PeerStreet Review: Fractional Real-Estate Loan Returns (IRR) After 4.5 Years

Updated February 2021. I started investing in PeerStreet real-estate backed loans in July 2016. I've long liked the idea of hard money loans, but I wanted more diversification as opposed to tying all my money up with one single property. … [Read the rest]

Tesla S&P 500 Noise vs. Vanguard Total Market Quiet Simplicity

Tesla's stock value is up a whopping 600% in 2020 alone, with a current market cap of over $550 billion dollars and a P/E ratio of over 1,000. At this moment, it is worth more than Disney, Walmart, or Berkshire Hathaway. Even better, the S&P 500 … [Read the rest]

Giving Tuesday 2020: Double Your Impact With Matching Donations

Tuesday, December 1st is Giving Tuesday 2020, an international day about giving support through charities and nonprofits by donating money or volunteering your time. In case you aren't inundated with mailings already, this time of year is a big deal … [Read the rest]

Wishing You a Hopeful and Happy Thanksgiving

Imagine an aeroplane makes an emergency landing and breaks into three parts. As the cabin fills with smoke, everybody inside realises: we’ve got to get out of here. What happens? On Planet A, the passengers turn to their neighbours to ask if … [Read the rest]

Upsolve: Nonprofit Helps You File Chapter 7 Bankruptcy For Free

Upsolve is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that helps anyone file for bankruptcy on their own behalf. They are not a legal service, but more of a free self-service software tool and step-by-step guide. Essentially "TurboTax for Bankruptcy", … [Read the rest]

Consumer Reports: Top 10 Most Reliable Car Brands and Models 2020

Consumer Reports provided some updated results from their 2020 Car Owner Survey in the public articles Who Makes the Most Reliable Cars?, 10 Most Reliable Cars, and 10 Least Reliable Cars. There are a few minor surprises, including a new brand in … [Read the rest]

Financial Planning Advice From Allan Roth’s 40 Years of Experience

Allan Roth is one of the financial planners whose independent opinions I have come to respect, and he shares seven takeaways from 40 years of financial planning. Financial Planning is an industry trade magazine targeted at (obviously) professional … [Read the rest]

Emergency Funds Are The First Building Block For Retirement

The Blackrock article Emergency Savings = Better Retirement? comes from Blackrock's department that helps companies manage their retirement plans. They propose the idea of creating a separate "sidecar savings account" in order to prevent early … [Read the rest]

One Finance Review (3% APY Offer Expired)

Update September 2022: The ONE app feature set has been changed. They now offer only up to 1% APY on all balances and pockets. As such, this app no longer offers a competitive savings interest rate and I no longer use it. I will leave the … [Read the rest]

Citi Credit Cards: 5% Back on up to $500 of Online Purchases

If you have an existing Citi credit card, log into your account at Citi.com and see if you are targeted for 5% back on up to $500 of online purchases ($25 max per card). It appears to be widely available on a variety of Citi-branded consumer and … [Read the rest]

Best Interest Rates on Cash – November 2020

Here's my monthly roundup of the best interest rates on cash for November 2020, roughly sorted from shortest to longest maturities. I track these rates because I keep 12 months of expenses as a cash cushion and also invest in longer-term CDs (often … [Read the rest]

Beam App Complaints: Frozen Bank Deposits and Lessons Learned

(Follow-up 11/27: CNBC reports that progress had been made towards customers getting their funds back, although not everything has been resolved.) Beam Financial was yet another fintech app that promised a high interest rate along with (what they … [Read the rest]