MarvinRanks

Last week, I announced that we were selling our house to move to a better place (hopefully!). We spent the previous week painting, buying frames and other decorative goodies and moved our furniture around to make our house look its best. I will write more about staging our own home later on (you probably guessed [...]

No April’s fool post today, just our stock picks contest Q1 results… I thought of writing something weird to make you laugh but didn’t come with something better than my Primerica post from last year… I promise to be original and come up with something good for next year In the meantime, I can’t tell [...]

Peter Grupe is a busy man. He’s the special agent in charge of white-collar crime cases for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York field office, the bureau’s largest. In October his unit arrested Galleon Group hedge fund operator Raj Rajaratnam and others in what authorities allege was one of the biggest insider trading rings [...]

My husband and I have been debating a big financial decision for a few months now. Some of my family is heading to Ireland and Italy in October and this will likely be the last and only trip we make together. The cost of the trip? $3,000 each. I could say no but… I have [...]

Sales of the popular product helped Allianz maintain its place as the top seller Sales of indexed annuities set a record last year, surpassing $30 billion — despite a modest 2.7% decline in sales in the fourth quarter… According to data from AnnuitySpecs.com’s Indexed Sales and Market Report, sales of indexed annuities in the final [...]

Another topic I’ve been interested in is the 100 Thing Challenge started by Dave Bruno. If you read a lot of simplicity blogs you’ve probably already heard of it, but it’s a pretty simple idea: Live with only 100 personal possessions. You can always quibble about what is a “thing” – a pair of socks, [...]

Have you seen those “follow the green line” ads from Fidelity? Well, they reminded that a reader sent me their retirement account holdings for review which was managed through the Fidelity Portfolio Advisory Service (PAS). This is a managed portfolio service, which means that you pay Fidelity a fee and they do all the research, [...]

Just got this e-mail from regarding my ETrade Bank online savings account: We are writing to let you know that your E*TRADE Bank account referenced above will soon be transferred to Discover Bank, and become a Discover Online Savings Account. This follows our plan to focus more exclusively on providing optimal investing solutions to our [...]

I was watching Judge Judy last night (sorry, I love that show) and was fascinated by a case between an ex-boyfriend and girlfriend. In their short three year relationship, they had accumulated $38,000 in credit card debt in addition to their three car loans and multiple student loans. I understand my debt is HORRIBLE and [...]

Did you as a small business pay another person or business more than $600 total in 2009 for services rendered? You may have to provide them a 1099-MISC form. There are lots of rules, see the 1099-MISC Instructions for complete details. Here’s a summary: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires businesses (including not-for-profit organizations) to [...]