How about another mental exercise on taxes? I usually enjoy Christine Benz's articles on Morningstar, and When Taxes Collide With Your Asset Allocation was no exception. She presents the following scenario: Let's say a 65-year-old woman is … [Read the rest]
How to Pay Zero Income Taxes in Retirement With Mixed IRAs
Posted on September 12, 2012 // 28 Comments
Save More vs. Earn More: A Dollar Saved Is Two Dollars Earned
Posted on September 11, 2012 // 76 Comments
Earn more. Save more. Those are the two ways to get out of debt and build wealth. I'm a big proponent of doing both, but for many people it may be easier to cut back on some luxuries rather than land a higher-paying job, start a side business, … [Read the rest]
College Tuition Inflation: Net Out-of-Pocket vs. Published Sticker Prices
Posted on September 10, 2012 // 16 Comments
Now that I have a renewed interest in college costs (read: a kid), I'm paying more attention to the ongoing student loan debt discussion. One major talking point is the rising cost, but there seems to be a big difference between the published or … [Read the rest]
Free Business & Finance Audiobooks on Audible.com
Posted on September 9, 2012 // 3 Comments
Here are some finance-related audiobooks from Audible.com (owned by Amazon.com) that are currently free with no trial required. Download them now, listen to them later. Via gymsock of SD. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful … [Read the rest]
Stop Delivery of Physical Phone Books – YellowPagesOptOut.com
Posted on September 7, 2012 // 14 Comments
Visit YellowPagesOptOut.com to stop the delivery of those huge phone books. The site is reasonably easy-to-use, although they ask for a phone number and I chose not to provide my real phone number to an industry based on unsolicited advertising. I … [Read the rest]
Loyal Financial Group – Possible Scam or Ponzi Scheme?
Posted on September 5, 2012 // 29 Comments
(Update: They are now blocking visits with my referral domain. You can view the site directly by typing in www.loyalfinancial.com.) I received an e-mail today asking me to look into Loyal Financial Private Investments at LoyalFinancial.com and … [Read the rest]
Coupons.com Savings Club Free 1-Year Membership
Posted on September 5, 2012 // 3 Comments
Coupons.com is - surprise! - a site that offers digital and printable coupons online to many major brands. They also have a "Savings Club" where you pay $30 a year and get access to bigger coupons and a Coupon Finder tool. To celebrate their … [Read the rest]
Recent Investment Returns By Asset Class – August 2012
Posted on September 4, 2012 // 6 Comments
Now that our portfolio size has become more significant, I want to keep on top of things better while still avoiding most of the market noise. I took some ideas from how others share investment return data (see here and my 2011 year-end returns … [Read the rest]
Dividend Yield Definitions: SEC Yield vs. 12-Month or TTM Yield
Posted on August 31, 2012 // 1 Comment
When looking at the dividend payout of stocks and ETFs, there are actually a few different ways to measure dividend yield. In general, dividend yield is defined as: $latex \frac{\text{annual dividends per share}}{\text{share … [Read the rest]
Digital Postal Mail / Zumbox Review
Posted on August 30, 2012 // 7 Comments
Digital Post Mail, formerly just known as Zumbox, is a service that tries to turn all your physical mail into digital format. Hat tip to reader Christina. My first reaction was that it seems very similar to Manilla.com. According to TechCrunch, … [Read the rest]
Free 2-Year Subscription to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine
Posted on August 28, 2012 // 16 Comments
Here's a link for a free 2-year subscription to Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine from RewardsCountry. There is a short survey on the second page, mine was something about watches. There is no credit card required so they can't auto-renew … [Read the rest]
Stock Market Returns Are Never Average
Posted on August 27, 2012 // 9 Comments
I was updating my portfolio spreadsheet over the weekend and noticed that many of my funds have been a quite a roll recently. The trailing one-year total return of the US stock market is over 21%. I don't know of any market "expert" that called … [Read the rest]
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