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From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogDecember 18, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
In Using Simple Rules to Predict your Retirement Needs, I passively mentioned using 80% rule to calculate retirement needs. You may have heard this rule before; here is a variation of it:
“You need 80% of your pre-retirement income during your retirement.”
A Bit of Reality
Now, that statement is just a rule of thumb and is hardly accurate. Let’s add a bit of reality to the rule:
Use Expenses Not Income
Income is hardly a predictor of need. There are people who make much more than what they need. For instance, I doubt Bill Gate need 80% of his gazillion ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogDecember 18, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
In Using Simple Rules to Predict your Retirement Needs, I passively mentioned using 80% rule to calculate retirement needs. You may have heard this rule before; here is a variation of it:
“You need 80% of your pre-retirement income during your retirement.”
A Bit of Reality
Now, that statement is just a rule of thumb and is hardly accurate. Let’s add a bit of reality to the rule:
Use Expenses Not Income
Income is not a good predictor of financial need. There are people who make much more than what they need. For instance, I doubt Bill Gate need 80% of ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogDecember 17, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
What prompted me to write this post is shown in the image below — my wife just got a $26.20 “Big Fat Check” from Ebates. My sister told me about this a few times before, but I didn’t pay any attention…until my wife tried it and got the check.
I am probably a bit late for the shopping season, but here are some money saving tips for online shopping:
Discounts and Rebates
Ebates — Get $5 bonus for signing up an account. Sign-in to Ebates, shop at over 800 merchant partners, and every 3 months they will cut you a “Big ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogDecember 17, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
What prompted me to write this post is shown in the image below — my wife just got a $26.20 “Big Fat Check” from Ebates. My sister told me about this a few times before, but I didn’t pay any attention…until my wife tried it and got the check.
I am probably a bit late for the shopping season, but here are some money saving tips for online shopping:
Discounts and Rebates
Ebates — Get $5 bonus for signing up an account. Sign-in to Ebates, shop at over 800 merchant partners, and every 3 months they will cut you a “Big ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogDecember 15, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
About the Author: This is a guest post by Patrick from Cash Money Life. This article is the 6th Day of Christmas — Personal Finance Style. Several personal finance bloggers have banded together to write a series of personal finance articles based on “The 12 Days of Christmas” theme. At the bottom of this article is a link to the rest of these articles.
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On the 6th Day of Christmas (Personal Finance Style), my true love gave to me… 6 Streams of Income.
Photo by Glenn via Flickr
According to the song lyrics, the 6th Day of Christmas is “Six Geese ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogDecember 14, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
This is my guest post that appeared on BeingFrugal.net on September 20, 2007.
In “The true earning power and the real cost of luxuries,” I discussed the concept of true earning power. If the thought of making only $3.85 from a $30 per hour wage does not motivate you to be more frugal, here are 10 questions that you can use to enhance your frugality:
Photo from stock.xchng
Do I really need this, or do I just want this?
Is there a cheaper alternative that works just as well?
Can I buy this used from somewhere else instead?
Is the one I already have still ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogDecember 13, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
About the Author: Paidtwice blogs about frugality, budgeting, and her family’s journey out of significant debt at I’ve Paid For This Twice Already. If you enjoyed this post, give her RSS feed a try!
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As his readers most likely know, Pinyo and his wife are expecting a baby. In fact, why you’re seeing this post I wrote for Pinyo is most likely because they’ve had the baby and are off in the hospital or at home enjoying their new little bundle of joy. Having had two babies of my own, I’ve picked up a few ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogDecember 12, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
This is my guest post that appeared on Get Rich Slowly on September 26, 2007.
I’ve been investing since 1996. In the process, I have learned a lot, mainly from trial and error. I’d like to share my experience with you. Here are some of the mistakes I’ve made:
Not investing soon enough — I have been working part-time since my first year at college in 1991. If I had known what I know today, I would have invested my money in an IRA from day one. But like many other young adults, I was thrilled to have money and ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogDecember 11, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
One of my key believe about building wealth is (1) never stop experimenting, and (2) always look for way to build, diversify, and shift my income streams toward passive sources. So I got interested when Prosper became an advertiser on my blog — thank god for the blog, because I wouldn’t have known about Prosper without it.
