Coach Coin

Moved My Blog

2006-12-15T11:01:15-08:00

Anyone who might still be reading this - I've moved to Blogger: http://coachcoin.blogspot.com/ Please update your bookmarks! Thanks!

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"Parking" Your Money

2006-07-20T10:14:29-08:00

Marketwatch's Amy Hoak wrote an interesting article on a the hidden cost of auto transport - namely parking. On average parking costs are up 10% in the US. New York, Jersey City and Hoboken are totally off the charts from my personal experirence.

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0% - 8 Months Later

2006-07-14T16:33:55-08:00

About 8 months ago, I detailed my plan to borrow $15,000 interest-free from Citi on two credit cards (one in my wife's name and one in mine). I planned to invest this money in a money market and make some free income. I called the post "0% APR Arbitrage" and ...

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American Retirement Picture Grim

2006-07-11T17:49:02-08:00

My favorite bear, Paul Farrell, sites 8 major studies, all of them pointing to about 2/3 of Americans being totally unprepared to shoulder the costs of retirement. He goes on to say, "...let's stop the charade and admit the truth. Why does America have a zero savings rate? Because America ...

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Road Trip

2006-07-09T06:51:03-08:00

"It's supposed to be a challenge, it's a shortcut! If it were easy it would just be the way." - Ruben in Roadtrip. I'm filing this post under my "Success" category because the completion of my long -planned, never-taken roadtrip is indeed a success in my books. It also doesn't ...

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Tired of Hotels.com?

2006-07-09T06:31:35-08:00

Okay, so I can get a 4-star room in NYC for $229 on Hotels.com. But, hell... I'm a frugal guy, I've been saving. What if I really want to splurge? Enter Forbes presentation of the Most Expensive Hotels in America. (I linked to the print version so you don't have ...

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Dump Big Blue

2006-05-23T10:52:47-08:00

Got this article from my friend who works at IBM. He's been saying this for a long time. If you have this stock I'd say it's making a run for the toilet sooner rather than later.

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Two Ways to Win for Value Investors

2006-05-14T13:01:48-08:00

Interesting insights from the managers of the Third Avenue Small Cap Value fund (TASCX).

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The Man who Moves Markets

2006-05-03T09:40:55-08:00

What a strange position to suddenly be promoted to a position where every word, even in a social setting, can have global economic effects. Check out what happened to Ben Bernanke.

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Retirement Asset Allocations Update

2006-04-28T12:21:45-08:00

Took some time and calculated my retirement portfolio's asset allocation percentages today.

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Reading Between the Lines

2006-04-28T11:30:37-08:00

Let's play word association. If I say "addressing risk", "volume", "manage their portfolios", and "following the trend", what do you think of? Mutual Funds, ETFs, Hedge Funds? How about credit cards?

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Disaster Recovery - Your Methods?

2006-04-28T11:19:42-08:00

I'm planning on doing a series on Disaster Recovery methods employed by our readers. I'm talking about the measures you use to make sure your personal data and paperwork/media are protected in the event of a massive emergency.

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Margin Usage

2006-04-28T11:03:45-08:00

After reading this article I am curious as to how the PFBlog readership uses margin loans outside of security buying.

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Skyscapers as Economic Signal?

2006-04-20T15:16:29-08:00

An article in the Realestate Journal quotes Carol Willis, founder of New York's Skyscraper Museum . Her insights might show an interesting metric to gauge how overheated stocks may be.

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Outsourced Personal Banking?

2006-04-17T11:57:36-08:00

I've got a friend/client who recently moved abroad to Europe. He's having a hard time with his financial transition and is thinking he might just want to keep his money in America with an American agent to manage it all for him. He asked if I'd be interested.

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Executive Compensation Gone Wild

2006-04-16T07:57:11-08:00

Marketwatch reported (quoting the NYT), "Lee Raymond, the chairman and chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corp., earned $144,573 for each day of the 13 years he served at the top of the oil company, according to a report in Saturday's New York Times."

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Guns & Butter

2006-04-16T06:04:55-08:00

Marketwatch's Greg Robb gives an interesting look at the debate over the true economic effects (registration may be required, but it's worth it for great news) of the Iraq War. The key issue for us on a personal financial level is the impact on the Fed's interest rate policy.

