GROW · VOLUME 3 OF 3 · DEEP DIVEInvesting shelf
Advanced Investment Strategies
The deep-dive volume on investing beyond a simple stock and bond mix. It starts with keeping more of your return through asset location and tax-loss harvesting, then covers real estate through REITs and rental property, commodities and gold, cryptocurrency, and using options to protect a holding, with the costs, taxes and position sizes that decide whether each one helps or hurts.
Chapters6
Reading time40 min
Worked examples16
Updated2026-10-01
What you will be able to do
- Place each holding in the account where it is taxed least, and harvest a loss without breaking the wash sale rule.
- Compare a REIT fund with owning a rental property, and judge a rental with its cap rate, cash-on-cash return and a realistic cost budget.
- Explain what gold, commodity funds and cryptocurrency can and cannot do in a portfolio, how each is taxed, and how to size a position you can live with.
- Describe how protective puts, covered calls and collars work, what they cost, and when a change of asset mix protects you more cheaply.
Contents
6 CHAPTERS · ABOUT 40 MIN- 01Tax-Efficient Investing How taxes quietly reduce returns in a taxable account, how asset location lowers the bill on the same portfolio, how to harvest losses within the wash sale rule, and which funds stay tax-efficient.7 min3 computed
- 02REITs: Real Estate Through the Stock Market What a real estate investment trust legally is, the main kinds, how REIT dividends are taxed and why they belong in retirement accounts, how analysts value REITs, and how much real estate a portfolio already holds.7 min2 computed
- 03Owning Rental Property Directly The four ways a rental pays its owner, the costs new landlords underestimate, how to judge a deal with cap rate, cash-on-cash return and IRR, how rental income and losses are taxed, and who direct ownership suits.7 min4 computed
- 04Commodities and Gold in a Portfolio What commodities are as investments, what gold does and does not do, how futures-based funds can lose value to contango, how metals and commodity funds are taxed, and how to decide on an allocation, including none.7 min3 computed
- 05Cryptocurrency: What You Own and How to Size It What a cryptocurrency is, the honest case for and against it, how to size a position against a severe fall, how to hold it safely and avoid scams, and how the IRS taxes buying, selling, trading and earning it.7 min3 computed
- 06Options as Protection: Puts, Covered Calls and Collars How call and put options work, how a protective put sets a floor, how a covered call trades upside for income, how a collar combines them, what each costs, and when a change of asset mix protects more cheaply.7 min1 computed
CALCULATORS USED IN THIS BOOK