Stoffel Wealth

Building Wealth, One Step At A Time

Welcome!

StoffelWealth.com is a personal blog focused on retail investing and financial literacy, offering practical insights on how to build wealth – one step at a time.

This blog is for retail investors, curious parents raising money-smart kids, and anyone on the path to building meaningful, long-term wealth.

At StoffelWealth, I share honest, experience-based insights. No hype. No shortcuts. Just the real work of showing up, learning, and staying in the game.

Here’s what you’ll find:

📈 Investing

This is where I share personal, hands-on insights from my own journey as a retail investor.

From building model portfolios to managing risk, my goal is to help everyday people grow wealth over time – without the noise.

🧠 Financial Literacy

If you want to raise money-smart kids – or become money-smart yourself – this is your space.

I share practical tools, stories, and systems to help families and individuals build financial literacy from the ground up. Because understanding money early can change everything later.

🌍 The Miscellany

Because life isn’t just about investing and money. In this corner of StoffelWealth, I post thoughts, discoveries, and offbeat topics that don’t quite fit anywhere else – but are too interesting not to share.

Whether you’re here to master your money, teach your kids, or just poke around, I’m glad you’re here. Let’s build wealth – slowly, intentionally, and with a little curiosity along the way.

Latest Blog Posts

School vs Life: Why Basic Financial Skills Are Missing in Education – and What Parents Can Do

Introduction Despite over a decade of schooling, many young adults graduate without knowing how to budget, save, or handle credit. Basic financial skills – arguably as essential as math or reading – are largely missing from formal education. The results are telling:...

How Exchange Traded Funds Work: The Mechanics

Introduction If you are like many beginner investors, you may already own or be thinking about buying an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) like the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (symbol: VTI) or the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (symbol: SPY) instead of buying individual stocks,...

My First Risk Premia Portfolio: A Beginner’s Guide

Introduction Last week, I explored risk premia and how they can help you build long-term wealth. If you have made it through that post, well done! Now, let’s make it practical. How do you actually get started? In this post I will explain the steps to take to actually...

Risk Premia Harvesting: Earning Rewards for Taking Market Risks

Risk Premia and Risk Premia Harvesting Previously, I published a first post on Risk Premia Harvesting. In this post we will delve deeper into this topic and further explore Risk Premia and Risk Premia Harvesting. Fair warning though: this is a very long and wordy...

Why Young People Are Financially Illiterate and What We Can Do About It

Introduction   “Being financially literate is just as important as knowing how to read and write.”Annamaria Lusardi, Stanford University Financial literacy isn't a luxury; it's a life skill. Yet, the data shows that most young people today are woefully...

Book Review: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Introduction Few books have had as profound an impact on the way we understand human behaviour, especially in the context of decision-making, as Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Published in 2011 and based on decades of psychological research (including his...

Diversification vs. Concentration: Why You Shouldn’t Copy Buffett

Introduction “Diversification is protection against ignorance.” Warren Buffett At the 2024 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, Warren Buffett officially announced he would step down as CEO, passing the torch to Vice-Chairman Greg Abel. After nearly 60 years of...

Don’t Outsource Financial Literacy

Don’t Outsource Financial Literacy   Introduction: Why You Need to Understand Money In an age of digital convenience, it’s easy to assume we can delegate everything including our finances. Robo-advisors, wealth managers, banks, and fintech apps promise to handle...

Loss Aversion: Why Losing Hurts More Than Winning Feels Good

Introduction Imagine losing $100. Now imagine finding $100. Which experience feels stronger? If you’re like most people, the pain of losing that money hits twice as hard as the pleasure of gaining it. This psychological phenomenon is known as loss aversion, one of the...

Where Does Money Come From? (And Why It Doesn’t Grow on Trees)

💸 Where Does Money Come From? (And Why It Doesn’t Grow on Trees) 👨‍👩‍👦 A Note to Parents By now, your child understands how to save and spend, spot needs versus wants, and even make a mini budget. Now it’s time to talk about where money actually comes from - and why...

What Is a Budget? (For Kids!)

