Posted: June 29th, 2010 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Investing, Retirement | Tags: 401(k), active funds, index funds, Investing, Retirement, Stock Market | No Comments »
A few weeks ago, I responded to a reader’s question about How To Start Saving For Retirement At 40. In that post, I made mention that you can’t really save for retirement – you must invest for retirement. I also said that it’s beneficial to have an understanding of the basics of investing, even if you leave your retirement planning to your 401k plan administrator.
One of the basic concepts of investing is the idea of active funds and passive funds.
I’ve just come across this post about active vs passive funds by Craig Ford at Christian PF.com that does a good job of breaking down the differences between active vs passive funds and which is better.
As I say, even if your interest and involvement in retirement planning doesn’t go beyond your company 401k plan you should at least know the general idea beyond these funds, so check it out!
Related Posts:
Posted: June 24th, 2010 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Economy, Real Estate | Tags: Economy, home buyer credit, home sales, Stock Market | No Comments »
Am I missing something here?
The news of the day seems to be that Stocks slip after new-home sales tumble . Really? I mean, I just don’t get this, This assumes that investors were expecting home sales to remain steady, possibly even rising. But that doesn’t make any sense.
I’m not an expert or an economist by any stretch, but even I called this back in May! I don’t point that out to say “I told you so,” rather to illustrate that it’s really common sense that when the government stops paying people to buy something, they buy less of it or stop altogether.
The Homebuyer Tax Credit ended and home sales went down 33% and hit a record low. What happened?
All those people who were thinking of buying a home in the 1st half of 2010 made sure they got in before the credit expired. Essentially, the government failed to stimulate anything and only motivated buyers to shift their timeframe of purchase by a month or two.
The rest of 2010 will be little more than limping through with even less buyers than might otherwise have been there.
I just don’t get how these people get so caught up in their bubble and believe their own spin even when it is in direct opposition to reality. It’s simply amazing…
Related Posts:
Posted: December 30th, 2009 | Author: Joe | Filed under: 10 Investment Tips for Beginners, Credit, Debt, Economy, Investing, Scam | Tags: 401(k), bailout, blogging, Cramer, Credit, Credit Cards, Debt, Investing, Stock Market, Stocks | No Comments »
What a year it’s been!
As the history books close on 2009, I thought it might be nice to take a look back on the topics that were hot on Simple Debt-Free Finance over the past year.
2009 saw a lot of talk about the future of the 401(k). It seems only natural, given that it is one of the major means of saving for retirement for many American workers who had just seen those savings drop like a stone in the 2008 stock market crash. A lot of the talk was centered around ways to “fix” the 401(k) when it isn’t broken. This bothered me enough to blog about it in that post as well as Fixing What Isn’t Broken and Why 401K Retirement Plans Really Don’t Work And How To Fix Them
Many workers, like myself, saw their company contributions to 401(k) plans cut or “temporarily” suspended. My response to that was to give my 401(k) some TLC, a move which paid off when my balance returned to pre-crash levels in the 3rd quarter of 2009.
Bank Failures.
Another hot topic of the beginning of the year was bank failures. So many failures naturally led many to wonder what the FDIC insurance limits cover.
Investing.
2008 was a big year for gold, and 2009 was even bigger. Such a bullish environment for gold led Rosland Capital to offer Gold Eagle coins for IRA accounts.
The 2008 crash created an historic opportunity for investors to “buy low”, but it also offered many reminders of what not to do. To that end, I shared Jim Cramer’s 10 commandments of stock trading.
Since the crash created a great opportunity for new investors to get into stocks at levels unseen in a decade, I put together a list of 10 investment tips for beginners:
1 Follow The Rules
2 Be Aware Of Taxes
3 Don’t Confuse Investing With Trading
4 Tune Out The Media
5 Don’t Tune Out Too Much
6 Pay Attention To Risk
7 Don’t Avoid Reality
8 Don’t Fall For Hot Stock Tips
9 Don’t Try To Time The Market
10 Try Before You Buy
In other news, some investing sites seemed to want to attack index fund investing in all the wrong ways. I had to respond to their criticism of index fund investing.
Kiplinger was nice enough to provide a 1st phase of credit card consumer protection rules went into effect.
I had a couple of posts about 0% balance transfer offers, mostly because 0% balance transfer offers were coming to an end at the same time my wife received a 0.99% balance transfer offer.
Since it seemed to be a hot topic, for me anyway, I decided to share 6 things you should know about 0% APR credit card offers.
And all this at a time when Bank of America began imposing fees for paying off your balance… idiots!
Government Bailouts.
2009 is likely to be remembered best for the bailout craze that gripped the auto sector, bank sector, heck – the entire nation!
credit card consumers got a bailout, the NASDAQ released a “government relief index” for tracking bailed out companies and cash for clunkers gave charities some competition
What would a debt blog be without posts about, well, debt?
The year started out with discussions about toxic debt and ended with the mortgage debt relief program going until 2012.
In between was some discussion of whether debt settlement is a good idea, and why debt consolidation is (sometimes) a scam. When it’s not a scam, debt settlement and loan consolidation just doesn’t work, and you’re much better off taking a DIY approach to debt consolidation.
And just to round out the debt consolidation talk, I shared how it affects your credit score.
I asked, “Why are you in debt?”, but not too many people answered, so I got the top 10 causes for debt from BankRate.com. 
Related Posts:
Posted: June 11th, 2009 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Investing | Tags: Investing, mutual funds, Stock Market | No Comments »
The last 8 months or so have been undeniably painful for anyone investing in stock market, but the market crash has produced some new opportunities for investors. One of these opportunities is the chance to invest in mutual funds that have been closed to new investors for some time.
Money Magazine recently spotlighted 3 no-load mutual funds that have out performed their peers over the past 12 months and have a solid long-term track record of strong performance. These funds were previously closed to new investors, but have now reopened.
Artisan Mid-Cap Value Fund(ARTQX)
This Mid-Cap value fund sports a -31.8% (!) return for the past 12 months. Yikes! That gives you some idea of just how poorly mid-cap stock funds have performed. The expense ratio is 1.21%. Money likes this fund because the 3 person management team invests in medium sized companies with strong balance sheets that have been knocked down in price because of short term factors, and sell when the stock becomes overvalued.
This legendary Large-cap blend fund has (only!) taken a -29.9% hit over the past year, and follows the Buffett style of investing. The fund only holds about 25 stocks, and most are high quality companies, trading at a discount. The Sequoia expense ratio is 1%.
T. Rowe Price Mid-Cap Growth (RPMGX)
This Mid-Cap growth fund lost 33.2 % last over the past year but sports a low 0.82% expense ratio. The fund manager, Brian Berghuis, invests in companies with rapid earnings growth, but avoids excess risk. What does this mean? Well, Berghuis avoids stocks trading at a premium and holds about 130 stocks for diversification.
Related Posts:
What others are saying