Couldn't help but notice this article from Bloomberg the other day featuring the fact that San Francisco's median home price just hit a new high of $1.6 million. Just to make sure we're clear on terms, median price means that price at which half the transactions are higher and half the transactions are lower. Put a different way, this means that 1 out of every 2 homes currently available for sale in San Francisco is priced at $1.6 million or higher. I got curious as to what that implies about affordability. What does it take, in the current mortgage rate environment, to purchase such a home ..read more

Last week, I penned a quick article suggesting that not everyone is getting rich off the stock market. It highlighted the most recent NY Fed report which featured, among other things, that U.S. household debt reached an all-time high in Q4 2017, some 17.9% above its most recent trough in Q2 2013. Further, that the segment with the largest gains was credit cards, with a 3.2% increase. The article went on to feature the sharp rise in the U.S. stock market over that same period and posited that, clearly, the rising tide was not lifting all boats. Finally, it raised the question of what this might ..read more

Well, the NY Fed was out today with its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit for Q4 2017. Clearly, Americans are in a lot of debt. Take a look. Just a couple of quick hits from the report. Total U.S. household debt rose $193 billion in the 4th quarter, to a new all-time peak of $13.15 trillion. That's 17.9% above the most recent trough in Q2 2013. Broken down by segment, what do you suppose was the largest gain in percentage terms? Credit cards, with a 3.2% increase. In the picture above, the widening gap represented by the red arrows reflects the fact that non-housing debt is risi ..read more

Wanted to take just a minute to share one of my favorite examples of where what I can only attribute to mental laziness corrupts the proper use of the English language. I hear it, if not once a day, at least several times a week: "I could care less." "I could care less." If, indeed, it is possible to care less, whatever it is that you mean to dismiss by use of the phrase is, in fact, not dismissed at all. No, the phrase is: "I couldn't care less." As in: "You can talk to me all day long about (insert topic here) and it would literally be impossible for me to care any less than I do at this ..read more

In February, 2017, I wrote an article for Seeking Alpha entitled A Dividend Portfolio Built From The World's Best Dividend ETFs. I later expanded on the work I did in a second article, entitled 20 Top Stocks For A Monthly Dividend Portfolio. In this article, I expanded the original portfolio of 12 stocks to 20, with the specific goal of adding companies that, together, generated at least some level of income for the portfolio each and every month. At the end of that second article, I revealed that I had "put my money where my mouth is," selling all my holdings in 4 dividend-focused ETFs and r ..read more

Just a quick note for today. Just over a month ago, I wrote an article for Seeking Alpha in which I suggested 20 Top Stocks For A Monthly Dividend Portfolio along with 2 "bonus" suggestions. Today, Apple was hit by a Wall Street Journal article confirming rumors of iPhone 8 production delays. General Electric got trashed by a negative JP Morgan note. Speaking of JP Morgan, it too got hit by, from the best I can tell, a continuation of concerns over falling interest rates. And Starbucks appears to have another general case of the blues. Guess what? All of these stocks are in my portfolio. Th ..read more

One of my favorite destinations in Italy is the Cinque Terre. The phrase "Cinque Terre" literally means "five lands," and refers to 5 small towns (Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso al Mare) that hug the western coastline of Northern Italy. If you are a fan of Rick Steves, you likely know that he feels many travelers make the mistake of viewing the Cinque Terre as an afterthought; descending on the region early one morning, blowing through all 5 towns and leaving the same evening. I agree with him that those who do so miss out on so much. I hope to share an overall pos ..read more

In February, 2017, I wrote an article for Seeking Alpha entitled A Dividend Portfolio Built From The World's Best Dividend ETFs. I later expanded on the work I did in a second article, entitled 20 Top Stocks For A Monthly Dividend Portfolio. In this article, I expanded the original portfolio of 12 stocks to 20, with the specific goal of adding companies that, together, generated at least some level of income for the portfolio each and every month. At the end of that second article, I revealed that I had "put my money where my mouth is," selling all my holdings in 4 dividend-focused ETFs and r ..read more

In February, 2017, I wrote an article for Seeking Alpha entitled A Dividend Portfolio Built From The World's Best Dividend ETFs. I later expanded on the work I did in a second article, entitled 20 Top Stocks For A Monthly Dividend Portfolio. In this article, I expanded the original portfolio of 12 stocks to 20, with the specific goal of adding companies that, together, generated at least some level of income for the portfolio each and every month. At the end of that second article, I revealed that I had "put my money where my mouth is," selling all my holdings in 4 dividend-focused ETFs and r ..read more

Great news for online savers! Synchrony Bank, which at 1.05% already sported one of the most competitive interest rates for an online savings account, announced today that, effective 6/1/17, the rate is being raised to 1.15%. Now, this is nothing earthshaking. It's one-tenth of one percent. However, this is the first time in years that I have seen one of the online banks actually raise their interest rate. A little research appears to reveal that competitor Ally Bank has also raised their rates. Their website appears to show their rate as 1.05% effective 6/1/17, as opposed to the previous l ..read more