Given recent events, I suppose I should take a look at how my investments are doing. I am also planning to make some large-ish 401k contributions and need to figure out which asset classes to buy in order to rebalance my portfolio. … [Read the rest]
September 2008 Investment Portfolio Update
Posted on September 18, 2008 // 24 Comments
Last updated: October 1, 2008
Money Market Fund Breaks The Buck: What’s Safe Now??
Posted on September 17, 2008 // 31 Comments
One of the largest and first money market mutual funds ever has broken the buck yesterday. The Primary Fund, run by The Reserve, with $65 Billion in assets, saw it's per-share price drop from the standard $1 to 97 cents, due to it's holdings of … [Read the rest]
Last updated: September 17, 2008
Financial Meltdown Explained: Greed, Leverage, and Keeping Up With The Joneses
Posted on September 16, 2008 // 46 Comments
Yesterday on CNBC, the Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis talked about the financial meltdown. He pinned on a few things: greed, leverage, and keeping up with the Joneses. Lots of homeowners out there are in trouble with their mortgages. Some got … [Read the rest]
Last updated: September 16, 2008
Is Money The Secret To A Happy Marriage?
Posted on September 15, 2008 // 42 Comments
The New York Times had an article this weekend called The Key to Wedded Bliss? Money Matters*. It was kind of hit and miss for me, but I did like one particular quote: “A lot of the debates people have about money are code for how we want to … [Read the rest]
Last updated: September 15, 2008
Stock Chart Simulator: Would You Make A Good Day-Trader?
Posted on September 12, 2008 // 43 Comments
Have you ever daydreamed about becoming a daytrader? Sitting at home in your pajamas, making some clicks here and there, and making money out of nothing. Much of daytrading is based on technical analysis, of which Wikipedia says: Technical … [Read the rest]
Last updated: September 12, 2008
Rule of Thumb For Reasonable Housing Costs?
Posted on September 10, 2008 // 23 Comments
In an earlier post on motivating myself to work harder, I had thrown out a piece of "common" financial advice: Spend less than 30% of income on housing. It was really just an afterthought, but I got a bunch of e-mails about it. Where did you … [Read the rest]
Last updated: September 10, 2008
Scottrade Referral Code: 7 Free Trades
Posted on September 10, 2008 //
Through October 31st, 2008, the referral bonus from Scottrade is now worth 7 free trades (instead of the usual 3) when you open an account with at least $500. At $7 per trade, that's worth nearly $50. If you need a referral code, please contact me … [Read the rest]
Last updated: May 27, 2012
Should Home Ownership Be The Dream?
Posted on September 9, 2008 // 40 Comments
Now to the bigger picture... As of today, the U.S. government is the largest mortgage lender in the country. And that means, if things continue to go badly in the housing market, you and I as taxpayers get to pay for bad mortgages! Hurray! … [Read the rest]
Last updated: July 29, 2014
Fannie & Freddie Failure = Mortgage Rates Drop By 0.5%
Posted on September 9, 2008 // 6 Comments
I'm still on several mortgage brokers' e-mail lists, and it appears that the government takeover of Fannie Mae is a glimmer of sunshine in what has probably been a very bleak few months for them. The message: Mortgage rates have dropped by around 50 … [Read the rest]
Last updated: September 9, 2008
September 2008 Financial Status / Net Worth Update
Posted on September 8, 2008 // 24 Comments
Finally got around to adding up the numbers for the last month: Credit Card Debt If you're a new reader, let me start out as usual by explaining the credit card debt. I'm actually taking money from 0% APR balance transfer offers and instead … [Read the rest]
Last updated: September 8, 2008
Follow-Ups: WaMu 5% CD, Chest Freezers Everywhere
Posted on September 8, 2008 // 8 Comments
High-Yield Bank CD Washington Mutual has brought back their 5% APY 12-month CD for another week, which had previously dipped to 4.5% APY. If this fits your needs, don't miss it this time around. Chest Freezers Apparently, I was not alone in … [Read the rest]
Last updated: October 15, 2011
Links: Chasing Shrinking Potato Peelers Edition
Posted on September 7, 2008 // 4 Comments
Here are some recent links from fellow bloggers that made my cursor pause... Grad Money Matters ponders when to stop chasing money? How do we know at what point when we need to slow down? Good question. Wisebread offers up some cheap … [Read the rest]
Last updated: August 9, 2018
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