Criticism

5 Foolish Things Americans Believe About Money and Investing

June 23, 2013

There are all sorts of misconceptions about finance, business, taxes, investing and economics that people believe.  Sometimes I’ve been guilty myself.  So, here are 5 of my current pet peeves and I’d like to hear what yours are as well: “He Only Donates to Charity Because He Needs the Writeoff” – This is utter nonsense. […]

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5 Reasons Why Bitcoins are the Dumbest Investment Ever

April 4, 2013

If you haven’t heard of bitcoins by now, you will soon.  They were recently profiled in this week’s BusinessWeek, they have skyrocketed since the Cyprus banking mess and in a nutshell, it’s an alternative currency play which resides in cyberspace only – there is no physical exchange, no regulatory oversight, not even an inkling as […]

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Extreme Early Retirement – Mainly a Myth Except for Hippies and Drifters

March 31, 2013

I was reading the other day about extreme early retirement (CNBC) where they profiled a few people who were retiring much younger than what you might consider even “early” retirement at 55 or so. In one case, it’s a 40 year-old retirement target – so sure, that counts as pretty extreme early retirement.  But I’m […]

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Here’s Everything I’ve Done with my Money by NOT Having an Emergency Fund

March 24, 2013

The traditional personal finance advice is that everyone needs an emergency fund, often with absurdly unrealistic amounts of cash (6 month’s salary or more) stashed in a savings account losing money to inflation.  This is a horrible waste of capital in my opinion and while my approach isn’t for everyone, I also want to highlight […]

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When Enough is Enough – Funding Family Members Because You’re “Well-Off”?

March 10, 2013

So, I’ve now come across enough stories of friends “taking care” of their family when they’re well off and the others aren’t that it begs the question as to when it’s right, when it’s wrong and how prevalent this is.  I’ll share two recent stories that I’ve come across where young, successful people are basically […]

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Report from Greece: Entitled, Lazy, Hate Americans, Blame the Immigrants

March 7, 2013

I was talking to a co-worker today who just got back from Greece to settle an estate.  I always find it fascinating to travel to other countries or to get first-hand accounts of what others have recently experienced when they travel abroad.  There’s plenty to criticize here in America, but I’ll tell ya, I wouldn’t […]

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