What Investors Really Want is the title of a book I’m going to start reading. It got endorsements from some people I respect: John Bogle, Burton Malkiel, and William Bernstein. That’s always a good sign. Before I read the book, I’d like to answer that question. What do investors really want? Getting in on a […]
Latest Blog Posts
Muni Selloff: A Preview of Deflating Bond Bubble
In case you haven’t noticed, the municipal bonds market had a small earthquake. It offers a preview for what can happen when a bond bubble deflates. The epicenter of the earthquake is in California. Although its budget trouble has been known for a long time, investors didn’t mind until last week. What made investors pay […]
A Finance Professor Writes About Prepaying Mortgage
The following was written by a finance professor at a major university, who shall remain unnamed until the said professor comes out to claim ownership. It was published yesterday by a blog run by several well known university professors. I’m quoting the full text because it was disowned by the blog that published it. A […]
Complain About Bad Service
I wrote about paying more for good service. This time I’m facing the opposite. I’m debating if I should complain about bad service. It’s getting cold outside. Some mice or rats decided to come into my attic for shelter at night. I called a pest control company I used in the past. They provided good […]
Pay Someone to Enforce the Discipline
When I run at the community tracks in the morning, I see many other runners. I also often see a group of people doing different exercise drills with a trainer. I didn’t ask but I suppose the participants are paying the trainer for leading the drills. I’m pretty sure they can get exercise routines off […]
Negative Real Return Is the Price for Safety
The price to keep our money safe finally hit our face: five-year inflation indexed bonds yield from a recent auction produced a negative number, -0.55%. It means investors in these bonds are guaranteed to earn a return at 0.55% below inflation in the next five years. As absurd as it may sound, investors don’t have […]
Target Maturity Bond Funds and ETFs
Bonds or bond funds? For anyone who has more than a slight interest in bonds, that’s a perennial question. Money guru on TV Suze Orman says you should buy bonds not bond funds because a bond fund doesn’t have a set maturity date. When you sell from a bond fund, you can get back less […]
Mortgage Refinance and Resetting the Clock
Today’s installment on mortgage refinance appears as a guest post on My Money Blog. The conclusion: "Don’t let the fear for resetting the clock stop you from refinancing to a lower rate." I’ve been reading My Money Blog since 2006. It offers a good combination of deals and practical approaches to personal finance. If you […]
Cost Basis Tracking After Converting Vanguard Mutual Funds to Admiral Shares
Forget about what I said about having both Vanguard mutual funds and ETFs. Vanguard just announced they lowered the minimum investment requirement for Admiral shares in most broad index funds from $100,000 to $10,000. Admiral shares are a different share class in the same Vanguard fund but with a lower expense ratio. In most funds […]
FirstIB Mortgage Refinance Review
My mortgage refinance with First Internet Bank of Indiana ("First IB") is done. The new loan paid off the old loan. All done. I thought I would update the progress as it moved along but it went so uneventful there wasn’t much to update. Here’s the timeline: Day Activity 1 Submitted application online. Didn’t get […]