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This guide may have started out with 20 resources, but there are many more now. If you are have your own business or are thinking about starting one - this appears to be a gold mine.
Archive for June, 2007
20 Great Resources on Entrepreneurship
Published November 30th, 2006 in Entrepreneurship. 0 CommentsOne Income, Two Retirements
Published November 30th, 2006 in Investing - General and Women and Money. 0 CommentsOne Income, Two Retirements - seems to be a thing of the past. Most families need both husband and wife working to make ends meet. The concept, however, is still applicable as spouses move in and out of the workforce for numerous reasons.
Source: Business Week Online
IRAs for nonworking spouses let you build your own nest egg — and in many cases, the contribution will be tax-deductible
Spouses drop out of the workforce for all sorts of reasons — to rear children, write a novel, or just get away from it all. Such noble pursuits have one serious drawback, however: Often, they mean leaving behind company-provided retirement-saving plans. Also, individual retirement accounts, 401(k) plans, and Social Security benefits are generally geared toward providing retirement income to people who earn salaries. Couples that include one working and one nonworking spouse face funding two retirements out of one income. And that challenge is magnified if something happens to the employed partner — as was the case with many families affected by the September 11 terrorist attacks.
All of these are good reasons to plan ahead for every contingency. When it comes to retirement, that means creating and contributing to a spousal IRA — starting right now. The spousal IRA allows a married spouse who files jointly to contribute $2,000 a year to both his and her IRAs, as long as the working spouse earns at least $4,000 a year. This type of IRA can be either a traditional plan funded with pretax dollars if the contributor is eligible or a Roth IRA funded with aftertax dollars.
Risks in Real Estate Investing to Fund College
Published November 30th, 2006 in Real Estate and Personal Finance 101. 0 CommentsHere is some solid advice from Jeff Brown of Philly . com on the pros and cons of saving for college by buying and renting a condo versus investing a decent mutual fund.
Before making the comparison, he offers some solid Real Estate investing advice:
- I know people who have invested successfully in real estate. They tend to be folks who enjoy managing properties and are glad to put in many hours every week.
- One of them recently told me the best piece of advice he’d ever received: In real estate, you make your profit when you buy. In other words, picking the right property and getting it at a good price is the key. You need a solid rental income and good appreciation.
- Much is made of the tax benefits that come with investment property. Mortgage interest payments, maintenance, and other expenses are generally deductible on federal income tax returns, for instance. Don’t get seduced. If you pay a plumber $200 and get $40 back from Uncle Sam, you’re still out $160.
The comparison:
- Any profit you make when the property is sold, assuming you’ve had it more than 12 months, would be taxed as a long-term capital gain, at a rate no higher than 15 percent. That sounds good. But it’s not as good as one easy alternative: investing in a state-sponsored Section 529 college-savings plan. With these, all investment gains are tax-free if used to pay for education.
- With a 529 plan, you know the money will be available when you need it, while money tied up in a rental property might be hard to get at.
- And with a 529 plan, there won’t be any late-night calls from unhappy tenants. You’ll be able to spend your Saturdays and Sundays at the soccer field or ballet studio - not with your face under a dripping drain.
From his perspective a 529 college savings plan is a hands-down winner.
Main Stream Thinking Will Not Lead to Financial Freedom
Published November 29th, 2006 in Financial Freedom and Absolute Must Reads. 4 CommentsIf main stream thinking would lead to financial freedom - wouldn’t there be many more financially free people? Most of us are taught to go to school - get a good job and climb up the corporate ladder. How many that have followed that path are financially free? It is hard to tell, because there are many different definitions of financial freedom. If I were to make a guess - I would guess that fewer than 5% of the people in the U.S are financially free. I would also guess that very few of those became financially free by climbing the corporate ladder.
I submit that your chance of becoming financially free employing mainstream thinking is fairly slim. If we can agree on that fact, then the converse must be true. In other words, your chances are greatly improved by going against the grain or thinking differently than the masses. Now, that doesn’t mean that you will become financially free, but your probability of success is increased.
Since I realize this fact and believe it I am constantly seeking words of wisdom from the contrarians. A contrarian is someone who takes the opposite position or attitude. An investor who buys stock when most others are selling is a contrarian. How else can you buy low and sell high? Stocks are only at their lowest point when no one wants to buy. The real estate market was red-hot in 2004, because everyone wanted to buy or trade up. Contrarians sold and are renting now.
