Versions of this chart have been floating around for a while.  This one is updated with the latest numbers.  As you can see, there is still plenty of room for housing prices to fall further.  Future market are predicting around another 15% decline before bottoming out in 16 months or so.  If markets were to [...]

From Calculated Risk we get a graph showing homeowner percent equity since 1952 Approximately 31% of households do not have a mortgage. So the 50+ million households with mortgages have far less equity than 44.7%.  Also, when prices were increasing dramatically in recent years, the percent homeowner equity was declining because homeowners were extracting equity from their [...]

Consumerism Commentary maintains a nice list of the top paying savings and money market accounts that are FDIC insured.  They also show how the interest rates have changed over the last four months to give you an inkling on whether the interest rate is a teaser or likely to stick around for a while. The [...]

While you probably feel good about your understanding of FDIC insurance for your bank deposits, you probably don’t have as good a feeling for money and securities held by your broker. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) put together a nice description of what happens when a brokerage house goes down and what protections are [...]

Interesting economic news RMDs likely suspended for 2009 (not 2008) — A one year (2009) benny only.  It has passed house and senate and is now on presdents desk.  It also contains funding relief for company pensions. Auto Bailout Bill dies in Senate — No bill this year, which means it goes back to being [...]

Under federal law, consumers are entitled to one free credit report a year through government-sanctioned web site AnnualCreditReport.com. But thanks to those catchy commercials, the FreeCreditReport.com address is far better known among many consumers than the government site. In fact, the FreeCreditReport.com service boasts five million members. FreeCreditReport.com is run by Experian and forces users to [...]

This is the first of a series of posts that are going to look at current market valuations. The following is a graph of two valuation measures: Cyclically adjusted price earnings (CAPE) and q. It was put together by Smithers & Co. and goes from 1900 throuh October 9th, 2008.  CAPE is based on Shiller’s [...]

The Simple Dollar provides the following 18 tips for reducing wedding costs. Avoid guest list bloat. Ask for wedding help instead of wedding gifts. Have the ceremony at home, or outdoors. Do the catering yourself, or hire a family-owned restaurant. Go minimal with the flowers. Choose very personal books for groomsmen/bridesmaid gifts. Make your own [...]

With the recession now in full swing commodity prices have been coming down dramatically as demand drops.  While $4 gas is still fresh in your mind you may want to consider the following simple hedging strategy to protect yourself from the inevitable upswing in prices once the recession ends. Let’s say that you believe it [...]