A few months ago I wrote an article providing 5 reasons not to buy Facebook stock. As of now, I’m quite happy that I didn’t. For those that aren’t aware, Facebook (FB) fell nearly 9% on Tuesday alone, and is down about 26% from its high. In short, anyone who tried to buy into this IPO … Read more
Over the past weekend, I was reading a lot of quotations from notable people about entrepreneurship. I love quotes because they are a way of getting excellent, distilled information, tips and guidance from some of the most brilliant minds. Quotes are concentrated ideas, and often it blows me away at how much a person can … Read more
While I was speaking with my father today, I learned that he got to feel the collective sting of “Free Checking”, “Rewards” and the Durbin Amendment. He was surprised to find his account $35.00 lower than he expected! Clearly a mistake, he approached a teller to inquire about why his account was lower than expected. … Read more
I love finance, I love learning, I love business, I love technology, I love reading coding books, but I also love being a goofball. That is why I believe in being professionally unprofessional. Sure, there are times that professionalism is called for, but for me, those don’t make the majority of my day. It’s easy … Read more
About 1 year, 8 months ago we published an article about installing a dimmer switch. Based on the math behind this article, we have now passed the break even point, and are now saving money on the enhancement. Saving Money Plan Often, I sit down and think of places I can save money. Sometimes I … Read more
Square is a credit card app for both iPhone & Android devices. 9 Days ago, I wrote about Restaurants that don’t accept credit cards, and how frustrating that is for customers. I also talked about how there isn’t really a good reason not to when companies like Square exist. To see if I was being … Read more
Burger King, the number 3 hamburger chain in the United States, has had a very troubled past as it has tried to compete with their big (much bigger) brother McDonald’s (MCD). I’ve even written about Burger King’s problems in the past. Burger King has been a publicly traded company, purchased, taken private, gone public again, … Read more
Earlier this week, I told you about how I took my wife, sister and mother out for breakfast and how the restaurant didn’t accept credit cards. This was surprising to me as it isn’t very common for a business to not accept credit cards in our area. In fact, even the food trucks around here … Read more
The other day, I took my mother, sister and wife out to breakfast. My mom told us about this great diner just down the street so we decided that we would go there, rather than to one of the bigger chain restaurants. After a great breakfast, I went up to the register to pay the … Read more
You throw some clothes in the washer, some dishes in the dish washer, and a meal in the microwave. While everything is going, you check your email and see that your mom sent a question about a computer problem. Quickly, you answer her question, get your meal, eat it, and while the clothes and dish … Read more
I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a statistics nerd, but I’m an extremely visual person as well. Everyday, we talk about, invest in, and shop at tons of different companies. Often, we walk into these massive stores, and we just assume that they are these mega companies, but this is a reminder that there are … Read more
You need help making a budget, and that’s OK. Everyone who takes the dive into budgeting eventually realizes that there must be a better way to do things. Luckily, there is! Below are 5 of my favorite tools (besides my favorite which is envelope budgeting) that will prevent you from pulling hair out of your … Read more
Today I found an excellent quote that I believe encompasses the meaning behind entrepreneurship perfectly. This quote comes from Henry Ford: Henry Ford: “If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a better horse.” What I love about this quote is that it highlights a few things: Entrepreneurship requires vision. Customers don’t always … Read more
Barnes and Noble (BKS) was started as a Printing Company around 1873 and has grown to be the largest book retailer in the United States. It has enjoyed great success, and weathered one of the worst economies faced in decades. It also survived in an environment that Borders collapsed in, but is Barnes and Noble … Read more
Last week, Barnes & Noble (BKS), Apple (AAPL), and a few publishers got smacked down when the federal government arrived at a settlement that there was collusion to raise the prices of eBooks. I won’t be naive, I’m sure price fixing and collusion happens all the time. I know it isn’t supposed to legally, but … Read more
Holly Mangan is the managing editor of MoneyCrashers.com. When it comes to investing, your list of options is as long as the sea is wide. It can be an overwhelming topic, and can cost you big time if you approach it haphazardly. But with a few tips and strategies, you can begin to build a … Read more
Recently, we unveiled our new Mortgage Calculator. Our mortgage calculator has a couple of great benefits: It charts the payments so you can see the principal and interest. It provides the monthly payment amount. It has a mortgage amortization schedule. You can include additional principal payments. It doesn’t require multiple screen loads like most calculators, … Read more
We’ve finally finished our new Mortgage Calculator, and we’re very proud of it! The mortgage calculator was a lot of work, but we’re happy the day is here to unveil it. We did our best to make the mortgage calculator functional, intuitive, and aesthetically pleasing. We hope this is helpful for you, and if you have any … Read more
We’re happy to announce the winner of our 2nd Blogoversary Giveaway. The winner of our Blogoversary $50 Dollar Amazon.com Gift Card Giveaway is Michelle F. Congratulations to Michelle F., we’ve sent an email to her informing her of the great news. We would like to thank everyone who participated, and all of our readers. It’s amazing … Read more
We’re happy to announce the release of our Dividend Payout Ratio calculator. For those who don’t know, the Dividend Payout Ratio (DPR) is a ratio that shows what ratio of earnings is going towards dividend payment on stocks. This ratio says a lot about where a company’s priorities are, and if they are retaining enough … Read more
Best Buy announced that it will be closing 50 stores as a cost cutting measure. While that doesn’t sound so bad, here are some notable store closings in 2011 & 2012: 633 Borders Book Stores 405 Blockbuster Stores in 2011 500 Blockbusters in 2012 200 Gamestops 180 Abercrombie and Fitch 100 The Gap 35 Office … Read more