I have been lending some money to people through Kiva microfinance to help alleviate poverty since 2007. While reinvesting some funds that were paid back, I noticed that I just reached $1,000 in money lent out through 40 loans of $25 each. Kiva … [Read the rest]
The NY Times has a regular column called "The Ethicist", and it recently talked about credit card rewards. A reader writes in and asks: When shopping at big retailers, take up the offer for a new credit card to take advantage of the, say, 10 … [Read the rest]
The Calafia Beach Pundit has an interesting discussion on TIPS (inflation-linked bonds). What caught my eye was a nice chart of historical TIPS real (after-inflation) yields vs. Treasury nominal yields. The difference is what inflation would … [Read the rest]
Just as theorized by a previously-mentioned academic paper about target funds, a new Bloomberg article talks about how some mutual fund providers like PIMCO and Invesco are now adding things like commodities futures, options, and currency swaps into … [Read the rest]
I know that there was some noise when the Mac OS X 10.7 Lion was released and Quicken 2007 for Mac was reported by Intuit to be incompatible with any computer running the new operation system. Next, they release Quicken Essentials for Mac which was a … [Read the rest]
Charlie Munger is best known as the long-time friend and business partner of Warren Buffett, and officially as the Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. Even though he is Buffett's partner in investing, Munger is different in that he does not enjoy … [Read the rest]
I've gotten to the part in The Snowball that involves Charlie Munger. A very interesting person, although perhaps not someone I'd like to have a beer with (I'd feel stupid), he is probably best known as Buffett's long-time friend, business … [Read the rest]
If you have a 401(k) plan or similar, then you most likely have a target-date mutual fund (TDF) as the default option. This is a direct result of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA). These funds contain some mix of stocks and bonds, and the … [Read the rest]
Here's a creative IRA promotion from my inbox. Zecco Trading will send you a free hammock if you open a new IRA between March 1st and April 17th, 2012 and maintain a $2,000 minimum account balance for 90 days after initial funding. Traditional, Roth, … [Read the rest]
I just finished filing my federal and state income tax returns (again) using TurboTax Deluxe Online edition. This is the 2nd part of my series comparing the three major tax preparation websites: TurboTax, TaxACT. You can see my TaxACT 2011 review … [Read the rest]
If you're a newer investor in Lending Club P2P notes, you may be wondering how to handle your investments at tax time. Will I get a 1099? Even if you do get a 1099, it might not cover all your loans. Unfortunately, the documentation provided by LC is … [Read the rest]
Vanguard has announced that the Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index mutual fund (VEIEX) will no longer have a purchase and redemption fee of 0.25%, effectively immediately. Although not huge, this fee was rather annoying and a major reason for … [Read the rest]
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