Have you ever wondered why so many others seem to have more money than you do? Over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays I took some time off for a vacation in Arizona. We went to Sedona, AZ, which is famous for red rocks canyons. We saw ads for helicopter rides in tourist brochures. “That […]
Latest Blog Posts
The Best Way to Refinance a Small Mortgage
A reader asked me about refinancing a mortgage. I gave him my usual spiel about getting a no cost refinance, stepping down the ladder, etc. I also gave him the short list of lenders I shop from: First IB, NMA, and AmeriSave. He came back to me saying he couldn’t get a no cost refi […]
Who Should Default On Their Mortgage
My first issue of The Atlantic magazine hasn’t come yet. I also subscribed to The Atlantic Business RSS feed. The online articles are free to everyone, not just print magazine subscribers. I read Why Shouldn’t People Just Default? and So When Should You Default on Your Mortgage? by Megan McArdle. Ms. McArdle is against strategically […]
What Would Happen When Interest Rates Go Up
By now you probably heard that bonds, and in particular long-term US Treasury bonds, did the best in 2011 among all major asset classes. Here are the performances of select Vanguard mutual funds in 2011: Vanguard Long-Term Treasury Fund (VUSTX) +29.28% Vanguard Long-Term Bond Index Fund (VBLTX) +22.06% Vanguard Long-Term Investment-Grade Fund (VWESX) +17.18% Vanguard […]
Magazines At 50-70% Off: The Atlantic, The Economist, Bloomberg Businessweek, Wall Street Journal
Some great bargains on select news and business magazines and newspapers: The Atlantic, The Economist, Bloomberg Businessweek, Wall Street Journal
Medicare Doc Fix: An Interview with Austin Frakt
The Medicare "doc fix" is in the news again. I keep hearing if Congress doesn’t act, doctor’s fees for treating Medicare patients will be cut by 27% starting on January 1. This is a complete mystery to me. What’s this evil force that’s trying to cut doctor’s fees? Why can’t Congress make it stop since […]
What to Do When Interest Rate Is So Low
Princeton University professor emeritus Burton Malkiel and the author of the popular book A Random Walk Down Wall Street wrote in the Wall Street Journal The Bond Buyer’s Dilemma. Professor Malkiel suggested some reasonable alternatives to long-term U.S. Treasuries. “The first is to look for bonds with moderate credit risk where the spreads over U.S. […]
Tax on Capital Gains While Receiving Social Security Benefits
I wrote about tax-free capital gains when you are in the 15% tax bracket or lower. I created this chart to make it clearer what I’m talking about (click on the chart for a larger size). Your gross income first goes toward the pre-tax deductions from your paychecks (401k, health care insurance premiums, flexible spending […]
Lump Sum, Dollar Cost Average, Or Wait for Dip?
It’s December. A new year is just around the corner. I’m thinking of when I should contribute to my IRA for the next year. In the past, I always contributed the full amount at the first opportunity: January 2. Every year I just moved $5,000 or whatever the limit was for that year from my […]
Deduct-and-Convert: Save Hundreds in State Tax on Roth IRA
If you live in the right state and have the right income, you can save hundreds in state income tax when you contribute to a Roth IRA in a different way.