Doing More With Less Since 1972

Tag: investing

Daily Reading List — May 3rd

Why Don’t People Return Their Shopping Carts? – It’s actually just poor planning coupled with laziness. Don’t give me this “kid in the car” excuse either. Lazy people and poor planners circle the parking lot looking for the spot closest to the door.

Smart people (me) try to get a spot right next to a cart return. That way, even if you have to deal with kids, you can return your cart easily. You also don’t have to deal with stray carts in the parking lot around these areas ramming into your high dollar minivan.

Think people!!!

An Accidental Discovery Could Solve Earth’s Plastic Waste Problem – Next we will have to find something that can break down all those annoying re-usable bags people have been toting to the store with them for the past few years. ‘Cause those are all going to get trashed.

The Worst Places To Get Stung By A Bee: Nostril, Lip, Penis – If you happen to only have 2 of the 3 you are living a charmed life. Where’s the social justice?

How Running a Marathon Puts Your Body Through Hell – Word.

The Baby Boom Tsunami That May Drown The Economy – I’ve wondered for a while how these folks are going to pull money out of the markets while we’re all building them up. Sounds like another social security type thingy, huh?

Would America be better off if we became Norway? – We’d be happier if we were Vikings, but with central heating systems and North Face clothing.

The Origins of Overprotective Parenting – We make an effort (sometimes at the horror of The Mrs.) to keep our kids as free range as possible. And we still probably don’t do enough.

Here’s How This Shoe Will Decompose Like Food In Your Trash – I’m not sure if they were biodegradable or not, but I’ve had a few pairs of Adidas decompose on me.

Daily Reading List — January 28th

Ikea Wants You To Stop Throwing Away Your Ikea Furniture – Good…'cause I've got some stuff that needs to be traded in.

Staging Servers Must Die

Tear up your IT support SLAs – There's a lot of wisdom here. What if we looked at customer service first, then built the SLAs around them?

How These Parents Work And Homeschool Too – Maybe I'm just being difficult here, but…

Do parents who work and send their kids to school not teach their kids stuff?

Why not just say we're going to learn all the time and leave it at that?

#unschool

Security Firm Sued Over Alleged Failure To End Casino Cyberattack

The Best Podcasts For Kids – Thinking of starting one that consists of nothing but screams, parrot noises, and requests for band-aids. Kids really seem to enjoy that stuff.

MGM to bring parking fees to Vegas Strip – Where are we going? And why am I in this hand basket?

How to Feel Safe in Stocks When the Market Seems Dangerous – Step 1: have an over-sized bucket filled with safe assets. I'll come back and pick up at Step 2 when I feel like that bucket is big enough and full enough.

Daily Reading List — January 16th

How Much Time Does it Take to Finish a Half Ironman 70.3? – Nothing like feeling very average, then reading an article like this and finding out you are very average. #SomethingMustChangeIn2013

10 Questions About Investing In Index Funds – I like the set-it-and-forget-it aspect of index investing. If it's good enough for a rib roast or a whole chicken, it's good enough for me.

We Need A Unified Search AI – People removing 'likes' and other info about themselves on Facebook in 3,2,1…

They won't be rushing over to G+ to tell them about it either.

The Eight Basic Run Types – A nice reference with short descriptions of each type. Easy to digest!

Comparison of Roth IRAs and Your Current Residence

Assumption: you bought your current residence as an investment with the intent of selling it for a profit at some point.

Paper Street Soap Investment
Paper Street Soap Investment Property

Similarities

  • Both are purchased with after tax money
  • No capital gains taxes due when the gains are realized
  • Not taxable as income when the gains are realized
  • No guaranteed rate of appreciation
Differences
  • Roth IRA has a $5k/year limit on how much you can invest, but your home doesn’t
  • You can’t touch the gains of your Roth without penalty until you are 59.5, but you can get the gains from your residence whenever you choose without penalty
  • While you aren’t guaranteed appreciation in either vehicle, if your home has a mortgage you are guaranteed a percentage of interest savings by paying down (investing) the principal early. True, you lessen the tax deduction on the interest, but does it really make sense to pay the bank $100 so that you don’t have to pay the gov’ment $25 anyway?
  • Any improvement-type investments you make into your home (for instance, a foreclosure that needed a lot of work) can be enjoyed by you immediately while you wait for the market to appreciate and can also help you sell quickly and for a higher price later on.
What am I missing here? I’m not a financial professional…just something I was thinking.

Investing for Triathletes

During yesterday’s market tumble, I saw this tweet from @lokibeat…

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/lokibeat/statuses/100660260204843008″]

It made me chuckle, but it also made me think of a couple of things triathletes and runners can hopefully relate to. First of all, the practical…

I prefer to think of dips in the market the same way I do water stops. At first glance, water stops cost me time in races because I walk them. But the truth is, water stops gain me time because I walk them. Walking the water stops gives me a chance to take in a lot more fluid than I could if I tried to run through them. That fluid is an investment in my total race. So I think of dips in the market as a chance to buy more of the same thing I was buying a couple of weeks ago at a discount. We’re talking about investing, not trading, right? It’s a ironman/marathon, and I’m not selling next week whether the market is up or down.

Secondly, @lokibeat is right…it is more about the trip than it is the destination. I think a lot of us enjoy the day-in-day-out training more than we do crossing the finish line at a race. Even on race day, when we say we “had fun”, we’re talking about the entire race…not just the finish line.

So chill out, walk the water stops, and take in as much fluid as you can while someone’s there to hand it to you.

And you might as well go ahead and make friends with the pain for now. You’ll feel better in a few miles.

Stuff You Should See– August 19th through August 26th

Grilled Cheese Academy – A real education

Financial Illiteracy Is Killing Us – Seriously, are there any non-profits focused on teaching financial literacy to kids? I will volunteer to help.

Tooth Regeneration Gel Could Replace Painful Fillings – Just ordered up some jelly beans to celebrate this news.

Facebook Places vs. Foursquare – Foursquare has a game/awards (kinda). The question with FB places is “why?”. Then again, you could probably ask that question about 90% of the content there.

Furman’s FIRST Running Program – No. Junk. Miles.

Lifehacker: Our List of the Best Android Apps – Already using most, so I’m linking to this mostly to validate my choices.

“I think the Internet is the most dangerous thing invented since the atomic bomb” –John Mellencamp – Sounds like Johnny Cougar doesn’t like having his cheese moved.

What Should I Do About My Virtual Life After Death? – Adding this to my list. It’s pretty far down, but on there nonetheless.

Real Estate’s Gold Rush Seems Gone for Good – hmph

Moving on – An early shot fired against book publishing. There will be more.

Fake Drink Spills save seats – Genius!

Lottery Ticket Art – Don’t throw away those scratch off tickets…you could still be a big winner!

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