Mortgages are not inherently evil.  Like any financial decision, you just have to be smart and work through your alternatives to find what makes most sense. I bought a modest house on a 15-year fixed mortgage recently, and chose that over paying cash for a myriad of reasons based on our financial si...

Here's what I meant.  ETF - Fund Provider VTI - Vanguard TLT - iShares SGOL - ETFS SCHO - Schwab That's 4 asset classes managed by 4 separate companies. Yes, an ETF has more risk than directly holding the assets but by dividing your money across multiple ETF providers you help minimize your exposure...

For those who like ETFs for their convenience, just diversify the fund families. Something like VTI, TLT, SGOL, and SCHO builds a firewall so that any problem with an ETF supplier is limited to 25% of the portfolio. Personally, I'd even take steps to make sure directly held bonds aren't with the sam...

I recently bought a house, and went though the same thought process. For me, a 15-year fixed mortgage near 2.75% seemed best in the wealth accumulation phase by keeping cash free for investment return while greatly reducing interest paid relative to a 30-year mortgage. And I still have the ability t...

Another engineer INT* here. ; ). And I wholeheartedly recommend Shop Class as Soulcraft as well. Great book. Nice list, Jake. The only things I'd add are a few steps between 1x annual spending in savings and 33x in savings, as that's a wide gap. The moment your potential monthly investment volatilit...

Boeing737 wrote: And what's wrong with this picture?
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article ... 21,00.html

Heh.

The main problem I personally have with carbon trading schemes is that best case, even if you 100% believe that reducing manmade CO2 will have a long-term impact on climate, it is impossible to measure the impact of your system in real time.  15 years after the Kyoto Protocol was signed, no one can ...

Saw this recently and found it interesting.  Incentives cut both ways.

Incentive to Slow Climate Change Drives Output of Harmful Gases - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/09/world ... wanted=all

I'm also a libertarian on social and economic issues. But for me, dealing with terrorists and nuclear-armed dictators is one area where I appreciate having a strong and serious leader actively looking out for my best interests.   Laughing on camera while talking about Iran and throwing your own inte...

Leadership.

The purpose of a televised debate is not to win accolades from partisan media.  It's to win over swing voters by allowing them to see you without a filter.   I actually think Biden did pretty well on the arguments (other than his laughable excuses for Libya and outright lie about his own votes on th...

If you're a Republican, you thought Ryan won.  If you're a Democrat, you thought Biden won.  If you're an independent swing voter not up to date on detailed foreign policy issues, the main takeaway is that Biden is an insufferably rude douche. 

Advantage Ryan. 

My personal opinion is that buying art is sorta like buying a house.  It's possible to make money on it,  but more realistically you should simply expect a good one to be a decent store of value and buy for your own satisfaction rather than thinking of it as an investment. 

Why do you trust Quicken but not Mint when they're both owned by the same company (Intuit)?  Just not a fan of online services?

I wonder how many of those 3.5B people on < $1,225 per year use mint.com :) Good point. I read somewhere that the bottom 5% in wealth in the US still have more money on average than the top 1% in India. I think we can all use a little fresh perspective on "necessary expenses" every once i...

I've studied this in detail over the past year or two, tracking expenses on Mint and studying investment options (which led me to the PP).  The conclusion I reached is that my wife and I need a million dollars and a paid-off house to achieve financial independence. It's become a bit of a mantra. So ...

I always use limit orders just to be safe, and haven't had any issues with the spreads during trading hours.  They're normally pretty tight.

Just FYI - I noticed that Schwab recently cut the fees for SCHO to 0.08%.  IMO, SCHO is a really good option for PP cash as it has substantially the same assets as SHY at (now) half the cost.  

I understand that this is about more than a film, but the film was apparently the catalyst. Celebrating the anniversary of the WTC attacks by destroying embassies and murdering Americans was the motivation.  Blaming a YouTube video that's been out for weeks is simply the excuse for shifting the bla...

I love the feeling of calm I have now when there's major market news yet I have zero worry about my investments.

I handle my PP similar to Pointedstick. One PP for the taxable accounts, and a second spread across various IRAs and 401ks.  I'm also planning for ER, and the stability of the PP is one of the most appealing features for me.  Keeping my near-term accessible funds as a separate PP works well for my g...

Alternative headline: Major Political Fundraiser Has Powerful Friends

I've been in the PP for about a year now.  I still check the components most days (out of interest, not fear), so I know how you feel.  What I learned over time is that one asset may be a drag for a few weeks but another may carry the portfolio the next few weeks.  The portfolio corrects over reason...

I guess I'd call myself an aspiring EREer. Or maybe more correctly, an early semi-retiring Mr Money Mustache type. Take away the restaurants, and my wife and I spend about $300/month on food. We don't buy into organic marketing, we shop based on what's on sale, and we regularly visit farmers markets...

he is just another politician .... i cant think of a more derogatory description of what he stands for or what he will do.... I think Ryan is a little too extreme in his budget policy to attract much interest outside of the Republican base.  Remember, his budget wanted to privatize Medicare and jus...