Can Shrinking Yields Be a Good Sign?

Aug 27 2015Feb 15 2010 by Fin Engr

Over the past year, how many times did you log into your accounts, turn on the TV, or read the newspaper – only to find your interest yield as gone down?

For most people, this can be a disheartening situation since it means less money in your pocket.

But what if it meant the opposite?

Which Way Are You Outsourcing?

Aug 27 2015Feb 04 2010 by Fin Engr

Over at MBA Briefs, David’s hard at work honing the site’s focus. An interesting guy with a military & business background, he sent me a quick note mentioning how he plans to look more at personal finance as a business. I really liked the idea, and have been thinking about how many lessons could be taken from successful organizations.

One of his more recent articles, David explores the idea of “outsourcing” our personal lives in an effort to show that doing everything ourselves isn’t always in our best interest.

Well, I agree… but to an extent. Ever since reading that article, I’ve been thinking about what we outsource.

Then it hit me. It depends on WHAT you are outsourcing.

Outsourcing can mean a lot of things. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so I made a diagram to visually explain what I’m getting at.

What’s Wrong With “Green”

Oct 07 2010Jan 31 2010 by Fin Engr

Last night I posted an interesting article on considering “end of life” costs when calculating your retirement savings. Afterward, I started thinking about my recent posts and realized there may be an unintended trend emerging.

If you’ve been reading my articles, there’s a certain “negative” vibe to each of them. On the surface it may appear I’m a NO kind of guy and my aim is to tell you everything that’s wrong.

This could not be farther from the truth.

First, set age to retire. Second, set age to die.

Sep 01 2015Jan 31 2010 by Fin Engr

I debated whether it was in my interest to post such a morbid topic so early in my blogging career, but decided it’s an important consideration people should think about.

Life is dynamic, and retirement is no different. When people first determine how much they need to retire, they have to make some baseline assumption of how long they plan on living. Even if its not an exact age, they have to make some guess at a range.

This is silly because you don’t know for sure exactly how long you’re actually going to live.

With the potential advances in healthcare, it’s likely I’ll live into my 100s. How can I say this?