MoneyMerc
a personal finance blog dedicated to little finance decisions with big impact
Making good investment decisions
Are you ‘good’ at investing? (My answer: Not sure yet! Ask me when I’m retiring!) What do you base that answer on? Most people unconsciously base their personal view of their investing skills on a few past instances of success or failure, mixed with various cognitive biases like anchoring, selective perception and optimism [...]
Continue reading...How will you invest now?
6 March 2010
The market went down, and some ran (they always do). And then it went down more, and more ran (“this time it’s different!”). Then it went up. So, how will you invest now? And more importantly, what was your plan back then? How did it hold up? Ready to learn something about yourself that will affect your investing philosophy and [...]
Continue reading...Worried about your finances? Know your worst case scenario
20 April 2009
MoneyMerc is dedicated to “little decisions” that make a big impact. Our little decision for today is to make sure you know your financial worst case scenario. These are uncertain times – but the time to plan for the worst case is before you are living it. Of course everyone’s situation is different, and no [...]
Continue reading...ETF investing pitfalls
24 March 2009
(photo: Dave Malkoff) An Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) is similar to an index fund – they are typically not actively managed and therefore (often) have low management fees. Sometimes when you can’t find the perfect fund for your asset allocation, an ETF will fill that gap. But ETFs aren’t good for regular automatic investments, because you [...]
Continue reading...How and why to improve your credit score
18 March 2009
Last year I attended an FPA session on improving your credit score by Oksana at StrategyCredit. Here are some things I learned, many of which most people don’t know. Your credit score really just measures the chance you’ll pay someone – essentially how much of a financial risk you are. They are used for everything from [...]
Continue reading...Wisdom from the Oracle – Part 3
6 March 2009
This is the last in a series of posts covering the lessons to be learned from Warren Buffett’s Letter to Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. [See Part 1 (on the economy) and Part 2 (on investing)] On home ownership: Home ownership is a wonderful thing. My family and I have enjoyed my present home for 50 years, with [...]
Continue reading...Wisdom from the Oracle – Part 2 (retake!)
5 March 2009
[Apologies for the first version of this post! My editor must have accidentally posted the non-complete version ] This is the second post in a series reviewing Warren Buffett’s letter to shareholders, which I think holds good lessons for us all. [See Part 1]. On investing: When investing, pessimism is your friend, euphoria the enemy. If you take [...]
Continue reading...Wisdom from the Oracle – Part 1: a look at Warren Buffett’s annual Letter to Shareholders
2 March 2009
Warren Buffet’s famous Letter to Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway was released this past Saturday. The letter is long, but an enjoyable read – I was cracking up during lot’s of it – Buffett can be hilarious. I’ll share some comments on parts that I think readers will find particularly interesting. There are tidbits here that speak [...]
Continue reading...Weekend todo list: 10 ways to improve your finances right away
28 February 2009
Last week I went to a talk hosted by the Cornell Young Alumni Network about budgeting. Avi and Matt, the Co-founder and Lead Scientist (respectively) of JustThrive.com spoke about money, budgeting and the psychology of financial choices. They also took us through their online tool at JustThrive. I’ve mentioned Mint a number of times, but [...]
Continue reading...Announcing “Ask me a question”
20 February 2009
Starting today I’m offering readers the ability to ask a question privately to me through MoneyMerc. If you have been wondering anything about your personal finances, or just don’t get something you heard about, go ahead and ask! I promise to respond as soon as I can, usually in a week or less (so don’t ask [...]
Continue reading...
- Making good investment decisions
- How will you invest now?
- Worried about your finances? Know your worst case scenario
- ETF investing pitfalls
- Wisdom from the Oracle – Part 3
- Wisdom from the Oracle – Part 2 (retake!)
- Wisdom from the Oracle – Part 1: a look at Warren Buffett’s annual Letter to Shareholders
- Weekend todo list: 10 ways to improve your finances right away
- Mint.com just got sweeter: track your spending and investments too
- What’s your risk tolerance?
- Alex: @Chris: In general, I'd would say no, since the point of your emergency fund is to keep you afloat for 3-6 months or more. If you are racking up debt...
- Chris: Alex, should you consider available credit on credit cards as a stop gap to any short fall you might have in your emergency fund?...
- Alex: I just got confirmation from a trader friend of mine saying they use the Ultrashort Financials and UltraShort Real Estate ETFs to macro-hedge their po...
- matt @ Thrive: I have to admit, the picture made me laugh and recall fond memories of heavy blocked graphics. *grins*...
- Nnamdi: On the topic of Fraud, a person can get a voluntary Alert put on their credit report. Basically in order to establish new credit, the creditor must ca...
- Jackson: A mortgage officer at Chase suggested paying off my credit card before the statement date. Using the credit card, but getting the monthly statement wi...
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30 October 2010
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