How We Used Shares of Coca-Cola to Teach My Youngest Sister About Investing (and Why the Cycle of Consumption and Financial Stress Starts as a Teenager for Most Americans)

When I was a senior in high school, I bought my youngest sister, who was first grader at the time, a single share of Coca-Cola common stock for her 6th birthday.  I had it framed with an engraving of the first part of Deuteronomy 8:18 placed under it, “You shall remember the Lord your God, [...]

from Joshua Kennon

It Was an Amazingly Productive Day

We are having an amazingly productive day.  Thus far, we have: Paid a ton of bills for one of the businesses. Submitted the final tax documents to the accounting firm that handles our business and personal filings. Had lunch / dinner at Panera Bread with Aaron. Went to Michael’s and got a bunch of our [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Health Care Reform Taxes Will Hit Top 1% of Households

I don’t think there is any reasonable chance health care will be overturned as unconstitutional because it is written in such a way that you aren’t technically required to buy health insurance, you will just be subject to a special excise tax if you don’t. A lot of very, very expensive lawyers made sure the [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Kennon Retirement Insurance Plan

One of the Things That Helped Me … From time to time, you may come across reference to my “stupidity” insurance or my “reserve” fund.  I’ve had a bunch of readers write me over the years and ask about various comments I’ve made so I thought it might be useful to explain it.  My parents, [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Misconceptions About Wealth

How The Marketing Industry Continues to Convince Average Americans They Know What a Millionaire Looks Like A few days ago, I quoted something from one of Dr. Thomas J. Stanley’s books: “In the United States, there are three times more millionaires living in homes that have a market value of under $300,000 than there are [...]

from Joshua Kennon

How Investors Who Practiced Dollar Cost Averaging Were Richer Within Only 2 Years of the Credit Crisis Meltdown

Citing data provided by Vanguard, one of the premier mutual fund and 401(k) providers in the world, The New York Times recently reported that 60 percent of 401(k) accounts now have more money in them than they did before the stock market crash and worst recession since the Great Depression began two years ago. That [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Asset Positioning Asset Allocation Strategy

Did you know there is a unique tax strategy that can help improve your asset allocation investing by keeping more money in your pocket? It’s called asset positioning and it can be practiced by virtually anyone with investments.  I once wrote about asset positioning over at Investing for Beginners at About.com, a division of The [...]

from Joshua Kennon