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Viewing entries forView all blogs (popular) | Personal finance (popular) | Real estate (popular) | Investing (popular) | Visit Items 182 - 206 of 254
    Thursday, January 10, 2008 Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires. Shhh… (7 clicks)
From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 10, 2008 at 5:38 am ET Reader’s Digest has an article titled Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires. The “secrets” aren’t exactly groundbreaking:
Set your sights on where you’re going
Educate yourself
Passion pays off
Grow your money
No guts, no glory
Stop spending
… but I always enjoy reading such stories anyway. In addition, but sprinkled throughout the article are several interesting quotes which hit home [...] ... (more) From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 10, 2008 at 2:52 am ET TradeKing is offering a $100 bonus for opening an account with at least $2,500, and making one trade. You must keep $1,000 in the account for the first 6 months. I could not find a related TradeKing promotional code for this offer, but it appears to be valid. Check out my TradeKing [...] ... (more) Wednesday, January 9, 2008 From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 9, 2008 at 6:00 am ET If you leave your job and have a 401k or 403b left behind, the common advice is to roll it over into a Rollover IRA. There are several benefits to doing so, but here are the biggies:
You maintain the tax-deferred status of the investment. For a traditional 401k, you would still be [...] ... (more) Tuesday, January 8, 2008 From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 8, 2008 at 5:39 am ET Credit Card Debt
If you’re a newer reader, you may have some concerns about my high levels of credit card debt. I’m actually taking money from 0% APR balance transfer offers and instead of spending it, I am placing it in high yield savings accounts that actually earn me 5% interest or more, and keeping the [...] ... (more) From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 8, 2008 at 3:33 am ET Okay, so I’ve decided upon an asset allocation plan. Now for my least favorite part - cramming all those asset classes into several different accounts. First, I’ll list my existing accounts, their estimated current balances, and my flexibility in investment options.
Account Type
Est. Value
Fund Choices
Roth IRA #1
$46,000
Vanguard funds w/ no transaction fee (NTF)
Roth [...] ... (more) Monday, January 7, 2008 From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 7, 2008 at 7:02 am ET Over the last year or so, I’ve learned a lot of new things about investing and asset allocation. At the same time, I know that changing your asset allocation too frequently is often a response to recent market activity (aka performance chasing, or market timing). In addition, I’m a highly [...] ... (more) Sunday, January 6, 2008 From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 6, 2008 at 7:33 am ET I am a proponent and investor in low-cost, passive-managed mutual funds, but even within that philosophy there can be a dizzying array of choices. Although this has been taking a lot longer than I had hoped, but here is an updated compilation of posts about my thought process when re-building my portfolio.
Section 1: Simplified Theoretical [...] ... (more) Saturday, January 5, 2008 From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 5, 2008 at 8:26 am ET Here are some follow-ups on some recent posts:
Cast Iron Skillet: The Ultimate Smart and Frugal Cookware?
Amazon actually send my pot 2nd-day Air, I assume to make sure it arrived without damage. But sending a $15 pot by 2nd-day air?
I’ve used it twice to cook steaks and then again for some veggies for fajitas. [...] ... (more) From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 5, 2008 at 8:02 am ET Either by coincidence or due to my subconscious, most of these links have to do with careers and jobs:
SVB at TheDigeratiLife explores the true costs of relocating. Most people move for jobs, but we moved for family first, and found jobs second. Not everyone can make such priorities work in real life, [...] ... (more) Friday, January 4, 2008 Free Sample Friday: Smell It Like Beckham (4 clicks)
From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 4, 2008 at 6:53 am ET Got your junk e-mail addresses ready? Unfortunately, no free razors to be found. First stop, free samples at Wal-mart. Currently available (refresh page as necessary):
- South Beach granola snacks
- Dove and Head and Shoulders shampoo
- Friskies dry cat food
- “Intimately Beckham” cologne/perfume
Also found in the Slickdeals Freebies area:
- Free 8-week membership to Bally [...] ... (more) From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 4, 2008 at 6:21 am ET CNN Money has a potentially useful piece on how to get a copy of important documents if you happen to lose them. Hopefully you won’t ever need this info, but here it is anyway…
Savings Bonds
Visit TreasuryDirect.gov or fill out Form 1048 (Claim for lost, stolen, or destroyed US Savings Bonds).
Old Stock and Bond Certificates
Most [...] ... (more) From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 4, 2008 at 3:00 am ET Another startup website, WeddingWire, is offering a $5 gift card to Amazon.com for newlyweds and married folks who provide reviews of 5 wedding vendors. Thanks to reader Susie for the tip.
