We paid off our mortgage. We contacted Provident Funding and requested the full amount due including any accrued interest, the money was sent via bank wire, and the loan is recorded as paid in full. As you might imagine, I spent many hours … [Read the rest]
Over the years, I've noticed that people tend to overestimate their own stock-picking prowess - myself included. Especially over longer periods of time, if you're not tracking things carefully you probably don't know how well you're doing on a … [Read the rest]
Here’s the April 2013 update for my speculative portfolio, the second of three portfolios being tracked monthly as part of my Beat the Market Experiment. Here's an update on the overall race; the bull stock market has pushed the passive benchmark … [Read the rest]
Here's the April 2013 update for my benchmark portfolio, the first of three portfolios started on November 1st, 2012 as part of my Beat the Market Experiment: $10,000 Passive Benchmark Portfolio that would serve as both a performance benchmark … [Read the rest]
Depending on your area, Chevron, Texaco, Exxon, and Mobil gas stations are new partners with Safeway's gas rewards program (Exxon/Mobil link). This may be good news to those who shop at Safeway supermarkets but don't have any nearby Safeway gas … [Read the rest]
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]
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