With fixed income investments like bonds and CD’s returning decade lows, some investors have turned to dividend stocks as a way to receive predictable income at regular intervals. Dividend stocks usually refer to companies that have a history of paying out dividends to shareholders. In fact, each year, the S&P 500 publishes a list of […]
Facebook IPO, Student Loan Debt Bubble and My Weekly Blog Round-Up
Facebook’s IPO The world’s largest social media site said Thursday that it had raised $16 billion for itself and early investors through an IPO that values Facebook at $104 billion. Starting friday, investors like you and me will be able to purchase stock in the social network giant. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to […]
How I Achieved a 13% Rate of Return Investing with Lending Club
I started investing with Lending Club in August of 2010. Two years later, I’ve seen an awesome 13% rate of return on my initial investment. Lending Club is a relatively new site that brokers peer to peer lending. In essence, you become a bank and you are free to browse and invest in thousands of […]
Traveling on a Budget: A Review of my Vacation to Maui
I never realized the value of a vacation until I started working full time. You could even say I took my travels to Thailand, Hungary & Turkey for granted. My trips during college were an awesome experience that I would recommend to anyone at any age. But for working professionals, who get anywhere from 2-4 […]
Getting Away From Internet Job Searches: Networking Tips for Young Professionals
With unemployment at 8.2% as of March 2012, many Americans find themselves relying on the same unsuccessful job hunting tactics. Recent graduates are stuck looking for work in an extremely saturated job market where supply is high and demand is low. So what makes one candidate stand out from another? When I entered the workforce […]
How a Mutual Fund’s Expense Ratio Impacts Your Bottom Line
There are literally thousands of mutual funds out there and many of them claim to be diversified, low cost, low fee, etc. But if there’s one thing that has the most direct impact on a fund’s return, it’s the expense ratio(ER). When comparing similar funds, I primarily look at the expense ratios first and foremost. […]
How to Use a Virtual Credit Card
You may have heard about the recent Global Payments Breach in which credit card data for over 1.5 million users was exposed to hackers. Although this is only a fraction of the billion credit cards currently in use by Americans, it’s alarming to see how easily hackers can penetrate secure sites. A virtual credit card is […]
The Social Media Bubble: Facebook Just Bought Instagram for $1 Billion
No matter who you are, one billion dollars is a ton of money. But to Facebook, this is barely 1% of it’s estimated $100 billion value. Facebook’s looming IPO has drawn Google like valuations of the soon to be public company. This most recent absurd purchase is the latest to define the social media bubble. […]
Help Me Buy Something with My Tax Refund
I just received my yearly merit increase: a whopping 3% to stay right in line with inflation. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very appreciative of the extra money, but in the grand scheme of things, how much will this improve my life? Will I be able to buy more, spend more, save more? In the […]
Your Take on the Health Care Law
This past week, the Supreme Court wrapped up three days of oral arguments over the health care law. At stake is the health care law’s individual mandate that would require most citizens to have health care as part of a systematic overhaul intended to lower medical costs. The individual mandate is crucial to the survival […]
Making the Switch to an Online Bank: Ally Bank Review
Update: See my update on why you should use Ally to hold all your cash in 5 year CD’s and get the highest rates possible. It should make sense for 99% of all people to follow this strategy and feel free to contact me with any questions: [email protected] Keep Your CD’s Liquid and Still Earn […]
My Do It Yourself Identity Theft Protection Plan
These days, there are tons of ways criminals can steal your identity. They can copy your credit card information at a restaurant or go through your mailbox at home. There are some services out there that charge you to monitor your identity, but most of them only offer services you can get for yourself for […]
Reader Question: What Should I Do With My 401k?
David writes in, “I waste my money on having a personal Financial Advisor w/ Merrill Lynch. He gets 1% of everything invested annually. I cut him a quarterly check and he picks which mutual funds to invest in. The market has been sucking so my mutuals are only up about 4% cumulatively since inception. I don’t […]
$5 Free at Amazon.com and 3 Months of Free Amazon Prime
Update(12/5/12): Get your 3 month free trial of Amazon Prime here by signing up for Amazon mom(aff link) This Tuesday, Amazon Local will be offering $10 Amazon.com gift cards for just $5. They haven’t announced how many are available so make sure to buy one as soon as the deal goes live tuesday morning. They had […]
Should I Donate to a Charity Like Invisible Children?
Last week, Invisible Children launched a passionate video aimed at bringing social awareness to the capture of famous Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. They set a modest goal of half a million views by the end of the year. In just under a week, the video had amassed over 55 million hits. When I finally sat down […]
Why Mitt Romney Still Pays Less Tax Than You
Mitt Romney’s federal tax rate has come under a lot of scrutiny with the battle for the republican primaries heating up. He released statements that showed his effective tax rate was around 15%. This number has come under attack from the White House and critics alike, pointing out that Romney, whose estimated net worth is […]
The Most Powerful Budgeting Tool Around: Mint.com Review
Have you heard of Mint.com? Mint is a personal finance site that links all of your financial accounts to one place and helps you keep track of your expenses. They also have a handy iPhone app that I use every day to stay on top of my spending. The best thing about Mint is it’s […]
11 Actions You Can Take to Save More Money Right Now
Any financial guru can tell you that the key to saving money is to spend less than you earn. Duh! Unfortunately, most of us are accustomed to certain amenities and the thought of losing these might seem harsh. The goal of this list is to enable you to save money on the activities and things […]
What To Do When Your Company Offers a Roth 401k
It seems like every few years the government introduces a new retirement plan. Even though it’s getting hard to keep track of all the different types, at a minimum, a savvy investor should have a basic understanding of each option and whom it can benefit most. The Roth 401k was authorized by the IRS in […]
Do I Save Money by Doing My Taxes Myself?
By now you should have received most of your year-end tax documents. More and more Americans, each year are turning to tax software like TurboTax or H&R Block at home to file our taxes. Software like this has made a once tedious task fairly straightforward. Although the United States tax code now stands at 70,000 […]