Dumping American Century Ultra Mutual Fund – TWCUX
January 18, 2007
I started investing in American Century Ultra in 2003, a year in which it returned around 25% according to Morningstar. I’ve been dollar cost averaging into the fund ever since and am embarrassed to say that I’ve been meaning to get out of it for a while now but have procrastinated for far too long. […]
Learn from Dick and Jane. Don’t Stop Investing, Don’t Be a Dick!
January 4, 2007
The Story Dick invested $2,000 a year from age 25 to 35, then stopped investing. Jane invested $2,000 a year from age 35 to age 65. When looking back at her gains she realized that even though she invested more than Dick and they both earned the same annual investment return of 8%, he ended […]
How to Buy Low, Sell High, and Reduce Risk by Rebalancing Your Investment Portfolio
December 30, 2006
How often do you rebalance your investment portfolio? My trend of rebalancing my 401k in the last days of December ended yesterday. I like to make the changes before the last business day of the year because our 401k administrator only gives us a certain number of free transactions per year. A busy day at […]
Mutual Funds for the New Investor – SLASX, HOLVX, TCEIX, AMAGX
December 23, 2006
Where should you make your first investment when just getting started investing? If you don’t have a lot of money to invest and aren’t sure where to put it, don’t let that stop you from getting started! In the December edition of Smart Money magazine, Reshna Kapadia takes a quick look at four no-load mutual […]
Three Investment Rules I Learned from Texas Hold’em
December 17, 2006
While learning to play Texas Hold’em over the last year I picked up several basic concepts that have held true and helped me improve my game. Three of these concepts can be applied to helping improve your investment returns as well. 1) Know When to Fold’em Sometimes in poker you start out with a promising […]
What is Your 401k Provider Not Telling You?
December 9, 2006
The largest percentage of my family’s portfolio by far is in my 401k plan. So when I ran across “10 Things your 401k Provider Won’t Tell You” in this month’s edition of Smart Money magazine I took notice. Below are the things I took from the article and after each, questions we can ask our […]
Vanguard STAR Mutual Fund (VGSTX) – An Option for the Investing Rookie
December 3, 2006
An article today at The Simple Dollar talked about getting started investing with Vanguard mutual funds. We have our Roth IRA’s in a variety of Vanguard index funds. We chose Vanguard for the same reasons that Trent lists: low expenses, good selection of index funds, and great company reputation. Account Minimums One thing that I […]
Following the Herd in Times of Money Trouble
November 30, 2006
When everyone else is nervous, are you? Herd Mentality Although we pride ourselves on being individuals and unique thinkers, when trouble looms, the herd mentality often kicks in. This can cause us to do crazy things, especially with our money. Storm on the Horizon? Everyone at work was on edge yesterday as the first winter […]
Is Your Investment Portfolio a One Man Team?
November 24, 2006
What would happen to your portfolio if your star player was injured? For some teams the loss of a super star may mean the end of winning season. Just think about how you feel when your team’s all star player doesn’t get up after a nasty collision. You and the rest of the fans hold […]
