rate of inflation

If you have kids, you probably know that only health care cost increases can compete with the inflation seen by education costs. This means that you are probably going to need to do what you can to help your child get the college financial aid that he or she needs. Even if you have been [...]

When it comes to long term investing, I believe that you should focus more on dividend yields and cash flow versus speculation and share price appreciation. While this might mean avoiding sexy names like Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN), there is nothing unsexy about constant cash flow with regards to your assets.

Photo from stock.xchnge
Dividend Income [...]

I’m a firm believer that your 20s is the most important decade of your life financially.  This was a driving reason on why I chose to start my blog 20smoney.com.  This is a crucial decade; unfortunately, it is often the most abused decade as well.  Rather than saving, investing, and building a career, many 20-somethings [...]

With the recent stock market crash, many people are understandably wary about investing. Concerns about the volatility of the stock market, and the prospect of losses during downturn, have convinced many that stock investing is not for them. However, “safer” investments like cash and bonds may not provide the needed returns for your portfolio to [...]

During the huge bull, too many of us got too caught up in considering the implications of the first important reality. If stocks offer better returns, then investing in stocks gets you to retirement faster. That really is so and that really is important. But to make investing choices that will work for the long [...]

The following article contains information about the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)’s officially released 2009 federal income tax brackets. You’ll need this information to prepare and file your 2009 tax return in early 2010. To the extent that the information in this article helps summarize the changes in Federal Income Tax, you should consult the official [...]

There are two rules often cited by investors that sound similar but that in fact make very different claims. In this article, I’ll describe the differences between the two rules — the Multiply-by-25 Rule and the 4-Percent Rule.
The Multiply-by-25 Rule
The purpose of The Multiply-by-25 Rule is to tell an investor how much he needs to [...]

Even financially responsible people do get into trouble and fall into debt. The most common cause is being insufficiently prepared for financial emergencies — perhaps an unexpected sickness or a sudden job loss. As such, having an emergency fund is a vital part of having a good financial health, and is an important step in [...]

“When should I take Social Security?” is the first question everyone faces when contemplating retirement. More than 50% of all men and women start taking benefits at 62. By age 66, well over 90% of all men and women are taking benefits according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
The Break Even Approach
The [...]

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 [...]