Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin Supplements

"Enough Is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements" is the title of an editorial in the Annals of Internal Medicine that address three different studies released in the same issue about the role of vitamin and mineral … [Read the rest]

Health Savings Accounts: Defer Reimbursement But Keep Receipts Forever

I always tell myself to do more research on Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), but I lack motivation because we have great health insurance benefits and not even the option of an HSA-eligible high-deductible plan. I know, what a tough problem to have … [Read the rest]

New Site Design

Just a quick note that I finally updated this site's design after many, many years. The primary goal of this redesign was to improve usability and readability across modern computer screens, which now span from 30" widescreen monsters to 3.5" … [Read the rest]

Visualizations of Investment Performance by Asset Class 2011-2013

The blog Short Side of Long has a nice post discussing the relative performance of several different asset classes over the last few years. The charts especially caught my eye, and I went over to Stockcharts.com to make my own with the asset classes … [Read the rest]

Americans Spend 5 Hours a Day Watching TV

Americans are watching more TV than ever at least according to Nielsen and AllThingsD. Television remains the biggest chunk of the nearly 60 hours of media consumed every week. Here's how those 60 hours break down across TV, radio, online, and … [Read the rest]

Picking Municipal Bond Funds & The Importance of Low Fees

Due to a lack of tax-deferred space, my current tax bracket, and the current interest rate spread over US Treasury bonds, I started investing part of my portfolio in Vanguard's tax-exempt municipal bond funds. As a result, I try to read every single … [Read the rest]

MyMoneyBlog.com Interview with Mint

Money management website Mint.com recently did a brief interview with me, although we did cover a variety of topics. Here's the link: Personal Finance Interview with Jonathan Ping on Money Management … [Read the rest]

Fandango: Buy $50 in Movie Gift Cards, Get 1 Free Movie Ticket

Several stores are offering a little something extra with gift card purchases this time of year. If you buy $50 or more in Fandango gift cards (can be multiple cards, but must total $50 in one transaction), you will get a bonus gift code via e-mail … [Read the rest]

Investing Charts for 2013: Looking Beyond a Great Year For Stocks

More charts! The Atlantic has a big collection of 41 economic charts for 2013. Some are neat, some I don't understand, and some I don't think anyone really understands. ;) Here are two investing-related graphs that caught my eye. The first one … [Read the rest]

Asset Allocation Revisited: How Much International Stock Exposure For Your Portfolio?

In the post Foreign Stocks For The Long Run, author Rick Ferri recently revisited the topic of how much international stock exposure you should add to your portfolio's asset allocation. I also have an older post about this - Choosing An Asset … [Read the rest]

Case-Shiller Home Price Index Update: Getting Frothy Again?

Real estate prices have rebounded in many areas since the financial crisis, so much that some people are wary of another Housing Bubble. The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index measures the value of residential real estate in 20 … [Read the rest]

Chart: What Percentage of Your Budget Goes Towards Food? Should You Spend More?

Here's another interesting chart from a Businessweek article about a food-delivery start-up called Blue Apron. It shows how food costs have decreased dramatically as a percentage of total U.S. consumer spending from 1959-2013. I've seen … [Read the rest]