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Five Cent Nickel

Written by a man who has been meticulously recording his finances since 1997 (stored in Quicken), Five Cent Nickel is one of the oldest and most respected blogs around. This blog often provides great commentary on—and summaries of—useful financial tips featured by other publications. If you’re too lazy to read every little money article out there, just stop by Five Cent Nickel and get the cream of the crop.

Latest Posts from Five Cent Nickel (page 7)

Don’t Forget These Documents When Preparing Your Taxes

Published Monday, February 11, 2013 - 14:34 by Five Cent Nickel

Over the weekend, I spent some time pulling together all of our tax-related documents. While we no longer do our own taxes, I still have to spend a bit of time organizing things before dropping them off with our tax guy. For the most part, this is a straightforward process. […]

Lending Club Update – February 2013

Published Friday, February 8, 2013 - 23:00 by Five Cent Nickel

It’s been six months since I last updated the performance of my (dwindling) Lending Club portfolio. As a reminder, we’re in the process of winding down our holdings there. We’re down to less than $700, from roughly $10k at the peak. It’s been awhile since I’ve updated our Lending Club performance so I thought I’d share some details. […]

2013 Roth IRA Contributions Complete

Published Friday, February 8, 2013 - 21:15 by Five Cent Nickel

Long-time readers will know that I’m a big fan of funding our Roth IRAs through the proverbial backdoor. What I mean by this is circumventing the Roth IRA contribution limits by contributing to a traditional IRA and converting it to a Roth shortly thereafter. […]

Skip the Gym, Save the Bucks

Published Thursday, February 7, 2013 - 21:59 by Five Cent Nickel

Our younger son has been going to a gym in town with some friends. He gets in using a guest pass from one of the others. We are a little embarrassed that he’s the only one without his own membership, so I looked into the cost of joining… Unbelievable! […]

Bye Bye, Saturday Mail Delivery

Published Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - 14:31 by Five Cent Nickel

I’ve written in the past about the financial difficulties that the US Postal Service has been dealing with. They’ve been raising stamp prices annually, they’ve closed a bunch of locations, and have been looking for more ways to save. Despite these changes, they’re still bleeding money. […]

Tales of the Retireless

Published Tuesday, February 5, 2013 - 20:47 by Five Cent Nickel

The woman to my right at the table was beautiful; striking smooth grey hair, an elegant style of dress that I admired and would happily have copied. At one point when I asked her to introduce herself — I was leading a workshop on promoting books through social media. It was then that I learned that she was 70 — I had assumed she was in her sixties. […]

Anatomy of a Stock Market Cycle

Published Monday, February 4, 2013 - 13:03 by Five Cent Nickel

Believe it or not, stocks have been enjoying a bullish run for nearly four years. In fact, the Dow topped 14,000 for the first time since 2007 and is near it’s all-time intraday high 14,198 which happened during October 2007. Of course, as I write this the markets are in retreat, and there is much hand-wringing about where the market is headed from here. […]

Rules for New Homebuyers

Published Friday, February 1, 2013 - 19:35 by Five Cent Nickel

While cleaning out some old bookmarks, I ran across a link to one of Ron Lieber’s articles on home buying from back in 2009. In it, he discusses seven rules for first-time homebuyers. And even though the article is a few years old, it’s still relevant. Start with the basics For starters, put 20% down on your house. […]

Deeply Downsized Domiciles

Published Thursday, January 31, 2013 - 18:40 by Five Cent Nickel

I wasn’t exactly born yesterday. But among the misty watercolor memories clouding my brain pan, I retain a clear memory of the kind of homes that many middle-class people lived in way back in my 1960s-era childhood. They often were very small. […]

Amex Blue Cash Everyday and Preferred Card Signup Bonuses

Published Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - 13:00 by Five Cent Nickel

This is just a quick note to let you know that the Blue Cash Everyday Card from American Express and Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express are currently offering signup bonuses. For the Blue Cash Everyday card, you can earn 100 Reward Dollars after making $1,000 in purchases within the first three months of cardmembership. This card offers 3% cash back at U.S. […]