Which Is Better – Spending Less or Earning More?

 
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short term savings, emergency fund, savings goals, piggy bank

We all have financial goals that we want to achieve. Some want to retire early, buy a house or send their kids to college. Others just want to get out from a mountain of debt and start building positive net worth. Nearly everyone who’s ever read an article on personal finance can tell you to spend less than you earn. While that’s great advice, and following it will put you on solid financial footing, we need to go a step beyond to start making progress towards our goals. It’s this next step where the finance blogosphere starts to diverge into two main camps. The first is the camp that focuses on cutting any and all unnecessary spending out of your life in order to free up more cash to meet your goals with. The second camp focuses on maximizing your earning potential, because the more money you make, the more … Continue reading →

Are Successful Women Relationship Killers?

 
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wedding-rings

Whether we like to admit it or not, money plays a huge role in our relationships. Not that long ago I posted “8 Questions About Money and Relationships“. The focus of that post was mainly on actually discussing money within a relationship and how differing financial views or a partner struggling with debt could impact the future of that relationship. A number of readers chimed in with their own thoughts, and the consensus seemed to be that for a relationship to be successful both parties involved needed to be somewhat on the same page financially. While most people said debt wasn’t a deal breaker, I don’t think there was a single respondent who said they would help pay off someone elses debt if they were only dating. One thing that post didn’t touch on was income. Guys, would you still feel like a “real man” if the woman in your … Continue reading →

May 2013 Portfolio Review

 
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http://thefirstmillionisthehardest.net

“Sell in May and go away.” You’ve no doubt heard this pearl of Wall St. “wisdom”. It advises the investor to sell off his or her holdings during the month of May and stay away from the stock market until the fall.  The phrase originated way back in the day when activity in the market would dry up due to traders being on vacation and other very scientific events. Wall Street has a thousand fun little phrases like this that try to summarize investing strategy into a memorable little quip. “Don’t catch a falling knife” , “Buy Low, Sell High” , “Buy the rumor, sell the news” , “Wait 30 minutes to swim after eating”…wait, that last one is something else… Anyway, the point is there are a ton of clichés that get passed around all the time, but the vast majority of them should be ignored just like all … Continue reading →

Taking Profits In A Bull Market

 
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bear-market

Today’s post comes courtesy of Troy at The Financial Economist:  As you probably know, Jay recently wrote a post about the wild bull market we’ve been experiencing lately. In response to this, I figured I’d write a guest post about taking profits in this bull market, since (if you’ve read my blog) I’m rather bearish on this bull market. The reason for my bearishness is rather simple – I think that this stock market is way overbought, thanks to the Federal Reserve’s crazed stock manipulation. The economic news is terrible, corporate earnings have all missed revenue expectations, yet the stock market is on a tear. Does that make any sense? Absolutely not! However, astute investors have said that “the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent”. Thus, I am not going to short stocks now. I’m too young to die. For investors that still hold stock positions, here are 3 … Continue reading →

How To Invest In A Bull Market

 
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asset-allocation-post

If you happened to be living underneath a rock or doing research in Antarctica for the past year or so, you may have missed an important development in the stock market…we are in a red-hot bull market. The S&P 500 has more than doubled from its recession lows, housing prices are rising fast and unemployment is slowly, but steadily dropping. The good times are here again! If you’re relatively young, or just happen to be a new investor all this positivity probably feels pretty strange…“You mean, my investment balances can actually go..up?!” I admit, it’s a bit strange for me as well. I started with my first job in 2007, just months before the bottom fell out of the economy. For the majority of my investing “career” all I’ve known is doom and gloom. In all actuality, investing in a down market is pretty easy. If you stayed calm and rational … Continue reading →

How To Invest Without A Lot Of Money

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investing without a lot of money, how to invest $100, where to invest $1000, investing cheap

“It takes money to make money.” You’ve no doubt heard that phrase thrown around before. It’s a phrase that unfortunately stops people from investing before they even start. The idea that you need to have a lot of money before you’re able to invest (and make more) is all too common, and it’s simply not true.  Years ago when you needed a financial advisor at a big brokerage firm, and you had to pay them insane commissions in order to trade this may have been true. But now, the internet is your savior! You don’t need a financial advisor at all! Thanks to the internet, it doesn’t matter if you have $100, $1000, or $10,000. You can invest and get your money working for you no matter who you are. A couple of assumptions before we continue with this post…I’m assuming that A) you don’t have a mountain of debt hanging over … Continue reading →