🧠💰 What Is a Budget? (For Kids!) 👨‍👩‍👦 A Note to Parents Now that your child understands how to save and spend - and how to tell needs from wants - it's time to introduce another key financial skill: budgeting. Think of budgeting as a simple plan that shows kids how...

Volatility Targeting: A Guide to Stabilizing Portfolio Risk

Volatility Targeting: How to Stabilize Portfolio Risk Volatility targeting is an investment strategy that aims to keep your portfolio’s volatility at a consistent, predetermined level over time. In this beginner-friendly guide, we’ll explain what volatility is and why...

The Downfall of Signa Holding and René Benko: Lessons for Retail Investors

The Downfall of Signa Holding and René Benko: Lessons for Retail Investors   René Benko and Signa Holding’s Meteoric Rise René Benko was once hailed as a real estate wunderkind. A high school dropout from Innsbruck, Austria, Benko began his career converting...

Needs vs Wants: Helping Kids Make Smart Money Choices

Needs vs Wants: Helping Kids Make Smart Money Choices 🧠👨‍👩‍👦 A Note to Parents As your child becomes more familiar with saving and spending, the next step is teaching them how to tell the difference between a need and a want. Understanding this difference builds...

Book Review: The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

Book Review: The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham Introduction First published in 1949 and updated several times since, The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham is widely regarded as the definitive guide to value investing. Graham, often called the father of...

Save or Spend? Helping Kids Make Smart Money Choices

Save or Spend? Helping Kids Make Smart Money Choices 👨‍👩‍👦 A Note to Parents Once your child starts receiving a regular allowance and learns that money can grow (thanks to the magic of compounding), the next natural step is helping them decide what to do with their...

The Magic of Compounding

🧠💰 The Magic of Compounding - How to Explain It to Your Kids 👨‍👩‍👦 A Note to Parents Compounding is one of the most powerful forces in finance - and one of the hardest to appreciate without seeing it in action. For kids, it's like magic: the longer your money sits and...

Don’t Panic: How Long-Term Investors Should Respond to Market Volatility

Don’t Panic: How Long-Term Investors Should Respond to Market Volatility Tariffs, Tumult, and Staying the Course: A Note to Long-Term Investors Markets are down. Headlines are loud. Uncertainty is abundant. But for long-term investors, this is not the time to panic....

How I’m Teaching My 7-Year-Old About Money – One Allowance at a Time

How I’m Teaching My 7-Year-Old About Money - One Allowance at a Time When it comes to raising financially confident kids, few tools are as effective - and practical - as a simple weekly allowance. This week, I’m starting an allowance system for my 7-year-old son....

Why Even a Crystal Ball Won’t Make You Rich

Why Even a Crystal Ball Won’t Make You Rich Imagine having tomorrow’s news today. Would you use it to strike it rich in the markets? That’s the premise behind a fascinating experiment conducted by Victor Haghani, James White, and Jerry Bell, described in their article...
How Exchange Traded Funds Work: The Mechanics

How Exchange Traded Funds Work: The Mechanics

Introduction If you are like many beginner investors, you may already own or be thinking about buying an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) like the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (symbol: VTI) or the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (symbol: SPY) instead of buying individual stocks,...

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Disclaimer

I am not a qualified licensed investment advisor but a private retail investor with a broader interest in financial literacy. All information and content provided here, including any thoughts and ideas, opinions, forecasts and predictions, suggestions, or investment picks expressed or implied herein, are for informational, entertainment or educational purposes only and should not be construed as personal investment advice. While the information provided is believed to be accurate, it may include errors or inaccuracies.

I will not and cannot be held liable for any actions you take as a result of anything you read here. Conduct your own due diligence or consult a licensed financial advisor or broker before making any and all investment decisions. Any investments, trades, or other decisions made on the basis of any information found on this site are executed at your own risk.

StoffelWealth.com is my personal blog focused on retail investing reflecting my personal views. No representations or warranties are made with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the content of this entire blog, including any links to other sites. The links provided are maintained by their respective organizations and they are solely responsible for their content. All information presented here is provided ‘as is’, without warranty of any kind, expressed or implied.