J.C.’s Money Blog

I was trying to explain why the interest rate on my savings account dropped the day after I opened my new online savings account, and how it was directly rated to the fact the Fed cut interest rates. Since I couldn’t offer a cohesive explanation of why, that means I don’t really understand it myself.
So I’ve started [...]

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I chose to read this book, because it was laying around the house, and the title caught my interest. Reading a free book seems like a no risk venture…the only thing I had to lose is a few hours of reading. A perfect fit for the book title.The book is made up of numbered strategies, [...]

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Ahh, the world markets are tumbling on subprime mortgage crisis fears. Excellent.
I just opened a savings account at ING Direct, and I was planning on setting up my emergency and car fund there, but I decided to send half the money to Scottrade, so I can snatch up some more shares of America’s top 500 [...]

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In a previous post, I mentioned that a liquid net worth of $1 million represents financial freedom to me, because you can earn as much as the average American purely from interest. Unfortunately, due to the effects of inflation, your $1 million won’t be enough to keep you afloat forever, if you want to keep [...]

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My lifelong goal is to save up $100 million. This may seem ridiculous, but it’s not really. I am about to turn 30, and I want to achieve my goal by the time I turn 75. That gives me 45 years of compounding to make it happen.
Because I quit just my job this year, my goal for [...]

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The market took a big dip yesterday, so I put in a market order for another 7 shares of SPY. Got in at $134.20, and the market has been going down since. Oh well. I still think the I’m in at a good price.
This brings my holdings in SPY to 67 shares.
Earlier, I wrote about [...]

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I just set up my Microsoft Money file to tally up my spending for the month. Ouch! I estimated I could live on about $500 this month, but after only 12 days, I have already managed to spend over $500. I had some unexpected expenses to the tune of about $150, and I also blew [...]

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I have a Bank of America Keep the Change savings accont. If you don’t know about it, it works as following: You need a checking account and a savings account with Bank of America. When you enroll in the program, every time you make a purchase with your debit/ATM card, the amount charged is rounded [...]

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I turned in my resignation from my job last week but have offered to help out for a bit longer than usual, so that I can tie up some loose ends, and so that my employer has a chance to find a replacement for me. As the news has spread to my colleagues, it is [...]

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The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle from modern physics says the following: anytime you measure something, you impact it in some minute way. So anytime you measure something, your measurements are inaccurate by some quantity of uncertainty, because the simple act of measuring it, changes it. There is some math behind it, and it is completely irrelavent [...]

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When I first heard of Dave Ramsey and his debt snowball concept, I was shocked and dismayed. How could a professional personal finance writer propose a system that costs you more money in interest than you need to pay?!
For those who don’t know about the debt snowball, it works as following:

Take all your different debt [...]

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Oh man, now that I am back in the States, I can feed my bad habit of watching the Suze Orman Show on CNBC. Her advice, while generaly very sound financial advice, is completely predictable and she delivers it in the most annoying, obnoxious fashion, which is kind of like listening to someone scratch their [...]

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