My Money Blog

Model Portfolio #4: The Intelligent Asset Allocator

Posted on January 25, 2007 // 6 Comments

(This is the fourth in my series of Model Portfolio Comparisons.) I hope people aren't getting overwhelmed by all of these portfolios. Remember, the law of diminishing returns applies to investment complexity as well. After a while, adding more … [Read the rest]

What’s Your Dream Job?

Posted on January 23, 2007 // 32 Comments

My wife and I are both job-hunting, and I've been thinking a lot about careers in general. I also recently watched the movie High Fidelity. If you haven't seen it, there is a scene where John Cusack has a list of his top 5 dream jobs if … [Read the rest]

NoPhoneTrees.com: GetHuman.com++

Posted on January 23, 2007 // 3 Comments

Most of us have heard of GetHuman.com, which offers people directions on navigating phone trees or direct-access phones numbers in order to reach a live person. Now a new service by NoPhoneTrees.com takes this one (small) step further. After … [Read the rest]

Model Portfolio #3: All About Asset Allocation

Posted on January 22, 2007 // 6 Comments

(This is the third in my series of Model Portfolio Comparisons.) All About Asset Allocation (my review) is written by Richard Ferri, CFA, who is also the president of his own investment advisory service. If you are interested in learning more … [Read the rest]

Mutual Fund and ETF Asset Class Definitions: Stocks

Posted on January 22, 2007 // 1 Comment

What do all these asset classes in the model portfolio comparisons mean, anyways? Total Market? Large-Cap? Value? One big hurdle is that there are no set definitions for any of these classes, and each individual mutual fund can and will use it's … [Read the rest]

Model Portfolio #2: The Boglehead’s Guide To Investing

Posted on January 20, 2007 // 20 Comments

(This is the second in my series of Model Portfolio Comparisons.) This next portfolio comes from The Boglehead's Guide To Investing by Larimore, Lindauer, and LeBoeuf. Taylor Larimore and Mel Lindauer are frequent and respected contributors at … [Read the rest]

Calculate Your Exact 2006/2007 Portfolio Rate Of Return

Posted on January 19, 2007 // 13 Comments

I sensed that people weren't quite satisfied with my Rate of Return Estimation Calculator. After wasting lots of time trying to program the internal-rate-of-return (IRR) function myself, I realized I could simply embed an online spreadsheet. Ain't … [Read the rest]

Model Portfolio #1: Couch Potato Portfolio

Posted on January 19, 2007 // 14 Comments

(This is the first in my series of Model Portfolio Comparisons.) The Couch Potato Portfolio is the invention of Scott Burns, a personal finance columnist at the Dallas Morning News. Originally, the portfolio consisted of just two funds - the … [Read the rest]

Model Retirement/Investment Portfolios: A Comparison

Posted on January 19, 2007 // 30 Comments

In my rough guide to investing, I suggested some all-in-one mutual funds for beginners. But what if you want to go a step further and design your own portfolio? Or you have a 401k with only limited choices? Of course, the best answer is always … [Read the rest]

Subscribe To My Money Blog

Posted on January 17, 2007 //

If you find this blog useful, I cordially invite you to subscribe to my content feed and get new entries sent directly to your e-mail address or RSS reader. Click here for all the subscription options. It's easy and takes just a few seconds. (It … [Read the rest]

Links: Tax Liens, Budgeting, Diamonds, Time, and Carnivals

Posted on January 17, 2007 // 7 Comments

Here are some posts from other bloggers that caught my eye: Guzzo the Contrarian writes about Arizona tax lien certificates. I remember these being vaguely mentioned as superior to bank CDs in the Rich Dad, Poor Dad book series. I'm sure these … [Read the rest]

Bikini Girls + Waterfalls + 90s Real Estate Guru = Tom Vu

Posted on January 16, 2007 // 22 Comments

Thanks to reader Heather, I have a new favorite real estate guru: Tom Vu. I guess I was too young to know about this guy when he was in his prime. His bluntness and blatant disrespect for our intelligence is so refreshing. You simply must watch. … [Read the rest]