From the category archives:

Investing for beginners

All about Online investing for beginners (or offline for that matter). Articles for beginners about investing in stocks, mutual funds, index funds, real estate, or any other forms of investing.

401k Fees – See What You Are Really Paying

by Bob 01.24.2010

One of the biggest downsides of the 401k is that there are so many people who need to get paid in order for the whole process to work. So with the administrators, fund managers, brokers, etc all needing to charge fees for their work, it can really cut into the investors’ earnings. To add to it, the fees you pay on your 401k kind of work in an “out of sight, out of mind” type of way. You don’t get billed for your fees, rather they are conveniently taken out without you really even knowing about it. Sure, if you do some digging you can find out a bit about what you are paying, but it is all pretty ambiguous to the average 401k account holder.

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Five Reasons to Stop Contributing Toward Retirement

by Craig 01.22.2010

When it comes to retirement most financial gurus emphasize one thing – save as much as you can as early as you can. They’ll tell you to put as much money as you can in the IRA, 401k, or other retirement savings vehicle. The classic advice is to save as much as you can as soon as you can. Yes, of course that is awesome financial advice. Advice that I completely agree with. Nevertheless, you might be in a situation where you think it might be wise to stop contributing to retirement, but you are finding it difficult to get any feedback on the implications of that decision…

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Making money buying and selling cars

by Bob 01.09.2010

Everyone knows that cars are almost always a depreciating asset. You pay $20,000 for it and drive off the lot and it is worth $18,000. A year later it’s worth $14,500, and a few years later it’s worth $3500. This is the common story for most cars. And with the American obsession to spend so much of our income on our transportation, I am convinced that cars greatly affect our financial freedom. So with so many people losing money on their car purchases, how could you possible make money with cars?

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Full of Bull | Review

by Guest 12.27.2009

Since I like learning about stock investing, I was very excited to go through Full of Bull in the hopes of learning more about investing. However, after reading the book, I felt that except for a couple of chapters, the book was a bit of a disappointment. Reason? The central idea of the book is that ordinary, individual (retail) investors should be careful about the analyst buy/sell recommendations and not take the Wall Street literally. Despite being a relatively thin book (with 196 pages devoted to the main content), the author keeps repeating this theme throughout the book without going too much into how individual investors can better analyze the stocks…

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Build Your Own Mutual Fund | Review

by Guest 12.05.2009

I read Build Your Own Mutual Fund: How to Use a Personal Portfolio to Take Control of Your Financial Life by Brian O’Connell. Before this book I knew close to nothing about the stock market so this is my first book on my journey on how to buy stocks. The premise of the book is that more and more people are creating their own personal portfolios instead of having a mutual fund because of the internet and online companies like FOLIOfn, BuyandHold.com, and Sharebuilder.com; it is becoming easier to do so.

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The New Savage Number | Review

by Guest 11.28.2009

This book is titled after Savage’s famous 2007 book The Savage Number. This updated 296 page book takes the reader through; how much you need for your retirement (what’s your number?), how to invest your assets both prior and during your retirement, how to withdrawal your assets during retirement and how to protect your assets during retirement and eventually upon your death.

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Is the 401k a bad idea?

by Bob 10.27.2009

This week Time Magazine had a thought-provoking article titled Why it’s time to retire the 401(k). The article is pretty long and detailed and as you would expect it points out many of the flaws of the 401(k) and argues that for many people it is doing more harm than good.
History of the 401(k)
The article [...]

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5 small business owner retirement plans

by Jay Peroni 10.26.2009

Many times people come into my office looking for advice on how to appropriately plan their financial future. Asset location is often just as important as asset allocation. While asset allocation looks to spread your assets among many different assets classes, asset location helps you spread your assets among taxable, tax-deferred, and potentially tax-free accounts. Many who are employed by a corporation have retirement planning options at work, but what about the business owner? How do you choose the best location for your assets and that of your employees?

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Basics of stock market investing: 3 traps to avoid

by Jay Peroni 10.03.2009

When you buy low and sell high, investing is easy!
3 stock market investing traps to avoid
If we all knew the exact time to buy and the exact time to sell we’d all be rich and there’d be no point to talking about investing. Few people, if any can know exactly when to buy or sell [...]

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How to create a tax efficient portfolio of investments

by Jay Peroni 08.27.2009

Everyone wants their investment portfolio to perform well. But it is your after-tax return that really matters. If your portfolio earns you double-digit returns, those returns really aren’t so great if you end up losing 20% or 30% of them to taxes. In periods when the return on your investments is low, tax efficiency takes on even greater importance…

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20 free stock trades from Zecco

by Bob 08.26.2009

Zecco’s 20 free trades promotion… So, they currently have a deal going where you can get 20 free stock trades if you sign up as a new customer. I signed up with them about a year ago…

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Comparing Annuity Features: How to choose the right one

by Guest 08.26.2009

This article has been submitted by the folks at NewRetirement.com, a website dedicated to provide unbiased and comprehensive coverage on retirement financial issues and ensure that retirees save money, increase their income, save their assets, and secure their future.
How to choose the right annuity
Purchasing an annuity can be a great way to guarantee your retirement [...]

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5 reasons mutual funds may be a bad way to invest your money

by Jay Peroni 08.06.2009

…especially retail mutual funds. Retail mutual funds tend to have layers of hidden fees…. Here are 5 reasons why mutual funds may be a bad idea for your family…

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A little about ETFs: 4 reasons you may want one

by Jay Peroni 07.16.2009

If you have heard of ETFs, but aren’t really sure why they may be a good choice for you, check out this article full of valuable information about ETFs…

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