Stock Market Panic

Yesterday (which was Monday, August 24, as I write this), the stock market tanked. It was down over 1,000 points in the early hours and manged to recover a bit to close "only" down 588 points. Headlines were, predictably, full of fear mongering: "A meltdown on Wall Street. Have you looked at your retirement fund today?" Once again, the media, which needs something to write about every day, is trumpeting panic and instilling fear in people that...

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Congratulations, Americans, On Saving More!

Just over 1 year ago, I wrote that the savings rate in America has been declining and was currently at the woeful level of 3.8%. But it looks like that has turned around. Now, according to this article, the personal savings rate has increased to 5.15%.  This is great news. The article does go on to mention that it seems most of the savings have been going into building up emergency funds rather than into retirement savings accounts (either 401(k)s...

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Don't Leave Money On The Table: Paribus

Many stores, both traditional and online, offer a buyer protection program where, if the price of an item you purchased goes down within a certain amount of time, they will refund you the difference between the price you paid and the new lower price.  It's cheap marketing for the stores because few people, if any, will ever take them up on the offer. Unless you are spending a large amount of money, most the time, you shop around for a bit,...

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Goal Update: End Of July 2015

At the end of each month, I post an update of my goals, including a brief discussion of any notable events that might have occurred during the month. The latest month's figures can always be found under the Featured menu in the menu bar at the top of the blog. Last updated: End of July, 2015 Current value: $15,754 Change from last month: +$1,808 Percent of Goal:  14.49% Note that the funds in this account are invested in stock,...

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