Investor Junkie

The Internet is For Porn

Investor Junkie — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 09:15:19 +0000

It was announced on Saturday Craigslist, with pressure from a group of state attorney generals, will remove it’s adult services section. While I applaud this move by Craigslist, I assume it was done purely because they faced legal issues, and not because it lacked any profit. According to PC Mag, Craigslist made $36 million on [...]

Finding the Best CD Rates

Investor Junkie — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:38:38 +0000

Finding the best CD rates can be a time consuming process. Traditionally, you would have to look in your local newspaper, or visit bank branches. While web sites like BankRate exist, they are primarily display CD rates in which they get compensated for, not truly the best rates for you. In addition, they primarily focus [...]

Kindle vs iPad

Investor Junkie — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 03:38:04 +0000

A recent press release mentioned Amazon sold more electronic books than hardcover versions. The days of paper based books, newspapers and magazines are numbered as in even more interesting news Barnes and Noble put itself up for sale. I suspect traditional paper based reading materials will always exist, but quickly decrease in usage. I have [...]

Tax Efficient Investing

Investor Junkie — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:30:09 +0000

It’s no surprise that taxes are going up next year. How much? No one really knows exactly, but at worst case Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts will completely disappear. This should include my often-loved taxable rate of 15% on dividends. In addition, depending upon your situation, taxes will increase even more in the next [...]

Why I Like US I Savings Bonds

Investor Junkie — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 04:04:40 +0000

Lately I’ve been adding to our security investment bucket US I Savings Bonds or I-Bonds for short. In my opinion, they are a great bond to invest in, but often overlooked powerful tool in your investor toolkit. The advanced investor or investment adviser often pooh-poohs them. They were created in 1998 as a method to [...]

How To Help Small Businesses

Investor Junkie — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 22:03:31 +0000

Want to see how unfriendly the current environment is for small businesses? For a microcosm you have to look no further than this article mentioned in the Business Insider, which originally was in the left coast newspaper The Oregonian. A 7-year old wanted to create a lemonade stand at a local art fair. It’s very [...]

Responsible Credit Card Use

Investor Junkie — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:18:45 +0000

This is a guest post from The Digerati Life is a personal finance blog discussing credit card reviews, proper credit card use and other financial resources. Credit cards have benefits, despite their dangers. While it may not be advisable to have a plethora of them if you’re a spendthrift (being that credit cards can be [...]

The Poor Transfer Wealth to The Rich Via Credit Cards

Investor Junkie — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:46:57 +0000

Reuters has a story about the poor getting bamboozled with yet another scam. No it’s not three card monte, or state run lotto tickets. It’s via credit cards, and the rich are getting well.. rich off of them. According to the Boston Federal Reserve report, with its pretzel logic, only poor people pay by cash, [...]

Obama Educates His Children About Finance

Investor Junkie — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 04:27:04 +0000

The AFP and ABC News have a puff piece about Obama eyes babysitting duties for daughters. Implying somehow Obama still lives a regular life now that he’s president. While I commend that he is trying to educate his children on how to manage money, I also find it ironic based upon his government spending policies. [...]

Payday Loans VS. Loan Sharks

Investor Junkie — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:35:37 +0000

The Huffington Post recently had an article about Payday lenders leaving Arizona. In their usual left leaning slant the article was cheering about these companies were leaving the state, and how awful they were preying on people to take out loans. Which got me thinking about what exactly is predatory lending anyway? Is the lender [...]

How Wealthy Are You?

Investor Junkie — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 01:45:33 +0000

Being wealthy can be defined in many ways. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines wealthy as: 1 : having wealth : very affluent 2 : characterized by abundance : ample This definition of course is very vague. What exactly is “very affluent”? Being a numbers guy, I like specifics and like to measure things like wealth. I [...]

Added More Exxon Mobil (XOM) To My Portfolio

Investor Junkie — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:49:19 +0000

I’ve owned Exxon Mobil (XOM) for the past 7 years, and including dividends, I’ve had an annual return of slightly over 5% APY. While it’s not knocking it out of the park, it’s not bad for a Dow component, and especially not bad in this economic environment. Exxon, as with other oil companies have been [...]

Performance Update For Lending Club

Investor Junkie — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 18:15:07 +0000

Here’s the latest performance update for my Lending Club account. As of today I am earning 11.98% (almost 12% w00t!) annual return on my investment. This is up from my 11.27% return from my last blog post. I’ve been a Lending Club investor for over one year now. Since my last Lending Club update, I [...]

Economic Forecast for 2010 and 2011

Investor Junkie — Wed, 26 May 2010 19:23:15 +0000

I normally don’t make outright predictions on this blog, but Sam from Financial Samurai challenged me in his latest blog post. I’m always up for a challenge, so I’ll take a stab at it. Please come and revisit this blog post at the end of 2011. The purpose of the Investor Junkie blog has always [...]

I’ve Joined the Yakezie Challenge!

Investor Junkie — Mon, 24 May 2010 23:50:47 +0000

I finally joined the Yakezie Challenge! For those who regularly follow my blog you are probably wondering what too me so long? For those do don’t know much about it the purpose of the “The Yakezie” is it’s dedicated to promoting high quality personal finance content on the Internet.

Fidelity Investment Rewards Visa Card Review

Investor Junkie — Thu, 13 May 2010 20:42:09 +0000

We here at the Investor Junkie household have multiple accounts with Fidelity and is the primary account for our taxable investments. In addition, our low interest “fixed” rate credit cards suddenly skyrocketed to over 9% and now a variable rate. It was time for a new credit card strategy, because low interest rate credit cards [...]

Leave Investing To The Professionals

Investor Junkie — Wed, 12 May 2010 02:13:26 +0000

This interesting guest post is by Mr. Credit Card. While I (Investor Junkie) may not completely agree with his position, it’s a more common notion to let investment professionals perform the stock picking for you via actively managed funds. I used to work in the financial industry and I can tell you that I know [...]

Why I Sold Stocks In My Taxable Account Today

Investor Junkie — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:23:30 +0000

I sold stock from my taxable account today. I obviously don’t have to tell you about yesterday’s roller coaster ride in the market. I’ve had the feeling the market has gone too high too fast before this, and believe the market is not cheap right now. I sold stocks today because of these reasons: I’ve [...]

Our 2010 Hyundai Genesis Purchase

Investor Junkie — Tue, 04 May 2010 14:06:22 +0000

We got a new car! As mentioned previously, we were in need of a new car. With baby number three on the way we needed something to replace the existing clown car, our 10 year old 2001 Toyota Solara. If it weren’t for our growing family, I would have been happy keeping the existing car [...]

Weekend Reading for April 11, 2010

Investor Junkie — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:58:46 +0000

What I’m reading this weekend: Make More on Your Cash : WSJ – Tired of earning less than 1% on your MM account? William Bernstein an interesting idea to get a decent return. The Katana: Holy Crap! Taxes Due Soon : Financial Samurai – Better get your taxes done before the 15th. Doing it yourself, [...]