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 […]
Latest Blog Posts
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 […]
How to Do a Free Wire Transfer
The most commonly used method to transfer money is by ACH. It’s typically an overnight process, although some banks make it slower than others. There’s technically international ACH, but I haven’t seen it offered to consumers. If you need the money transferred sooner or if you are transferring money to a different country, you can […]
DALBAR Study Overstates Investors’ Bad Timing
We just passed the two-year anniversary of a recent stock market bottom. Numerous articles in the newspaper and on the web show investors as a whole are dumb. They took money out of the stock market near the bottom and they are now putting money into the stock market after the market recovered almost to […]
Credit Card Concierge Service: Free and Helpful
Credit card companies keep inflating the status of their cards. 20 years ago a Gold card was something worth bragging about. Now everybody gets at least a Platinum card. Look at the credit cards in your wallet. Chances are you have a Visa Signature or MasterCard World card. These cards come with a free concierge […]
Free File Fillable Forms: Not Directly With IRS
Am I the only holdout who refuses to use online tax software or e-file through a third party? I refuse to give my tax data to anyone except the IRS. Putting my tax data online with a third party is out of the question. I use tax software but only software I install on my […]
Retirement Income: OAS and CPP in Canada vs Social Security in US
Canada’s retirement programs OAS and CPP have a much better setup than Social Security in the US.
Dollar Cost Averaging: Don’t Stop Buying On the Way Down
Dollar cost averaging means investing a set amount on a schedule, for example $500 a month every month. Dollar cost averaging isn’t the same as periodic investing. Dollar cost averaging means you have the cash to invest in a lump sum now but you choose to phase in your purchases over time. Periodic investing means […]
In-Service Withdrawal: The Law and The Plan Rules
It’s a sad fact many 401k plans are bad: the investment choices are poor; the fees are high. People naturally ask if there’s a way to take the money out of the plan to their own account. We all know when you leave your job, you can. It’s called a 401k rollover. In most cases […]