Post tagged with financial

  • Even playing field?

    July 01st, 200909:49 AM ET
    By Mark Biller
    If you read as much financial "stuff" as we do here at SMI, you quickly learn that writers in certain quarters are convinced the financial markets are rigged. Either the government is running the show, or some group of elites, or well, somebody is clearly up to something. While occasionally some good points are raised, the argument tends to get tir...

  • The 'mountain of cash' on the sidelines

    June 17th, 200909:19 AM ET
    By Joseph Slife
    The Los Angeles Times' Money & Co. blog examines whether money sitting on the sidelines in money market funds will flow back into stock funds, helping to fuel an extended bull run. The conventional wisdom, backed by historical research, says it will. In a research report on Monday, Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private ...

  • Boost your savings

    May 28th, 200911:33 AM ET
    By Austin Pryor
    BOOST YOUR SAVINGS BY CHANGING A HABIT There is an aspect to your spending that you may never have thought of (and may not be able to get out of your mind once we put it there). Have you ever stopped to consider the potential "future value" of the money you spend today? That is, if you were to save it rather than spend it, what would it be worth ...

  • Current Market Behavior Typical of Bull Beginnings

    May 04th, 200912:40 PM ET
    By Austin Pryor
    In this look at current market dynamics, Jon Markman does a good job of helping the reader understand why stocks started moving up even before there were signs of an economic turnaround, and why they have continued to do so. After beginning with a sad, but all too common, story about a friend's portfolio, he goes on to explain the current anguish o...

  • Budgeting Basics: Reasons Not To Budget

    April 02nd, 200911:57 AM ET
    By Matthew Pryor
    For some of you, just the mention of the word "budget" made the hair on the back of your neck stand up! If you've resisted the idea of establishing a personal budget in the past, perhaps you're clinging to one or more of these favorite reasons not to budget: • Reason #1: You prefer playing Russian roulette with your bank account. The ...

  • Straight Talk

    April 02nd, 200911:38 AM ET
    By Mark Biller
    The past two weeks have been pretty dramatic. The S&P 500 rallied 23.5% from the low on March 6 through yesterday's close, the biggest 10-day gain since 1938. Uh-oh. Did I say 1938? Because we all know some pretty crazy stuff happened with stocks in the 1930s. Here's the deal, as plainly as I can put it. We all hope the bottom is in on this b...

  • Game changer?

    April 02nd, 200911:25 AM ET
    By Joseph Slife
    While the nation was otherwise occupied with AIG bonuses (and SMI staffers were occupied with completing the April issue), the Fed announced last week that it will "pump an extra $1 trillion into the financial system by purchasing Treasury bonds and mortgage securities" - a plan "that amounts to creating vast new sums of money out of thin air," acc...

  • Money Saving Tips Roundup

    April 02nd, 200911:15 AM ET
    By Matthew Pryor
    Some resources for your money-saving pleasure: Save $50 a Day: This piece in Kiplinger's gives us penny pinchers some advice on saving money in small, painless ways. The money-saving tips are categorized for your convenience.Feedflix.com: Get your money's worth out of your Netflix membership. Create a free account and link it to your existi...

  • Congressional Budget Office takes issue with Obama budget

    April 02nd, 200911:09 AM ET
    By Austin Pryor
    One of the great dangers of President Obama's proposed budget, which he defended again last night in his press conference, is the way it dramatically increases the annual deficits and national debt. In my post from last week, "The Budget that Will Change Your Life," one of the linked articles made the argument that the deficits, as dire as the...

  • Exploding 529 plans

    April 02nd, 200911:04 AM ET
    By Mark Biller
    Last month, we wrote about how many target-date mutual funds failed to protect those with short investing time frames last year. For those assuming they were invested conservatively based on the fact that their target date was only a year or two away, it was a cruel realization indeed to find losses of 20%, 30%, or even more. In a similar vei...
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A blog for people who want to find their purpose in managing and investing their financial resources