Boat financing has many similarities to other types of loans, but there are some distinct characteristics when getting a boat loan. The basic premise is similar in that there typically involves a down payment that represents a portion of the purchase price, and the remaining portion of the purchase being paid over time (and you pay interest on this portion). The bank or lender that is providing you with the money makes money on the interest as you pay down the loan over time. You can get boat financing through banks and credit unions, or like auto dealers and loans, many boat dealers themselves will have internal personnel to provide boat financing to you at the time of purchase. While it can sometimes be a more simple and seamless
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How often and when should you rebalance your portfolio?
In our last of three articles on setting investing rules for ourselves, we're going to tackle the subject of rebalancing your portfolio. Previously, we discussed how to buy individual stocks and knowing when to buy stocks. Our goal with this series is to develop a framework of guidelines and rules to protect you from you. Data shows the best investment returns come with a systematic approach to investing. Some investors have this systematic approach forced upon them via a 401(k) type plan, and others need to establish the framework themselves in order to prevent random moves based on emotion and news headlines. Rebalancing your portfolio typically refers to the simple act of modifying your investment portfolio back to a target
How to freeze your credit
If you’re a credit card holder or if you make online transactions, you may run into a situation where you need to know how to freeze your credit. It’s one way to try to prevent fraud from identity theft by controlling who can access your credit information. Freezing your credit, also called a security freeze, essentially prevents hard inquiries on your credit histories held by the three main credit bureaus – Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Any creditor wanting to access your credit report would need to have a PIN. Is it a Good Idea to Freeze Your Credit? Freezing your credit has both advantages and disadvantages to consider. On the one hand, the move can significantly help reduce fraud if you think your personal
Investing rules for buying stocks: systematic buying vs. market timing
In our series of investing rules articles, we last talked about putting parameters around our investing to mitigate single stock risk and stock picking risk through the use of maximum allocations and balancing between index funds and single stocks. Today we’re going to continue discussing this topic as we look at when we buy stocks. First, let’s quickly review the context. For our purposes here we are breaking down all investors into two categories. Those who invest their money via automatic investing methods such as a 401(k) plan and those who invest their money at their own discretion, when they want and how they want. Yes, we’re aware that some investors fall into both camps. We're attempting to establish rules for those
Investing rules for buying individual stocks
For our consideration today, let's group all investors into two categories. Those who contribute money into investments through nothing but an automated contribution system (often taking the form of a 401(k) type plan) and those who contribute money on a non-systematic basis and without a set schedule. Now, it’s worth noting that some investors fall into both camps. Some people have a 401(k), but also throw extra money at investments on occasion. The automated, systematic contributors have a built-in advantage that the non-systematic, non-scheduled contributors do not. That advantage is that automated investing protects you from you. While you indeed have control over your 401(k) through managing the contribution level and the
10 Things to Know Before Getting Your First Credit Card
A credit card is an essential financial tool in today’s world and choosing your first credit can be a challenging decision. If you’re getting your first credit card, you’ll want to consider a few key things before crossing this major money milestone. You can save a lot of time and money if you understand the basic features of credit cards and how to compare them. With the right card, you can build healthy credit that will open doors to many other financial benefits. You may even earn a bit of extra cash or perks like free airfare or hotel stays. Everyone has a different financial situation. So, the right card for you will depend on your own budget, income, spending habits and debt load, among other factors. You may have already a
How to get the high (or low) stock price over a specific date range using the Google Finance spreadsheet formula
I love using the GoogleFinance functions on Google spreadsheets for tracking and analyzing stock price movement and data. The Google team has made their Google Sheets very handy for stock market analysis and tracking through the simple use of the GoogleFinance function. Using this function, you can pull in live and historical stock price data and perform some nice analysis on the data fairly easily. In this article we'll look at how you might pull the high or low stock price over a specific date range. Note that the GoogleFinance does have a built in 52 week high (or low) function, but what we're attempting to do is different. We're looking to pull the high or low price during a specific date range. For example, maybe the year-to-date
