This week I've been trying to catch up on my book reviews (you should see my "to read" shelf!), and after a good beginner book I thought I'd write about a good intermediate-to-advanced book. You've probably noticed there are a lot of starter books … [Read the rest]
The Vanguard High-Yield Corporate Bond Fund (VWEHX, VWEAX) is a low-cost, actively-managed bond fund that invests in medium- and lower-quality corporate bonds and is advised by Wellington Management Company. I don't own any in my retirement … [Read the rest]
Somehow I picked up a copy of The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story, which is a Michael Lewis bestseller published back in 1999 about the internet boom. The central character is Jim Clark, founder of Silicon Graphics (SGI), Netscape, and … [Read the rest]
There are two major types of investing books for beginner investors: "Instructional to-do list" books basically tell you what you should do. "Inspirational big-picture" focus more on the philosophical reasons why you should do those things. Both … [Read the rest]
Hilton is offering people 1,000 Hilton HHonors points for creating a "real" password to replace their previous 4-digit PIN. Took me less than a minute. You must do this between March 12th and March 25th, 2015, and points will be posted in 6-8 … [Read the rest]
I like seeing my dividend income roll in each quarter, as do many other investors. But are mutual funds artificially "juicing" their reported dividend yields to attract investors? This is explored in a recent academic paper Juicing the Dividend … [Read the rest]
I have a couple of accounts at Fidelity Investments (solo 401k and taxable brokerage), and recently they sent me letter about a new service. FidSafe is a website that stores digital copies of documents for free and is open to the public, no … [Read the rest]
Soon high school seniors will start receiving their college acceptance letters. This week's issue of The Economist has an article discussing the results of a PayScale study of the relationship between the financial return on investment (ROI) of a … [Read the rest]
We've all heard of the power of compound interest. We've all heard of Benjamin Franklin. But have you heard of the story where Ben Franklin let his money compound quietly for 200 years? Here's an excerpt from the book The Elements of … [Read the rest]
Back in 2007, I wrote about cast iron skillets as the ultimate frugal cookware? To this day, I still think they can play a regular role in the home kitchen. America's Test Kitchen (ATK) has recently released to free e-mail newsletter subscribers … [Read the rest]
Schwab just sent me an e-mail with the subject "The wait is over. The future of investing is here." That boast means their new automated portfolio advisory platform called Schwab Intelligent Portfolios (SIP) is now opening accounts, meeting their … [Read the rest]
Weekly business newspaper Barron's just released their 2015 annual broker survey rankings. Here's a snippet that helps explain their perspective and readership (emphasis mine): To pinpoint 2015’s top brokers, we analyzed not just their security, … [Read the rest]
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