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It's become very fashionable in certain circles to prove your intellectual and critical thinking bona fides by changing your mind about ideas in the face of evidence or arguments to the contrary. In that spirit journalist David Leonhardt wrote this summer challenge in the New York Times, and I'm perfectly game. Now I just need some suggestions. There are some obvious … [Read more...] about What should I change my mind about?

Let me state right off the bat: I love alternative investments. Today there are a huge range of opportunities to invest outside of the public markets, and I've written about some of them in the past: Wunder Capital. You can buy unsecured notes from Wunder Capital that are paid back from repayments on solar panel installation loans. Rich Uncles. Rich Uncles is … [Read more...] about How can you be paid to take risks you don’t understand?

I've been catching up on some episodes of a podcast targeted towards financial independence enthusiasts called ChooseFI. The hosts make up for a fairly rudimentary understanding of money with a ton of enthusiasm, which makes it fairly enjoyable depending on the episode. In a recent episode they started talking about car ownership, and something clicked with … [Read more...] about Is your car a cost center or a profit center?

As you may have heard, US stocks are expensive. You may even think you know what that means. Personally, I have no idea. I buy organic milk. Organic milk costs more than milk from corn-fed antibiotic cows. In other words, it's "more expensive." I buy t-shirts made by union workers in downtown Los Angeles. They cost more than t-shirts made in … [Read more...] about What should stocks cost?

I've written elsewhere about the Robinhood app and Robinhood margin accounts (branded as "Robinhood Gold"). One issue raised on the Saverocity Forum was that Robinhood's margin interest rates were high compared to those offered by Interactive Brokers, generally considered one of the cheapest sources of margin credit for retail investors. I … [Read more...] about All-in margin account rates at Robinhood and IB