As October came to a close, things were still going well with my Lending Club investments. The one loan that has gone bad has stayed bad, but everything else is being paid on time.
Even with that delinquency, however, my “High Risk” portfolio is back in the black, as I’ve earned more than enough in interest [...]

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This is just a quick note to say the new Series I U.S. Savings Bond interest rates have been released. I haven’t written much (anything?) about savings bonds in the past, but I’m planning on changing that in the near future.
In the mean time, I’ll just say this… The interest rate on Series I bonds [...]

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Are you in the market for a discount broker? If so, you might want to check out OptionsHouse. They’re currently offering 100 free trades for new customers.
Here’s the scoop:
New customers are eligible for this special offer after opening a new OptionsHouse account with a minimum of $3,000. You must apply for the commission-free trade offer [...]

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Interest rates are very, very low right now. On top of that, the first “rung” on our CD ladder is coming up for renewal next week. We should be rolling that money into a new five year CD, but is that a good idea given current CD rates?
When we first started our CD ladder (Novemeber [...]

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Taxes are a huge consideration when planning for retirement. As you’re building up your nest egg, one of the big decisions that you’ll face is whether you should put your money in a traditional, tax-deferred account or a Roth-style account.
Of course, we don’t all face this dilemma. After all, access to Roth IRA accounts is [...]

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A common criticism of mutual funds is that many fund families have a relatively high minimum investment, often in the $1000-$3000 range. Thus, it can be difficult for someone who is just starting out to build a diversified mutual fund portfolio.
While it’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of The Vanguard Group, I thought [...]

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The topic of safe withdrawal rates is critically important to retirees. Earlier this week we talked about retirement withdrawal strategies, but that was a discussion of how to access your money rather than how much money you can safely distribute per year.
What’s a “safe” withdrawal rate?
While there are no easy answers, the stakes couldn’t be [...]

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Not quite a year ago, we started building a CD ladder. We’re building a five year ladder, and that first rung is nearly up for renewal. I’ve thus been looking around for the best CD rates.
In doing so, I ran across the ten day CD rate guarantee at Ally Bank. In short, if you open [...]

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The latest issue of Time Magazine featured an article that was very critical of the 401(k) system. In it, they argued that “the 401(k) is a lousy idea, a financial flop, a rotten repository for our retirement reserves.”
Why all the hate?
So just what is it that Time hates about 401(k) plans? For starters, 401(k) plans [...]

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In honor of National Save for Retirement Week, I wanted to take a minute to point out some excellent books about investing. Truth be told, I thoroughly enjoy reading about money and finance, but I’m a bit of a freak when it comes to these things.
With that in mind, here are three great books that [...]

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