Investing in the global stock market
Sunday January 22nd 2012, 12:04 pm
Filed under: financial

I want to invest in a global capitalization weighted free float stock market index. Below I explain what I mean, who provides such indexes and how I would build such an index using just two funds.
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Where to stash emergency cash?
Sunday November 27th 2011, 7:53 pm
Filed under: financial

In this article I explore the options for places to stick my emergency cash. This is cash I need in case things go ’bad’ for us. So my primary concern is safety. Below I walk through the options and discuss how I handled things. Since I am not a financial expert and don’t play one on T.V. your mileage may vary.
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To rent or buy a house?
Wednesday November 09th 2011, 11:22 am
Filed under: financial

Should we rent or buy a house? A fairly quick and easy rule of thumb is (Price of a new home)/(monthly rent for equivalent home*12). As Dean Baker argues if the result is 15 or below then it makes financial sense to buy, otherwise renting is cheaper. For those who want more control over the calculations see the New York Time’s rent vs buy calculator. My own settings for the calculator are give below.
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Social Security is doing fine
Sunday November 06th 2011, 5:08 pm
Filed under: financial

One of the discussions I have with friends that most seems to confuse them is when I say that Social Security is in great shape. They take it as an article of faith that Social Security is doomed. Now while I’ve long argued that Social Security will end up means tested this isn’t because the system doesn’t work or is running out of money, it’s rather my own belief in how politics will play out in the country. But regardless Social Security is doing fine now and into the foreseeable future. Salon recently had a reasonably simple article that explains why things really are fine and provides links to more in depth information for those who care.



Books I recommend on personal finance
Sunday October 09th 2011, 7:47 pm
Filed under: financial

A friend of mine at work asked me to recommend books he could read on personal finance. I decided to publish my list and reasoning for anyone who is interested. I think the first two contain information that everyone needs to know. The rest adds important details but I think can be read based on interest. (more...)

How much will it cost to send our daughter to college?
Saturday March 20th 2010, 12:00 am
Filed under: financial

The short answer is that we don’t know. And before someone says ”what about the 529 prepaid plans?!?!” (which I will discuss in a future article) please keep in mind that those plans only track instate tuition fees and so don’t cover expenses like room and board, books, etc. So bottom line is - we don’t know, in fact, I would argue, we can’t know. The guiding light of finance being ”the future’s not our’s to see.” So I’m going to guess. My guess, assuming our daughter goes out of state for college in 15 years and attends college for 4 years is that our total bill (tuition, fees, room, board, etc.) at the end of her undergraduate education will be $320,000 in 2010 dollars. Oy. (more...)



Asset Location for College Savings
Saturday March 20th 2010, 12:00 am
Filed under: financial

Asset location is not so much about what investment to buy as where to locate it. A typical asset location problem is - do I put money in a taxable account or a tax exempt account? In the case of saving for college there are at least four different ways to save money for college that have some kind of tax exemption. Below I explore the five options (taxable and various tax exempt ones) that I could find and explain why we settled on using a 529 savings plan. (more...)



Executing Our College Savings Plan
Tuesday September 02nd 2008, 12:00 am
Filed under: financial

Now that we have decided to use CollegeSure CDs to save for our daughter's college the question is – how? The answer turns out to be non-trivial in that we need to figure out how many CDs of what duration at what cost to buy each year between now and when she finishes college. After some experimentation I came up with an approach that seems to provide a reasonable cost and purchase plan. Below I explain how the approach works and provide a calculator that creates a purchase plan using the approach. Please keep in mind however that I'm no financial expert, that the code hasn't been properly tested and that objects may be closer than they appear.

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What to buy in our 529 Plan
Sunday February 03rd 2008, 12:00 am
Filed under: financial

After looking at the various options available in 529 plans from stock mutual funds to bond mutual funds to age appropriate funds and so on the choice for us came down to TIPS mutual funds or CollegeSure CDs. We have decided to use CollegeSure CDs to save for our daughter's education. Yes, they have a horrible return and are quite possibly not FDIC insured (read the fine print) but of all the options this is the one that seems most reasonable.

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Buying Home, Car and (maybe) Umbrella Insurance
Sunday March 18th 2007, 12:00 am
Filed under: financial

Buying a house brings many joys, amongst them is insurance. This is an update to my last article on buying insurance and covers auto, home and umbrella insurance. I explain how I evaluated companies to buy insurance from and how I choose the limits for our insurance policies. In our case we bought everything from Amica. Our total cost savings by going with Amica over staying with Allstate was 17%.

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