Some people think all financial info is boring. I actually find a good deal of it interesting but this tip is pretty boring. Building a cash safety net is an important part of your personal finances. We have explained previously the very simple idea that you don’t buy what you can’t pay for. If you can’t pay for it this month, don’t buy it.
But that leaves out one thing. Even if you do have the cash you should be building up a cash reserve before buying luxuries. The typical advice is to build up 6 months of expenses in cash (rent or mortgage, food bills, utilities, health care, etc.). Now actually building up to that level can take awhile and forgoing all non-mandatory expenses until you have that saved is not usually reasonable. But as part of your personal finances building up an cash reserve is important (even if it is boring).
A significant portion of downward spirals in personal finances are started when people have emergency expenses and have to borrow that money (since they don’t have cash reserves). If you are over say 26 and don’t have a cash reserve yet saving for it should be part of your monthly budget. How quickly you build that up is a personal decision but I would say a 1% of the target amount (so if you are aiming for a cash reserve of $20,000 then $200/month).
If your finances don’t allow that, then do what you can. But realize that is one of the weaknesses in your personal finances and try to fix that as soon as possible.
Very important personal financial allocations for you to put first include: current needs (food, car payment, rent/mortgage, utilities…), insurance, creating a cash reserve, retirement savings, saving for future purchases. Then there are luxuries and treats, such as: eating out, vacations, cable TV… Many people put current needs, luxuries and treats fist and then say they don’t have the ability to do what is responsible. That is not often true for those that actually have an internet connection to read this blog.
Related: Buy less stuff – Saving for Retirement – How to Use Your Credit Card Responsibly – Trying to Keep up with the Jones
For those that don’t find picking stocks fun it is nice to know that just investing in indexes is likely the best option for almost everyone. I have much of my retirement assets invested in index funds. I still think I can beat the market (though the results of the last few months have not been kind) but the amount I invest in individual stocks is not a huge percentage of my portfolio. I still like Google, for example, and in fact might well be buying more this week (it is down over 10% since I added to my position a couple weeks ago). Can You Beat the Market? It’s a $100 Billion Question
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From 1986 to 2006, according to his calculations, the proportion of the aggregate market cap that is invested in index funds more than doubled, to 17.9 percent. As a result, the negative-sum game played by active investors has grown ever more negative.
The bottom line is this: The best course for the average investor is to buy and hold an index fund for the long term. Even if you think you have compelling reasons to believe a particular trade could beat the market, the odds are still probably against you.
Interesting. I am surprised by the rapid increase in the total expense of trying to beat the market. I guess all those wall street bonuses add up. In my opinion the article does not provide adequate support the claims made, but I think overall the claim are sensible (based on numerous studies of results). The odds of beating the market yourself are very low. And the odds of paying the right people to beat the market for you are likely not worth the cost (in the market today).
Related: Advice from Warren Buffett – Stop Picking Stocks? – 12 Stocks for 10 Years Update – Feb 2008
Great advice from Warren Buffett. He spoke to students at UTexas at Austin business school and one of the students, Dang Le, posted notes of the discussion online. The internet is great.
On diversification:
Great advice. Warren Buffett uses great concentration (little diversification) but you are not Warren Buffett.
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Getting turned down by HBS [Harvard Business School] was one of the best things that could have happened to me, bad luck can turn out to be good.
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We did an informal office survey by looking at the total tax footprint versus the total income. I earned 46 million and paid a tax rate of 17.5%. My rate was the lowest, the average was 33%, and my cleaning lady paid 40%. The system is tilted towards the rich. The Forbes 400 total net worth has gone from 220 billion to 1.54 trillion, an increase of 7-to-1. You see in legislature that there is lobbying carried on by the powerful over issues such as the estate tax and carried interest for private equity investments. We need to flatten income and payroll taxes, and those making under $30,000 shouldn’t be bothered.
It is hard to beat reading Warren Buffet’s ideas on investing and economics.
