Today is Good Friday. Stock and bond markets are closed. If you have a question about your account, is the mutual fund company or brokerage firm where you have your money open to answer your questions? I’m not talking about automated IVR systems. I’m talking about live human being customer service reps. I polled some […]
Latest Blog Posts
Bond Yield and Risks Triangle
There was an article on Washington Post by Robert Pozen and Theresa Hamacher about bonds: A bond backfire after racing to buy long-term Treasuries and sell tax-exempt funds Although I don’t agree with everything they said, especially their error about a TIPS fund in taxable accounts, on balance it’s a good article about the yield […]
Wages During and After Recession
Once upon a time, a now-defunct financial media company had a Twitter contest asking people to put a piece of financial advice into three words. My submission was: Earn, Save, Invest I didn’t win, but I still think that’s basically everything about personal finance. If I’m allowed a fourth word, I would throw in Insure […]
US Treasury Banks With Bank of America
I know many people complain about Bank of America. I saw this stamp on the back of the check I wrote for my 2010 federal income tax. Apparently the IRS took my check and deposited it in US Treasury’s account with Bank of America. It makes Bank of America true to its name.
Free Sales Tax Or Free Financing
I heard on the radio an ad from a mattress store. It says for this weekend only, the store will either pay the sales tax on any mattress purchase or give free financing for 24 months. Suppose the price of the mattress is $1,000 and the sales tax is 8% (to make math easier), if […]
Sell Your RSUs As Soon As They Vest
I heard in a casual conversation that some of my co-workers are holding their RSU shares after the shares are vested. They thought there are some tax advantages in holding the RSU shares. There is no tax advantage whatsoever in holding the RSUs after they vest. RSU stands for Restricted Stock Unit. It’s a form […]
1099 Requirement in Health Care Law Repealed
Small businesses can breathe a sigh of relief. The dreaded 1099 filing requirement added in last year’s health care law is repealed before it has a chance to take effect. Under the health care law, a business is required to issue a 1099 form to all vendors starting in 2012 if the business purchases $600 […]
S&P 500 + Extended Market = Total US Stock Market
My employer informed us our 401k plan added a new index fund to the lineup. It used to have only an S&P 500 index fund. Now it added Fidelity’s Spartan Extended Market Index Fund. 100% of my money in the 401k plan is in the S&P 500 fund because it was the only index fund […]
Prepaid 529 Plans Are Still Safe
Rob Lieber wrote about prepaid 529 plans in his New York Times Your Money column: College Plans You Thought Were Safe. It calls to people’s attention that some prepaid 529 plans are not guaranteed by the states (some are). It questions whether these plans are safe. I hate to be a contrarian again but I […]
Fort Knox Federal Credit Union Changes Terms On Existing CDs
This is not an April Fool’s joke. Ken at DepositAccounts.com reported yesterday that a credit union in Kentucky is reneging the terms on its existing CDs. Fort Knox Federal Credit Union told customers the early withdrawal penalty on their CDs will go up from 3 months to 6 months. The change affects not only new […]