Latest Articles
Tax Efficient Investing
Updated and expanded for 2012. 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. If Congress does not act, the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of this year. 2013 has been rightfully been called taxmageddon.
TradeKing Merging with Zecco
TradeKing and Zecco are joining forces. Consolidation within the discount brokers arena is to be expected. Last year OptionsXpress merged with Charles Schwab, and a few years ago TD Ameritrade purchased Thinkorswim. Today commissions have gone down to historical lows, and the industry has matured. Both firms now charge $4.95/trade. Terms and financial details of [...]
SmartMoney 2012 Broker Survey
SmartMoney just released their annual broker survey for 2012. Compared to last year’s survey, quite a few changes in rankings occurred. I discuss my thoughts and make some comments below.
Small Business Marketing Strategy for the Best Results
My “day job” consists of building marketing strategies for small and medium-sized businesses. In general, my clients are usually hesitant to advertise, fearing that money spent on an advertising strategy is spent for nothing.
Weekend Reading for May 11, 2012
President Obama recently met with Robin Roberts of Good Morning America to declare that he believes same-sex marriages should be legal. The motive for his decision to go public? His daughters, who have friends at their school who have same-sex parents.
Improving Your Lending Club Returns
I’ve been a Lending Club investor since July 2009. In the three years I’ve been doing P2P investing, I’ve learned a lot since I first started. Some of lessons you see discussed with my quarterly updates, but not comprehensive enough for someone new to peer-to-peer lending.
Recent Reviews
Unleash the Power Within Review
I drank the Kool-Aid during my time off last week. I just got back from a four day seminar with the self-help “guru” Tony Robbins, and his infamous Unleash the Power Within (UPW for short). The seminar was held at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in New Jersey from March 29th till April 1st 2012. It’s [...]
Interactive Brokers Review
In the 90′s and 00′s, the brokerage business was dominated by one trend: the rise of the online discount brokerage. Prior to 1995, most trades were placed by calling your stock broker who charged a massive commission. The customers expected these brokers to provide trading advice, and buy/sell recommendations. Such firms were later known as [...]
Rich Dad, Poor Dad Review – Revisited Ten Years Later
I recently reread Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad book. I read the book when it first came out in 2000, and I was still somewhat of a budding entrepreneur. I figured I would re-read the book now I have more experience under my belt. I also wanted to see if it’s held up to [...]
Lending Club Review – How to Become a Bank
Did you ever wish when applying for a bank loan, that you were the loan officer sitting on the other side of the table? Now you can with Lending Club. Lending Club is a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending service. They offer a higher rate of return (over 9.6%) than many other traditional fixed income investments. Compared [...]
Mint.com Review – Should I Use Mint?
Mint is a FREE online personal finance (web 2.0) service similar to Quicken. Mint was recently acquired by Inuit for a… mint. I decided to review Mint.com financial software to see what the buzz is about. For over two years now, I’ve taken mint.com for a test spin with my personal finances. With Mint you have no [...]
TradeKing Review
TradeKing is an online discount brokerage firm that was started in 2005. The reasons why I choose TradeKing were simple. As much as I like and use Fidelity for most of my trades, I felt it was a great way to get experience with another discount stock broker. I also wanted to find a broker [...]
tradeMONSTER Review
TradeMONSTER is a fairly new company, having just opened for business in 2008. In just the few short years the company has been in business, tradeMONSTER has become a recognized name and a front runner in the personal investing industry. Founded by industry experts Dirk Mueller, Jon Najarian and Pete Najarian, tradeMONSTER’s philosophy is to [...]