Signing up to Lend
So I signed up to become a lender around the end of November. The process was easy:
Join Prosper: This is similar to joining most sites. I just give them my username and password, along with some ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogDecember 10, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
This is the inaugural issue of the Ask The Expert column by Larry Swedroe. You can see Larry’s full biography and important disclaimer below. If you are interested in having your question answered by Larry, please send me an email via the contact page.
Now, let’s get to the questions and answers (please note that the emphases and links are mine).
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1. Is there a limit to how much you can contribute to a ROTH 401k? And is it wise to split your investment contributions between a traditional and a ROTH 401k?
From Erin @ Working For Financial ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogDecember 7, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
In “Using Pareto Principle to Improve Personal Finance” post, I demonstrated how we could use the Pareto principal to focus our limited resources on the things that will give us the most benefits. Raymond from Money Blue Book commented:
“Interesting concept…so is it suggesting that I would be better of not trying to save money giving up drinking Caribou Coffee and bottled water and instead focus on big ticket items like rent and car payments?”
That was a great question! In this post, I want to share another quality improvement concept called Quick Wins (also known as Quick ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogDecember 6, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
In prior posts, I shared some financial math tricks and demonstrated a quick way to calculate your retirement needs. Now I am going to put the two together and use these rules, along with some historical inflation data, to give you a quick estimate of annual income needed for a comfy retirement.
Historical inflation data from InflationData.com
The graph above shows historical inflation rate from 1913 to 2006. Here are some quick factoids:
From 1913 to 2006 U.S. inflation rate averaged 3.4%
From 1996 to 2006 U.S. inflation rate averaged 2.5%, slightly lower than the longer term average
10 consecutive years with ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogDecember 5, 2020 at 7:37 pm ET
I thought it was a lot of work when I hosted the Carnival of Personal Finance (CoPF), so I was amazed when Patrick hosted the CoPF and launched the 1st edition of his own carnival in the very same week! If you want to get a sneak peek at personal finance bloggers’ 2008 goals, please visit the 1st Carnival of Financial Goals at Cash Money Life.
Here are my articles that appear at Cash Money Life this wee:
My 2008 Financial Resolution and a Chance to Win an iPod!
Transforming Goals Into Actions
Using Pareto Principle to Improve Personal Finance
Here are my ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogDecember 5, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
I think many of us have heard about income streams, active income, passive income, and portfolio income before (if not, I have brief description below). I like to share some quick observations about active versus passive income as it relates to financial independence and wealth.
The image above is a simplification that shows active income on one end, and passive (and portfolio) income on another. The key differentiator is how much of your time and energy is required to generate the income:
active income generation requires a lot of your time and energy, whereas
passive income generation can persist for ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogDecember 4, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
In “7 Costly Retirement Savings Mistakes to Avoid,” I had mentioned that waiting too long is the number one mistake. I am afraid I didn’t demonstrate it well, so here is a different look at the concept.
Assume that in each scenario, the investment grows at 10% per year*.
* Based on historical data, investment gain averaging 10% per year is feasible.
Investor A started saving and investing $4,000 per year when he was 25 years old. By the time he was 35 years old, he had already saved $82,000. When he is ready to retire at the age ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogDecember 3, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
Welcome to the Investors Blog Network (IBN) Festival #18. This carnival is a bi-weekly collection of commentary on personal finance, investing, and other business related topics. Articles are collected from member blogs of the Investors Blog Network (IBN).
Photo by Ken Kiser via morgueFile
Editor’s Top 5 Picks
A Great Way to Change Your Portfolio @ Free Money Finance — Excellent idea to rebalance your portfolio without incurring any capital gains tax, and getting tax deduction instead.
8 Reasons Why the Dollar Will Continue to Fall @ Invest with Dax — Great post about the weakening Dollar and 8 reasons why it will ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogDecember 2, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
On November 15th, I announced that I was holding a contest to give away Wise Investing Made Simple to 5 lucky winners. There were 20 submissions in total, so the odd of winning was really good at 1:4. To pick the winners, I used the random number generator found at Psychic Science. Don’t ask me why, it turns out to be one of the most practical one to use, so I used it.