Related: Buffett on Taxes – The Berkshire Hathaway Meeting 2007 – Buffett’s 2006 Letter to Shareholders – Warren Buffett’s 2004 Annual Report – books on investing
The story is a bit boring. People spend money they don’t have. But it is hard to ignore the story when it is so important. And so many people are foolishly ruining their financial future. When credit cards put you in jeopardy
Please stop. Don’t spend money you don’t have. Don’t think those political “leaders” that practice the same spending money they don’t have financial management are worthy of respect and don’t follow the bad example they continue to set.
The article gives some tips. I would suggest the tips for using your credit cards I have blogged about earlier. But the main thing is really simple: don’t use your credit card for loans – pay off your full balance every month. Save money for things you want. When you have the money saved, then buy them. This is not rocket science it is pretty darn easy. Don’t spend what you don’t have.
Related: Too Much Stuff – Financial Illiteracy Credit Trap – Poor Customer Service from Discover Card – Trying to Keep up with the Jones – Raising Taxes on Future Generations
The use of sneaky fees by service companies is growing
In early February, United Airlines began to charge customers $25 for an extra bag. Some rental car companies charge an airport concession fee if the lot is conveniently located near the airport. A hotel in Las Vegas now bills customers for any item they take out of the minibar for more than 60 seconds, even if it is not consumed. Some bank gift cards lose part of their value if not used by a certain date.
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banks collect up to a 3 percent processing fee for third-party credit transactions. Most of that 3 percent is called the “interchange fee.” That fee has outraged merchants in continental Europe, where credit card use is sparse and consumers are accustomed to debit cards. In December the European Commission won a case against Mastercard that requires it to eliminate interchange fees within the next six months.
As I have mentioned before the problems of bad practices by financial companies and the unfortunate truth that they force you to be on guard against them tricking you and taking your money. The Curious Cat credit card tips page provides advice on how not to get tricked by credit card companies into paying big fees along with some other tips.
It a shame financial companies don’t seem to believe in providing an honest service and making a profit as part of provide good value. Instead you have to watch them with the belief they will take you money if they can trick you (through hidden fees, misleading ads…). And it is sad other companies are expanding such anti-customer methods to other markets.
Related: Credit Card Currency Conversion Costs – Bad Practice: .05% Interest – Customer Hostility from Discover Card – Challenge Those Credit Fees
One of the most important financial moves you can make is to start investing for your retirement early. This post is directed at those in the USA (but you can adjust the ideas for your particular situation). Retirement accounts with tax free growth, tax deferred growth and/or even tax deductible contributions can add to the benefits of such an investment. And matching by your company can give you an immediate return or 100% or 50% or some other amount. With 100% matching if you invest $2,000 your company adds $2,000 to your retirement account. For 50% they would add $1,000 in the event you added $2,000.
In other posts I will cover some of the other details involved but some people can be confused just by what investment options to chose. Normally you will have a limited choice of mutual funds. Hopefully you will have a good family of funds to choose from such as Vanguard, TIAA-CREF, American, Franklin-Templeton, T.Rowe Price etc.). If so, the most important thing is really just to get started adding money. The details of how you allocate the investment is secondary to that.
So once you have made the decision to save for your retirement what allocation makes sense? Well diversification is a valuable strategy. Some options you will likely have include S&P 500 index fund, Russel 5000 (total market index – or some such), small cap growth, international stocks, money market fund, bond fund and perhaps international bonds, short term bonds, specialty funds (health care, natural resources) long term bonds, real estate trusts…
Just to get a simple idea of what might make sense when you are starting out and under 40 and don’t have other substantial assets in any of these areas (large mutual fund holdings, your own house, investment real estate…) this is an allocation I think is reasonable (but don’t take my word for it go read what other say and then make your own decisions):
25% Total stock market index (~Wilshire 5000)
25% international stocks
20% small cap stocks
10% real estate
10% high quality short term bonds in a Euros, Yen…
10% short term bonds (or money market)
Read more
Why you don’t need an extended warranty, Consumer Reports:
– Some repairs are covered by the standard manufacturer warranty that comes with the product
– Products seldom break within the extended-warranty window–after the standard warranty has expired but within the typical two to three years of purchase–our data show.
