Have you ever felt a sour taste in your mouth after listening to someone’s financial advice?  If your answer is yes, you may be a stacker.

What is a Stacker?

Stackers build wealth intentionally by practicing discipline, learning continuously, and making smart, forward-thinking choices, year after year

More specifically, stackers’:

  1. Plan ahead
  2. Prepare for the unexpected
  3. Live below their means
  4. Invest for a better tomorrow
  5. Learn about their biases
  6. Work to make rational decisions

Why Are the Rules Different For Stackers?

Mainstream financial rules, repeated by gurus from Tik Tok to Dave Ramsey, aren’t tailored to us. We’ve developed strong habits, think rationally, and can resist temptations today in exchange for a better tomorrow.  Instead, these rules are in place to help the average consumer control their bad habits at their best, and are part of a sales pitch at their worst.

For example, here are 7 financial rules that are shared regularly but are defunct to us:

  • “Never use a credit card.”
  • “Pay off your mortgage before investing in your 401k.”
  • “Expect 12% returns on your investments.”
  • “Use commission based mutual funds.”
  • “Protect your family with Universal Life insurance.”
  • “You can time the market.”
  • “The 4% rule guarantees lifelong income.”

The Stackers’ Dilemma

As we stack higher, there comes additional freedom, complexity and responsibility. That means more tax planning, risk mitigation, decision fatigue, intergenerational planning, account management, investment selection, charitable giving, and greater demands on our time and influence.

The Stacker’s Payoff

As a lifelong stacker, if done right, we can manage the dilemmas and continue to build one learning on top of another until we have so much social, physical, financial, spiritual and time wealth that we are free to live our best life.

I worked in the corporate world for 14 years, getting paid and stacking away.  In 2020, my wife and I achieved what we deemed “enough” and began to transition away from working for someone else.  We have matured into the stacker stage of spending more time doing what we love: like coaching our kids’ sports teams, visiting family and friends, going on adventures, focusing on our health, and empowering HIT’s stacker community through this newsletter and our firm’s mission to democratize wealth.

What to Expect From HIT Investments, Stacking, and This Newsletter Going Forward

  • Myth-Busting Deep Dives: I’ll expand on our viral piece, “7 Pieces of Dave Ramsey Advice That Don’t Hold Up for Stackers,” with transparent, number-backed analysis.
  • Spot Sneaky Fees: Learn how paying just 1% more in investment fees can cost you tens of thousands over your career, and how to spot the sneaky fees most people miss.
  • Behavioral Bias Superpowers: Turn human bias into a winning advantage.
  • Stacker-Only Tools: Unlock calculators and checklists you won’t find anywhere else.
  • Strengthen and Grow: Strategies to boost returns and lower risk, even as you scale.
  • Slash Your Tax Bill: Take advantage of an overly complex tax code to lower your tax burden.
  • Next-Level Earnings: Discover the latest and greatest resources to help you earn more.
  • Optimized Spending: Learn about communities, deals, and sites that will save you more.

Ready to stack? Sign up for our newsletter, and stay tuned for our first mythbuster: “7 Pieces of Dave Ramsey Advice That Don’t Hold Up.”