I frequently visit my Vanguard account dashboard on the Vanguard website and study the progress of my portfolio. The dashboard includes a tool that specifically tracks the portfolio’s performance. On it, a…
Category: Money & Investing
Day 243: New Market Highs in 2023?
Today, the S&P 500 closed at 4,027.81, up 1.42%. It last reached a high of 4,796.56 on January 3, 2022. By my calculation, that was 451 days ago. It has not returned…
Day 234: Reward’s Evil Twin Brother
So here we are in late March 2023. After a rough 2022 for the stock market, market shakiness continues, despite an upswing to start out the year. The ever-present volatility continues to…
Day 229: Compounding, You Either Get It Or You Don’t
The magic of compounding is truly a remarkable thing. It is the idea that money invested can generate more and more money that eventually can snowball into impressive amounts (side note: here’s…
Day 216: Keep Saving!
I read this article today stating that half of Americans nearing retirement (ages 55-66) have no retirement savings. I have heard these sorts of things before. Each time I hear about people…
Day 210: Play “Money Defense!”
They say the best offense is a good defense. When it comes to money management, I couldn’t agree more. In this area, playing defense is where I seem to shine. Before I…
Day 203: The Mantra of Empowered Frugality
I admit that I am a frugal guy. In 2015, I discovered a blogger named Mr. Money Mustache, whose financial blog changed my world (and the world of many, many other people)….
Day 198: Personal Finance Books I Read Again and Again
Okay, first let’s deal with the pink elephant in the metaphorical room. Any blog post with the words “personal finance books” and “read again and again” in the title belongs screams personal finance…
Day 190: Reflections on the Madoff Tragedy
I just watched, “Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street,” a documentary on Netflix. Many times I had heard the basics of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, which robbed innocent people of billions of…
Day 188: Malkiel’s Introduction to Treacherous Derivatives
So I finished “A Random Walk Down Wall Street.” I am quite appreciative of this book. Yet I admit it surprises me a little bit that the father of the index fund…