international

Whether planning a vacation, a business trip or a getaway to see family, traveling is a very expensive, yet important part of life. In this article, I’ll share some ideas to help you find ways to save money when booking a flight, hotel, and rental car to make your experience less stressful and lighter on [...]

Given recent economic news, more and more investors are turning to gold as a way to preserve the value of their financial portfolio. Gold has traditionally been considered a safe haven for investment, since it tends to maintain its value during times of economic crisis and upheaval. Gold is an especially good hedge against inflation [...]

Both federal and private bodies help students pay for their schooling in the form of loan, which is a twenty-first century tool available to every student in need of tuition money. This one-stop panacea assists students especially those from low-income families reach the height of their professional dreams. Student loan interest rate is considerably lower [...]

Most people go on vacation with expectations of a non-stop extravaganza or with the hopes of an interruption-free solitude. That’s what I call setting yourself up for failure. Neither of those two is going to happen. We both know it. Whether you are envisioning a week of beach lounging and Pina Coladas or a week [...]

There are many free budgeting software online today. I even reviewed a few like Mint and Quicken Online. Honestly, it would be impossible for me to review them all because there are just too many. However, I came across BudgetPulse through one of my regular reader, Craig Kessler. I was impressed by the software and [...]

Should I get back into the stock market? You might be asking yourself this question if you had bailed out during the recent market downturn and watched it climbed almost 30% in March. I don’t blame you if you got out. Many people developed their investment strategy while the stock market was doing well, and [...]

I am thrilled with the announcement made by the New York’s 529 College Savings Program today. They finally decided to add an international investment option to their 529 Direct Plan. This new investment is called the Developed Markets Index Portfolio, which invest 100% in Vanguard Institutional Developed Markets Index Fund.
I think this is a really good [...]

In this Ask the Expert with Larry Swedroe article, Rob observed that none of the alternative investments provided sufficient risk reduction to soften the impact of the current Bear Market. Diversification doesn’t seem to be working. What went wrong? Here’s the question from Randy:
Dear Larry,
I’m reading your book, The Only Guide to Alternative Investments You’ll [...]

In this Ask The Expert With Larry Swedroe article, the reader, Murali, is wondering if she could use the Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT) to simplify and diversify her investment portfolio.  Vanguard is known for its high quality and low cost investment products, and the Total World Stock ETF should provide most of the [...]

Net Worth Review
The S&P 500 gained +0.8% in December and went from 896.24 to 903.25. But for a full year, the S&P 500 dropped -38.5% from 1468.36 to 903.25 — ouch!  According to NetworthIQ, my net worth rose +3.44% and my net investable assets increased +6.54%.

Highlights

Home value actually went up slightly in December, but for [...]