When I bought my first home, I was excited to take part in the American Dream. Unfortunately for me, this occurred at the peak of the housing bubble. When I purchased my house, I put 10% as a down payment and financed the rest. I thought I was doing a good thing by at least […]
Articles by Don
Why Do People Invest in Gold?
Posted byGold has plummeted close to 30% in value. Gold was once valued at over $1,700 an ounce but now is sitting at around $1,200 an ounce (as of last week; see the current gold price for today’s gold rate). So what’s the deal with gold? Why do people invest in it and what’s up with […]
Do You Know What ATM Skimming Is?
Posted byPreviously I wrote about identity theft, both ways to protect yourself along with ways to recover from identity theft. Next I’m going to talk about a certain type of identity theft that is growing in popularity all over the United States. It’s called ATM skimming and it is very easy to fall victim to it. […]
Should You Reinvest Dividends?
Posted byEvery quarter some of my stocks pay dividends. Depending on the various mutual funds I own, I receive a dividend from them either quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. I have all of these dividends set to reinvest back into the funds they came from. Why? Because by reinvesting the dividends, I increase the return of those […]
5 Things You Should Always Buy New
Posted byPreviously, I wrote about 7 Things You Should Buy Used to save yourself money. Today, I am going to write about 5 things you should buy new, regardless of the price. We all like to save money, but sometimes, that savings ends up costing us more in the long run. For example, when I first […]
First off, you are probably wondering what the heck the birth rate has to do with personal finance. Surprisingly, more than you would think. The main importance of the birth rate is related to Social Security and Medicare. If we travel back in time when Social Security was originally implemented, there were 5 workers for […]
3 Steps to Successful Investing
Posted byIt’s all over the news about how the stock market is now trading at all-time highs. For many investors, your portfolios should now be worth more than they were back in 2007 before the financial crisis hit. I say should for two reasons, the first being this assumes you actually stayed invested in the market. […]
Is There a Student Loan Crisis?
Posted byDominating the news headlines currently is the topic of student loan debt and a possible student loan crisis. For the first time ever, the total amount of student loan debt has surpassed the $100 billion mark. This is more than consumer credit card debt and is second only to housing debt (mortgages). Many experts are […]
5 Overlooked and Expensive Home Repairs
Posted byBuying a house is for many people the largest purchase we will make in our lives. During the home buying process, many of us get caught up in the excitement and don’t think about all of the increased expenses we will incur as a result of purchasing the home. For me personally, I didn’t realize […]
Just the other day, President Obama released his 2013 budget. I am not going to get into all of the details of the proposal. I am going to focus in on three interesting topics that pertain to retirement savings and my thoughts on them. Please note that there are many other aspects of his plan, […]