Happy New Year! News came that Congress passed a fiscal cliff deal, official known as the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. Whether you like it or not, that’ll be the law for now. Rather than doing a run-down for what’s in it, which I’m sure you read everywhere, I will look at one item […]
Latest Blog Posts
Bill Gross Got Lucky Again
When I looked at my 401k account for something else, I noticed this from the performance sheet: My 401k plan offers two choices for intermediate-term bond funds: PIMCO Total Return Institutional and Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund Institutional. As of November 30, PIMCO Total Return squarely beat Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund in […]
Your Traditional IRA is Life Insurance and an Emergency Fund
[This is a guest post from Bogleheads investment forum participant Bob’s not my name.] Roth IRAs are touted as backup emergency funds: you can withdraw your direct contributions at any time for any reason, without penalty (and, of course, without tax, because you already paid it). This is a very nice feature. It allows young […]
Bluebird by American Express: A Full Featured Checking Account That Never Overdrafts
American Express is offering a new checking account and debit card alternative with Walmart called Bluebird. A key benefit of it is that it will never overdraft. Add Cash at Walmart Adding cash to the Bluebird account at Walmart is free. This can be a good way to deposit cash. Walmart is open in evenings […]
Real Interest Rate In Babylon
I heard about the book The Richest Man In Babylon by George S. Clason but I haven’t read it until now. It’s a fun little book. Two middle class guys in Babylonian times were wondering how come they didn’t have money although they worked hard in their trades. They went to ask the richest man […]
BBVA Compass Build My Savings Match Bonus: Effectively 6% Return FDIC Insured
[Update in October 2015: BBVA changed the terms of the Build My Savings account. Accounts opened before July 2015 are still on the old terms described here. New accounts have a maximum transfer period of 12 months and a maximum match bonus of $50.] I updated this post I first wrote a year ago. I […]
How to Build a Time Machine With IRAs – Part 2
[This is a guest post from Bogleheads investment forum participant Bob’s not my name as a follow-up to his previous post How to Build a Time Machine With IRAs – Part 1.] In Part 1 we discussed how your money can use a deductible traditional IRA to travel forward in time and to a different […]
Low Early Withdrawal Penalty On a CD Is Not Worth It
When the yield on a CD with a lower early withdrawal penalty is meaningfully lower, go for the CD with a higher yield even though the early withdrawal penalty is larger.
How to Build a Time Machine With IRAs – Part 1
[This is a guest post from Bogleheads investment forum participant Bob’s not my name.] Wouldn’t it be great to have a Time Machine that would allow your money to travel back and forth in time and from place to place, seeking out the lowest tax rates? Well, you can build one yourself with IRAs. Deductible […]
Do Immigrants Work Harder? If So Why?
A team I work with at my employer is hiring a project manager. They included me as one of the interviewers. Interestingly, after the initial phone screens the three final candidates invited over for face-to-face interviews are all immigrants. They don’t speak perfect English. Some started in fields completely different than the field my employer […]