Fearless Money

Fearlessly talking about money for quite a while now.

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Entries from January 2006

How Much is Enough

January 30th, 2006 · No Comments

Inspired by Steve Pavlina’s advice to read a book a week, I’ve been reading a lot more money and entrepreneurial books. I’m reading a real gem right now, How Much is Enough? by Pamela York Klainer.
The main point of the book is that unless we consciously explore our relationship and history with money, we […]

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Tags: Reviews

A different take on an Economic Disparity study

January 26th, 2006 · 3 Comments

“I am so close to breaking in into the top 5% of incomes in Oregon.” That was my initial reaction to reading the most recent study by the Economic Policy Institute which measured income disparity by state. The main points of interest were compiled by CNN into a table showing the state […]

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Tags: Great Articles · Increasing $

My Roth IRA gained 26.57% last year

January 25th, 2006 · 2 Comments

A few days ago I posted that I made a 21% after-tax profit from my investment/speculation account. I pay a lot of attention to that account, of course, and deliberately do not pay as much attention to my Roth IRA. I prefer a “buy-and-hold” approach in that account. Interestingly, that strategy paid […]

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Tags: Investment · Increasing $ · Retirement · Investing

Mixed housing price forecast

January 23rd, 2006 · 1 Comment

The PMI Group has released its Q4 2005 report on the housing market, with some interesting statistics.
First, despite all the talk of housing bubbles, the risk doesn’t seem that severe for most of the country. This is along the lines of what Greenspan was trying to say when he talked about there being froth […]

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Tags: Investment · Great Articles · Interesting Finds

I beat the S&P by 333%

January 23rd, 2006 · 1 Comment

While doing my taxes this weekend, I realized just how well I did on my stock picks last year. Taking into account every trade, I made a profit of 21% after I cashed everything out in December.  Even after the capital gain taxes take their bite, I still made a profile of 13%.  That is […]

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Tags: Increasing $ · Investing

TurboTax failed me

January 22nd, 2006 · 1 Comment

I spent the whole morning yesterday in tax-prep pain. Over a year ago, I dropped Quicken for Mac permanently.

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Tags: Taxes · Reviews

EverQuest and IRS

January 17th, 2006 · 2 Comments

“EverQuest’s annual GDP—the total wealth in goods and services an economy creates—is about $135 million, or around half the GDP of the Caribbean island nation of Dominica.”, according to economist Edward Castronova. Yet the IRS has apparently never heard about it, and doesn’t know how to go about taxing it?Confused about what I am talking about? A quick backtrack might help.

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Tags: Taxes · Great Articles

First fearless carnival

January 16th, 2006 · 2 Comments

The first Carnival of Personal Finance with one of my articles is up!

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Tags: Planning · Site News · Retirement

Adoption tax credit

January 15th, 2006 · No Comments

This year, like last year, I honestly look forward to filing my income taxes. December before last, we completed adopting a child from China.

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Tags: Taxes · Saving $

Addressing the Social Security Crisis

January 12th, 2006 · No Comments

If we want to save Social Security for future retirees, we as a society should do what we can to encourage saving now. I hadn’t thought of it that way before, that my personal saving and getting out of debt will help fuel the economy which will enable retirees in 2020 and beyond to […]

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Tags: Great Articles · Saving $ · Interesting Finds · Retirement