I revamped our portfolio this fall with the intent of simplifying it. I settled on the total market approach. My final percentages were a cross between the strategy of the Vanguard Target Retirement funds (specifically the 2045 fund) and Taylor Larimore’s four fund portfolio at the Bogleheads forum consisting of: 

Posted December 31, 2007 in Goals, Intermediate, Investing, Retirement, Savings | 2 Comments »

There’s a lot of discussion around optimizing your debt. Figuring out which order to pay off debt, keeping your emotions in check, minimizing interest, moving money around… the reality is that these aren’t solutions to the debt problem; in fact they are hindering your ability to get out of debt!

Posted December 30, 2007 in Credit cards, Debt, Intermediate | 2 Comments »

Gather Little By Little had the best Christmas ever. We’re also having a great time. We had four family Christmas gatherings and are now spending two weeks down South relaxing. We don’t have anything specific planned which is a great feeling after all the holiday stress. 
My Two Dollars didn’t get a Wii for Christmas. We didn’t either, [...]

Posted December 29, 2007 in Carnivals, Roundups | 5 Comments »

I had my husband call American Express yesterday to get the $689.72 finance charge straightened out on his IN: CHICAGO American Express card. He actually tried to call on Wednesday, but the hold time was over 10 minutes. He waited for a few, then handed me the phone to hold when the doorbell rang. Somehow in [...]

Posted December 28, 2007 in Credit cards, Debt, Organization | 6 Comments »

How exactly do I stay organized with 89 credit accounts, 31 bank accounts, 29 investment accounts and 32 other accounts (not including 14 accounts for the kids and numerous accounts for family members)?
That’s what readers wanted to know when I started to describe some of the details of our accounts. I’ll highlight my various strategies [...]

Posted December 27, 2007 in Advanced, Credit cards, Investing, Organization | 17 Comments »