Is it August? The days are all melding together in the MMB household. We've also reached the point where anything above 1% APY is worth a second look. Being willing to switch to bank or credit union CDs can still beat out Treasury bonds and/or … [Read the rest]
Free CFA Investment and Portfolio Management Books
Posted on August 10, 2020 // Leave a Comment
The CFA Institute Research Foundation publishes some short finance ebooks on Amazon Kindle that qualify as continuing education credits for Chartered Financial Analysts (CFAs), a type of investment professional certification. The Finance Buff points … [Read the rest]
Online Shopping: Are You Being Tricked By These 15 Dark Patterns?
Posted on August 9, 2020 // 4 Comments
During these stressful times, many of us are doing a lot more shopping online (unfortunately for local retailers). The competition to get you to spend as much as possible has evolved to take full advantage of all of our psychological weaknesses. … [Read the rest]
Google Plus Class Action Settlement: Up to $12 Cash Payment
Posted on August 5, 2020 // Leave a Comment
I received an email that Google settled a class action lawsuit claiming that the now-defunct Google+ social media service exposed your personal data in a harmful manner. You can submit a claim here, where you must attest to all of the … [Read the rest]
Kneading Dough Podcast: Athletes Talk Openly About Money
Posted on August 3, 2020 // Leave a Comment
Another podcast that I discovered late is Kneading Dough, where famous athletes sit down and talk openly about their finances. Created by UNINTERRUPTED (founded by Lebron James and Maverick Carter) and sponsored by Chase, guests over the three … [Read the rest]
Marcus Bank AARP 0.10% APY Rate Boost, CD Special (EXPIRED)
Posted on July 29, 2020 // 4 Comments
Update: As of 2026, the partnership between Marcus and AARP appears to have ended. The information on this post is expired. This is a multi-part deal, but you may already have some of these accounts. Marcus is the online banking arm of … [Read the rest]
Internet Archive / Open Library: Borrow Hard-to-Find Books For 1 Hour
Posted on July 28, 2020 // 3 Comments
The Internet Archive (IA) is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge." They have a lot going on, from the Wayback machine that archives websites (including this one) to old video games to TV shows … [Read the rest]
The Case For Only Looking At Your Portfolio Balance Once A Year
Posted on July 26, 2020 // 3 Comments
There are many excellent insights within Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. A useful everyday tip is that you should accept that you have behavioral biases and that they don't go … [Read the rest]
US Treasury Yields Lowest In The History of the Republic
Posted on July 21, 2020 // 1 Comment
Like many folks, I recently enjoyed the excellent musical Hamilton for the first time on Disney+. I'm a bit embarrassed to say it was also very educational (yes, I know its not 100% historically accurate). I never really thought about how … [Read the rest]
Rational Expectations: Advanced, Specific, Practical Portfolio Advice
Posted on July 21, 2020 // 1 Comment
The fourth and final book in the "Investing for Adults" series by William Bernstein is Rational Expectations: Asset Allocation for Investing Adults. In Book 1: The Ages of the Investor, I learned to take advantage of a lucky streak in stocks and … [Read the rest]
Money in Excel Review – Good For Budget Tracking, Bad For Investments
Posted on July 19, 2020 // 12 Comments
Thanks to generous assistance from a reader, I was able to spend some time poking around the new Money in Excel template for Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscribers. Does it fulfill its promise of helping you "see all your financial accounts … [Read the rest]
NBC’s Peacock TV Streaming Service Has a 100% Free Tier
Posted on July 17, 2020 // 2 Comments
Just a quick note that there is a new streaming service, Peacock by NBC Universal. What makes it different than Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and other services is that it has a 100% free tier (with ads) that includes a lot of decent content including … [Read the rest]
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