Here is my April 2013 update of the trailing total returns for selected major asset classes. Passive ETFs are used to represent major asset classes, as they represent actual investments that folks can buy and sell. Return data was taken after … [Read the rest]
Our family keeps a full year of expenses put aside in cash reserves; it provides us with financial stability with the additional side benefits of lower stress and less concern about stock market gyrations. Emergency funds can actually have a better … [Read the rest]
Here are some interesting charts from a recent presentation about student loan debt by Donghoon Lee, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Total student debt was the only type of household debt that continued to rise throughout the … [Read the rest]
Many people enjoy the convenience of Amazon Prime, which for $79 a year gives you free 2-day shipping with no minimum purchase requirement, a decent streaming-video library, and a so-so Kindle book lending library. You may also know that you can … [Read the rest]
If you have a Citi credit card or a Citibank account from our partner Citi, with the ThankYou points rewards system, you have a wide array of options to redeem your points at ThankYou.com. But while that fancy coffeemaker may look nice, chances are … [Read the rest]
According to a MyMoneyBlog.com reader poll taken last year, 52% used TurboTax, 18% used TaxACT, and 14% used H&R Block at Home to prepare their tax returns, which agreed with the most popular software overall in the US. The remaining 16% either … [Read the rest]
There was a lot of good discussion in my lengthy early mortgage payoff post. Now instead of lengthy details, let me try out a quick rule of thumb about early mortgage payoff. Recall from Wikipedia: A rule of thumb is a principle with broad … [Read the rest]
Fidelity recently announced new changes to their commission-free ETF list. When Blackrock iShares introduced their 10 new Core ETFs, I wondered how they would market these ETFs. Well, that question was answered today with Fidelity and Blackrock … [Read the rest]
Years ago I was contacted by an author named Gary Clayton who wanted permission to feature me in the next edition of his book. I said certainly, and pretty much forgot about it as it wasn't published yet. The book was (is?) the bestselling … [Read the rest]
In the world of personal finance, you can always generate a good debate if you talk about paying off your mortgage early. The argument usually boils down to something like this: If your interest rate is 4%, then paying extra towards that mortgage … [Read the rest]
The stock market is at or near all-time highs, which means that brokerage firms should be seeing a lot more interest (for better or worse). Weekly business newspaper Barron's just released their 2013 annual broker survey rankings. Here's a snippet … [Read the rest]
Capital One bought ING Direct USA back in early 2012, and has finally completed their transition and re-branding. Their new savings account product is called Capital One Consumer Bank Savings. Since I've had an account with them for over a decade … [Read the rest]
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