Business is Personal (Finance)

• 2010 Year End Graphs

  Dec 31, 2010
  It's the year-end graph blow-out sale!  There will be no pretense of analysis.  Instead, I will simply bombard you with pretty colors.Portfolio Return vs Stocks -- 2010Portfolio Return vs Bonds -- 2010Portfolio Return vs Commodities -- 2010Portfolio Return vs Balanced... 0

• Retail Admiral Minimums Reduction

  Dec 31, 2010
  Originally Published 12/24/2010, Updated 12/31/2010About a month before Vanguard eliminated Signal share minimum requirements, Vanguard also changed the Admiral requirements for retail investors .  From $100K, the requirements were changed to $10K for index funds and $50K for actively-managed funds. ... 0

• China's Housing Bubble and Divorce

  Dec 26, 2010
  When the housing bubble crashed in the U.S., it sent the economy in a big tailspin putting many families under stress.  By comparison, the flush of money flooding into China's housing sector is generating a wave of divorces...  What?  You... 0

• Treasury vs Government Bond

  Dec 21, 2010
  Not too long ago, Vanguard eliminated the minimums for Signal class shares.  This effectively means all 401K plans could in theory get a price break ... if the people in charge weren't more interested in ripping people off.  For our... 0

• Lessons in TIPS Market Timing

  Dec 19, 2010
  I've mentioned in the past that a strategy I like to use is TIPS duration shifting based on real rates.  The quick summary here is when real rates go down, sell longer duration TIPS and buy shorter ones -- do... 0

• Auditing Past Savings Rate

  Dec 17, 2010
  I'm not much into tracking expenses.  I've been mostly using the "pay yourself" strategy where you automatically put money away and then live on what's left over. While this has worked very well for me, I really don't know how... 0

• ESOP no go

  Dec 15, 2010
  Last year, we were researching the viability of an ESOP for our company.  Our primary goals here were (1) tax reduction, (2) long-term management transition and (3) incentives for employee performance.  At that point, we progressed to contracting with an... 0

• $250K Tax Cut Arguments

  Dec 14, 2010
  Unless you just returned from a 5 year mission to Mars, you will know the big discussion for Americans is extending the Bush tax cuts to those earning over $250K.  While the discussions at the lawmaker level are over economics... 0

• Stimulus, Quantitative Easing, Tax Cuts ... affect on China

  Dec 12, 2010
  Since the financial markets fell right through the floor in 2008* plunging the global economy into chaos, the U.S. government and Federal Reserve has tried every rabbit in the hat to restart the economy.  Bank rescues, buying assets at inflated... 0

• Estimating Taxes

  Dec 11, 2010
  One of the exercises I do is periodically calculate my estimated tax bill for the coming year to fine-tune my withholdings.  Now there are several easy ways to do this.  If you used a tax program to do taxes the... 0

• Superficial Lifestyle Observations

  Dec 10, 2010
  I'm on my way to Hong Kong next month to get new visas for my kids so I'll have more chances to observe the lifestyle there.  On my previous trip, I was struck by how there were neither elderly nor... 0

• Portfolio AA Followup

  Dec 5, 2010
  Just a few days ago, I posted about portfolio performance for 2010 (at least most of it as I don't really care that much about arbitrary calendar year cutoffs).  I did miss one comparison though and that's to the simplified... 0

• Dreams of Economics & Blogging

  Dec 3, 2010
  Just a few days ago, I had a dream where the homeowners in a country overseas would list their properties on public stock exchanges and property would not only be bought/sold with a a click of a mouse button but... 0

• Avoiding the egg

  Dec 2, 2010
  I've written in the past about my lack of confidence in Europe's finances.  Of course, I also mentioned I may end up wrong with egg on my face.  Since it's getting close to the end of the year, let's see... 0