Personal Finance And Investing

23 August 2009

Should You Ever Leverage Yourself?

Most people don’t think about leverage when they borrow money. That’s too bad because they should.

Thinking about your personal balance sheet the same way you’d think about a business balance sheet can be a key in warding off bad purchases. Especially when you don’t have the money to pay for them.

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8 August 2009

Should You Be In the Stock Market?

Recently, participation in the American Stock Market reached as high as 50% of the U.S. population. With so many people invested, the question remains: Should they all really be in there?

How did so many people decide the stock market was right for them? Are they rational?

We address these questions and more and help you decide if you should be in the stock market or not.

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2 August 2009

Some Thoughts on “Dollar Cost Averaging”

“Dollar Cost Averaging” is pretty much an accepted wisdom in investing circles today, but when we refer to DCA what are we really talking about? Are we using the right terminology?

When we are talking about “Dollar Cost Averaging,” are all our preconceived benefits really as proven as we think? What are the benefits of Dollar Cost Averaging?

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16 July 2009

Why You Spend More Than You Make (and What To Do About It)

We all know we’re not supposed to spend more than we earn, but many of us somehow manage to do it. What is driving us to do this and how can we stop it?

As usual, the answers are pretty simple, but you have to really identify what you’re doing in order to take the steps to avert the problem.

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12 July 2009

Debt Reduction for the Willfully Stupid

Debt reduction is not rocket science. People try to make it hard. Ultimately you’re going to have to spend less and earn more.

Despite all this simplicity people are generally too stubborn to simply accept that they’ve lived beyond their means and take the hard steps to correct the situation.

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5 July 2009

8 Big Picture Budgeting Tips

Budgeting is a necessary step in your path to a solid financial future. While it isn’t as sexy as trying to figure out how to get massive returns in your IRA, a penny saved is actually worth more than a penny earned, so a budget is a vital step.

Overlooking budgeting is a surefire way to result in financial disaster. At a bare minimum it will result in poorly allocated capital.

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29 May 2009

Debt and Moral Hazard

While we struggle to try to return to “business as usual” in America, we gloss over how things have fundamentally changed.

The current economic situation represents not necessarily a fundamental shift, but the eventual realization of moral hazard. We’ve rewarded the wrong kind of behavior for too long and lost sight of sound decisions making.

Is it too late to return to sound practices?

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17 May 2009

Analyzing Health Insurance

Choosing appropriate health insurance can be very time consuming. Comparing different plans can be like comparing apples and oranges. Ultimately scenario comparisons can be one of the best ways to determine which health plans make the most sense for you.

Doing some simple math can help you save hundreds of dollars. What seems like the “best” plan can often be much more expensive and simply guarantee that your medical costs will be high. You need to always bear in mind that insurance is not an opportunity to get free health care, but instead a way to prevent catastrophic loss.

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9 April 2009

CD Ladders: Some Personal Experience

Building a CD ladder can be a safe way to maximize your savings. Unfortunately the banks you deal with may have some other ideas. At a minimum they often want to make your life difficult.

In order to try to help you avoid some of the painful mistakes I have made, I share my experiences on CD ladders and some tips for maximizing your returns without too much pain.

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9 March 2009

Is the Debt Snowball an Atkins Diet?

While I run the risk of alienating a lot of low-carbers out there, I’m choosing to use Atkins as an analogy because I think there are a few parallels between the diet and my reluctance to endorse the debt snowball approach that is currently en-vogue. Generally the accepted science on Atkins as of this writing is that while it is very effective at weight loss, the long term benefits are not entirely clear. This largely equates to why I don’t advocate the debt snowball approach.

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