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Happy Hour: Home Trade And Stamp Arbitrage

September 27, 2013 by Jon

Welcome to the end of the week and another edition of Happy Hour! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy your end of the week roundup of all things interesting in the land of money.

Home Trade

Several years ago Warren “The Oracle” Buffett gave a prophesy on the potential in housing. He basically uttered the immense opportunity and if it was practical he would buy a couple hundred thousand homes. Wall Street firms and hedge funds took that to heart and bought big. Of course, others had bought up houses already, picking up foreclosed homes for pennies on the dollar and renting them out. Continue Reading…

An Intro To Special Situations Investing

September 26, 2013 by Jon

special situationsBuyout and spinoff announcements can cause big price swings in stocks. Yet investors are always trying to find the next big deal. Even though it’s a speculative venture at best. Once a deal is announced, that’s where the opportunity ends for most investors. For others, myself included, this is where the real opportunity begins. It’s known as special situations investing and, speaking from experience, can offer a low risk, high reward way to invest your money.

What are Special Situations?

Special situations are known events within a company that present an opportunity for above average returns. When you combine this information with a value investing approach, the high returns can be achieved with a small amount of risk. Continue Reading…

Ways To Avoid The IRA Early Withdrawal Penalty

September 24, 2013 by Jon

If you’re looking for some semi secret loophole to get money out of your IRA early, so you can spend it, think again. The tax code has that covered. The gist of the IRA early withdrawal penalty states that anyone under age 59½ who withdraws money from their IRA, is hit with a 10% penalty. Of course, the number one way to avoid the penalty is to wait until you’re old enough to get your money. That’s the point of an IRA in the first place – to keep the money there until retirement.

That said, the IRA rules have exceptions and exemptions where you won’t be penalized for taking money out early.  Some are added benefits built into the IRA, others help with unforeseen hardship, and the IRS is very specific about each one. Continue Reading…

Happy Hour: 5yr Returns & That Ceiling Thing…Again

September 20, 2013 by Jon

Welcome to the end of the week and another edition of Happy Hour! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy your end of the week roundup of all things interesting in the land of money.

5yr Fund Returns

October 2008 was a bad month for the market. Actually the whole year was bad. Stock mutual fund performance were abysmal. The same can be said for index funds. That year, the S&P 500 fell from 1,447 to 903, a 38% drop.

It’s had a big impact on fund performance numbers. Especially the 5 year average returns of stock funds pointed out here. But the slate is being wiped clean, so to speak, by time and with it, those numbers will improve dramatically. Continue Reading…

Why You Should Compare Fund Holdings

September 19, 2013 by Jon

Compare Fund HoldingsComparison shopping is a typical routine done in stores all the time and it usually ends at the price. But every once in a while, you dig a little deeper. You check under the hood of a car or compare ingredients in food. So why don’t we do more of it with our investment products? When shopping for funds, take the time to compare the ETF and mutual fund holdings.

Digging is a prerequisite when it comes to investing. The easiest way to compare funds is to use an ETF screener (you can use a mutual fund screener for index and mutual funds). Just find the fund category you’re looking for and break the results down from there. Simple enough.

Don’t Stop At Costs

Picking a fund (mutual or ETF) is great but it’s useless if you don’t know what’s in it. An argument can be made for considering costs last. Most people will set an asset allocation for their portfolios based on their goals and risk aversion, then choose investments that best fits those needs. Continue Reading…

The Affordable Care Act 101

September 17, 2013 by Jon

Affordable Care ActThe Affordable Care Act will bring a big health reform change to insurance plan coverage in 2014. You can start making plans now. A number of those changes will be introduced October 1, to give you a head start. Here’s a quick overview of the early changes and what to expect.

What Is It?

The Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was passed in 2010. It brought about a number of changes to how insurance companies had to operate like you can’t be turned down for pre-existing conditions, free preventive care, and the end of lifetime limits.

But it also added several rules we have to work with too, like the medicare surtax, individual mandate, open enrollment periods, and health insurance marketplaces. In the end it was supposed to make health care more available and easier to understand. Continue Reading…

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