Personal Finance Advice

Ask around and you’ll find plenty of people willing to give you “sound” investment advice. I’ve never been much of a conformist, so I’m going to offer you, instead, ten pieces of really terrible advice on investing. Why? So you’ll recognize them when you hear them from the “experts” or your friends. Some readers will [...]

The savings account is about as in style as 90′s rock sensation Pearl Jam (Don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of them) but much like some of those same 90s fads, the savings account is making a reemergence. Everybody is happy when interest rates fall and they can refinance their homes, but they forget [...]

In the wake of the post-Christmas sale frenzy, I found myself wondering, “Why is it that people will beat each other senseless to save 75% on wrapping paper and cards, but they won’t take advantage of the biggest sale of all: A down stock market?” Back when the market was tanking in 2008 and 2009, [...]

This week was about the basics of investing. Once you’re out of debt and have your emergency fund, it’s time to move on to creating serious wealth. You do that by investing (or winning the lottery, but Dave doesn’t advocate that method). Obviously in a one-hour lecture Dave can’t touch on all of the intricacies [...]

“More than 20 percent of adults read at or below a fifth-grade level – far below the level needed to earn a living wage.” – National Institute for Literacy “Nearly half of America’s adults are poor readers, or ‘functionally illiterate.’ They can’t carry out simple tasks like balancing check books, reading drug labels or writing [...]

By Retire@50 It’s the dream of many to retire early. This is how I did it: I had a paradigm shift: It was the early 80s and I was in my early 20s. I was working an entry level job and living paycheck to paycheck. It was difficult to find jobs at the time and [...]

Dave Kansas of the Wall Street Journal has what I like to see in a capitalist economy: optimism. Talking about the year ahead, he described the stock market as looking “to the future, rather than the past.” Isn’t that exactly what we should do with our money? We save for the future, we plan for [...]

I have a friend who is, shall we say, “crunchy” (in the best sense of the word). She and her family eschew many modern conveniences such as dishwashers, fast food, and big box stores in favor of doing things the old fashioned way. They are environmentally conscious to a fault and very outdoorsy. A few [...]

What I Know Among today’s financial headlines is the prediction that stocks will rise today because traders are optimistic about the Freddie and Fannie takeovers. The articles I read commonly noted this optimism, but none of them explained to me why government intervention was cause for optimism. Strangely enough, another headline noted that oil was [...]

As children, we are often taught by our parents to do well in school, go to college and get a good job to succeed financially in life? We have all heard that being active and hard work will make us healthy and wealthy. But being an active participant isn’t always good for your financial health. [...]

I’m a big fan of index funds because, quite frankly, I don’t know much about investing and I would rather spend my time doing other things than learning how to invest in individual companies. Warren Buffett agrees with me on this as his response to a question at the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting: “If [...]

A few weeks ago I wrote about books that are valuable for every level of financial knowledge. Almost all of those books were “how-to” books or books about developing and implementing investment strategies. This week I’m going to recommend a different type of financial book. These are the books that don’t teach you how to [...]

I’m a huge fan of reading. I believe that reading, both fiction and non-fiction, is a great way to learn new things and be exposed to more than you typically see in your daily life. If you want to learn something new, like personal finance, you can’t beat a good book. You can go at [...]

While not everyone was happy with my list of things about people and their money that make me angry, I find that my list of these things continues to grow. This is a new list gathered from interviews and personal experiences of the not so intelligent, moral, or legal things people do with their money. [...]