Some of my favorite contrarians are:
- Ron Paul - Politician
- Jim Puplava, Peter Schiff - Money Managers
- Marc Faber, Jim Rogers - Investors
- Nouriel Roubini - Economist
I read these people often are regularly.
How I Would Have Blown a Housing Bubble? - If I Had Done It
Published November 28th, 2006 in Economics. 0 CommentsFortunately, the world was spared from O.J. Simpson’s book “If I had done it.” Unfortunately Alan Greenspan’s book with the same title has already been published and is climbing up the best sellers’ lists. Ron Peebles describes in a somewhat humorous manner Greenspan’s contributions to our biggest bubble to date - the housing bubble.
Source: Prudent Bear . com
by Ron Peebles
People are always asking me about bubbles. Like do I believe in bubbles? And how do you blow them?
Well, I’m not sure I have all the answers on bubbles. I’m just a former central banker who spending his twilight years playing bridge and looking at the correlation coefficients of economic variables. Typical retirement stuff. So when it comes to bubbles, I don’t know. A few years ago Beannie Babies got a little out of hand, but you know, the market is the market and who’s to say what’s a fair price?
Back in the day, some people thought I had the power to make things happen, you know, like I was Bono or something. If you want to know the truth, I spent a lot of time sitting around a big table shuffling boring academic papers and wondering why the hell we couldn’t get some decent coffee.
Dennis Gartman’s Not-So-Simple Rules of Trading
Published November 28th, 2006 in Investing - General and Trading School. 1 CommentLast Monday shareholders of Phelps Dodge, a member of the Big-Build Out portfolio, received an early Christmas present. Freeport McMoran placed a bid to buy the company at a 27% premium. Instantly all shareholders were 27% richer, simultaneously all shorts were 27% poorer. This was a big news story, so CNBC reporters went to work. Later on that day, Dennis Gartman was interviewed on CNBC. Gartman had been betting that cooper’s run was over extended. Instead of shorting the commodity itself, he choose to short a major cooper producer (Phelps Dodge). Ouch.
Before that day, I had never heard of Dennis Gartman. Turns out that he is a well respected and well known trader. He publishes the Gartman Letter that is a must read among professional traders. He should be commended for coming on CNBC on a day in which he had taken such a pounding. So many come on that network- tout their stocks and are never heard from again. Needless to say, he lost mega-bucks on this trade. He stated that this had turned a good year into a mediocre one. I was most impressed when he said that he immediately closed his position. He didn’t try to rationalize the situation. He cut his losses and moved.
I discussed a similar situation in my article, “Navigating Thru a Trading Fiasco.” I cut bait on Enerplus Resources, a Canadian Income Trust, after the Canadian Government announced a new tax on such entities. The article generated a nice discussion - see comments to article.
I just ran across Gartman’s Not-So-Simple Rules of Trading. Each year he updates the list. I believe this is his latest and greatest. Here are my favorites: Continue reading ‘Dennis Gartman’s Not-So-Simple Rules of Trading’
Week in Review 11/24 - Wall Street Focused on Turkey
Published November 27th, 2006 in Portfolio - Updates (all). 0 CommentsIt was a slow holiday shortened week as the general market focused on Thursday’s turkey dinner. There was little activity as the S&P 500 closed up 0.1% for the week on light volume. On the other hand, commodities being world-wide resources paid little attention to Turkey day. The week started off with a bang. Freeport McMoran made a bid for Phelps Dodge. This drove Phelps stock up 27% on Monday alone. The week culminated with Gold rising sharply after taking its signal from a nose diving US Dollar. One of my favorite proxies for the gold market, CEF, closed up 3.8% on Friday.
It was a much better week for the Fab Four from “The Commodities Bull Market is Back”. The Fab was up, as a group, 6% for the week with HudBay Minerals leading the charge up 16.3%. Continue reading ‘Week in Review 11/24 - Wall Street Focused on Turkey’
Unless you are an American that travels abroad frequently, the state of the dollar isn’t something you give much thought. However, the dollar will start garnering more of your attention if there are more weeks like the past one. Last week the dollar lost 3%, 2.2%, 2% and 1.8% versus the Swiss franc, euro, British pound and Japanese yen respectivelly. These are large moves in the currency market.
Wal-Mart was one of the worst performing retailers on “Black Friday.” A weakening dollar means higher import prices. That is the last thing Wal-mart can afford now. As commodity investors, just remember that the dollar and gold have an inverse relationship. So, a weakening dollar means a strengthening gold price. Gold was true to the trend - returning 4.71% last week on the spot market. Continue reading ‘The U.S. Dollar is the Week’s Biggest Turkey’
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