Feeling Rewarded without Spending

In May we opened our first rewards checking account at a community bank. Since then we have been transitioning our direct deposits and other routine transactions into that account. By the beginning of this month, we had built up the balance in our rewards checking account to the $25k limit for earning 3.80% interest. Read more

Re-thinking Asset Allocation and Correlation

A bedrock principle of asset allocation for the long term investor is asset correlation. The theory is that a properly allocated portfolio includes investments in different asset categories or classes that are non-correlated. This means that as general market and economic conditions change, the different asset classes won’t experience a lockstep change in value. In other words, you don’t want the value of all of your investments to rise and fall together, particularly the “fall” part.  Read more

Bank of America Withdrawal and Investment Simplification

Yesterday and today I continued the process of disengaging from our relationship with Bank of America.   Read more

Sticker Shock in Kitchen Appliances

Our Amana side-by-side refrigerator (which we purchased specifically for this house when we built it 17 years ago) died. It stopped cooling effectively and the repairman said the cost of repair could easily be $1200. Essentially the compressor and all related components would have to be replaced. We quickly decided we were not going to invest $1200 in a 17 year old refrigerator, despite its many years of faithful service (and custom wood door panels). It was time to shop. Read more

Anticipating a Second Market Collapse

The doomsday investors and prognosticators are out in full force. They are predicting another collapse of the markets. I am concerned, of course, as I am in the retirement home stretch. There are plenty of theories for why we should expect more bad news. Read more

Vacation Mode

Mr. ToughMoneyLove is in vacation mode. For more, read this short article on vacation as a mini-retirement.

Back next week. Thanks for reading.