january effect

Before January 2009 is over, I just want to go over some of the contribution limits for retirement plans.  In particular, the ones that most people interested in are 401k and individual retirement account (IRA).  This year, there’s no change to IRA contribution limit, but 401(k) contribution limit increased from $15,500 to $16,500.

IRA Contribution Limits [...]

This is the 11th issue of the Ask The Expert column by Larry Swedroe. You can see Larry’s full biography and important disclaimer below. If you are interested in having your question answered by Larry, please send me an email via the contact page.
Now, let’s get to the questions and answers (please note that the [...]

What is the FDIC Insurance? The FDIC Insurance, or simply bank insurance, is meant to preserve and promote public confidence in the U.S. financial system by:

Insuring deposits in banks and thrift institutions for at least $250,000;
Identifying, monitoring and addressing risks to the deposit insurance funds; and
Limiting the effect on the economy and the financial system [...]

Neither one of my parents know how to invest in the stock market, and it wasn’t a part of my formal education. I had to learn everything on my own, so I know how intimidating it is for people who are new to investing. Where do I start? What do I invest in? How am [...]

A while ago, I asked the question: how much should we invest internationally? Ever since, I came to believe that I am over-weighted in U.S. equities at 72% invested. I believe that my international equities exposure should be closer to 50%, because both the U.S. Gross Domestic Product and market capitalization represents less than 50% [...]

This article was part of the Money Blog Network February 2008 Group Writing Project.
When it comes to budgeting, there are two main camps on this matter — either you swear by it, or you believe budgeting doesn’t work. For example, Nickel coined the term reverse budgeting and pretty much said he saves as aggressively [...]

Welcome to the Investors Blog Network (IBN) Festival #18. This carnival is a bi-weekly collection of commentary on personal finance, investing, and other business related topics. Articles are collected from member blogs of the Investors Blog Network (IBN).

Photo by Ken Kiser via morgueFile
Editor’s Top 5 Picks

A Great Way to Change Your Portfolio @ Free Money [...]

This is a great week for money saving ideas. On Friday, I wrote about how I saved $50 a month by switching from Time Warner to Verizon Triple Play, and then there’s a whole slew of posts about money saving ideas from the M-Network. Before I go to these posts, I just want to summarize [...]

Market timing does not work (1). However, there are still plenty of investors who believe in market timing, and a subset of these believe that January Effect and October Effect are real. In a true MythBusters‘ fashion, I did some historical data analysis and have a few statistical factoids to share with you. But first…
What [...]

I have been investing in the stock market for nearly 10 years and acquired quite a bit of experience and knowledge (mainly through making mistakes). I’ve never codified on to a piece of paper until today. Before I begin, I want to give credit where it is due. This post was inspired by  CommodityWorld.com’s Common [...]