The new Diehards in the Vanguard forum I wrote about two weeks ago was renamed to Bogleheads forum. It moved to the diehards.org domain, which has been the more popular entry point for the old Morningstar forum. Diehards.org is the #1 spot on Google when you search for “Vanguard Diehards.” They changed the forum’s name […]
Latest Blog Posts
Prosper Lending Return on Investment Analysis
IndexFundFan alerted me to an excellent review for person-to-person lending on Prosper.com by Jonathan at My Money Blog: part 1, part 2. I wrote about Prosper in a previous post Prosper.com Or Junk Bond Fund?, in which I said if people want to take credit risks, there are other places to take them, such as […]
New Diehards in the Vanguard Forum
[Update on July 19, 2008]: The name of the forum changed to Bogleheads Investment Forum. diehards.org domain name also changed to bogleheads.org. I have been a member of the Vanguard Diehards forum at Morningstar for a long time. People there help each other with investment related discussions. The forum however has a weakest link — […]
Was It a Bubble, Or Was It Just Early?
One of the often used excuse for having ventured into something that didn’t materialize is “I wasn’t wrong. I was just early.” There is some truth to that statement although timing is every bit as important as the action itself. I’m seeing a number of things derided after the late 1990s stock bubble coming back […]
What Happens When a Bank Goes Out of Business
Last week I wondered in a comment to a post on The Simple Dollar about what the FDIC insurance claims process is really like when a bank fails. If a bank fails, do you get paid right away, or do you have to wait until everything is sorted out? For how long? How do you […]
Tax Deduction Denied
I started doing my taxes last weekend. I’m not ready to file yet, but I just wanted to see where I stand. When I compared my first run with my 2005 tax return, I noticed that although my income was higher in 2006, my total itemized deduction was a few thousand dollars less than that […]
Why Not 100% Stocks?
There is a lively discussion on the My Financial Journey blog about whether a young person should invest 100% in stocks if he/she doesn’t care about short term volatility. I’m writing my comments here because it’s kind of long. My Financial Journey said: For some reason I can’t get it through my thick skull why […]
Prosper.com Or Junk Bond Fund?
I saw on several blogs people are lending on Prosper.com as way of earning extra cash over money market, CDs, or savings accounts. I must admit I’m not very familiar with Prosper.com but I think I understand the concept. It’s often referred to as eBay for lending and borrowing. Borrowers list their loan requests. Lenders […]
More Risk, More Reward?
Perhaps inspired by home makeover reality shows, Trading Places, Extreme Home Makeover, etc., newspapers and magazines often run portfolio makeover articles. They typically feature a real family, tell us about their finances, their goals and their struggles. Then the newspaper or magazine brings in a financial planner who offers advice for them. I think people […]
Estimate Your Personal Rate of Return for Multiple Years
Since I wrote about a simple formula for estimating your personal rate of return, someone asked whether the same formula works for multiple years as well. The answer is yes and no. It works well, provided that the net investments during the period are roughly even; and the beginning balance is large relative to the […]