Living for today - Planning for Tomorrow
I’ve always loved (and was kind of addicted to) the HGTV shows about flipping houses. I was also always amazed about the insane amount of money some of these small homes cost and were then sold for. I was talking to a friend the other day and explaining to him my fascination with real estate and how little houses cost around here. He lived in
Last week I was invited to attend a financial event at the local baseball stadium. A friend of mine has been a client of a major investment/insurance company for years and was encouraged to bring a couple friends to this small event. (There were about 70 people total) I’m normally not very interested to attend speaking engagements like this but because it was at the
I’ve recently found myself surpassing some financial milestones that I never thought I’d see. Our retirement accounts are at levels that I used to just dream about when I was first starting out. Never underestimate the power of consistent contributions and compound interest, that’s for sure. As I was sitting here looking over the numbers I started to wonder why I’d always thought these milestones
I turned 40 last year and, while the milestone was a little hard to swallow, I think I’m finally finding my “40’s groove”. It’s amazing how fast life happens. It seems like yesterday that I was sitting in a college dorm room with only a few dollars in my checking account thinking about whether I had enough for a takeout pizza and a six pack
Geesh. Just a few weeks ago, there were lots of houses for sale in my area. I even made an offer on one but, being the amateur that I am, didn’t make the offer attractive enough for the bank. I had a few others that I was eyeing hoping they’d drop a bit in price so I could make the numbers work on one of
Have you seen this? It’s GREAT! Vanguard has a very “simple to use” tool that lets you slide a few bars and get an idea of whether your nest egg will last long enough to fund your retirement. They use the Monte Carlo simulation, which is a basically a really big math equation with lots of variable inputs. Since I have a bachelor of arts
If you haven’t already done so, now would be a good time to check your retirement accounts to ensure they are balanced appropriately and that you are contributing as much as you can. The maximum contribution amount for 2012 is $17,000 and if you’re 50 or older, you can contribute up to $22,500 to your retirement account. I have tried to keep our contributions maxed
Facebook submitted their paperwork to take the company public and raise upwards of $5 billion. The last estimate I saw put Mark Zuckerberg at $25B in net worth at that rate. Wow. I won’t be buying any of Facebook’s stock because I think they are probably the most hyped IPO of all time and little guys like me don’t stand a chance at getting a
I must confess that I love watching consumers exercise their right to shop where they believe they’ll get the best value. The latest article on MSN highlights that online banks are seeing large increases in new members as people, fed up by the latest fee hikes at commercial banks, shop around for better deals. While I still think credit unions are the best place to
