You probably heard donating appreciated stocks or mutual fund shares to a charity is more cost effective than donating cash. The charity gets the shares. You get a tax deduction for the full value (if you itemize) and you avoid paying capital gains tax. You can also gift appreciated shares to a family member who […]
Latest Blog Posts
Three Tax Cuts That Are Not Extended
Although the Bush tax cuts were extended for another two years, some tax incentives were not extended because they weren’t part of the Bush tax cuts. They fall into the one-time stimulus category. Residential Energy Tax Credit The Residential Energy Property Credit provides a 30% tax credit of up to $1,500 over a two-year period […]
Asset Allocation for a 529 Plan
It’s that time of the year again. I need to make a new contribution to my niece’s 529 plan for her future college expenses. When I looked for a plan for her last year, I came to the conclusion that the typical age-based options don’t make sense. The typical age-based options in a 529 plan […]
What Investors Really Want
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 […]
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 […]