Living for today - Planning for Tomorrow
Leroy Fick from Saginaw Michigan won a $2 million lottery in 2010. While this sounds great, somehow Leroy is still receiving food stamps to help put food on his table. Why? Well, Leroy took the lump sump payout, bought a new house and a car and then invested the rest. Since his income is based on the amount of investment income he’s receiving from the
I took a quick look at the CNN net worth calculator and pulled out some examples of the median net worth of various ages. I’ll list the averages for a couple different scenarios but you can certainly go use the tool and see how your specific numbers stack up. I’m going to use some pretty standard age ranges for this comparison. Under 25, 25-34, 35-44,
CNNMoney has an article up right now where a reader asks Walter Updegrave whether he’s saving enough to amass $2 million by retirement. The guy is a savings machine putting away $4000 a month and I wonder if he really wants to know the answer or whether he is showboating just a bit. I mean, if you’re saving that kind of money, I’m guessing you
It used to be that people would compare themselves with their family, friends and neighbors. It makes sense, if you think about it. People are most likely to compare themselves to what and who they see on a daily basis. If your neighbor buys a new car, you might be more inclined to feel the need to get yourself a new car. I mean, if
I’ve been spending a lot of time lately peering in to my personal finance spreadsheet. This is the spreadsheet that shows all of our major assets, our income, our expenses and our liabilities. The assets and liabilities really haven’t changed much. Here’s a quick rundown of the major stuff: House: $340K Lake House: $155K Toyota Truck: $9K Honda CRV: $24K Boat: $8K Yamaha Quad: $4.5K
Karl Rabeder has decided that all of his money is making him miserable. Here is an excerpt from the article: The tipping point came while he was on a three-week holiday with his wife to islands of Hawaii. "It was the biggest shock in my life, when I realised how horrible, soulless and without feeling the five star lifestyle is," he said. "In those three
With all of the attention on Haiti the last few days and the powerful destructive capabilities of an earthquake, it’s probably worth asking the question whether you should buy earthquake insurance. For years I questioned whether we should have the insurance and I felt as if I was living on the edge a bit. For those of you that haven’t spent much time reading through
Over the last couple of years we’ve developed a friendship with an older man that owns a number of homes out near our lake house. He is retired and lives off of rental income from approximately 15-20 rental homes he owns. Fred still owns every house he’s ever purchased. The majority of these rentals are in Seattle and most are in lower income neighborhoods where
I’m not sure how long Mint.com has had this feature but I just noticed it today. Now you can add assets like real estate, vehicles and any other valuable assets you have. You can even associate an asset (like a house) with a particular loan so that it calculates your equity in that asset. I found these features by clicking on the “Your Accounts” link
Okay, so that title probably sounds a little bit moronic. I don’t think anyone can avoid the fraud we’ve seen on Wallstreet over the years. Here are a few of my favorites: Enron Worldcom Madoff Mortgage Securities It seems that the only limit to the amount of fraud on Wall street is people’s ability to imagine it. From energy manipulation to massive Hedge fund ponzi