Okay Amanda, there is no need to pull money out for a rainy day.  If the funds are transferred to a Beneficiary IRA you will have access to the balance as needed.   Financial people such as Liz Weston tend to focus mostly on asset accumulation.   Debt elimination is an equally productive use of the money.  If you have ...more

Fleck, you always seem to find yourself surrounded by idiots.  Where would we all be without you.  Everything is so obvious to you.

If you are a bank executive, you might want to take a look at these posts.  Your business model is not very popular, to say the least.

Looks like we all agree that buying the ring on credit is a stupid thing to do.   And to all of you guys out there,  if your future bride says she absolutely MUST have a diamond ring, you need to dump the material girl right now.   That is a giant warning sign with blinking lights.  The sign says ditch that little prin...more

Slow down on the Kool-Aid there mememe.  Wouldn't want you to choke on that stuff.

Retirement planning is really a comical process.  Your salesman / advisor tells you that inflation is a real concern.   The salesman's solution to this problem is to allocate a large portion of your hard earned money to one of the most volatile asset classes available.  With a straight face he insists that losing 50% o...more

Big banks, airlines, cable providers...blatantly abusive business practices

China is by far the world's biggest polluter these days.   Why don't environmental activists specifically complain about China?   Because they don't want to feel guilty when they buy the latest iPhone or iPad made in China.

The insurance companies are exempt from Federal anti-trust laws.  Take that away from them and the cost of all insurance coverage will come down.  And by the way, employers can't wait to dump their health plans.  They want this.