All Entries in the "Investing" Category
Who Invests in 0% Interest Treasury Securities and Why?
Tweet One of the big headlines last week was in regards to the yield on 4-week treasury bills hitting 0%. That means if you invested in one of these, it would earn the same amount of interest as if it was hiding under your mattress. It seems absurd — why would anyone invest in something [...]
What’s With All These Stories About Retirees and Those About to Retire Losing 50% of Their Investments?
Tweet If you listen to the media, you’re certainly aware of the non-stop attention being placed on the economy. Clearly, we’re experiencing something people have never seen before, and there are plenty of stories about how people are being affected. But, one thing I constantly hear are stories about people who are just a couple [...]
Prepare for an Increase in Mutual Fund Expense Ratios
Tweet Expenses play an important role for almost all investors. If you invest in mutual funds, index funds, or ETFs, you’re paying a fee to the investment company. These fees are built into the overall return, so they aren’t always readily apparent, but they do affect your return. The higher the fee, the greater the [...]
Even in this Economic Crisis and with Failing Companies Your Pension Should be Safe
Tweet What Happens to My Pension if My Company Goes Bankrupt? If you’re lucky enough to have a pension through your employer, you’re probably wondering what effect this significant economic downturn will have on your benefit. What happens if your employer goes bankrupt? What does it mean if they freeze your pension? Can your pension [...]
Did You Know That Some People in Washington Are Trying to Take The Tax Benefits Away From Your 401k Plan?
Tweet If you currently save in an employee-sponsored retirement plan, how would you feel if you stopped getting a tax break on your contributions? What if your employer stopped matching because they lost their tax break to do so? On top of that, what if you were forced to contribute 5% of your pay into [...]
“Stay the Course” is Becoming a Hard Pill to Swallow in This Market
Tweet The Stock Market Continues to Take a Beating, Should You Really Just Stay the Course? Are you tired of hearing it yet? Most advisors and personal finance gurus continue to urge investors to stay the course, invest for the long run, and everything will be fine. Of course we know this is what history [...]
Friends Don’t Let Friends Bail Out of the Market
Tweet With the Dow recording a record 777 point loss in one day, people are flocking to the phones to call their brokers or going online to make changes to their investments. In almost all cases, this is a very bad idea. If you’re reading this site, you’re probably not as concerned by the recent [...]
Don’t Compound Your Investment Losses by Investing Less in Down Markets and More in Up Markets
Tweet Take Advantage of a Declining Market You’ve heard it a million times, but the average investor who saves regularly by contributing to a 401(k) or IRA every paycheck can benefit from reduced volatility because of dollar cost averaging. If you plug away and invest $100 each month regardless of what the market is doing, [...]
An Alternative Investing Approach For Young Investors
Tweet This is a guest post from Kevin over at 20smoney.com. Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kevin and I have been writing for 20smoney.com for five months now. 20s Money is a blog dedicated to providing advice for all things money to people in their 20s. Such topics include investing, careers, [...]
How Correlation Between Asset Classes Affects Your Portfolio
Tweet Proper Asset Allocation Requires Understanding Correlation Coefficients Correlation coefficients? What on Earth does this have to do with creating a diversified portfolio? If this sounds foreign or complex to you, don’t be alarmed. It isn’t nearly as scary as it sounds. You’re probably picturing high school or college math classes, but correlation coefficient is [...]
Using an All Bond Portfolio Approach for Tough Times
Tweet One Couple Suggests That Investing in Bonds is the Right Thing to Do in This Market This was the title of an article I came cross in one of the recent editions of Investment News. It was written by Stan and Hildy Richelson, who are very credentialed, have written four books on bonds, and [...]
The Benefits of Diversification: A Look Back at the Past 20 Years of Stock Market Performance
Tweet A Properly Diversified Portfolio Will Help You Capture Most of the Market’s Gains While Reducing Volatility Diversification is the single greatest factor in determining long-term investment returns. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. You’ve probably heard that phrase before, and for good reason. When investing, the less diversified you are, the [...]
How to Tell if You Have a Bad 401k Plan
Tweet Wondering if Your 401k Sucks? A Few Tips to Help You Spot a Bad Plan CNN Money recently featured another piece by ‘The Mole’ that discusses what to do if you have a bad 401k plan, and this was followed up by J.D. at Get Rich Slowly with a few more tips. There is [...]
The Money Writers Portfolio Project: An Inside Look at My Portfolio and Performance This Year
Tweet This week The Money Writers are doing a little group project in highlighting and analyzing our investments. It is interesting to see how different the portfolios strategies being used stack up against each other. The participants and YTD results of this project are: Brip Blap: -9.85% Lazy Man: -7.22% Million Dollar Journey: -1.35% Money [...]
From the Front Lines: Changing Your Risk Tolerance Based on a Bear Market
Tweet Market Conditions Shouldn’t Sway Your Risk Tolerance Last week, I talked about investors who make the drastic change from stocks to bonds or cash based on the troubled market. In this week’s edition of the “From the Front Lines” mini-series, I wanted to expand on that by talking about the people I meet with [...]
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