I received a notice from my employer about our 401k plan. The plan will soon start charging an administrative fee to employees’ accounts, estimated to be about $20 per quarter. Until now our plan didn’t charge any administrative fee explicitly. I was able to confirm that on my 401k plan statement. See previous post Find […]
Latest Blog Posts
Stable Value Fund vs Bond Fund vs CDs
CDs are better than bond funds these days even though financial advisors rarely recommend CDs. Many 401k or 403b plans include a stable value fund. How do those compare to CDs and regular bond funds? CDs are appealing for several reasons: higher yield, principal stability, and FDIC-insurance. Stable value funds share some of the same […]
Pay a Fee For Better Value
The word “fee” has a negative connotation. I’m not sure why, because a fee is just a price tag on a service. Brokerage firms have to advertise “no fee IRAs.” Credit card companies say “no annual fee.” Is a no-fee product necessarily better than a product with a fee? I see heirloom tomatoes selling for […]
Increase Tax Withholding On ESPP Gains
I filed my taxes in the first week of April. I received paper I Bonds on April 29, just in time to have them earn the 1.76% rate in the first six months as opposed to the lower 1.18% rate. That’s good. The bad news is for the first time in 20 years I’m paying […]
Why Financial Advisors Favor Bond Funds Over CDs
CDs are a better deal than bond funds nowadays but investors often don’t realize it. You would think financial advisors would be all over it when they are living and breathing in the investment world day in and day out. However, besides Allan Roth and Larry Swedroe, I haven’t seen many financial advisors recommend CDs […]
Can You File An Extended Warranty Claim After A Credit Card Is Closed?
My Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS running watch broke. It keeps resetting at random times. I refreshed the firmware. It didn’t help. Raindrops got into it some time ago. That probably messed up something. I bought the watch in July 2011. The manufacturer has a 1-year warranty. I paid with my Starwood American Express card, which […]
Why Investors Don’t Realize CDs Are a Better Deal Than Bonds
The best CDs are a better deal than bond funds but investors don’t realize it. They overvalue simplicity, overpay for liquidity. and they underestimate how easy it is to buy CDs even in IRAs.
What Happens After the ATM Ate Your Check Deposit
I was too trusting of the nifty ATMs that take checks without an envelope. I used the ATM outside our cafeteria at work to make deposits many times. I never had any problem, until last time. I usually deposit printed business checks. This time it was a handwritten personal check. The machine took it, tried […]
CD vs Bond Fund: A Case Study
Although interest rates dropped during the study period, favoring bond funds, buying a CD still came out ahead.
Obama Budget Limits Tax Deductions On 401k, Health Insurance, and Muni Bond Interest to 28%
The Obama budget proposal is officially released last week. The proposed tax related changes are further explained in a Green Book. $3 Million Cap On Retirement Accounts First on the proposed $3 million cap on retirement accounts (p. 175 in the Green Book PDF), it’s not exactly $3 million, but actually an amount enough to […]