How to get a stock price for a specific date using the Google Finance spreadsheet formula
If you're like me, you track things on spreadsheets and often times on Google Sheets (the Google Docs version of Excel essentially). The Google sheets have the GoogleFinance function that is really handy for pulling in live and historic stock data. In this quick tutorial, we'll look at how you can pull a stock price from a specific date in history. First, let's do a quick overview of the GoogleFinance function. It looks like this: =GOOGLEFINANCE(stock symbol,"price") The above function will essentially pull in the current price for whatever stock you tell it to. You can tell it to pull in a stock using an explicit ticker, or as you get used to working in these sheets, you can use a different column to tell it what the ticker should
How to go from 0 to 100 users a day on your blog
As we've documented previously, getting your initial traffic going on a new website or blog is the toughest part. Most people struggle to get any real traction in increasing traffic. Following up on our previous post in which we discussed how to go from 0 to 1,000 users a month on your blog, we're going to discuss how to get to 100 users a day (roughly 3,000 users per month). 100 users per day is the next milestone I outlined in the plan for this site, so let's discuss it further. First, let's reiterate that the reason we're talking about this is because I'm a firm believer in building income streams and a website with automatic traffic can be a great tool for building another income stream. While there are tons of garbage guides online
Stocks for kids: How to invest for your kids and teach them to invest themselves
Finding stocks for kids to purchase is a worthwhile endeavor, but if you’re like me it doesn’t end there. While I’m absolutely interested in build a stock portfolio for my kids that can earn money and that they can take over eventually, I’m also quite interested in ensuring my kids learn how to invest themselves. And in many ways, teaching your kids about stocks takes much more of your time and energy, but if done well and thoughtfully, it can pay dividends for a lifetime! In this article on stocks for kids, we’re going to do both. We’re going to discuss picking some stocks to build a portfolio for your kids, but we’re also going to spend some time walking through how to teach your kids about investing. I’ll explain some of the things
Disney Dividend: Analysis, amount and payout schedule
Disney (DIS) investors have long praised the Disney dividend that is paid on a semi-annual basis for shareholders, but have recent moves by the media and entertainment conglomerate put the Disney dividend in a more "back seat" position? As Disney positions itself for the next era of media and entertainment consumption, the company has made huge bets - in many cases, bets that most analysts praise the company for - that will likely take investors' eyes off regular dividend income for the next few years and instead on various growth metrics. In this article we'll look at Disney's business, the Disney dividend and what we can expect as dividend investors moving forward. The Walt Disney Company is one of the most famous companies in the
XOM Dividend: Exxon Mobil dividend dates, history and projections
Exxon Mobil is one of the largest companies in the United States and an extremely important company in the energy sector. For investors, the XOM dividend has long been a stalwart of the investment thesis in owning shares of this company. While the XOM dividend has been a long-term consistent and reliable dividend, 2020 has brought unprecedented uncertainty to both the XOM dividend, specifically, and investing in the energy sector, generally. XOM Background The largest descendant of the famous Standard Oil corporation, Exxon Mobil is an oil and gas producer with upstream and downstream operations in the sector. As of year-end 2019, Exxon had nearly 24,000 operated wells with proved reserves over 22 billion oil-equivalent
Netflix and the coronavirus
Netflix delivered its latest quarterly announcement and it was a doozy. Netflix smashed expectations by adding nearly 16 million new paid subscribers. While management acknowledged that they benefitted from the stay-at-home dynamics currently in place with the coronavirus and that subscriber adds were likely pulled forward from future quarters, this is hardly a bad thing. In fact, I think management downplayed this too much. The reality here is that in subscription businesses, pulling subscriber adds forward is a great thing because it improves cash flow. Netflix is a known borrower of the debt markets to fund content and growth, so pulling subscribers forward is a great thing! The overall increase in subscribers just shows how well
Guideline 401(k) Review: A thorough look at this small business 401(k) offering
When our company wanted to roll out a 401(k) plan for our employees, we researched a few options. After analyzing the options, the costs and the offerings, we went with Guideline to manage our 401(k) plan for our company. In this Guideline 401(k) review, you'll learn some of the key features, what the process was like and ultimately why we chose to go with Guideline for 401(k) management for our company. When we began our process, we got proposals from traditional financial management firms that help small businesses with 401(k) plans. These proposals were very traditional and on average had 3 pages of fees and estimates of fees. For a small business like ours with roughly ten employees, companies were estimating roughly $5,000 in annual
