The market sold off in the last minutes of the last trading day today.  I imagine all the fund managers selling off in unison in order to preserve their performance numbers for the year.  Either way, the markets finished 2009 as follows:

Dow: up 19% for the year
S&P: up 23.5% for the year
Nasdaq: up 22% for the year

From the March lows, all indices are up 60+%.  What a year in stocks.  I missed most of the run in many areas due to my overall pessimism with the economy.  Just shows how …

Running through some of the recent headlines…
Unemployment Picture
Today, we had glee from reporters that the initial unemployment claims dropped.  As Zerohedge reports (and continuously reports), nobody is reporting on the huge spike in EUC claims which are Emergency Unemployment Compensation.  Sure, new initial claims might be slowing, but the emergency claims are spiking showing that more and more people are staying unemployed longer and longer.  Not necessarily a sign of a booming economy.
Bailouts Continue…
On Christmas Eve, we learned that the government is writing a blank check to cover losses at …

The opportunities are huge when it comes to selling information based products. Since creating 10 copies or 10,000 copies of the information costs the same, the profitability is very high if you have a high selling information product. The cost of an information product is simply your time, the time required to create the information.
It’s worth noting that most information products do not sell. Your information product must be written with a level of expertise or a high level of knowledge or experience, or it must be …

There are millions of people looking to launch a successful blog.  Some are looking for income, some a voice.  When it comes to success in both the traffic and income areas, there is no free lunch.  I’ve searched websites for years now looking for that key to blogging success.  That key that will put my blog on the fast track to thousands of daily readers and thousands of advertising dollars each month.  There is no such thing.  There is no free lunch.
There are no big keys to a successful blog, …

There is a big part of me that hopes to eventually “work from home”. While the point of it isn’t really to work out of my house, but rather it is to have a more flexible work style and to save money by working at home. I estimate the following ways I could save money by working from home:

Hair cut: $20 / month (If I worked at home, I would buzz my head myself and save the money)
Work Attire: $300 / year or $25 / month
Dry Cleaning: $50 …

Economic growth is a tough idea to fathom right now when it comes to Iraq.  Iraq is still fighting mightily to maintain security.  Without security, it’s tough to make economic progress.  From continuous research, even though the explosions and periodic deaths capture the majority of the headlines, there is real progress happening in Iraq.
I believe there is reason to believe that sometime in the future Iraq might enjoy a strong growing economy.  There are three major factors here:

Continuing progress with security issues
Oil exports
A highly educated population

Thankfully, there is progress being …

Christmas is a great time of year.  Time to enjoy the people around you, family and friends.  Time to forget about money, finances, the stock market, crappy jobs, and just enjoy the blessings in life.  I have countless blessings and am very thankful for them.
Thanks for reading my blog, and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.  There will be new content posted immediately after Christmas.
Merry Christmas!

I would guess that 99.9% of investors cheer a stock market rally. After all, we’re getting wealthier! Is this really the best situation? What if you’re 25 years old and are planning to hold stocks for 40 years? I would make the argument that you want stocks to go lower. Why? Because you’re in an accumulation phase.
No matter if you’re a 401(k) investor or an individual investor, if you’re looking at long term investing, there are two phases. Accumulation and Selling. During …