Archive for October, 2010

Funny Money – Comic 2

October 16th, 2010

Previous: Funny Money – First Comic
Next: 
Comic 3 – MR PF Gets Scared

Well, I’ve evolved the strip a bit.

The introduction of Mr. Penny (who’s hair might turn a flaming yellow/orange color in the future would represent that he spends like a wildfire, or spends like there is no tomorrow) was a name that both my daughter and I thought of.  I liked the name because it reminds me of the sayings “he doesn’t have a penny to his name” (lol), and “it will cost a pretty penny

MR (the representation of me) is still just a dot, and I many keep it that way, or I may grow MR as the www.moneyreasons.com site grows.

Hope you got a chuckle out of it!

-MR

How To Get Cheaper Auto Insurance

October 15th, 2010

 

Blue Truck

Get cheaper car insurance

How to get cheaper auto insurance 

Auto insurance costs us hundreds of $ every year, and it can often be very expensive. However, there are some simple things we can do to try and get it cheaper. To get a cheaper insurance policy, you need to first identify what sort of insurance policy you need for your vehicle, once you have this in mind, you can start searching for cheaper policies. Here are a few simple tips: 

Decide on the type of coverage you need 

Saving money on your auto insurance could be as simple as deciding on the type of policy you need. For example, if your vehicle is only worth a few hundred dollars, is there much point in you purchasing full cover? This is just something you should consider. 

Compare different insurance providers 

Comparing as many insurance policies as possible gives you the best possible chance of finding the best deal for you; it also gives you a great view of the wider options available. Using a price comparison website is the best way to compare a lot of quotes; they basically do the hard work for you so you don’t have to. Be sure to check what each quote is offering before making a final decision, check the level of insurance and the level of deductibles and adjust accordingly. 

Are there extras included in the policy? 

When you purchase auto insurance there are sometimes extras that are included in the policy. These extras sometimes include health or legal cover, but do you really need them? If you already have health or legal cover, then you should try and get them removed from your policy, this will reduce the cost of the policy as a whole.   

Have you considered higher deductibles?  

By requesting higher deductibles in your insurance policy does bring the cost of your insurance down substantially. If you raise your deductible amount from say $150 to $300 you could typically save around 10% on your full coverage. The higher your deductible amount the higher the % you save will be, however, you have to remember that if you need to make a claim then you will have to pay the deductible amount before your policy comes into action. 

See what special offers are available 

When people think about auto insurance, many people don’t think about special offers, but as a matter of fact, there are a lot of special offers currently available. For example, if you have two vehicles at home have you considered a multi car policy? They offer fantastic discounts for people who have more than one vehicle. There are also special offers for young drivers who are just learning to drive. You can be rewarded for good grades in school by getting a discount percentage off your insurance policy. There are plenty of special offers available; you just have to find the offer that suits your own circumstances. 

Have you checked your credit record? 

Maintaining a good credit record is a good way to save money on your auto insurance. Insurance providers often look at your credit record when you make an application, so maintaining a good record tells the insurance provider that you are a reliable customer. Keep your record clean by making any regular payments on time and try not to get yourself in to debt. 

I hope these simple tips put you on the right path to getting cheaper auto insurance, remember that every little bit of money you save helps. 

This article was provided by Andreas Nicolaides, a personal finance author at UK-based MoneySupermarket.com.

My 90% Dip In The Value Of One Of My Stocks

October 14th, 2010

In the past I was lucky, during the tech bubble  pop, I was lucky enough to be in ebay.  Not only did ebay hold it share price, it double in the 3 years that I had it.  I practically felt like a genius (Note, I not longer own ebay)!

With the “Great Recession“, things were different…  I had some stocks that were in the high beta category.  High beta stocks are stocks that can have wild fluctuations in share price based on the general stock market direction.  One of my worse performing stock dropped 90% in price in 2008!  Just to illustrate what a huge drop that is, if I had $1,000 invested prior to the “Great Recession”, the value of my investment would only be $100!  Ouch!!!  when I realized this, I started to get sick to my stomach, but then I remembered that most of my portfolio is invested in mutual fund and other more stable stocks, not to mention the equity in my house (which took a much smaller hit).

Since my portfolio was well diversified (including asset class), the market downturn didn’t make me worry as much as it probably did with others.  The key is to just have a small percentage of your investment in such high beta stocks (also called speculative stocks) like I talked about in the previous paragraph!  By having asset class diversification, I was able to keep my cool and leave my investments alone so they could recover!  All my accounts are positive again.  My high beta stock is only down 60% and recovering quickly!  I still might use it for tax purposes though instead of letting it fully recover :)

How is your investment portfolio diversified?  Do you have all of your eggs in one or many baskets?

