Month: April 2008

When I moved here a long time ago one of the financial mysteries for me was the taxes on my paycheck. This included what would be deducted from my pay check and more importantly how much should I withhold to meet my tax obligations. I learned the importance of understanding…

Is your desk currently buried under a mountain of mysterious envelopes? You are likely dealing with "financial document fatigue." Signs of this include bills piling up and statements sitting in random piles. Your desk might even be invisible under stacks of paper. Most of us have experienced this chaotic feeling…

Expectant mothers will now be able to insure their unborn babies against pregnancy complications, birth defects and even death. This type of insurance, possibly the first of its kind, is being offered by ING Australia. It is aimed at the growing number of older mothers (who have a greater risk…

[2022 to 2023 Update] Bloomberg and Zumper recently published the most expensive areas for rentals and as expected New York, Manhattan in particular. topped the list. But as the tech industry wanes and biotech and pharma ascend, Boston jumped to number 2. The other cities are expected and continue to…

I came across an article recently about how to save money and shop on-line more effectively by taking advantage of freely available merchant discount codes. These codes can be entered at the checkout page of most on-line retailer web sites and can result in some real savings ($29 on average)…

My brother-in-law recently decided he wanted to buy some Visa shares (V) following a discussion we had around the positive outlook for the company. However he has never bought shares before and asked me about the process. So this post is for him and others new to the stock market.…

Here is an investing 101 post based on some of my own experiences and lessons learned from being an active stock investor. With the market volatility to continue its even more important now to be careful with which stocks you pick for your portfolio. Here are the 5 key things…

[2021 Update] Google continues to exceed Analyst expectation and showed a strong recovery from the COVID Pandemic induced slowdown with shares touching record levels. Key Highlights Google advertising revenue rose 32.3%, comprising 80.8% of companywide revenue.Over the past year, Google shares (all classes) have provided a total return of 80.2%,…

A while ago I came across a poignant article in the Wall Street Journal - You're Not Super Rich? You Lucked Out, by Jonathan Clements which got me thinking about this concept. Here are some excerpts from it that I think ring especially true. On the face of it.... We…

The Economist had an article comparing the average work week across a number of OECD countries. Not surprisingly an Asian country - South Korea - led the pack, with America in the middle and Europeans at the end. The graphic here (from the article) summarizes the comparison quite nicely. This got…

Many personal-finance sites and authors talk about the need to cut your day-to-day expenses so that you can boost your savings. Good simple advice, but some who propose concepts like the obligatory measure of eliminating your daily cup (or two or three) of coffee and investing what you would have…

We all want to get out from under our massive mortgage debt. So what is the best way to pay off the mortgage quicker – and not significantly impact your ability to retire? The answer is a variation on the good old “Pay every two weeks instead of once a…

How are you feeling about investing nowadays? Do you own stocks that have tanked over 25% in one day? I did. On one occasion I got so worried by the fall in the stock price, that I sold it for a big loss only to see it bounce back a…