According to the participants list below, the winners are:
Being Frugal (#2)
Smart Healthy Rich (#4)
Credit Withdrawal (#5)
The Dividend Guy (#12)
Remodeling This Life (#19)
Congratulation, and thank you for ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogDecember 1, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
November was a very volatile month for the stock market with pressure from the oil price, sub prime mortgages, and foreclosure problems. The negativity was further fueled by bad news from companies like Citigroup and E*Trade. As a result, the S&P 500 index dropped -4.40% from 1,549.38 to 1,481.14.
According to NetworthIQ, my net worth declined by -0.39%, and my liquid assets went down by -2.76% from 24.31% to 23.64% of $1 million goal.
Financial highlights:
We are now a single income family, since my wife stopped working to get ready for childbirth.
We continue to add $425 a month to our ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogNovember 29, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
Cash Money Life is running a contest Share Your 2008 Financial Resolution for a Chance to Win an iPod! that will end December 4th at 11:59 PM, Eastern Daylight Saving Time. I never own an iPod before, so I am going to give this a try.
My best friend and his wife recently bought me the An Inconvenient Truth DVD and book by Al Gore for my birthday. I haven’t finished the book yet, but I love the DVD. So, I am going to kill two birds with one stone and make this 2008 financial resolution about saving money and the ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogNovember 28, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
1. You owe money on 4 credit cards. Oh, oh!
Note: The 1st number is the balance, 2nd number is the credit limit, and 3rd number is the interest rate
2. Call for lower interest and “no fee 0% APR” transfer
Call each company and ask for a lower interest rate; also check if they will offer you a “no fee 0% APR” transfer*. If the first rep won’t budge, hang up and call again. There are good reps and bad reps, you don’t want to waste time with the bad ones.
If a company gives you a better offer, feel ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogNovember 27, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80-20 rule or the law of the vital few, is an observation that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. I often use the Pareto Principle in my job, especially when we work on quality or process improvement projects. A nice thing about Pareto is that we can apply it to almost anything. Today, I will demonstrate how to use the Pareto Principle to improve our finances.
The graph above shows my semi-accurate household expenses in percentages based on the way I categorized them. If you are disciplined ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogNovember 26, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
I have to admit that when I first start this blog, I didn’t have a solid goal. The truth is that I had just finished reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and felt motivated to improve my finances. I used to have a meta-blog (blog about blogging) and recognize how proficient I became with that subject. I thought it was a good idea to start a blog about personal finance to hone my money skills. I also knew that I can make decent money selling advertisement on my blog, and if I do it right, the blog ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogNovember 25, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
Ever since Prosper signed up as an advertiser on Moolanomy, I have been thinking about lending out money on Prosper as a way to build alternative income. Looking around the web, this seems to be a legitimate way of growing my money without relying on the stock market. Here are some excerpts from other web sites:
Lazy Man and Money has a Prosper.com account that is worth over $9,800, and he continues to reinvest payments from other loans into it.
I Will Teach You To Be Rich suggested Prosper to his friend.
Blunt Money also recently took the plunge and signed ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogNovember 23, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
A while ago Brip Blap started a Public Declaration Meme, and challenged a few friends to declare something publicly — great for accountability by the way! In this post, I commit publicly to…
…hug my parents every day…
Photo of Pinyo and nephew by his wife
When we were babies, our parents held us and nurtured us — pretty much the same way I held my nephew in the photo. As we grow older things change at a different pace for each of us. Some remain very close to their parents, and they never lose that childhood intimacy. ... ( more)
From Moolanomy - view blog entries - visit this blogNovember 21, 2020 at 9:00 am ET
First, I want to declare that I know little about world economy, but I am intrigued by it. I am writing this in hope that you (my readers) can pitch in with your thoughts on this. So let’s get started… Last week, I asked my readers What’s Wrong with this 401k Asset Allocation? In the post, SJean commented that “25% international is risky” — a sentiment that is shared by a few other commenters. So the question I want to ask today is:
How much should we invest internationally?
Photo from NASA
A quick search landed me ... ( more)
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