A few days ago, I had the opportunity to sit down with a fellow in his early sixties who has already retired. He had been self-employed his entire life. I told him about The Simple Dollar and I asked him, if he didn’t mind, if he would tell me about how he had invested for
This is the third in a weekly series of articles providing a chapter-by-chapter in-depth “book club” reading of Benjamin Graham’s investing classic The Intelligent Investor. Warren Buffett describes this book: “I read the first edition of this book early in 1950, when I was nineteen. I thought then that it was by far the best
This is the second in a weekly series of articles providing a chapter-by-chapter in-depth “book club” reading of Benjamin Graham’s investing classic The Intelligent Investor. Warren Buffett describes this book: “I read the first edition of this book early in 1950, when I was nineteen. I thought then that it was by far the best
As I write this, the stock market has just completed the single best day in its history. This follows the worst week in its history, in which the market lost approximately 20% of its value (depending on the indicator you use). The volatility of the stock market has never been higher, and people out there
Whenever I tune into CNBC, I’m usually blown away with the raw amount of data thrown at me. For the average person, there’s no way to separate what’s useful from what isn’t, so people often rely on the pundits to tell them. I’d prefer not to do that – I know from my experiences in
Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book. Over and over again, I get encouraged by readers to review the “hot” personal finance book of the moment – the one that describes an investment or personal finance plan that takes great advantage of the situation of that moment in time. I usually
After writing my piece yesterday on fear and the economic situation, a very eloquent reader named “Maggie” wrote to me: I completely agree with your assessment on the economy, particularly if you’re young. There is no crisis that is well served by panic and I don’t think that the current economic situation is anywhere near
Last night, I was leafing through the September 22 issue of BusinessWeek (one of the handful of magazines I subscribe to – a great read) when I came across an article by Lewis Braham entitled “The Missing Link in Your Portfolio? Your Job” (it’s titled differently in the online version, which I linked to). The
Every other Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book. I’ve been a pretty big fan of the “Little Books, Big Profits” series published by Wiley and Sons, of which this is the sixth entry. I’ve reviewed each one and quite liked most of them – they do a very good job Here are
Over the last few days, with all the tumult on Wall Street (AIG and Merrill and Lehman, oh my!), several people have written to me expressing deep personal concern about investing in the stock market. They see a 25% dip in the value of the market this year and hear a lot of apocalyptic talk
Bill writes in: I keep reading tons of stuff about asset allocation and how you need to diversify your investments. Is it really that big of a deal? In short, just starting a Roth IRA or a 401(k) or an investment account isn’t enough. If you merely open that account, pick a few default investments,
Over the last three or four days, I’ve received a bunch of emails from readers asking me why I’m not talking breathlessly about the chaos at Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and IndyMac. I’ve read dozens of long explanations of why this is disastrous and why it’s the worst thing people have ever seen, and I’ve
About once a week, I’ll get an email from a reader along the lines of this recent one from Leo: I don’t know how to invest. I don’t know what to invest in. So I keep putting it off because I’m worried about messing it up. It’s ridiculous that this is all so complicated. The
In the reader mailbag yesterday, I alluded to the idea that I would only buy individual stocks from companies that I was strongly familiar with and whose products I used myself and not only trusted, but that I found enough value in that I would laud them to others. In other words, I’m a big
After my recent post on looking at your automobile purchase as an investment, an interesting discussion broke out in the comments: should a car even be considered an investment? A few choice comments: Automobiles are nothing more than consumable goods. Tools in a toolbox. I say drive them till the wheels fall off and then
The most recent issue of Money Magazine had a blaring cover story: “The Only 7 Investments You Need Now.” Those were some tall words, and I was intrigued about what they had to say. Their seven investments: 1. A blue-chip U.S. stock fund 2. A blue-chip foreign stock fund 3. A small-company fund 4. A
The more I dabble in investing, the more I realize that it’s something of an “opposite world” compared to the principles I use in day to day life. Things that make intuitive sense in the real world are actually failures when it comes to investing. Here are ten great examples of that phenomenon. Be the
Very soon, I will be celebrating my 30th birthday, and I thought it would be interesting to take a look at my retirement portfolio as it currently sits. I’ve rounded each amount to the nearest $100 to make the math easier as I evaluate where I’m at and what my future plans may be. My
A number of people have asked me how I’m saving for retirement now that I’m self-employed, and several more asked yesterday when I mentioned that I was signing up for a SEP-IRA. In order to clarify everything, here’s exactly how I’m saving for retirement as a self-employed writer. For comparison’s sake, my previous retirement savings