-MR

Roth IRA – The Dividend Shield

October 13th, 2010

Yes, that is correct!  I’m planning on using my Roth IRA as a dividend shield (actually more of a dividend tax shield)!

You see, eventually the Tax cuts (from Bush’s Presidency) will expire in the future, and that means that for those of us that own shares in dividend stocks the following changes might happen (but these numbers are soft):

  • 25% fed income tax rate, our taxes on dividends could increase from 15% to 31%
  • 28% fed incometax rate, taxes on dividends could increase from 28% to 36%
  • 33% fed income tax rates and up could increase from 35% to 39.5%

Back in college, I learning that dividends are taxed twice, a process called ”double taxation“ (once at the corporate level, and then again at the shareholder level),  after understanding this double taxation, I have hated taxes on dividends since!  With such taxation of corporate earnings at both the corporate and personal levels, we just get a sliver of the real value of the dividends, and that just out-and-out sucks!

Well, not next year!  I’m going to put on my armor and donned my shield against the taxation of dividends!

So how am I going to do that?  I’m going to buy stocks that yield a dividend directly within my Roth IRA!

You see, if I buy the dividend yielding stock in my Roth IRA first, I can still receive the dividends minus the relatively high taxes on them!  That’s the beauty, once you put the money in the Roth IRA, the dividends are tax free too!

Now, what if you want that dividend money because you use it for something like my lunch experiment?  Well, it’s okay to take that money out as long as it’s contributions and not earnings!  As long as you subtract what you take out from the amounts that you have contributed into the Roth IRA!  That mean that you can take the dividend amount out by pulling that amount from the pool of money that you contributed over the years.  So you are really pulling out what you put in initially!

 

That’s the beauty of the Roth IRA!

You can take out the contributions at any time, both tax and penalty free!  If you ever get to the point where you dividend yield is greater than the amount you contributed then you can not pull out any more, at least not without it being taxed and incurring the penalty but still, wouldn’t that be great!  I would love it if my Roth IRA was pure earnings because I pulled all the money that I contributed over the years out!  Of course if it were pure profit, I wouldn’t touch it until it is time to retire.  The earliest I can touch the profits without taxes and the penalty would be when I’m 59 1/2 years old.

In fact, to be honest, I’m thinking of putting more money in my Roth IRA, so I’ll start contributing the full $5,000 to my account, and another $5,000 to my wife’s account!

What do you think of my strategy, and are you thinking about doing the same?

Cheers,

MR

Paying A Kid’s Allowance With Dividends From Stocks

October 12th, 2010

First, I made a mistake!  I now wish I would have put the money I’ve been saving for my kids into a stocks that yield a dividend instead of a UMGA account for them once they turn 21

Then continue to invest money into a dividend stock ($125 a month) or dividend paying mutual fund, while using the dividend to pay for my kid’s allowances!  See the crude table I created below:



Dividend Pay % 4.00%






Weekly
Age
Contribution Dividend Total Savings
Allowance
1 1500 $30.00 $1,560.00
$1.15
2 1500 $92.40 $3,122.40
$1.20
3 1500 $154.90 $4,747.30
$2.40
4 1500 $219.89 $6,437.19
$3.65
5 1500 $287.49 $8,194.68
$4.95
6 1500 $357.79 $10,022.46
$6.30
7 1500 $430.90 $11,923.36
$7.71
8 1500 $506.93 $13,900.30
$9.17
9 1500 $586.01 $15,956.31
$10.69
10 1500 $668.25 $18,094.56
$12.27

The advantages of such a system would be as follows:

  • It could be used as a stealth emergency fund(s).  So if I were to lose my job, we would still be able to eat…
  • I would still have control over the money instead of my kids once they become the age 21 (or 18 depending on the state), like they do with their UGMA accounts.
  • Someday, when my kids are  looking to buy a house, I could give the money to them for help with the down payment.
  • Or I could use the money to help pay for college costs.
  • I could even be cruel and decided to keep the money for myself.  Look out Hawaii, here I come!!!

The points above are excellent reasons why just buying stock with dividend in my own name is better than their names!

After some reasonable success with my Lunch Experiment, I’ve been wanting to create new stock dividend fund anyway!

The key to such a “Kid’s Allowance” stock dividend fund would be to start saving for the fund very early.  Perhaps even before the child is born!  And of course to continue to keep putting money into the investment each year!

What say you?  If you were newly married, would you consider creating such a fund now?  Perhaps buying a great monthly dividend stock like Realty One “O”

-MR

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