– When electronics and appliances do break, the repairs, on average, cost about the same as an extended warranty.
Related: Save Money on AV Cables – Shop Around for Drugs – Real Free Credit Report
NYC hotels at a price that’s right
Chelsea Lodge from $119, Pod Hotel from $89, Abingdon Guest House from $179.
New York City Hotels and Hostels – Curious Cat lodging connections – Curious Cat NYC photos
In the USA Municipal bonds are issued by state and local governments and are exempt from federal tax. Therefor if you earn a 5% yield your after tax return is equal to that of a 7.5% yield if you are in the 33% federal tax bracket (7% * .67 = 5%). One way to invest in bonds is using a mutual fund (open or closed end funds). Right now the tax equivalent yields (compared to other bonds) of muni bonds are higher than normal.
Muni Bond Funds Offer High Yields, Tax Perks Dec, 2007:
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With so many defaults going on in the mortgage arena, investors are worried that the insurers won’t be there to back up any munis that might get into trouble. A fair point, but the bond insurers are bolstering their own capital structures to deal with these concerns, and historically, as I said before, defaults in munis are few and far between.
Why are closed-end muni funds trading at a discount? Typical discounts today are about 10%, which is about as deep as such discounts have ever gotten on a historical basis. The typical discount is half that, or less. Closed-end muni funds sometimes even trade at a premium.
One explanation for the big discount might be the fact that many closed-end muni funds use leverage, in order to increase the tax-exempt returns they can offer investors. In the current credit crisis, leverage is seen as an inherently dangerous thing.
In general I find bonds to be a less desirable investment. Especially in the low yield environment recently (and really going back quite a few years). But for diversification some bonds can make sense for certain portfolios. Given the current tradeoffs (risk v. after tax yield) muni bonds certainly deserve consideration. I would shy away from long term bonds or funds (intermediate or short term) but of course every investor makes their own decisions.
Related: Roth IRA (another good tax smart investing tool) – what are bonds? – Alternative Minimum Tax
Unfortunately it is not uncommon to find companies that choose to line their pockets at the expense of customers. I wish we could find companies that want to provide good value and make some profit by doing so. My stock broker used to allow clients idle cash to be invested and earn a reasonably decent rate (not Vanguard money market fund but you know for a company that doesn’t want to provide the best customer value a least something remotely approaching fair). This year (or last year) they stopped doing so and switched to the following rate structure:
Dollar Range Interest Rate Annual Percentage Yield
$0.01-$4,999 0.04999% 0.05%
$5,000-$24,999 0.04999% 0.05%
$25,000-$99,999 0.29959% 0.30%
You might think they make an error and mean 5% and just put the decimal in the wrong place but you would be wrong. It used to be leaving your money in money market accounts with the broker wasn’t great but the 50+ basis point hit was worth the convenience. Now HSBC pays 4.25% for online savings. So at 100 times what the broker pays they would be slightly higher than HSBC. Sorry paying 1/85 of what HSBC pays is not just talking a bit of your clients money for yourself. That is obscene. You can no longer trust that your stock broker will only talk 50+ basis points of you money market earnings. Take a look at your account and setup an account with HSBC, Vanguard (current yield 4.64%) or something similar that pays a reasonable rate for any short term savings.
If your broker pays less than 2% on a money market account of $5,000 that is a scary sign. What else they might be doing that isn’t so obviously unfair is difficult to know. Getting above 4% for a cash saving account now is pretty good, in my opinion.
Related: Customer Hostility from Discover Card – Frugality Versus Better Returns – Learning About Personal Loans