Bonds Vs. Bond Funds
Bond. James Bond. The spy thriller movies are some of my all-time favorites, especially “Goldfinger“. He was connoisseur of fine wines, fine women, fine sports cars, and may have been good with investing. After all, he may have known that baccarat has some of the best casino game odds.
With the fixed income part of your portfolio, you have three options to choose from: individual bonds, bond funds and ETFs. Unknown to most people, holding actual bonds is not the same owning bond funds. Once you understand the differences, you can determine which is best for you. For the sake of discussion of this article, bond ETFs act similar to owning bond funds. Let’s discuss the differences between them.
Read More »The Internet is For Porn
It was announced on Saturday Craigslist, with pressure from a group of state attorney generals, will remove it’s adult services section. While I applaud this move by Craigslist, I assume it was done purely because they faced legal issues, and not because it lacked any profit. According to PC Mag, Craigslist last year made $36 million on their adult services section. That’s almost one-third of their total revenue. After all, how many people need someone else’s smelly old couch? It’s a dirty little secret on the net, sex sells and it is very big business. They say the world’s oldest profession is prostitution, and was probably the second commerce transaction. Regardless if you think it’s “legal” or moral to solicit sex, it’s foolish to think this will not still occur. It still occurs with government officials who enforce the very same laws on others. As very social and sexual creatures, it makes sense we’ll communicate through whatever medium is available to fulfill our needs. For me it’s interesting that throughout our history, when a new medium is created, one of the first uses turns towards sexual use.
Finding the Best CD Rates
Finding the best CD rates can be a time consuming process. Traditionally, you would have to look in your local newspaper, or visit bank branches. While web sites like BankRate exist, they are primarily display CD rates in which they get compensated for, not truly the best rates for you. In addition, they primarily focus on national rates, not what’s available in your local bank, or credit union. In the past two years there has been an increasing trend to use local community banks or credit unions. Research has shown credit unions typically offer better rates than what’s available national banks. With banks getting government bailouts, isn’t it time someone help the little guy find the best CD rate? Based upon my own frustrations, I decided to develop a web site as an unbiased source for investing in certificate of deposits.
Read More »Kindle vs iPad
A recent press release mentioned Amazon sold more electronic books than hardcover versions. The days of paper based books, newspapers and magazines are numbered as in even more interesting news Barnes and Noble put itself up for sale. I suspect traditional paper based reading materials will always exist, but quickly decrease in usage. I have no doubt, in the next 5 – 10 years it will only be a minor part of overall book sales.
As I’ve mentioned in my bio, I’m a avid reader of books and all things related to finance online. I’ve owned an Amazon Kindle DX for over one year now, and loved using it to read books. I’ve been looking at the Apple iPad as something to not only read books with, but for a multitude of other tasks. As of last week, I finally broke down and bought one. In case you’ve been living under a rock, it’s a tablet computer with no keyboard or mouse, and operates via finger touch. It’s the iPhone/iPod Touch bigger brother. This review will focus mainly on comparing to the Amazon Kindle, and using it’s as a reading device.
Read More »Tax Efficient Investing
It’s no surprise that taxes are going up next year. How much? No one really knows exactly, but at worst case Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts will completely disappear. This should include my often-loved taxable rate of 15% on dividends. In addition, depending upon your situation, taxes will increase even more in the next 3-5 years by various new laws. Historically taxes are at some of the lowest levels, and with budget deficits it has only one way to go, and that is up! With all of this in mind, it’s wise to legally avoid or delay taxes as much as possible. After all, most people pay one third of their income in taxes. So when it comes to investing for the long haul, it’s always important to consider taxes, as the capital gains minus taxes can be significant. The Bogleheads are also a big fan investing tax efficiently, and believe this is an effective way to invest.
Why I Like US I Savings Bonds
Lately I’ve been adding to our security investment bucket US I Savings Bonds or I-Bonds for short. In my opinion, they are a great bond to invest in, but often overlooked powerful tool in your investor toolkit. The advanced investor or investment adviser often pooh-poohs them. They were created in 1998 as a method to keep up with inflation, and geared toward retail investors. I Bonds have some unusual and confusing aspects, so it’s best to understand them so you can use them to your advantage.
Read More »How To Help Small Businesses
Want to see how unfriendly the current environment is for small businesses? For a microcosm you have to look no further than this article mentioned in the Business Insider, which originally was in the left coast newspaper The Oregonian. A 7-year old wanted to create a lemonade stand at a local art fair. It’s very similar to my lemonade stand story. In her case she got the idea by watching the children’s show “Olivia“. In my opinion, starting a lemonade stand is a great way for a child to learn entrepreneurship. Well the child got a real world experience, and got much more than she bargained for. Her operation was forced to shutdown because she did not pay for a $120 temporary restaurant license. Unknown to the mother and child they were committing a crime against the food police, even if it was done in front of her house!
Responsible Credit Card Use
This is a guest post from The Digerati Life is a personal finance blog discussing credit card reviews, proper credit card use and other financial resources.
Credit cards have benefits, despite their dangers. While it may not be advisable to have a plethora of them if you’re a spendthrift (being that credit cards can be a dangerous tool in the wrong hands) for those of us who have better self-control, there are solid credit cards that can prove to be more helpful than plain old debit cards.
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