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Part-time Practice Part 1

2006-04-10T19:10:19-08:00

I received a note in my email recently asking about my financial planning practice and how I work part time. It said: I'm wondering if you would mind sharing your thoughts on being a part-time financial planner. I'm interested in making financial planning a part-time pursuit but I'm somewhat put-off ...

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Lawn Care Savings

2006-04-09T04:50:52-08:00

Kiplinger's Personal Finance's Sean O'Neill offered some notes recently on saving money on lawn care. Thanks to The Week for pointing this out on their Making Money page.

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Comcast Ripoff

2006-04-08T10:13:25-08:00

I got a letter this week from Comcast, our cable and internet provider. They were touting their newest service for VoIP, Comcast Voice.

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Gen Y Blows It

2006-04-08T06:16:36-08:00

Paul J. Lim noted in the New York Times, as quoted in The Week, "Youth is wasted on the Generation Y investor." Of course, that's on average and talking about 401(k) contributions, but the numbers are startling.

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The Conversion

2006-03-15T05:30:08-08:00

After a long thread of very interesting comments from some readers, I've been giving more and more thought to the task of completely converting my personal cashflow model to a more traditional set of personal financial statements.

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What's the best ratio?...

2006-02-21T17:24:23-08:00

Spoke to a client of mine today. We've done one session prior to this with a number of the standard action items from session 1 (get proper insurance, consolidate accounts, pay credit cards, etc.). In addition to mildly poking him for not sending me his list of action items (I ...

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Fantasy Investing

2006-02-16T15:48:22-08:00

A friend invited me to a fantasy investing league that he's running through MarketWatch's "Virtual Stock Exchange". It's a good time, but don't expect any lessons learned. This is tantamount to 10 months of daily gambling.

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Why I Love SLASX

2006-01-22T14:21:17-08:00

Those of you with a number of mutual funds know the overwhelming amount of paper mail you get from these companies. Most of the time there is no way to keep up with it. That said, I always read the publications from Selected Funds. The Davis Family runs the company ...

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Business Model Changes Part 2

2006-01-14T13:37:55-08:00

This is Part 2 of 2 on my Business Model Changes, prompted by a reader email. You can read Part 1 here.

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Business Model Changes Part 1

2006-01-14T13:28:21-08:00

Way back in November I received an email from a reader named Jason who wrote, "For a couple of years now I've been desiring to setup a small financial planning practice. I have no desire to pick stocks, insurance policies, etc. for people. However, what I had in mind was ...

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0% APR Followup #3

2006-01-14T12:24:33-08:00

Reader "CPA1298" commented on my 0% exploits here. I'm going to take this opportunity to dissect his points and offer my comments.

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0% APR Followup #2

2006-01-14T11:14:29-08:00

I wanted to write another followup on my 0% APR credit card experience. For the previous history read the posts here and here. I've received a lot of email and comments from readers on these posts. Before I get to those I'll offer my personal feedback about 2 months into ...

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Portfolio Rebalancing & 2006 Outlook

2006-01-09T06:56:05-08:00

The last few weeks have been spent closing the books on my personal accounts as well as my 4 business ventures. End of the year is always a fun time! However, I'm back and have been working on my yearly retirement portfolio rebalancing and reallocation. I'm not changing too much ...

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What Would Warren Do?

2005-12-18T18:33:51-08:00

Business Week sat down with Timothy Vick and asked him for his insights on the current market. Vick "sees stocks as the best investments in 2006" and he thinks "the stock market is likely to do better for investors than other vehicles for their money."

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Worst Wheels 2005

2005-12-18T18:15:23-08:00

Forbes has published their "The Worst Cars 2005". The list doesn't surprise me much, though when I read headlines like this I secretly hope for a skewering that goes farther than general crash test and quality ratings.

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What's The Deal? - Visa Buxx Cards

2005-12-02T14:40:06-08:00

Visa Buxx Cards offer check card functionality with a limited balance. They are meant for teens who want to have a credit card but whose parents are not too keen on the idea. I think they are a good tool to manage spending without going fully to credit or letting ...

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Talk To A Human Every Time

2005-11-30T14:28:14-08:00

I received this fantastic site on email today. If you are the type of person who hates talking to and keying in numbers to a computer on the phone, this is for you.

