Many hotel rewards programs offer free night and upgrade certificates as a perk, and many of them were set to expire on December 31st. However, many programs are offering a courtesy extension and/or points credit. Some may have quietly extended … [Read the rest]
Here's my monthly roundup of the best interest rates on cash as of January 2022, roughly sorted from shortest to longest maturities. Significant changes since last month: 7.12% Savings I Bonds annual purchase limit reset for 2022, new 2% APY LFCU … [Read the rest]
The GMO quarterly letter is on my recurring "must read" list, and the 2021 Q3 letter "Winners, Losers, and the Case for Owning Each" did not disappoint, including some very interesting data for the DIY investor that wants to stay informed. Here are … [Read the rest]
The beginning of the year is a good time to check on the new annual contribution limits to the various available retirement accounts. Our income has been quite variable these last few years, so I regularly adjust the paycheck deferral percentages … [Read the rest]
The Vanguard Target Retirement Funds are one of the largest "set-and-forget" mutual funds that own a mix of stocks and bonds that automatically adjust over time based on your targeted retirement year, with combined assets across the institutional and … [Read the rest]
2021 is finally in the books! Most of my portfolio is in low-cost index funds across various asset classes, which I purposefully ignore most of the time as I believe the proper time horizon is at least several years long. However, I do check in … [Read the rest]
2021 end-of-year update. I have an informal goal each year of earning the equivalent of the maximum annual IRA contribution limit of $6,000 using the profits from various promotions alone. If you had put $6,000 into your IRA every year for the … [Read the rest]
[Programming note: Posting will be light through the end of the year. Hope you have a restful and rejuvenating holiday season!] The WSJ article Anthony Bourdain: Feast of Memory (link should bypass paywall as I am a WSJ subscriber) briefly … [Read the rest]
Here are a few of my favorite things, sorted roughly with the most recent purchases on top. I enjoy reading about other folks' favorite things much more than those generic gift guides. These are my answer to the question "If all your possessions … [Read the rest]
On top of everything else, December and January are busy times for finance as well. There are "year-end moves" like tax-loss harvesting, rebalancing your portfolio, making sure you contributed to your 401k/IRA/HSA/FSAs, and charitable giving. Then … [Read the rest]
Update December 2021: Follow-up that I eventually did receive my 90,000 Drop points (see screenshot) but I did have to contact Drop support and send them a screenshot of my account opening e-mail for proof as it didn't track on its own. Sometime … [Read the rest]
Although you can rebalance the stocks and bonds in your portfolio back towards your target asset allocation at any time, I usually see more articles about it at years-end. This works out well as the evidence doesn't really support doing it more … [Read the rest]
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