Usually I write about stuff that I recommend doing. In this post, I want to look at something that is possible, but not recommended under most circumstances. With hard economic times, there are a lot of people trying to find ways to borrow from their retirement funds. Many 401k accounts allow this, but what if your money is in an IRA? You'll probably want to ask: "Can I borrow from my IRA?" Well, can you borrow from your IRA? Or perhaps, can you borrow against your IRA's value? Technically, no. But there is a short-term loophole that you can use if you have no other option. In this post, we are going to explore the loophole. Individual Retirement Accounts An individual retirement … [Read more...] about Borrow from your IRA
finance
Why You Need Personal Capital
I've been exploring several business opportunities recently, so I've been thinking a lot about capital. If we want to do X it will take $1500 of capital. If we want to do Y it will take $4000 of capital. Our options in business greatly depend on the amount of capital we control. Capital represents the ability to do something. Better yet, it creates an option for you to choose a particular path. Without enough capital, that particular path is not available to you. When it comes to our personal performance, capital is an important concept. True, we don't usually call it capital, but if you think in terms of that which gives you options, it functions in the same way. You have to … [Read more...] about Why You Need Personal Capital
Investment allocation
Usually when people talk about properly allocating investments, they refer to money. Even more important is how you allocate your time. With money you usually want to have some investments in areas that will pay off over time, some investments in areas that will pay off quickly, some risky, and some safe. This strategy is to protect you from future events that are outside of your control. Your time needs to be allocated with the same type of care. For example, if you put all of your time into earning money at a high paying job, that does nothing to develop your skills or talents as a person and you could be wiped out by a lawsuit and be left with nothing. On the other hand, if you … [Read more...] about Investment allocation
Thoughts on the Bailout
If the bailout doesn't happen, I will probably lose money. However, I am still not in favor of the proposed bailout. Why? Because I would rather lose money over the next 3 or 4 years in order to keep my country strong over the next 10 to 50. The last time we heard this much talk about the bad things that would happen if we did nothing, we went to war in Iraq. It now seems that the "bad stuff" that was suppose to happen if we didn't go to war was overrated and based on faulty information. My guess is that this is happening again. It seems to me that the long term damage from a bailout is likely to be worse than the shorter term damage (if any) of not passing the bailout. But what do … [Read more...] about Thoughts on the Bailout