I’m starting a new 10 post series entitled, “Why You Aren’t Getting Rich” and it is a compilation of the top excuses I’ve heard from friends, family, co-workers, and people I’ve met over the years as to why they aren’t getting rich. The #10 excuse I’ve heard over the past decade has been “I don’t…
Month: March 2007
Sub Prime Lenders, Financial Advisors and Mutual Funds – Part II
In part one of the Sub Prime lender mess, I outlined how the whole real estate industry preyed upon the innocent home buyer. Today, I’m going to tell you how the Investment industry preys on the innocent investor. First let’s make sure you understand the analogy to the real estate industry. A quick cast of…
Sub Prime Lenders, Financial Advisors and Mutual Funds – What They All Have in Common
I read an interesting story on MSNBC regarding the Sub-prime lender mess. The article tells a sad tale of a family undergoing foreclosure because their mortgage loan ballooned into uncontrollable repayment plans. I have friends in the real estate industry and I can tell you first hand about the cascading scam in real estate; It…
Unloading 25k of Credit Card Arbitrage
I’m unwinding 25k of credit card arbitrage this week and I’m wondering if the credit card arbitrage farm is closed permanently. There is lots of talk about fee free balance transfers going away and my own analysis of the situation seems to confirm that it’s a possibility. I did get balance transfer checks from BOA…
Chase Bank No More Limit On Balance Transfer Fees?
WATCH OUT! I received two sets of balance transfer checks from Chase Bank this week and they both included the usual low teaser rates of 0.99% for 6 months or 4.99% for the life of the loan but what caught my eye on both of these offers however was the 3% balance transfer fee but…
Pareto’s Principle a.k.a. The 80-20 Rule
In my lifetime, there is one principle that I’ve come to believe as a universal truth and that’s Pareto’s Principle. Most people know this as the 80-20 rule and originated with Pareto’s observance that 20% of the populous controls 80% of the wealth in any given society. I’ve seen the practical reality of this principle…
Fifty Grand For An MBA?
I’ve recently been accepted to an Executive MBA program and school starts this fall. I applied for admission back in November when my job began to get a bit boring and I wanted something a little challenging. Unfortunately, now that I’ve been accepted I’m really debating on whether sinking 50k into an Executive MBA program…
Should I Make $1000 Today and Hope for an Additional $750 in May?
My ETF Covered Call options expired worthless this past Friday during Options Expiry. I’ve posted a chart for your review to illustrate how profitable ETF Covered Call writing can be. According to the options information over on http://finance.yahoo.com/q/op?s=SMH, the May $35 call strike are selling for $1.01 so selling 10 contracts would generate a cool…
Made $600 Today On Another ETF Covered Call
Exciting news on two fronts today of the ETF Covered Call Strategy. My SMH Options expired worthless today so I’ll have another cash harvest in the upcoming weeks. I also planted another money tree in China. I bought 100 shares of FXI for $98.00 and sold the May 07 $98 Strike Calls for a cool…
The FICO Experiment
I opened a credit card account that allows you to track your FICO score month to month back in December and I’ve been tracking my FICO score ever since. So far, I’ve received my scores for January and February, and in a few weeks I’ll get my score for March. I didn’t pull my score…