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CategoryNo, you still shouldn’t buy the dividend
Finance, like many professions stocked with men trying to impress each other, has accumulated a plethora of cliches like barnacles on the hull of a ship. Among the hoariest is the
What would you do if the risk-free rate was 7%?
While it’s a cliche to say that investors have short memories, I’m frequently surprised to realize just how short most people’s memories are:
I’m old enough to remember when the..
Washtubs, not teaspoons
A few years back, reclusive travel hacking personality Mr. Pickles started tweeting pictures of a gas pump dispensing hundreds of gallons of gas for free and asking “what am I fi..
What is, or might be, a pension crisis?
A spectre is haunting the United States — the spectre of pension crises. Since “the pension crisis” is on the lips of policy-makers around the country, I think it is well worthwh..
Social Security Benefits Chart
In 2017 the Social Security salary limit increased from $118,500 to $127,200. Social Security is taxed to the Employee and the Employer at a rate of 6.2% up to this
Where does your marginal dollar go?
On Twitter the other day I had a short exchange with Noah at Money Metagame about a question that I find fascinating: what do you do with your next dollar in
Rewards programs, ranked by reliability
One fun thing about writing a blog is that reader feedback gives you a chance to see how different ideas interact and collide. Last Friday when I wrote “While I’m
Networking is Key for Travel Hacking
This past weekend, we held a small ResellingDO Special Edition event in Las Vegas. The event, which was a ton of fun, lasted only 5 hours, however the experience was
New Banana Republic Visa Signature replaces my old Luxe card and adds new benefits
Mrs. PFD recently received a new Banana Republic card in the mail. I thought they were downgrading her since as far as I know we didn’t spend enough in 2016 to
Quick hit: new Hilton all-inclusive award pricing is great
I earn a lot of Hilton HHonors points, and I’m going to be earning even more than usual this week, so I decided to take a look at some of
The effects of late-career Social Security contributions
I’ve written before (and expect to write more) about the Social Security Administration, which is both the primary source of disability insurance for low-income workers and one o..
The advantages of prepaying for travel at a discount
I have never belonged to the “travel is free” school of travel hackers, not because I don’t think there are free or negative-cost methods of manufacturing spend (there are) or
We must decide: shall people be financially ruined by medical costs?
Since we now have a preliminary Congressional Budget Office report on the effects of the American Health Care Act, the Republican replacement for the Affordable Care Act, this se..
Over There: Investing in Germany
Today I’m introducing a new feature I’m very excited about. It’s extremely common in financial journalism and even in popular culture to see vague references to “how things work”..
How do you want to think about budgeting for your hotel stays?
I’ve written a series of posts about my preferred metric for evaluating hotel loyalty programs, which I call imputed redemption values. This is a straightforward metric that tell..
What do you think you are doing when you diversify investments?
Over the last year or so, I’ve read 20-30 books on investing, including short handbooks like The Index Card and somewhat more technical volumes like Jack Bogle’s Common Sense on ..
Why do we tax corporate profits?
There is a periodically-fashionable argument in the United States that a key obstacle to economic growth is the “double-taxation” of corporate earnings: once at the corporate lev..
Doubt, skepticism, and risk management
Late last week there was a widely-publicized deal allowing you to earn 150 Avios per dollar spent at Match.com (with follow-up here). I had an exchange on Twitter with Ralph at
The many flavors of investing activity
I’ve heard a lot of talk lately about the issue of investors and investment advisors who claim to be investing “passively” but are really just actively managing low-cost index fu..
Rebook your Hilton award reservations, but carefully
Some friends recently told me that since the latest changes to Hilton Honors went into effect they’d seen prices go down at some properties where they had existing reservations. I
Affordable Luxuries #1: candles, chocolate, car washes
Some people like luxury European automobiles, high-end kitchen ranges, and very old wine. As far as I can tell, these things are all outstanding, but they have one thing in common:
Blending earning and redemption rates
When an affiliate blogger is trying to sell you a credit card that allows you to redeem bank points against a travel purchase, they sometimes pull this fairly ingenious, if
Self-employment tip #1: use your EIN for everything
I am working on a project for my beloved readers that has quickly spiraled out of control and is taking me much more time to complete than even I had contemplated.