The blogging community lost a good soul this past Sunday. His name was Miles Levin. He was six days shy of his 19th birthday. He started blogging in 2005 and talked about his battle with a pediatric cancer called alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a cancer that strangles the muscle tissues. A few months ago, recognizing that death [...]
Asset Allocation in Action–Should a Diversified Portfolio Include a REIT Mutual Fund?
We discussed REITs in the first part of this series. Now let’s look at why you should consider including them in your portfolio. The main benefit of REITs, in my view, is diversity. REITs are one of the few asset classes that are not highly correlated to the S&P 500. That means that the performance [...]
The Best of the Carnival of Personal Finance #114
Trent at The Simple Dollar hosted this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance, 114th Edition. It’s a doozy, with more than 75 articles submitted by PF bloggers. My article on How to Know Instantly You’re Being Conned was included in the carnival. Thanks, Trent! Here are some additional articles I found particularly stimulating: Why You Should [...]
The Greatest Risk to an Investor’s Portfolio is . . .
the investor! With the exception of last Friday, the past few weeks have not been much fun for the equity investor. However, I’ve been alarmed at some PF bloggers and readers who seem to be advocating selling some or all of their investments. Why? Because the mortgage crisis has spooked the market? So what? The [...]
Contracts 101: The Big Words Giveth, and the Small Words Taketh Away
Many years ago I was a buyer for a large pharmaceutical company. My boss had worked at the company for many years, and was a man of great experience. As he taught me to negotiate contracts, he constantly reminded me of this one eternal truth–read the fine print. As he put it, “the big words [...]
I Just-Got-Laid-Off Survival Kit (including how to find $100k+ job opportunities )
If you’re new here, please check out what my site’s about. I also encourage you to get free Dough Roller updates from my RSS feed or via e-mail. Thanks for stopping by! It’s 3 in the afternoon and your boss calls you into her office. You’re being laid off, and it pains her as much [...]
Employee Stock Options: You Got to Knooooow When to Hold’em, (When to Hold’em), Know When to Fold’em (When to Fold’em)
. . .know when to walk away, and know when to run (are you singing along?). Ok, fine. Let’s get to the point. This week I read an interesting article at The Simple Dollar. The question was when an employee should sell his or her stock options. The question was raised by a reader of [...]
Asset Allocation in Action–Value vs. Growth Mutual Funds
I like good values. Whether I’m buying a car, an investment property or a stock mutual fund, the last thing I want to do is overpay. For this reason, my portfolio is value overweighted. By the way, if the term overweighted is new to you, all it means is that the percentage of my portfolio [...]
How To Know Instantly You’re Being Conned–Part 2 (Metro Dream Homes)
This morning I wrote about a real estate deal being offered by Metro Dream Homes. The news came from a Washington Post article by Elizabeth Razzi. Well, she reported again on Metro Dream Homes and its CEO. Apparently, in 2001 Andrew H. Williams consented to a permanent shutdown order for his business due to allegations [...]