As the US stock market keeps going up, it feels like everyone is whispering the same thing: We are near a top. It's easiest to do this with numbers. Here's a valuation metric that divides the price of the S&P 500 stock index by the median US … [Read the rest]
Chart: Hours of Work Required To Buy S&P 500
Choice Hotels Free Elite Status Match
Choice Hotels is also offering a public free status match to Gold or Platinum Elite status from another hotel program. Potential perks include point bonuses on qualifying stays, longer booking windows for reward nights, and a free welcome gift. … [Read the rest]
Pretirement App: Interactive Countdown Clock to Financial Freedom
What would you do if you knew that skipping that morning $4 coffee/muffin combo every day would get you 8 months closer to financial freedom? What if I told you that buying that $40k car instead of the $25k one would only extend your working years … [Read the rest]
How Badly Underfunded is Your State’s Retirement Pension Fund? (Infographic)
The state of Illinois narrowly avoided having their S&P credit rating dropped to "Junk" status, but their current rating is already the lowest ever for any state. Their pension promises now total over $200 billion, but they are a bit short... $120 … [Read the rest]
Amazon Prime Day 2017: List of Deals Still Available
Updated. Amazon Prime Day is now over, but some offers are still available. I've removed the ones that I notice are expired. Hopefully you picked up some credits and savings to offset that membership fee. Many deals still require Prime. New … [Read the rest]
The Incredible Shrinking Cell Phone Bill
If you wanted to shave $1,000 a year off your housing expenses, you'd have to move or at least refinance a mortgage. That takes a pile of paperwork and lots of time. Meanwhile, with a few clicks on a website and a SIM swap, many people on a major … [Read the rest]
Chart: Amazon Prime vs. Cable TV Subscribers
If you're wondering why Amazon is pushing Prime membership so hard, check out this chart from Recode: Within the next year or two, there will be more Amazon Prime members than cable TV subscribers. There is already roughly the same number of … [Read the rest]
Best HSA Plan Provider For Long-Term “Healthcare IRA” Investing – Morningstar
Nearly 30% of covered workers are now enrolled in a high-deductible health plan (HDHP). This means a lot more people are also eligible to contribute to a Health Savings Account (HSA). HSAs have the unique feature of triple-tax-free savings when … [Read the rest]
Portfolio Visualizer: Asset Allocation Backtesting and Monte Carlo Simulation Tool
Here's another neat (and free!) portfolio analysis tool - PortfolioVisualizer.com. You can upload a custom asset allocation and get all sorts of backtest data and Monte Carlo simulation results from it. If you register for an account, it will … [Read the rest]
Best Interest Rates on Cash Savings – July 2017
Interest rates are slowly waking up from their multi-year slumber, so I am paying a bit more attention to the various changes each month. Don't let a megabank pay you 0.01% APY or less for your idle cash. Here is my monthly roundup of the best … [Read the rest]
New vs. Used Car Total Cost of Ownership Calculations
A financial topic that nearly everyone has an opinion on is car ownership. Do you buy new and drive it into the ground? Do you buy slightly used after the early depreciation hit? Do you buy a cheaper 10-year-old car, drive it for a while, sell … [Read the rest]
Does Cash Make You Happier Than Income or Paying Down Debt?
The growing appreciation of behavioral psychology in investing is basically us admitting that we aren't perfectly rational. When you make people automatically opt-in to 401(k) plans and make their contributions increase automatically, they save … [Read the rest]