Tax season is officially here as the IRS has started accepting E-files. For you early birds, Credit Karma Tax is now on its 4th year of offering 100% free Federal AND State tax preparation software with free e-File and no income restrictions. You … [Read the rest]
Credit Karma Tax Review: $0 Federal, $0 State Tax Filing w/ No Last-Minute Charges
January 29, 2020 By 10 Comments
Last updated: January 28, 2020
20% of Gift Cards Are Left Unused After 1 Year. How About Yours?
January 28, 2020 By 5 Comments
It's now been a month since Christmas. Have you spent your gift cards yet? The odds are that you haven't, as only 38% of all gift cards overall have been redeemed after a month. This is from a neat collection of gift card statistics from … [Read the rest]
Last updated: January 27, 2020
Do NOT Buy List: Equity Indexed Universal Life Insurance
January 27, 2020 By 20 Comments
Financial noise is everywhere. I try to be selective and only write about a limited amount of unique, profitable, and actionable information. If I see a bad product, I usually just ignore it and move on. Angry rants are not my thing. However, … [Read the rest]
Last updated: January 26, 2020
Marcus Bank $100 Bonus on $10,000 Deposit (New for 2020)
January 22, 2020 By 12 Comments
Marcus by Goldman Sachs is offering a $100 bonus if you deposit $10,000+ in new funds into their online savings account within 10 days of enrollment at this special offer page. You must enroll by 11:59pm EST on 2/11/20 and maintain the new $10,000+ … [Read the rest]
Last updated: May 30, 2020
How Your Portfolio Accumulation and Withdrawal Years Are Different
January 21, 2020 By 15 Comments
The last 10 years of stock market returns have been pretty remarkable. If you invested $100,000 in the S&P 500 in the year 2000 and held it though the dot-com crash and financial crisis, you would be closing in on $300,000 today. However, if you … [Read the rest]
Last updated: January 18, 2020
H&R Block / TurboTax Desktop 2019 Sales
January 17, 2020 By 11 Comments
The benefit of "old-school" desktop tax software is that it doesn't require your Social Security Number and financial details to be stored in the "cloud", a fancy word for a third-party server where it can be copied or hacked. Amazon and Newegg.com … [Read the rest]
Last updated: January 17, 2020
Best Interest Rates on Cash – January 2020
January 9, 2020 By 4 Comments
Here's my monthly roundup of the best interest rates on cash for January 2020, roughly sorted from shortest to longest maturities. I track these rates because I keep 12 months of expenses as a cash cushion and also invest in longer-term CDs (often … [Read the rest]
Last updated: May 30, 2020
Low Stock Market Return Expectations For The Next Decade (2020-2030)
January 8, 2020 By 1 Comment
We've seen that stock market investors have been rewarded for investing regularly during the last decade. $10,000 invested in the Vanguard Target Retirement 2045 fund in January 2010 would have grown to $25,000 in January 2020. $10,000 invested … [Read the rest]
Last updated: January 8, 2020
What If You Invested $10,000 Every Year For the Last 10 Years? 2010-2019
January 6, 2020 By 2 Comments
Now that you're done reading articles about what happened in 2019, how about stepping back and taking in the longer view? Most successful savers invest money each year over a long period of time, these days often into a target-date fund (TDF). It … [Read the rest]
Last updated: January 6, 2020
SECURE Act Highlights: Summary of Retirement Plan Changes
January 5, 2020 By 8 Comments
I try to ignore talk about pending legislation, but the SECURE Act (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act) has now been passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump. Portions are effective as of January 1st, 2020. … [Read the rest]
Last updated: January 5, 2020
Citi® Diamond Preferred® Card: 0% Intro APR for 21 months on Balance Transfers
January 2, 2020 By Leave a Comment
One of the most common resolutions is to pay down debt. Rewards-earning credit cards may not be optimal for those carrying balances and thus more impacted by 18% interest rates than a relatively puny 2% back on purchases. Consider the Citi® Diamond … [Read the rest]
Last updated: May 9, 2023
Major Asset Class Returns, 2019 Year-End Review
January 1, 2020 By 8 Comments
I used to add up my net worth every month (if not more frequently), but nowadays I limit myself to quarterly portfolio checks to coincide roughly with when my dividends arrive. There is so much daily noise about stock market prices these days that … [Read the rest]
Last updated: January 1, 2020
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