palladium are subject to their own forms of volatility, many believe them to be superior long-term investment choices for retaining and...
    Precious Metal IRA: How To Invest For Retirement With Gold And Silver

  • IRA Retirement Calculator

    Are you contributing to a traditional individual retirement account? If the answer is yes, congratulations, you’ve taken a big step towards building a financially secure retirement. Use our traditional IRA calculator to see how much your nest egg will grow...
    IRA Retirement Calculator

  • Investment Calculator: Get On Track To Achieve Your Goals

    Are you on track to achieve your investing goals? Plenty of factors go into understanding whether you'll be able to hit your targets, including your contribution rate, rate of return, taxes and inflation, among others. Forbes Advisor's investment calculator is...
    Investment Calculator: Get On Track To Achieve Your Goals

  • Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities: What Are TIPS?

    Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, commonly known as TIPS, are bonds issued by the U.S. government that offer protection against inflation, in addition to modest interest payments. “For investors who prioritize preserving the purchasing power of their cash, TIPS can help...
    Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities: What Are TIPS?

  • What Is A Robo-Advisor? How Do They Work?

    A robo-advisor can help you automate the process of investing for retirement and other financial goals. The robo-advisor concept is simple, but for new investors the idea of letting a software algorithm choose your investments may seem somewhat unfamiliar. We’ll...
    What Is A Robo-Advisor? How Do They Work?

  • What Are Stocks? How Do They Work?

    Stocks are units of ownership in a company, also known as shares of stock or equities. When you buy a share of stock, you’re purchasing a partial ownership stake in a company, entitling you to certain benefits. Understanding what stocks...
    What Are Stocks? How Do They Work?

  • The Wash Sale Rule Keeps Your Tax Loss Claims Clean

    One of the nice things about the U.S. tax code is that if one of your investments ends up in the red, you can sell it at a loss and reduce your taxable income. Just be careful not to repurchase...
    The Wash Sale Rule Keeps Your Tax Loss Claims Clean

  • Net Worth Calculator: What’s My Net Worth?

    Your net worth is the value of your assets minus your liabilities, a.k.a. everything you own minus everything you owe. Getting a handle on your net worth is like giving yourself a financial report card. When you count up all...
    Net Worth Calculator: What’s My Net Worth?

  • ROI Calculator

    Investing is a long game, measured in years. Understanding your return on investment (ROI) can help you achieve your goals. It all depends on your rate of return, your time horizon, taxes and a host of other factors. Use Forbes...
    ROI Calculator

  • Stock Buybacks: How Companies Create Value For Shareholders

    Profitable public companies often return excess cash to shareholders by paying dividends. But they can also reward their investors another way: stock buybacks, also known as share buybacks or share repurchase programs. What Is a Stock Buyback? A stock buyback...
    Stock Buybacks: How Companies Create Value For Shareholders

  • What Is A Balanced Fund?

    A balanced fund is a type of mutual fund that owns both stocks and bonds. Balanced funds own stocks to benefit from appreciation, and generate income from bonds. Typically, stocks comprise from half to 70% of a balanced mutual fund's...
    What Is A Balanced Fund?

  • How Do Bond Ratings Work?

    Bond ratings help investors understand the risks involved in buying fixed income securities. They are issued as letter grades by ratings agencies to indicate whether bond issuers are more or less likely to reliably make interest payments and return the...
    How Do Bond Ratings Work?

  • The Best Ways To Invest $1 Million

    One million dollars might not be the fortune it once was, but it’s still plenty of money. Here’s the rub: $1 million can melt away fast if not managed wisely—but prudently invested, it can go a long way. Know Your...
    The Best Ways To Invest $1 Million

  • Small Fees Have A Big Impact On Your Investments

    There are plenty of things investors cannot control—market trends, decisions by corporate managers, Federal Reserve policy. But there is one critical part of investing that investors can control: The amount they pay in fees. Compared to the impact of Fed...
    Small Fees Have A Big Impact On Your Investments

  • What Are Index Funds? How Do They Work?

    An index fund is a type of mutual fund that aims to duplicate the performance of a financial market index, like the S&P 500. This strategy is called passive management—instead of trying to actively beat a benchmark, an index fund...
    What Are Index Funds? How Do They Work?

  • What Is A Bitcoin Wallet?

    Even though Bitcoin only exists digitally, you’ve still got to keep it somewhere, whether you’re hoping to use it to buy goods or services today or to invest it for the long term. That’s why when you start buying Bitcoin,...
    What Is A Bitcoin Wallet?

  • What Is A Limit Order? How Does It Work?

    Getting the right price in the stock market can be a challenge. That’s because stock values fluctuate constantly, rising or falling from one second or one minute to the next. Using a limit order helps ensure you can buy or...
    What Is A Limit Order? How Does It Work?

  • Limit Order Vs Market Order

    Not all stock trades are created equal—pick the wrong moment to buy or sell and it could cost you big. That’s because stock prices fluctuate quickly, making it vital for new investors to understand the difference between two of the...
    Limit Order Vs Market Order

  • How To Buy NVIDIA Stock (NVDA)

    Even if its name is somewhat unfamiliar, chances are you’ve used NVIDIA’s products in a gaming console or a personal computer. Today, NVIDIA dominates the market for graphics processing units, and in the future it’s products could form the backbone...
    How To Buy NVIDIA Stock (NVDA)

  • Inflation Calculator: Historical & Future Value

    Inflation is the gradual increase in prices across an entire economy. When inflation rises, consumers need to spend more money to buy the same goods and services. A rate of inflation that’s not too high and not too low is...
    Inflation Calculator: Historical & Future Value

  • How Inflation Erodes The Value Of Your Money

    If it feels like your dollar doesn’t go quite as far as it used to, you aren’t imagining it. The reason is inflation, which describes the gradual rise in prices and slow decline in purchasing power of your money over...
    How Inflation Erodes The Value Of Your Money

  • How To Buy Facebook Stock (META)

    With nearly two billion daily active users on its platform and nearly $120 billion in annual sales, Facebook is a global phenomenon and a revenue-generating juggernaut. The company has recently rebranded as Meta Platforms, Inc. If you’re interested in adding...
    How To Buy Facebook Stock (META)

  • How To Buy Microsoft Stock (MSFT)

    Since Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in 1975, it’s become one of the world’s largest technology companies, producing everything from computers and software to gaming systems and cloud computing support for space exploration. All that growth means robust...
    How To Buy Microsoft Stock (MSFT)

  • Certified Financial Planner: What Is A CFP?

    When you search for a financial advisor, you probably come across plenty of candidates with a “CFP” designation after their names. This acronym indicates you’re looking at a certified financial planner, a highly credentialed financial advisor that can help you...
    Certified Financial Planner: What Is A CFP?

  • How To Buy Cryptocurrency

    If you’re new to the world of crypto, figuring out how to buy Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies can be confusing at first. Thankfully, it’s pretty simple to learn the ropes. You can start investing in cryptocurrency by following...
    How To Buy Cryptocurrency

About

John Schmidt is the Former Assistant Assigning Editor for investing and retirement. Before joining Forbes Advisor, John was a senior writer at Acorns and editor at market research group Corporate Insight. His work has appeared in CNBC + Acorns’s Grow, MarketWatch and The Financial Diet.