Inflation affects us every day. Rising food prices, higher gas prices, and higher clothing costs are just a few of the examples of inflation. It’s easy to see these examples because we deal with them in the day to day. The effect inflation has on our investments is another story. While you look at your […]
11 Reasons Why Investors Fail
Posted byInvesting is supposed to be easy; you take an amount of money, invest it in the market, and let it grow in value over time. If it is so easy, then why do so many people fail at it? Here are 11 reasons why investors fail. Hopefully you aren’t committing all of these mistakes. If […]
Are Morningstar Ratings Trustworthy?
Posted byBefore investing in mutual funds, many investors inquire about the Morningstar rating, or star rating of a particular fund. If it has a high rating, they assume that it is a good fund to invest in. But is it? Just because someone else thinks a mutual fund is good to invest in doesn’t necessarily mean […]
I read an email from a long time reader, Gerald, here at My Dollar Plan on two posts that were recently published. They are Why You Aren’t Earning What Your Mutual Fund Says You Are, in which I wrote that the average investor earns a much lower return than the market due to the fact […]
Asset Allocation Update
Posted byIs it time to update your asset allocation? I just finished updating our asset allocation and rebalancing our portfolio. Let’s dig right in and see what it looks like right now. Asset Allocation Highlights My portfolio is built around the following asset allocation goals: Stock/Bond Allocation: My updated stock/bond split is now 70/30. We were […]
Meet the new writers! Over the next two weeks, you’ll get to meet all of our new writers. Our first writer this week is Don. Don writes about personal finance topics that include investing, saving, debt, the economy, and retirement. You can read more about Don in his bio. Welcome Don! Like most investors, you […]
Betterment Review and $25 Sign Up Bonus
Posted byEveryone knows I’m the first to sign up for a new account if there’s a sign up bonus. So when Betterment showed up, of course I opened an account for the free $25! But beyond the sign up bonus, what exactly is Betterment and how does it work? Here are my thoughts after opening my […]
Sharebuilder is giving out bonuses again! You can earn $50 from Sharebuilder, and the good news is that you can take advantage of the bonuses even if you already have an existing account, a rare free money deal! Free Money week continues with the Sharebuilder bonus. In case you didn’t get the email from Sharebuilder […]
TradeMonster Review
Posted byAs you know, we’re big fans of a total market approach to investing and tend to use index funds rather than trading actively. However, we also like ETFs as part of our overall portfolio. Since ETFs are traded on the stock market daily, a low-cost brokerage like tradeMONSTER can be a great way to include […]
OptionsHouse Review
Posted bySince we looked at that great Dell offer from OptionsHouse (remember, it expires July 31, 2011!), it makes sense to take a look at all that OptionsHouse has to offer as a brokerage. Their rock-bottom prices and low account minimums make them a great choice for the casual investor while their sophisticated platform will appeal […]