Investing Strategies

Calculators:  Mortgage Calculators, Retirement Savings and Planning, Business Calculators, Loan Calculators, Personal Finance, Investment Calculators, Taxes, Credit Card Debt, Savings Calculators, and many more

Investing Online - This is a great resource for beginners thinking of opening an online trading account.  There are several tutorials and links to brokerage rating firms and additional information.

Municipal and other Bonds 

Investing in Bonds - provides "at-a-glance" market analysis of the municipal, government, corporate, and MBS/ABS (mortgage-backed/asset-backed securities) bond markets.

Investing in Green

The-New-Do-Gooders

• Wilson Green Growth (WGGFX)
• Pax World Balanced (PAXWX)
• Portfolio 21 (PORTX)
• Neuberger Berman Socially Responsive (NBSRX)

Other "Green" Mutual Funds (there are actually way too many to list)

• New Alternatives Fund (NALFX)
• Sierra Club Funds
• Green Century Funds
• PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy Portfolio (PBW)

Retirement Savings

If you define the ability to retire as when your passive income equals that of your earned income from employment, then the following would be what is needed to retire.  If you expect to need $50,000 a year in retirement and were 28 and looking to retire at age 68 (40 years from now), that $50,000 (in current dollars) would balloon to $163,101.90 a year (assuming 3% inflation) your first year in retirement.  If we reinvest 3% of the earned interest during retirement to combat inflation and we assume a total return of 8%, we would need an account having a balance of $3,262,037.80.  Using a growing annuity to track progress and assuming an increase in yearly payments of 4% and an APY of 10%, our initial payment at the start of the 40 year savings plan would have to be $31,207.29.  We now assume that your employer matches up to 5% to your 10%.  If you had a salery of $100,000 your employer would contribute $5000, making your contribution $26,207.29 (or 26.2% of your salary).  At the assumed salary, the federal tax rate is 25%.  Since we assume the contributions are tax deferred, the "out of pocket" expense would be $19,655.47 ($1,637.96 a month).

If we use the same math but instead invest the typical 15% of our $100,000 salary, at the end of our 40 year plan we would be able to continually withdraw the equivalent of $24,032.85 (in today's dollars) a year.

Mr. Henry K. "Bud" Hebeler - This guy is an MIT grad retiree from Boeing.  His website is similiar in style and motivation to mine but has more links to downloadable investment and retirement planning guides that seem to be pretty good.  Definately worth checking out.

"What distinguishes Hebeler from the typical retirement "expert" is that he combines a strong quantitative background with real-life retirement experience - his own and that of fellow retirees." CNNMoney.com

 

REITS

National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts

Invest in REITs

Taxes

Tax breaks for owners of fuel efficient vehicles for the 2007 tax year

State and Federal Incentives for alternative fuels