Investment research firm Morningstar has released their annual 529 College Savings Plans Research Paper and Industry Survey. While the full survey appears restricted to paid premium members, they did release their top-rated plans for 2017. This … [Read the rest]
All-Clad VIP Factory Seconds Sale: Next One 11/6-11/8
Posted on November 2, 2017 // 7 Comments
All-Clad cookware is known to be very high quality, but also quite expensive. If you cook regularly, you can justify the high price with the fact that the stainless steel pots and pans will essentially last forever. (I would skip the non-stick … [Read the rest]
Tulip Fever Movie: Love and Economic Bubbles
Posted on November 2, 2017 // 5 Comments
If you've read enough investing books, you know about the "Dutch Tulip Mania" of the 1600s (Wikipedia) and how it was considered one of the first documented economic bubbles. At one point, 12 acres of land were exchanged for a single tulip bulb. … [Read the rest]
Best Interest Rates on Cash – November 2017
Posted on November 1, 2017 // 13 Comments
Interest rates are slowly inching upwards. Don't let a megabank pay you 0.01% APY or less for your idle cash. Here is my monthly roundup of the best safe rates available, roughly sorted from shortest to longest maturities. I focus on rates that … [Read the rest]
Savings I Bonds November 2017 Update: 0.1% Fixed, 2.48% Variable Interest Rate
Posted on November 1, 2017 // 16 Comments
Update 11/1/17. The fixed rate will be 0.1% for I bonds issued from November 1, 2017 through April 30, 2018. The variable inflation-indexed rate for this 6-month period will be 2.48% (as was predicted ;) ). The total rate on any specific bond is … [Read the rest]
Scare-Testing Your Risk Tolerance on Halloween
Posted on October 31, 2017 // 5 Comments
It's Halloween as I finishing writing this, and soon little ghosts and ghouls will be lining up to score treats from my great-aunt. She's lived through some amazing times. It's really hard to predict how you will handle a scary situation until … [Read the rest]
Book Review: A History of Gold in the United States
Posted on October 30, 2017 // 1 Comment
Having been born after 1971, I have never lived in a time when the dollar was backed by gold. In an effort to learn more about the gold standard, I recently finished One Nation Under Gold: How One Precious Metal Has Dominated the American … [Read the rest]
XKCD on Credit Card Reward Optimization
Posted on October 29, 2017 // 4 Comments
XKCD has some clever observations about the pursuit of credit card rewards: I definitely spend more time thinking about optimizing things than is... optimal? rational? That's why I started a website, so I can justify it as a business pursuit! … [Read the rest]
Morningstar Star Ratings, Still Less Useful Than Expense Ratios
Posted on October 27, 2017 // 2 Comments
For investment nerds, the recent Wall Street Journal article The Morningstar Mirage was high drama. The subtitle got straight to the point: Investors everywhere think a 5-star rating from Morningstar means a mutual fund will be a top performer—it … [Read the rest]
Early Retirement Income Update 2017 Q3: Do I Have Enough Yet?
Posted on October 24, 2017 // 16 Comments
How do you know when you portfolio is enough to retire on? You have to figure out a withdrawal strategy first. This is a tricky question and full of worries about running out of money. You could take out a fixed amount (i.e. $50,000 a year). … [Read the rest]
Early Retirement Portfolio Asset Allocation, 2017 Third Quarter Update
Posted on October 23, 2017 // 22 Comments
Here is an update on my investment portfolio holdings after the third quarter 2017. This includes tax-deferred 401k/403b/IRAs and taxable brokerage holdings, but excludes things like our primary home, cash reserves, and a few other side investments. … [Read the rest]
Housing Has Higher Long-Term Returns Than Stocks?
Posted on October 22, 2017 // 12 Comments
I finally got around to reading an academic paper that looked a bit dry but had a great title: The Rate of Return on Everything, 1870–2015 [pdf] by Jorda, Knoll, Kuvshinov, Schularick, and Taylor. I wonder which of the authors came up with … [Read the rest]
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