Although this may not be the most efficient use of time, I kind of like the idea of sharing feedback in this area. [...] ... (more) Thursday, January 3, 2008 From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 3, 2008 at 12:51 am ET Wow, here’s an interesting promotion from person-to-person lender LendingClub. They are currently offering a 5% cash bonus if you lend $5,000 or more by February 3, 2008 for both new and existing lenders on top of their $25/$50 sign-up bonus. Here are the details from their announcement:
You will qualify for the [...] ... (more) Wednesday, January 2, 2008 From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 2, 2008 at 5:56 am ET Even if you don’t do resolutions per se, I think most of us still have areas of improvement that we want to work on for 2008. The problem is that is it so easy to keep putting off taking action to reach our goals. Given that I think little steps are the [...] ... (more) From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
January 2, 2008 at 3:36 am ET
Retirement Portfolio
Fund
$
%
FSTMX - Total Stock Market (~Large)
$24,006
23%
DISFX - S&P 500 Index Fund (Large)
$7,437
7%
VIVAX - Vanguard Value Index (Lg Value)
$13,782
13%
DODGX - Dodge & Cox (Lg Value)
$13,782
5%
VISVX - V. Small-Cap Value Index
$12,725
12%
VGSIX - V. REIT Index
$7,637
7%
VTRIX - V. International Value
$8,851
13%
VEIEX - V. Emerging Markets Stock Index
$10,622
10%
VFICX - V. Int-Term Investment-Grade Bond
$8,037
8%
PTRAX - PIMCO Total Return [...] ... (more) Sunday, December 30, 2007 From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
December 30, 2007 at 3:22 pm ET When we got married, we received some very nice cookware as wedding presents. Calphalon, non-stick, anodized, big bucks. But after years of abuse due to my poor cooking skills, my $50 frying pans are anything but non-stick anymore. So, yesterday I spent some of my holiday Amazon gift certificates on a [...] ... (more) Friday, December 28, 2007 From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
December 28, 2007 at 4:16 am ET Yikes, I’m cutting things close this year. Time to see if there are any last-minute things I need to do with the last two business days before 2008.
Selling Losing Stocks or Mutual Funds
If you have some investments that are currently in the negative and you don’t want anymore, you might consider selling them and [...] ... (more) Thursday, December 27, 2007 From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
December 27, 2007 at 5:32 am ET The baby wings of hospitals are getting really busy now, more than any other time of the year. And it’s all Uncle Sam’s fault, because having a baby any time before 11:59pm on December 31st can mean over a thousand dollars in child tax breaks. In fact, if you have an income low enough to qualify for the earned income credit, the difference can more than $3,000.
The New York Times explores this phenomenon that is making December 28th the most popular birth date of the year. It’s almost like something out of Freakonomics, which explored curious ... (more) Tuesday, December 25, 2007 Merry Christmas Sweetie! I Got You… Nothing. (23 clicks)
From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
December 25, 2007 at 10:29 pm ET Well, it’s official. My wife didn’t get each other anything for Christmas. For one, we were too busy buying gifts for others and trying to get our handmade holiday cards out on time. (Okay, she was too busy with all that. I was just a slacker.) We had [...] ... (more) Sunday, December 23, 2007 From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
December 23, 2007 at 2:07 pm ET In the past week or so, several online banks have responded to the Fed rate cuts with drops of their own, including:
ING Direct went from 4.20% to 4.10%. APY.
HSBC Direct went from 4.50% to 4.25% APY.
Emigrant Direct went from 4.75% to 4.65% APY.
Chasing Higher Yields?
Countrywide Bank has a Savingslink savings account that pays 5.30% APY for balances over $10,000 (4.0% for under $10,000). They also have a 3-month CD paying 5.50% APY.
Everbank has a promotional 5.51% APY for 3 months on their FreeNet checking account.
Use my Rate Chaser Calculator to estimate how much more money you’ll make.
My personal bank ... (more) Saturday, December 22, 2007 I Don’t Understand Why Gift Cards Are So Bad (27 clicks)
From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
December 22, 2007 at 6:35 am ET Shh… I’ve already opened up some of my Christmas gifts. Wait, what is this? A gift card? Nooo!!! Evil!
It’s trendy to bag on gift cards right now. Liz Pulliam Weston says gift cards are not gifts and complains that “holidays have rapidly devolved into what amounts to an exchange of cash. A gift card says nothing about the personality of the recipient — but it says lots about the giver.”. Miss Manners is quoted as saying they are “a pathetic compromise convenient to people who do not trust their judgment about selecting the right ... (more) Friday, December 21, 2007 From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
December 21, 2007 at 3:02 am ET A lot of us younger folks are so disillusioned by our government that we don’t expect Social Security to even be around when we turn 65 (or likely 75 by that time…). But the fact is that today millions of people rely on Social Security as their primary - if not sole - source of income. Taking into account that the average benefit is only $963 a month, that’s not very much.
AARP asked retirees who rely primarily upon Social Security how the manage financially, and reprinted a selection of the responses. I enjoyed reading ... (more) From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
December 21, 2007 at 2:27 am ET In my review of Sharebuilder a few days ago, I overlooked an important feature that commenter aschmuck pointed out. I had complained that $4 a trade is pretty high unless your monthly contributions were at least around $400. Before, your choices of investment schedule were only weekly, monthly, or twice a month.
But when you create or edit our Automatic Investment Plan, you can now also change the frequency to “invest when the funds are available”.
From their Help section:
How does “invest when the funds are available” work?
If you decide to invest when the funds are available ... (more) Thursday, December 20, 2007 From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
December 20, 2007 at 3:19 am ET I’m helping a relative move this weekend, and I am trying to convince her not to go with the cheap choice (U-Haul), but pay $40 more for a Penske rental for her local move. This is mainly based on overwhelming anecdotal evidence (from me, my friends, and tons of people online) that U-Haul [...] ... (more) Wednesday, December 19, 2007 From MyMoneyBlog - view blog entries - visit this blog
December 19, 2007 at 5:31 am ET In case you haven’t heard, online bank ING Direct ($25 bonus) recently bought the brokerage Sharebuilder. It seems like a promising merger, as ING Direct was a pioneer in making online banking simple and approachable to the general public, and Sharebuilder has been trying to do the same thing for investing. Although I have a Sharebuilder account, I’ve never been impressed with them enough to actually use them to manage my investments. This post is a combination of my review of their current setup and what I hope they implement in the future.
Good Things
Simple, dollar-based investing. ... (more) Items 182 - 206 of 254
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