Financial Planning
« Previous EntriesReader Question on How to Determine How Your Investments Are Doing
Monday, November 2nd, 2009The following comment was left on this post from last week:
Have a question:
What reasonable standards should investors use to measure how well or poorly that they are doing?
I’m sure that an answer would include “it depends” but if so, depends on what?
We are about 10% under our 12.31.07 balances and we are pleased but how [...]
This is One Crappy Car Loan! Lessons on How NOT to Buy a Car!
Friday, April 10th, 2009I received this email earlier today:
Hi!
I’ve been subscribing to AFM for quite some time now and I really appreciate almost all of your blog posts. My room mate just bought a car yesterday and because he has little to no credit (and may have been an easy target) got a 24.99% 6 year loan [...]
10 Financial Commandments for Your 30s
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009Saw this list this morning on MSN. Pretty good list. I think we have accomplished all of these, which is a good thing because I’m in the final months of my 30s!!!!!!
Here’s the list along with my thoughts on each point. You can read the original article here:
1. Pay off your nonmortgage [...]
One Reader’s Reasoning on Why Younger People Don’t Save
Friday, September 26th, 2008I want to highlight this comment I received regarding why young people aren’t saving money (edited slightly):
I’m 27 and I can tell you really simply why we are not investing.
1. Since the day we graduated we’ve seen nothing but bad news. Huge tech crash, current crash. We’re not even back [...]
Financial Education Could Be a Bad Idea
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008We hear a lot of people calling for increased consumer education when it comes to financial matters in this day and age. Not everyone agrees, though.
Lauren Willis, for instance, an associate professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles says that financial education for the masses is not only a waste of [...]
Save For One Year, Retire With $1MM
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008Most “retire with one million dollars” articles focus on slow and steady savings over the course of decades. That works of course, and saving regularly is a great habit to get in no matter how much money you have.
But if you’re young enough, with some concerted effort you can save for only [...]
To Save or Not To Save
Monday, March 31st, 2008There is one basic difference between those who save and those who don’t.
We Savers (if you’re reading this you likely fall into that category) spend much of our free time reading and perhaps even writing about finance. We track our spending, set annual goals, and excitedly check our 401k balances periodically to see how [...]
Dang it! My Car Insurance is Going Up
Thursday, January 31st, 2008Remember last summer wehn I wrote about how my insurance agent set me up with a new auto insurance policy and that by doing so, I was going to save $800 per year? If not, you can read about it here. The only difference that I could tell between the new policy and [...]
Solid Advice: ALWAYS Question Commissioned Salesmen!
Monday, December 10th, 2007I remember being told during broker training for PaineWebber (now UBS) that if a prospect asked about fees or commissions that I was to basically show them the door. PaineWebber’s stance was that clients who bickered about fees weren’t going to be good clients. Of course there will always be people who want [...]
The Real Key to Acheiving Your Goals
Thursday, November 29th, 2007It’s easy to turn your dreams into goals on paper, but you’re much more likely to acheive those goals–and be satisfied when you do–if they reflect your true values.
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