Car Payment Anniversary

In March of 2009 Mrs. C. and I bought our 2004 Honda Odyssey for around $15,000. We had always driven beater cars and had a string of 3 in a row that lasted less than a year, including one we had to replace the transmission in twice.  We chose to …

How To Increase Your Savings Rate, and Why

There are three major factors that influence retirement savings; time frame, market returns, and your savings percentage.  By far the most crucial factor is your savings percentage.  The rule of thumb thrown around all the time is to save 10% to 15% of your income.  This may work if you …

Investing In Individual Stocks

When I first started investing back in 2002 I didn’t know much about investing at all.  My first investment was 100 shares of Red Hat, a linux company that my dad told me might be a good idea to invest in. I invested in a couple other individual stocks, and …