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 […]
Latest Blog Posts
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 […]
Estimate Your Overall Personal Rate of Return With 3 Numbers
It’s easy to estimate the overall rate of return on all your savings and investments to keep you ontrack toward your goals. You only need these 3 numbers.
The Best Brokerage Firm for Bonds
The best broker for bonds depends on whether you buy bond funds, bond ETFs, or individual bonds.
Did Sunk Cost Fallacy Kill James Kim?
In the book Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes And How To Correct Them the authors Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich had an example for illustrating the Sunk Cost Fallacy which goes like this: There is a basketball game tonight. It’s snowing and the roads are dangerous. You already bought ticket to the game […]
Giving Gift Cards as Holiday Gifts
Many people are buying gift cards as holiday gifts. I read somewhere that gift cards will account for something like 30% of the gift spending this holiday season. Apparently financial services companies and retailers are catching on and trying to make some money on this trend. American Express, Discover, and some banks sell gift cards […]