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S&P 500 Return Calculator

Posted By PK Last updated May 15th, 2013 56 Comments

One issue you run into a lot when you are discussing optimal savings strategies is the inability for people discussing their returns versus the S&P 500 to produce a fair comparison. They will say, for example, that the S&P 500 index was at the same level as it was at some time in the past – so therefore investing in the index was a waste of time.

It’s time to correct this nonsense. I have taken Robert Shiller’s data on the historical S&P 500 index and created a dividend reinvestment index going back to 1876.

Filed Under: Featured, Investing Tagged With: dividends, dividends reinvestment, index, returns calculator, S&P 500

Is It Possible to Beat The Stock Market?

Posted By PK Last updated February 16th, 2013 11 Comments

You recently completed a very verbose series here at DQYDJ on investor psychology, the failure of the Efficient Market Hypothesis, and how to improve on buy and hold. If you survived all of that, you’re probably wondering: “hey PK! You mentioned in the EMH article that you trade stocks on valuation. How do you know that you’re doing the right thing?”

Good point dear reader, and to tell you the truth, until I ran the numbers this weekend I wasn’t quite sure. However, lucky for you and my ego I have now run the numbers and am ready to share my investing history.

Filed Under: Featured, Investing Tagged With: efficient market hypothesis, pk, stock returns, value investing

Would You Lie to Your Partner About Money?

Posted By PK Last updated February 13th, 2012 29 Comments

Let me start by telling you (‘you’ might mean my readership, or ‘you’ might mean Mrs. DQYDJ!) that if I did I certainly wouldn’t write an article about it!

Still, I enjoy living on the edge. This is an interesting question – is it ever okay to lie to your partner about finances? We’ve all heard that “money is the leading cause of divorce”. While evidence is mixed on that front, the truth is that the number of money fights a couple has is a good predictor of divorce rates. While tossing out lies might avoid a fight now, it might also lead to an even bigger fight in the future. Regardless, let’s look at the cases for both. Pick a side!

Filed Under: Featured, Personal Finance Tagged With: couples, dating, engagement, lying, marriage, money, wedding

How Did Mitt Romney Get a $20.7 Million IRA?

Posted By PK Last updated January 23rd, 2012 53 Comments

You’ve got an IRA, right? This site has been preaching the tax benefits of both traditional and Roth IRAs since the beginning… and we aren’t going to stop now. So hopefully you’ve been diligently saving in your IRA, with the hope that some day you’ll have a couple million dollars in there (or at least a good amount of funds you can tap in retirement).

Mitt Romney, it was revealed in financial disclosure documents, has an Individual Retirement Account worth somewhere between $20.7 and $101.6 million dollars. Note that IRAs have a small limit when compared to 401(k)s and other employer retirement accounts, so this came as somewhat of a shock to people with IRAs. How did Mr. Romney achieve such an impressive sum in his retirement account?

Filed Under: Featured, Investing, Politics Tagged With: 15% tax, assets, ira, mitt romney, Retirement, tax

Uncle Sam the CEO: Visualization of IRS Revenues Collected 1960-2010

Posted By PK Last updated January 4th, 2012 25 Comments

Our tax visualization last time was interesting, but this one might convey more data. Once again, or source for tax data is the IRS’s publication 2010 Data Book. Just like last time, note these are tax collections, and the IRS annual year ends in September. True revenue is after all refunds and credits are finalized, but this data is interesting to see the amount of tax collected – and how it makes it’s way to Uncle Sam.

Filed Under: Economics, Featured, Taxes Tagged With: business tax, collections, income tax, irs, tax revenues, Taxes, visualization

Are College Graduates Better Off Today Than in the Past?

Posted By PK Last updated December 21st, 2011 20 Comments

Time may only move in one direction – but just like a faster than light neutrino, let’s ignore physics for a bit! Inspired by this comment from an anonymous author, we will take you to the years 1976 and 1989 and look at life through the eyes of a recent college graduate.

Filed Under: Economics, Featured Tagged With: college, Consumption, cpi, education, Income, inflation, productivity, recent college grad

What is the Net Worth of Members of Congress?

Posted By PK Last updated December 12th, 2011 32 Comments

Wish there was a Congressional Net Worth graph somewhere? There is, on this very page! Using data compiled from one of our favorite sites Open Secrets, we took the average United States Congressional Net Worth (note that disclosure comes as a range, so average will fall between the low and the high point) and used IBM’s Many Eyes to show their net worth to you, our curious readers.

Filed Under: Featured, Politics Tagged With: congress, Democrats, net worth, republicans, top 1%, visualizations

Should You Get a Degree or Drive a Truck?

Posted By PK Last updated November 29th, 2011 60 Comments

Admit it – when you woke up today you asked yourself this very question – “is it better to go to college or to become a truck driver?“. Well, so did we here at DQYDJ. Inspired by a Twitter conversation from our friends JT at MoneyMamba and Matt Allen at Rambling Fever, we had to ask… how much do recently minted college graduates make when compared to their truck driving contemporaries? I think we can fairly classify this as an ‘epic post’ – make sure you fully understand my methodology before complaining… then complain all you want in my comments section!

Filed Under: Featured, Personal Finance Tagged With: census bureau, college, cps, hours worked, Income, truck driver

All About Credit Cards and the Perfect Credit Card Spending Strategy

Posted By PK Last updated November 14th, 2011 31 Comments

Credit cards get a bad rap – one that is not entirely deserved. I’ve got this working theory that it has to do with their name – the term ‘credit’ may mean ‘ability to obtain resources based on a future payoff’, but the card is named entirely wrong: If the only purpose of your credit cards is to purchase things on credit you are doing things completely wrong. The true beauty of credit cards is that they are a liquidity tool; credit cards allow you constant access to funding… whenever you need it. So, let’s look at the perfect strategy for turning your credit cards into liquidity cards!

Filed Under: Debt, Featured, Personal Finance Tagged With: credit card debt, credit card strategy, Credit Cards, liquidity, rewards cards

Should Engineers and Business Majors Pay Higher Tuition?

Posted By PK Last updated January 23rd, 2013 28 Comments

Last time I angered all of you by asking if certain majors should pay higher rates for their student loans. Now I ask you a subtly different question: Should some majors pay more in tuition? I ask you this question on the weekend, as it is lighter on math (for reasons that will be explained), and the fact that I’m likely highly biased, being a Software Engineer and all. Let’s not let that affect the daily editions of DQYDJ, okay?

Filed Under: Featured, Offbeat Tagged With: education, Engineering, high salary, low salary, normative economics

S&P 500 Return Calculator

Is It Possible to Beat The Stock Market?

Would You Lie to Your Partner About Money?

How Did Mitt Romney Get a $20.7 Million IRA?

Uncle Sam the CEO: Visualization of IRS Revenues Collected 1960-2010

Are College Graduates Better Off Today Than in the Past?

What is the Net Worth of Members of Congress?

Should You Get a Degree or Drive a Truck?

All About Credit Cards and the Perfect Credit Card Spending Strategy

Should Engineers and Business Majors Pay Higher Tuition?

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