I need to rent a car in Los Angeles next month, so I went onto Kayak.com and ran a quick search. The cheapest option at LAX was through a place called Deluxe Rent-a-car, at only about $20 a day including all taxes. It seemed so cheap, I … [Read the rest]
Grantham/GMO 7-Year Asset Class Forecast
Posted on June 17, 2010 // 5 Comments
Jeremy Grantham is the head of GMO, an institutional asset management company that has more than $100 billion dollars under management. According to Wikipedia, he started one of the first index funds? He's built a reputation as a market genius, … [Read the rest]
myFICO Coupon Code: 20% to 30% Off
Posted on June 17, 2010 // 3 Comments
Update February 2011: Use coupon code FICO25 for 25% off! I am not a big fan having to purchase credit scores. I can understand why a lender would pay to get a calculation of your likelihood of defaulting on your loan, but if it's based on our … [Read the rest]
Portfolio Solutions 30-Year Stock/Bond Market Forecast
Posted on June 16, 2010 // 2 Comments
Every year, the low-fee investment advisor Portfolio Solutions, LLC founded by Rick Ferri provides a 30-year market forecast based on their analysis of several factors. In their own words: Each year, we analyzed the primary drivers of asset … [Read the rest]
Schwab Reduces Expense Ratios on Selected ETFs
Posted on June 15, 2010 // 2 Comments
Discount stock broker Charles Schwab cut the fees on six of its proprietary exchange traded funds (ETFs) on Monday (official press release). Schwab U.S. Broad Market ETFTM from 0.08% to 0.06% Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Growth ETFTM … [Read the rest]
Firstrade Brokerage Switches Clearing Firms, Offers Free Outgoing Account Transfers
Posted on June 15, 2010 // 5 Comments
I received a letter this week that discount stock broker Firstrade is changing clearing firms from Ridge Clearing to Penson Financial*. Not really a big deal, but hidden in the fine print is that existing users can perform an account transfer to … [Read the rest]
Future Stock Market Returns: Price-Earnings Ratios as a Long-Term Predictive Tool
Posted on June 14, 2010 // 19 Comments
As part of gathering the data needed to go beyond net worth, I've shown ways to track find your personal savings rate by tracking your current spending with your current after-tax income. For now, I'm skipping ahead to estimating your portfolio's … [Read the rest]
PineCone Paid Survey Links Open Again
Posted on June 14, 2010 // 8 Comments
Here is an updated application link at Pinecone Research, which is again accepting new members. (May expire at any time, so apply now if you're interested!) Looks open to all, but only one person per household can sign up. Thanks Rafa for the … [Read the rest]
4 Stash Your Cash Deals Most People Haven’t Heard Of
Posted on June 11, 2010 // 23 Comments
Here are four places to stash your cash that aren't advertised very heavily, so your co-workers probably haven't heard of them. They are all FDIC-insured, and offer higher yields than most of their direct competitors. Each one is best depending on … [Read the rest]
Penfed Visa Platinum Cashback Rewards Card – 5% Cash Back on Gas
Posted on June 10, 2010 // 35 Comments
There used to be a bunch of great cashback cards for gas, but now the only one that still offers 5% back to consumers is the PenFed Visa® Platinum Cash Rewards Card. It offers: 5% cash back on gas purchases (must pay at pump) 0.25% cash back on … [Read the rest]
Calculating Our Personal Savings Rate
Posted on June 9, 2010 // 24 Comments
Do you know what your household's savings rate is? Most of us probably have a rough guess, but I wanted to use some more reliable data. Here's the definition again for my purposes: Current Spending There are plenty of ways of tracking … [Read the rest]
National Personal Savings Rate Definitions: NIPA vs. FoFA
Posted on June 9, 2010 // Leave a Comment
In looking up some stats for personal savings rates, I found that the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) provides a chart of two separate calculations that track the personal savings rates of US taxpayers: The National Income and Product … [Read the rest]
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