The first exchange traded fund (ETF) was launched 20 years ago, in 1993. Since then, ETFs have gained a great deal of popularity.
So, if given the choice between an old school (open-end) mutual fund and an equivalent ETF, which would you choose and why?
Personally, I remain partial to mutual funds. Yes, we do have some ETFs in our portfolio but for ongoing investments, I always go with mutual funds. Curious as to why? Keep reading.
If you’re in the market for a cash back credit card, the Upromise World MasterCard might be worth a look. It offers an easy $50 signup bonus (with first use) and up to 5% cash back on your purchases.
Granted, the top (5%) tier is only available when shopping through their online platform, but you can get 4% cash back at a wide variety of restaurants, 3% at Exxon and Mobil gas stations, 2% at movie theaters, and 1% on everything else.
As I write this, I’m sitting in a hotel room and relaxing about a mile from the “main gate” at Walt Disney World in Orlando.
The kids got out of school yesterday and, once we got the car packed, we headed out of town for five days at the Happiest Place on Earth.
If you’ve ever driven to Disney World, then you’ve likely seen the billboards advertising “discount” Disney tickets. And if you’re anything like me, you assumed that these sorts of offers were a scam.
A reader recently wrote in to ask the following about Vanguard Admiral Share conversions:
“We’re getting close to being able to convert our Vanguard mutual funds to Admiral Shares. We’re pretty excited about this, but I’m also a little worried. Are there any tax consequences that I should be aware of? I’d hate to get a huge tax bill at the end of the year.”
That’s an excellent question. In fact, I wondered the same thing before we were eligible to convert to Admiral Shares a few years back.
This roundup is couple of days late because I’ve been absolutely swamped over the past week or so. This is partly due to work life, but mostly due home life. And while most of the busy-ness has been good, some has been very, very bad.
For starters, I was tied up with a work-related conference much of last week. We also had a major sports tournament in the area that kept us (and our kids) going from sunup to sundown (and beyond) on Saturday and again most of the day on Sunday. And our kids had their end-of-year music performances on Sunday.
That’s the good stuff. The bad? Well, there was a tragic death in our community that hit everyone pretty hard. People are moving on, but with extremely heavy hearts.
Last week’s posts about coins (both silver and copper) were inspired by me sitting down with our boys to pay their monthly allowance.
With that as a backdrop, I thought it would be worth spending a bit of time talking about the ins and out of our allowance system.
For starters, I’ll say that we don’t tie our kids allowance to any sort of chores. Some may view this as a minor (or even artificial) distinction, but we expect them to help around the house because they’re part of our family, not because we’re paying them.
I’ve talked in the past about several ways of effectively outsourcing the management of your investment portfolio.
Possibilities range from using an all-in-one mutual fund to engaging a service like Betterment to hiring a financial advisor.
That being said, you may be interested in maintaining a bit more control and/or avoiding the extra fees associated with an investing service or financial professional. In that case, where should you start?
Speaking of silver coins… The good folks at The Consumerist highlighted an interesting marketing scheme (or should I say scam?) that made it to the front page of Reddit during the middle of this past week.
It seems that an enterprising soul has decided to sell ice cream cones for a quarter. The twist? It has to be a 1964 or earlier quarter. In other words, a silver quarter. One with a melt value of more than four bucks.
Given how hard it is to find these sorts of coins in circulation, I doubt this deal is generating much business. But who know? Maybe some kid found his grandpa’s coin jar and is going to town on $0.25 ice cream cones.
