Portfolio Literacy is dedicated to transparency and promoting free financial literacy for everyone. Here are Portfolio Literacy’s latest blog posts. If you are looking for specific topics, the categories are at the bottom of this page.
-
My First 5 Years of Financial Data Out of College
I track my finances the same way I track my career: with detailed numbers and trailing metrics. I try to grow from both years where I saw visible growth (professionally and financially) and years that taught me plenty of lessons. The data below covers my 5 years of financial data after college and captures things…
-
The Private Credit Market in 2026
Private credit has scaled into a core allocation across institutional portfolios, exceeding $1.7 trillion in global AUM. The asset class, once defined by structural inefficiencies and lender discipline, is now characterized by capital saturation, competitive deal dynamics, and increasingly asymmetric risk profiles. Observations from large-scale credit managers suggest that the market is no longer in…
-
How to Diversify Your +100K Dividend Portfolio
When managing a 100K dividend portfolio, diversification is key to mitigating risks and ensuring steady growth. You want a mix of high-yield dividend stocks and reliable growth companies. By diversifying your +100K dividend portfolio, you protect your investments against market volatility while securing consistent income through dividends. This strategy requires a careful selection process to balance…
-
How to Handle Student Debt as a New Graduate
Graduating from college is a monumental step in your life, signifying the transition from student to professional. However, it comes with the reality of student debt—a burden carried by many new graduates. Understanding the magnitude of your debt and planning to manage it effectively are crucial steps to ensure financial stability moving forward. Crafting a…
-
Student Loan Repayment Calculator
This student loan repayment calculator is designed to answer one core question: Should you invest your extra cash or use it to pay off your student loan (or loans) early? Instead of guessing, the tool calculates the exact return your investments need to generate to outperform paying down your debt. It also incorporates the student…
-
Where are Your Uncorrelated Assets?
Modern portfolio construction often assumes that owning both stocks and bonds creates sufficient diversification. For decades, the traditional 60/40 portfolio relied on a simple assumption: when equities decline, bonds rise. That relationship helped investors reduce volatility and stabilize portfolio returns. However, over the past several years, stocks and bonds have increasingly moved in sync, weakening…
-
Robinhood RVI vs. Fundrise VCX: The New Private Market ETFs
Retail investors have not had many credible ways to buy diversified exposure to private technology companies. That is what makes Robinhood Ventures Fund I (RVI) and Fundrise VCX notable. Both vehicles are designed to give everyday investors access to companies that historically stayed inside venture capital and late-stage growth funds. But once you get past…
-
One Year Investing in Fundrise: My 2025 Results and Takeaways
From January 10, 2025 through December 31, 2025, I ran a simple experiment: keep a small allocation to Fundrise as a way to add private real estate and private credit exposure alongside my public-market portfolio. The goal wasn’t to “beat the market” in a single calendar year, it was to begin to build something that…
-
Fundrise iPO at $15.90: What It Is and How It Works
Fundrise has periodically offered investors on its platform the chance to buy equity in Fundrise itself through what it calls an “internet public offering” (iPO). For the Fundrise iPO, instead of buying shares on a stock exchange, eligible Fundrise customers can buy shares directly through Fundrise in Rise Companies Corp., the parent company of Fundrise.…
-
Portfolio Beta Optimizer
This portfolio beta optimizer helps you estimate your portfolio’s beta and then adjust allocations to reach a target beta using only your own inputs. If you already track beta estimates for your holdings, or you want to model “what-if” allocation changes, this calculator can help you quantify how much market sensitivity (beta) you are taking…
-
Portfolio Allocation Calculator
This Portfolio Allocation Calculator is a simple tool designed to generate portfolio allocation guidance based on three inputs: age, risk tolerance, and income. Instead of giving a single “perfect” target, the calculator provides allocation ranges across four broad groups—Equities, Credit, Cash, and Alternative Assets—so you have flexibility to build a portfolio that matches your preferences…
-
My 2025 Investment Portfolio Performance: +25.52% vs. the S&P 500’s +17.88%
In 2025, my investment portfolio returned +25.52%, exceeding the S&P 500’s +17.88% total return for the year. This was not a smooth ride: my portfolio experienced a 26.8% drawdown after “Liberation Day”, the early-April tariff shock that drove a sharp, event-driven risk-off move in markets, before recovering as I deployed cash into positions I wanted…
-
Portfolio Update: January 1st, 2026
Happy New Year everyone! Before 2025 ended, I made some changes to my portfolio to position myself for a smoother portfolio return. I am really happy for how 2025 went (both financially and personally) and I am looking forward to what 2026 has in store. Portfolio Allocation: Cash & Equivalents (37.1%): Cash & 1-month US…
-
Why I’m Buying Bitcoin Here in 2026
Bitcoin’s price action this year has renewed interest from both new and seasoned investors. If you read my earlier piece “Should I Have an Allocation to Bitcoin in My Portfolio?”, you already know the main questions you should consider before you allocate to Bitcoin. Now that Bitcoin has dipped below the $100,000 level, I personally…
-
Diversifying Return Drivers: How Institutional Portfolios Are Actually Built
Learn how real portfolios diversify return drivers, not tickers, by combining growth, cash flow, inflation protection, and optionality to stay invested across cycles.