How to ruin your investment porfolio (Part II: Technical Analysis)
Investing

How to Ruin Your Investment Portfolio (Part II: Technical Analysis)

Humans are by nature impatient. At the supermarket counter, we’d constantly look into our watches when several people are queued ahead of us. If we’re in a hurry, we’d drive to another store even if it takes much longer to get there. And if we actually do, we’d honk on a car in front of us, at some stoplight along the way if the driver hesitates to proceed for safety.

How to Ruin Your Investment Portfolio Part I
Investing

How to Ruin Your Investment Portfolio (Part I: Day Trading)

Almost everyone has heard of Aesop’s parable of “The Tortoise and the Hare”. In a nutshell, the story goes like this… There once was a hare who bragged about how fast he can run. Tired of the hare’s boastful behavior, the tortoise, challenges him to a race. The hare soon …

Stock Market is like Climate Change: Keep your Eye on the Man, not the Dog
Investing

Stock Market is like Climate Change: Keep your Eye on the Man, not the Dog

In episode 12 of the fascinating science mini-series, Cosmos, Neil deGrasse Tyson explains why meteorologists suck at predicting the weather. He goes on to explain the difference between weather and climate. “Weather is what the atmosphere does in the short term, hour to hour, day to day. Weather is chaotic, …

Visualizing Worst and Best Days of the Dow
Investing

Visualizing the Best and Worst Days of the Dow

“Dow falls 832 points in the third-worst day by points ever” was the headline last Thursday on CNN Business. The media loves to sensationalize declines in the stock market, like any other news topic. The increase in readership almost always results in increases in advertising revenue. But the truth is the …

Achieving Financial Freedom through Investing
Financial Planning
9

How He Achieved Financial Freedom by Smart Investing

The term Financial Freedom is often used interchangeably with Financial Independence. But to me, there’s a subtle difference– Financial Freedom is a step higher than being financially independent. That’s when you can splurge on first-class airline tickets as opposed to traveling in coach, where strangers might end-up snoring on your …

Why you probably don't want to trade options
Investing
2

The Opportunity Cost of Claiming $2,500 Worth of Property

Sometimes I wonder if I deserve to blog about personal finance. I’ve made too many embarrassing money mistakes in my life–  I would suffocate if I had to re-enact the number of times I have face-palmed myself. Here I was, declaring myself to be on a mission to educate broke …

Investing
4

Have No Fear, Market Crashes Will Always Be Here!

While I don’t believe that a bear market is coming, one big lesson from the last two recessions is that it can’t hurt to be prepared. Crashes will always come and go. Whether it’s six months or six years from now, nobody knows. The prospect of me becoming a thousandaire …

Investing
3

Thoughts About Bitcoin

I’ve recently started a Facebook group for this blog where members are encouraged to ask any question about money. Out of the blue, one member asked about Bitcoin. In an effort not to monopolize the forum, I waited several hours. But nobody was keen on answering the question. I eventually ended up …

My wife posing at the Jersey shore.
Investing
1

The Real Cost of Buying that 65″ TV

Earlier this morning, I sold a mutual fund that I held for 15 long years– Laudus International MarketMasters Fund™ (ticker symbol SWOIX). As the name suggests, the fund invests in shares of companies outside the United States. It falls under Morningstar’s “Foreign Large Growth” category because the fund manager’s focus is …

Asset allocation

9-11 Portfolio

The week ending 9-11 was somewhat catastrophic as global equities and emerging-markets tumbled by at least 2%. Dow Jones index was down by 394 points, while the S&P 500 fell by 53 points. It was the biggest rout since Britain voted to secede from the European Union. The previous two months have been …