It’s getting close to the holiday shopping season. I have received several convenience checks from my credit cards. These convenience checks are usually treated as cash advance which carries a fee. They also make the grace period on purchases disappear. I usually just shred them. I called my credit card company about something else yesterday. While I had […]
Latest Blog Posts
Cost of Driving One Mile
Today is Veteran’s Day. I’m able to take the commuter train today because many people are off today. I’d like to take the train more often but there is very limited parking at the train station. I sometimes drove to the train station and had to drive away because there was no parking. Taking the train is not […]
Subprime Correction Is Over, Really
It took a week after my pronouncement that the subprime induced stock market correction is over. Now it’s really over. The major indexes for both the U.S. and the international market, the Dow, S&P 500, MSCI EAFE, all went over their previous highs. I’d like to enter these notes for myself as lessons learned from […]
Rebalancing With New Cash
Portfolio rebalancing is often described as looking at one’s portfolio at the end of the year, selling some winners and buying some losers, so the portfolio goes back to the intended asset allocation. I don’t do that. I don’t sell anything unless I’m trying to simplify my positions. I rebalance throughout the year with new cash. Because stock funds usually grow […]
What Type of Bank Is Your Bank?
No, it’s not a trick question. While most people think a bank is a bank is a bank, the financial institutions we usually call a “bank” actually come in many different flavors. Some are organized under federal laws, some under state laws. Some are a special kind called thrift, savings and loan or savings association. […]
Investments I Don’t Have
I wrote about my asset allocation in a previous post. This time I’m writing about what I don’t have. 1. No individual stocks, except unvested employer stock-based compensation. I believe picking stocks is a waste of time. I had tried picking stocks in the past. I spent a lot of time reading 10-Q/10-K reports, studying Wall Street sell-side […]
Subprime Induced Correction Is Over
It’s not official yet, but I suspect it will be shortly. The summer 2007 subprime induced stock market correction is over. The emerging markets index already went over its previous peak by about 4%. The S&P 500 and MSCI EAFE indexes are about 1% shy of their previous high. Given the daily volatility, the stock markets can easily reach new […]
Cascading Asset Allocation Method
Some readers asked me to write about my asset allocation and rebalancing thresholds. Here I introduce my Cascading Asset Allocation MethodTM (CAAM). I googled and I found no evidence of anybody else using that term. So I’m claiming a trade mark on it. 🙂 The Cascading Asset Allocation Method involves answering a series of questions. The questions […]
The Missing Name on Forbes 400 List
Forbes released its annual list of 400 richest Americans last week. There is one prominent name missing on the list. His name is John Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group. Mr. Bogle started Vanguard in 1975. Vanguard created the first index fund for retail investors a year later. Today, Vanguard manages over $1 trillion assets. [Update in 2015: $3 […]
Research Life Insurance Company Ratings
This is the final post in my mini-series on life insurance. The previous posts in this series are: How To Buy Life Insurance Life Insurance: What To Buy Life Insurance: How Much Should You Buy? When you buy life insurance, you want to make sure the company will still be there when your beneficiaries need the payout. Otherwise […]