investments

Buy-and-Hold Investing: 4 Ways to Make It More Effective

The media is saying buy and hold is dead thanks to some fuzzy math and misinterpretation of what "long term" means. But here are four strategies that can turn buy and hold from a b

Optimize Your IRA and 401(k)

Your IRA and 401(k) (or 403(b) if you work for a non-profit) are great tools for deferring taxes, and have other advantages as well. But because they're labeled "retirement" accou

Tactics of the rich

There are things the rich do that working class and middle class folks don't. Some of them--living off the return on capital rather than wages or salary--are only available to the

Is There Such a Thing as Risk-Free Investing?

Most definitions for “investing” indicate that the term is used to describe money that is invested with an expectation of profit. This definition determines that an investment does

Plan for your wants

Budgets tend to focus on needs--food, shelter, heat, light, transportation, and (of course) taxes. They also provide for wants, but generally the smaller, shorter-term wants--cabl

Book review: Cash-Rich Retirement

Do you need a kick in the pants to get you saving for retirement?  Do you need someone to wave their arms and run around screaming that your whole future is at risk, in order to mo

Best asset allocation for your portfolio

This is the first Wise Bread post that I've been afraid to write. I've thought about it many times, but haven't even gotten as far as making notes until today, when I

Insured Annuities for Wise Bloggers

You (or somebody you know) can have your cake and eat it too utilizing the Insured Annuity concept. It's a way to provide a guaranteed tax-preferred lifetime income while guarantee

Mutual Funds for Wise Bloggers

I know that Wise Bloggers are smart readers, so you might already know everything there is to know about mutual funds. However I have come across many very smart people who don't a

Gold as an investment

There are those who point to the 1980 peak gold price of $850/oz and observe that the price would have to go up to $2149/oz just to get back to that point. I say, take a second lo

Credit squeeze (formerly know as a panic)

There used to be a particular financial event called a panic. [more]