A recent article posted on Yahoo! Finance written by Investopedia called Retirement Saving Through The Ages offered the usual 20-something advice for retirement.  Basically, start young.  Let’s look at what was said more closely and offer some response.
Think about it this way: If you’re 25 years old and you want to save up $1 million by the age of 65, you’d only have to invest $85 a month at a 12 percent annual return. If you wait until 35 to start saving for retirement, you’d have to put away $286 …

Readers of this blog know that the media and the changes that the internet is forcing upon journalism is a trend that I’m continuing to watch.  Rupert Murdoch of News Corp, despite being up there in years, is one of the main forces driving some of these changes.  He is a fascinating force in the industry.
In a recent post, Will Search Engines Pay For Content [November 23, 2009], I talked about how Murdoch is contemplating banning his content from Google in order to prevent “free access” to the news that …

There is a myriad of content on the web about article marketing and how it is key to driving traffic to blogs, sites and niche sites all in an effort to generate income.  I’ve embarked on my own experiment in order to determine the effectiveness myself.  Click here to read my original post on the subject.
Niche Sites
I’ve deployed a few niche sites after doing some research on specific niches to target according to the mainstream niche site rules (low competition, high search volume).  I then generate some decent content for …

After moving higher this morning, the market has retrenched, failing to secure the new highs.  While the Dow has made new highs recently, the S&P continues to struggle to breach and stay above the 1110 mark.  Furthermore, the Russell 2000 is in worse shape, well off its previous highs.  This indicates the rally is being led by fewer and fewer stocks, namely the blue chips that make up the Dow.  Normally, you could assume that these facts mean an end to the rally is coming, but these days… who knows.
There …

Gold is starting to get more attention as it settles above the $1,110/oz. level.  The most common question regarding gold right now is whether it should be bought now or are you too late?  I’m going to lay out the potential scenarios that I think could happen, which ones I think are more likely to occur and what each means for the price of gold.
Stagflation
This ugly situation combines a stagnant economy with an inflationary environment.  This is definitely a disastrous scenario as it means high unemployment, stagnant wages combined with …

I’ve decided to map out what the various stages of financial growth might look like.  Most of us fall into one of the stages as shown below, at least a version of one of the stages.
Stage 1: Square One
The first stage can be depicted by either one of the following two charts.   Each chart shows someone who spends everything they earn.  The chart on the top shows someone who spends more than what they earn by borrowing the extra funds needed for his or her lifestyle.
To explain the charts further, …

For the objective minds and non-brainwashed folks who are curious about the economy, one thing is clear, this recession is different.  The insane hole of debt that we were tethered to when we began this recession has only grown.  The results of this increase in debt can be debated but there are definitely no clear signs that we’re actually on the road to real recovery.
The path ahead at least for the next couple years seems to be clear.  More stimulus, more printing of money, more quantitative easing, more government incentives …

Paying off one’s mortgage is a subject that is debated all the time.  You can easily make a case for each side of the argument.  Since it’s pretty much a 50/50 argument, your choice should depend on your situation.  So, let’s talk about my situation.  I have an obscenely low rate of 4.75% on a 30 year fixed mortgage after re-financing earlier this year.  Even with such a low rate, I still have the desire to have it paid off.  It’s just a matter of how fast and how to …