Jun 30
In a simulcast of publishing both here, and my main web page, where I publish a monthly article, I am happy to offer my List of Lists;
Ever since 1977’s “Book of Lists“, our fascination with lists and sets of rules has grown. David Letterman’s Top Ten List has been going on for decades with no end in sight. These are Rules of Money that I’ve saved over the past few years, enough to post my favorite “List of Lists”. If I missed one of your favorites, please leave a comment and I will add it.
Take your time, enjoy the list, and send me your thoughts.
Joe
written by JOE
\\ tags: 20 timeless money rules, book of lists, charlie munger, Credit, david letterman, emergency fund, fico, fico credit score, Investing, investment, investment success, jim cramer, money, recession, rich, saving, TIPS, top ten list
Jun 28
I’ve gone on in many posts about the subprime mess. Pages and pages along with multiple links. But Randy Glasbergen managed to summarize in one insightful cartoon the source of our crisis;
Note: The above is from “Today’s Cartoon by Randy Glasbergen”, displayed with special permission. For many more cartoons, please visit Randy’s site at www.glasbergen.com
While there, you are invited to support his site by visiting his Cartoon Gift Shop at http://www.cafeshops.com/glasbergen for mugs, t-shirts, calendars, framed prints and other fun products featuring cartoons from his website. Me, I have a day job, and rely on the kindness of professional cartoonists to provide my Saturday material.
Joe
written by JOE
\\ tags: calendars, cartoon, lend, mma, mugs, prints, professional cartoonists, randy glasbergen, Subprime
Jun 27
The New York Times offers an interactive page offering beautiful graphs of the change in home prices in different parts of the country.
Clicking on the image above will take you to the Times’ site where you can view the changes in the region you wish.
Joe
written by JOE
\\ tags: Finance, Home, investment, money, Mortgage, new york times, Subprime
Jun 25
I just caught a story titled “McCain call for $300 million prize for car battery”. The prize is offered “for the development of a battery package that has the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars.” There’s a part of this that I think is great, regular reader know I am excited about solar power and the prospects for a 21st century electric car. I was encouraged to hear McCain interviewed on CNBC and state that the goal should be to create an electric car that combined a charged range of 240 miles along with a plug in fast recharge capability. If nothing else, this shows he ‘gets it’ and knows what the goal is.
Now, reading that he’d like to be able to offer this challenge, it appears at first blush to be a ‘put your money where your mouth is’ approach. I think the intention is good, but the number may not be so high to get any attention. We currently have the X Prize, a series of prizes that include one for this very goal, and with a $10 million prize.
I think that the $300M may be better spent promoting Solar Power in general along with storage technologies that may overlap the automotive use. Even if solar cells were free, there would be an issue of storage, and we have a crisis that goes beyond just the current high oil prices. Solar can solve multiple issues, but storage is key, without it, we are missing a vital link in the enegy chain.
Joe
written by JOE
\\ tags: electric cars, money, plug in hybrids, solar, Solar cell, solar power, storage technologies
Jun 23
Consumer Reports recently offered an article titled “Your Debt; 8 Benchmarks For Borrowing“, which, for the most part, I liked and will consider adding to a List of Rules I’m assembling. Among the warning signs;
- 28% - Monthly Mortgage (including property tax and insurance) should not exceed this number. Really? That’s exactly what I suggested in my post Mortgage 101, so I’m in full agreement there.
- 80% - The first mortgage should not exceed this level. A lower debt to equity ratio is better. Interesting, I made the same comment in Mortgage 101, but that was more to benefit the bank, not the borrower. I’ll maintain that if the payments are still within the guidelines, there’s nothing magic about 80%.
- 6 - month’s worth of income as emergency money. I wrote about this as well, a couple weeks back in my controversial Emergency Funds post. This may be a worthy goal, and right for many, but not at the top of my list. I have been aggressive in retirement savings, well above average, managed the mortgage with serial refinancing to capture a low rate and an amortization that will end the mortgage well before retirement, and funded college in full for a child who is only 10, yet I’ve ignored this rule.
The CR article goes on with guidelines that are still worth reading if not following right to the letter.
Joe
written by JOE
\\ tags: amortization, debt, emergency fund, Finance, income, Investing, Retirement, saving
Jun 21
From Lauren the Cartoon Godess‘ site comes this gem;
appropriate for the strange times we are living in vis a vis the stock market. Lauren - if you happen upon my site, the image above would be great on a shirt or mug, think about loading it to your CafePress store.
Enjoy the weekend!
Joe
written by JOE
\\ tags: saturday morning cartoon, stock market, strange times
Jun 20
There’s an attraction to the interactive sites suggesting you plug in your age, sex, etc, and see details related to your category peers. From CNN/Money I found;
Yes, I am 45-54. The site also offers median net worth based on your income. Click on the image to be taken to the site to see where you stand. Keep in mind, net worth figures generally include the value of one’s home and median is not the same as average. Median means half the population considered is higher, half lower.
Joe
written by JOE
\\ tags: cnn money, Finance, Home, income, Investing, median, money, net worth, Retirement
Jun 18
Usually, such questions are rhetorical. By I have an answer to this one. They are so stupid that yesterday the Associated Press reported, “Republicans for the second time in a week prevented the Senate from taking up a tax bill providing more than $50 billion in renewable energy credits and tax breaks for families and businesses.” I wrote in Bad Energy Mojo a couple weeks back that congress was still bickering over this, but the news came out yesterday that they defeated this bill. Some things are simply beyond my comprehension, add this to my list.
written by JOE
\\ tags: congressmen, energy, renewable energy, tax breaks
Jun 16
I recently read an article on CNN/Money’s website titled “Credit card rewards are a real rip off“. The page starts with a legitimate gripe, “You got burned with frequent flier miles, which were nearly impossible to redeem and hardly worth the hassle, so credit card issuers turned to other kinds of incentives to entice you to charge more.” Now, I’d be hard pressed to argue with that. I typically use the miles to upgrade to first class on longer flights for a more comfortable ride, but rarely have been able to use miles to get the original ticket, too few seats are available per flight, and tend to get booked well in advance.
But CNN goes on to trash other reward programs as well, suggesting that “though rewards do spur consumers to spend more, the study found that confusing rules and restrictions make most reward cards more trouble than they’re worth.” Really? Let me share my card reward experience:
I use Amex Open. It rebates 5% on gas from dollar one. I calculate the rebate at $600+/yr on just that. Same 5% on any office supply store purchases.
A Fidelity Mastercard that gives 2% (they changed to 1.5 for new applicants, but I kept the 2%) into a 529 account. My child is 10 and we will have a full semester of college paid free with the cards rebates. We only charge what we can pay in full each month.
There is responsible credit card use. We prove that. If one will be too tempted and run the card up on purchases they cannot pay in full, they should use cash only. Me, I’ll enjoy the rebates.
Joe
(Well, just when I finished setting up this post, the mail came, and Amex advised me, that due to the high cost of gasoline, they were reducing the gas rebates down to 3% on this card. Still, that’s cash back in my pocket, just no so much.)
written by JOE
\\ tags: Amex, CNN, cnn money, Credit, credit card, credit card rewards, gas, money, reward experience
Jun 14
From DopeyCowboy.com comes some advanced technical analysis (Japanese candlestick) with some interesting results;
Enjoy the weekend,
Joe
written by JOE
\\ tags: black swan, japanese candlestick
