Ep 135 – How Big is Your “Too Hard” Pile?

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Join Nick and Dave as they discuss the interesting topic of what to do when your “Too Hard” pile gets too big.

This is inspired by the article My ‘Too Hard’ Pile Is Pretty Big by Christine Benz in the Morningstar publication about personal finances.

What is a “Too Hard Pile?”

The term “Too Hard Pile” was coined by Charlie Munger to describe investments that just aren’t worth the effort because they fall outside of the Berkshire Hathaway team’s circle of competence.

What he was getting at is when people get new investment ideas they basically sort them out right away into the ones they understand and the ones they don’t like. The ones they don’t want to waste their time trying to figure out because they are too complicated.

This can also be applied to personal finance in general.

Some of the things Christine includes in her too-hard pile are:

• Individual Stocks
• Actively Managed Funds
• Leveraged investing
• Market Timing

Some other things that commonly fall into people’s too-hard pile are:

• Financial
  • Individual Economic Data Points
  • Short-Term Market Forecasts
  • Short-Term Market News
  • Individual stock news/tips
• Personal Finance
  • Complex financial instruments
    • Permanent life
    • Annuities
  • Certain Estate planning strategies
    • Medicaid Planning strategies
    • High-level estate tax
  • All or Nothing tax strategies
  • College Planning (aid qualifications)

Listen to or watch the entire episode to learn more about how you can tackle your too-hard pile.

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