I would characterize my personal portfolio as 85% passive, 15% active, and 100% low-cost. Why is part of my portfolio managed by people trying to generate "alpha"? Aren't I supposed to say that index funds are always better? Author and money … [Read the rest]
Here is an interesting Quartz article by Matt Phillips outlining "the most important change in the US economy since the Great Recession that nobody is talking about". I don't know about that, I've seen a lot of these charts before. But many include … [Read the rest]
Update: American Express is now offering Shoprunner if you enroll at ShopRunner.com/AmericanExpress and agree to keep your AmEx card as the default payment method for their Express Checkout feature. You can still choose to use another credit card for … [Read the rest]
After posting Part 1 yesterday, here is Part 2 of my Beat-The-Market experiment one-year update. In order to test out P2P lending, I started with $10,000 split evenly between Prosper Lending and Lending Club, and went to work lending other people … [Read the rest]
It's finally been a full year since starting my Beat the Market Experiment, a series of three portfolios started on November 1st, 2012: $10,000 Passive Benchmark Portfolio that would serve as both a performance benchmark and an real-world, … [Read the rest]
You've probably heard the adage "pay yourself first". Well, now there is a website that will help you essentially tax yourself first. Recently mentioned in Businessweek magazine, SavedPlus.com tracks your spending and automatically transfers a set … [Read the rest]
The U.S. Treasury recently announced that participants in Healthcare Flexible Spending Accounts would now be able to carry over $500 of unused funds into the next year, but only if your employer chooses to allow it. Employers can allow either a 2.5 … [Read the rest]
Google announced a few days ago that third-party apps will no longer work with Google Voice as of May 15, 2014. I already updated my Obihai post, but this will also affect those people who make voice calls over data with GrooveIP or similar … [Read the rest]
(Update November 2013: Google announced a few days ago that third-party apps like Obihai and GrooveIP will no longer work with Google Voice as of May 15, 2014. Obihai confirmed this on their official blog, while stating that your box will still be … [Read the rest]
Pentagon Federal Credit Union is now offering 2.02% APY rate on it's 3, 4, 5, and 7-year CDs (they call it a Money Market Certificate). The minimum opening deposit is $1,000. Early withdrawal penalties are as follows: For terms from 6 months … [Read the rest]
One more quick savings bond update... the official rate for new I Savings Bond was announced and the variable rate is indeed 1.18% but the fixed rate was a surprise at 0.20%. It's still very small, but the last time we got a rate slightly above … [Read the rest]
Investment research firm Morningstar rates 529 plans in their annual "529 College Savings Plans Research Paper and Industry Survey". They recently announced their top plans from the 2013 survey, although it appears the full study and state-specific … [Read the rest]
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