I wrote about getting a new Amex card a while ago in this post which I got to shore up some points for a for my future travel plans. I’ve been using the card exclusively and met the spending goals easily but I am now rotating my cards for cash back. I have a system…
Category: Money Management
The Fed Cuts 50 Basis Points – My Bonds Are Up
The Fed announced a 50 basis point cut yesterday in the central bank interest rate which means the good days of high yield savings and bond rates may be coming to an end but it’s not all bad news. Bonds As bond yields go down, bond prices go up which means that most of my…
Do You Use Inflation Reports To Your Advantage?
The BLS released their latest inflation reports this week for CPI and PPI and I have been looking over the data. Yahoo Finance has a nice chart here that shows where the most deflation has occurred over the past month. Two things have caught my attention. FOOD According to the Consumer Price Inflation report food…
Incredible Streaming Services Inflation
As part of a potential recession coming up, I wrote this post about a year ago where I talked about rationalizing streaming services. I still think a recession is likely into 2025 but I was able to get some good deals on streaming services. In one instance, I got Hulu (with ads) for $0.99/month for…
European Vacation Cost $23,000
My wife and I went on a European vacation for August. We visited three countries by plane, train, automobile and ship. I haven’t actually added up all the cost of the trip and I probably won’t do it but a good estimate for business class flights from the U.S. to our first stop, hotels, cruise…
An Unexpected Financial Tool
My family and I have been planning our summer vacation that involves visiting three countries in Europe with family members that live in different places. Initially we were having trouble coordinating all the activities day by day until I came across this video. My family and I started using Monday.com to plan our travel and…
Are You Prepared For A Lost Decade?
The stock market has been on a seemingly never ending tear. It’s given people a sense that nothing can go wrong and the market will always go up but there is a precedent for a potential lost decade. From 2000 to 2009, the S&P 500 (via SPY) returned -39.53% and while after 2009 things lost…
Morgan Stanley Nightmare
I have some shares that are vesting soon and I wanted to find out the vesting schedule and plan for a sale of company shares. My company has switched from provider to provider and the latest one is Morgan Stanley. It should be straight forward enough to log on to Morgan Stanley, check my shares,…
Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA)
Do you remember a company named Enron? This happened in 2001 and most people have probably forgotten about it but many people lost their life savings because they were invested in the company’s stock and had little other options on where to invest their money. One of the key things that happened as a result…
Inflation At Home May 2024
The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases their Consumer Price Index report monthly and the one for May came out this week. It’s one of the few government statistics report that I actually look at to see trends and do personal finance forecasting. So what’s happening with inflation? Household Insurance Home owners (and renters) insurance continues…