In my previous article, Misconception: Renting is for Suckers, I wrote that there comes a point when it makes more sense to rent an apartment than buy a home. For myself, I have a rule of thumb that for every $1 dollar I spend in rent a month I can afford to buy up to $125 in property. Right now I...

For a number of years now there has been a cloud over Social Security, brought on by the fact that as the Baby Boomers retire the number of individuals drawing on social security will be greater than the number of individuals paying in. This has been used as a justification and impetus for changes...

Last time, I told you how I sold my Microsoft (MSFT) shares at $23. Afterwards, it sank under the $23 mark and hovered there for a few days. Yesterday, it closed up at around $23.50 on a day that saw a lot of return to tech stocks. What’s in store for Mr. Softy? Today will be a big test for the...

You’ve heard all the reasons that people want to stop renting. “I don’t want to waste my money.” Heck, you may have even said them yourself. Many of my friends are reaching that point in their lives where they’re considering buying a home. However it’s unfortunate that so many choose to buy over...

As I'm sure you've all heard by now. Vonage has decided to offer some of their customers a shot at getting in on their IPO action. I happen to be one of those elligible customers, but should I buy in? To be honest, when I first heard about the IPO and the fact that I would be able to pick up a few...

Earlier today I sold my 100 shares of Microsoft (MSFT) at $23. Truth be told, I should have unloaded the shares a couple of weeks ago. Overall though, I'm still happy with how I've been trading this and looking forward to buying back in when goes on the upswing. Below is a brief history of my...

Greetings! We're very happy to present Carnival of Investing #22! We had an excellent 22 submissions this week, and thank you all for your timely submissions. Without further ado, here are our submittor's articles (by date submitted). | | | | --- | --- | | Contributor | Submission | | Stock...

By far the most useful single page in Jim Cramer’s Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World (review, Amazon) is the “Cyclical Investing and Trading” chart on page 115. Visually the chart looks like a W. It follows the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate through an economic cycle. The...

Tools are designed to help their users do their tasks more efficiently and crunching numbers is no exception. I've been humming along with Excel and my trusty scientific calculator just fine, but as I'm getting more involved with calculations such as discounting I've decided it may be worth the...

I was doing some reading, and came across some great articles on Net Operating Income. NOI is an important gauge of a company's ability to generate profit from its core business. While it's only one piece of the puzzle when analyzing companies, understanding it can help you compare two firms who...