When it comes to your money, you want to get good advice. The problem is that it’s very hard to know if you’re getting good advice, or whether you’re being scammed. For my part, I’ve built my portfolio by myself and I started when I was a young adult. All told, it took me more […]
There’s no doubt about it. We’re in a period of volatility in the stock market. For the first time, in a long time, there’s been a run of “down” days. The stock market has been in the red and the market has closed lower than the day before. I do not claim to be any […]
One of the eternal questions that’s raised in the personal finance world is whether one should be investing or paying of a mortgage. I made my choice 15 years ago. In hindsight, my choice could qualify as a mistake but, if so, it’s not the worst one I’ve ever made. As I’ve said before, personal […]
HELOC is an acronym that stands for home equity line of credit. It is a way for homeowners to access the equity in their homes without actually selling the home. Banks love these kinds of loans because they are secured by the property. For this reason, HELOCs are risky – they put your shelter at […]
With age comes wisdom…or so they say. Speaking from personal experience, I can say that my wisdom is arriving in dribs and drabs. For their part, the birthdays arrive at a seemingly more frequent pace. I’ve made plenty of money mistakes, but I’ve finally learned to go beyond the letter “A”. Blue Lobster, what the […]
As I’ve said before, you need not make every mistake yourself. You can learn from the mistakes of others and make better choices for yourself. Luckily for you, my hindsight is 20/20. If you’re facing the choice between paying off your debt or investing your money for growth, perhaps my experience can offer you some […]
Being bright isn’t a requirement to being successful with personal finance and investing. I speak from personal experience as I don’t consider myself to be overly bright. There are many people in my circle who are much smarter than me and who learn things much faster than I do. Their net worths are not necessarily […]
As hard as it may be to believe, the holidays are only a few weeks away. Thanksgiving will be here in another couple of weeks. (Or in November if you’re in the USA.) Then it’s another few short weeks until we celebrate Christmas, or Hannukkah, or Kwaanza, or Festivus. While the holidays will be different […]
The management expense ratio (MER) is the percentage of your portfolio that you pay to the company that sells you the index fund, exchange traded fund (ETF) or mutual fund that you hold in your portfolio. The fees for these products must be disclosed to potential buyers. Thanks to the wonder that is the internet, […]
Not a single one among us is born knowing how to use money perfectly. Our skill with money comes from making mistakes and learning from them. For my part, I’ve made several notable mistakes with money over the years. I’ve written before about how I failed to take action with my investment plan for 5 […]