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Sage Words After The Bird

2005-11-27T16:41:11-08:00

Back from a Thanksgiving weekend today (left early to avoid NY-bound traffic from central PA). Three family dinners left me full of turkey, laughter and some sage advice from my wife's aunt Janine.

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Too Rich To Be Rich

2005-11-23T17:26:08-08:00

My word of mouth network sent me a new client a few weeks back. Basic stats are couple, mid-50s, GI of $400K. I give them credit for realizing they needed some help. They are the perfect examples of what I call "Too Rich To Be Rich".

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One Stop Perils

2005-11-23T17:06:39-08:00

Busy pre-holiday week has kept me out of the blogosphere but I have gotten some interesting comments this weeks. One of them came from "Guest" regarding my personal policy of holding all of my money at Fidelity for simplicity of record keeping.

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New Job & Raise - More Savings?

2005-11-15T18:21:23-08:00

I was pleased to receive the first paycheck from my new promotion today. I'm bringing home about $250 more per pay period (2-weeks) which represents a nice increase. Beyond that I will receive a quarterly incentive package as well assuming our company makes revenue targets.

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QQQQ vs. XLK

2005-11-15T18:04:33-08:00

I invited reader comment in my post Large Caps about a week or so back (the timestamps are wrong because of technical issues).

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Why 1% Matters

2005-11-14T06:23:38-08:00

Readers may notice a trend in my, and indeed in all, pfblog.com posts. That trend is the seemingly maniacal obsession with squeezing just one more point of interest or appreciation out of every single transaction. Clients often question my obsession with low mutual fund fees, extra points of interest, and ...

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0% APR Followup

2005-11-13T16:05:44-08:00

A comment by Puzo on my original 0% APR Arbitrage post reminded me I left something out when I made the original post. While I mentioned checking and rechecking the terms, I should have shared my method of doing so.

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The BS Starts Here

2005-11-13T11:43:11-08:00

Remember that great ad campaign Washington Mutual ran when they went fee-free on their ATMs? I thought it was quite clever - "The buck fity stops here." Looks like they fired that ad agency this week - starting 11/17 they will charge fees on all their ATMs for users from ...

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Ask Max

2005-11-13T11:20:08-08:00

I'm often wary of the major credit agencies. They haven't won many points with me with all the lobbying they do to hold your personal information hostage and then charge you for access to "protection services". To me that's a bit like paying a cover charge to access your own ...

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"...in the long run, we are all dead."

2005-11-13T11:06:08-08:00

Fans of Keyes will remember the famous quote. I was reminded of it while reading the most recent Selected American Shares Update that arrived in the mail. More on the Selected American Shares fund here.

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What's the Deal? - Neat Receipts

2005-11-13T10:28:02-08:00

According to their site, Neat Receipts is "a portable scanner and software system that is guaranteed to dramatically reduce your paper clutter and simplify your business paperwork." I read about it in one of my wife's organization magazines. Sounded great, but too good to be true?

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Large Caps

2005-11-13T10:25:36-08:00

I have been reading for at least 9 months that it might be time to move into large caps. I have started to do my research because I believe the market is finally bearing out the logic, especially in technology.

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0% APR Arbitrage

2005-11-13T09:59:20-08:00

I struggle to file this under the "Financial Planning" category, because this certainly isn't something I would recommend to a client, but... following the lead of MM (here and here), I decided to try my hand at leveraging my credit score in order to get money at 0% from a ...

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Saving Gen-X

2005-11-13T09:56:40-08:00

"So, why does Generation X seem to be so much better prepared financially than their parents?" asks Lisa Predella in Fidelity Investor's Weekly. Chalk some of the credit up to sites like our own pfblog.com says Jeffrey Carney, president of Fidelity Personal Investments, because "[Gen-Xers] are Web savvy and have ...

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Damn The Man

2005-11-13T08:12:25-08:00

Money is running a great piece this month called "Declare financial independence". As I consider this my ultimate goal I'd like to comment on these articles and how I have embraced some of these philosophies.

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Talkback: Moving Trucks

2005-11-12T19:38:45-08:00

Having just read Jim's skewering of Uhaul, I figured I'd take him up on his offer to relate a moving story. While I haven't been screwed by Uhaul this year, I am moving (also in NJ) and can explain why I refused to give them the chance.

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