Disney Plus Subscribers: Subscriber count history for Disney’s streaming service
Ever since Disney announced its Disney+ service in 2019, projecting, estimating and tracking Disney Plus subscribers has been an obsession for much of the media and Disney analysts. Despite a major cable business (anchored by ESPN) in a secular decline, Disney leadership was able to successfully pivot to the world of on-demand, streaming platforms with an extraordinarily successful launch of Disney+ in late 2019. The success of the Disney+ streaming platform is widely watched in the industry for a number of reasons. First, Disney is one of the biggest and most important media and entertainment companies in the world. Disney has staked much of its future growth on the success of the direct-to-consumer platform. Second, the launching
Why Disney+ crossing the 50,000,000 subscriber threshold in five months matters
Disney announced this week that its new streaming service of Disney+ has crossed 50 million paid subscribers just five short months after launching. While obviously helped by the sheltering-at-home of millions of people around the world during the coronavirus pandemic, it's still an astonishing success. Note that Disney previously mentioned that they would not provide subscriber count updates outside of formal quarterly reports, so the timing here is quite interesting. As we've discussed, several of the core Disney businesses are getting hammered during the economic shutdown right now, so it's possible that Disney is trying to get some good news out there before reporting a quite challenging quarter on May 12. But why does this
Updated ESPN Subscribers and ESPN Revenue, Explained
ESPN subscriber counts and ESPN revenue numbers that are associated with ESPN subscribers are some of the most watched metrics in all of the media industry. Why are these numbers so dissected and discussed? There are several reasons. First, ESPN finds itself at the intersection of many very large and interesting trends in media. We'll get to those in a minute. Second, ESPN has long been the most profitable cable TV network and ESPN revenue and operating profits have bolstered parent company Disney's earnings and growth for years. Also, ESPN and its profitability has been the poster child of the cable TV industry for decades. Therefore, as cable TV declines, ESPN is also the most watched element within that ecosystem as the industry shifts.
10 key personal finance strategies to implement during a recession
Managing your personal finances during a recession can be stressful. Oftentimes, recessions involve job loss, income reductions and decreases in the values of various investments. Losing income and feeling like your wealth is declining isn’t exactly comforting, but by planning and preparing before a recession hits and by implementing some key strategies during a recession, it can be possible to weather the storm well and come out on the other side in an even better position long-term. Before we get into some key personal finance strategies during a recession, let’s first talk about the period of time before an actual recession. Truly, the most important thing(s) you can do to weather a recession come well before the recession hits. To
Netflix content spend, explained
For the investing community, the Netflix content spend is one of the most talked about items with respect to the bull case and bear case for investing in Netflix stock (NFLX). But few truly understand the Netflix content spend, why it's important for the business, and what elements of the spend we should be truly monitoring. Let's try to fully breakdown the Netflix content spend here and explain why it's important. FREE REPORT ON INVESTING IN NETFLIX Table of contents: Cord-Cutting: Powerful Trend, But Partially Misunderstood Subscriber Growth, First-Mover Advantage & The Nature of Subscriptions Future Profitability & The Keys To The Bull Case Moving Forward Answering The Bear Questions Things To Watch In The Next 24 Months Get this
The 2020 stimulus bill
The 2020 stimulus bill, known as the CARES Act, was signed into law by President Trump on March 27, 2020 in order to combat the economic impact from the coronavirus pandemic which spread globally in early 2020. The $2 trillion bill is considered the largest economic aid package in US history. The 2020 stimulus bill is a spending bill of over $2 trillion in spend mostly targeting the following: Small businesses: $375 billion Corporations: $500 billionIndividuals: $600 billionState & local governments: $340 billionPublic health/services: $180 billionOther Payments for individuals ($600 billion / roughly 30% of the 2020 stimulus bill) In order to protect individuals who are losing jobs and are negatively impacted by the
The best stocks for 2020 and beyond after the coronavirus crash
Every year you’ll see many best stocks to buy type lists, and certainly, a few months ago there were plenty of articles giving you the best stocks for 2020 to buy. But in just a few short months everything has changed. We have a global pandemic and stocks markets are down over 30% in just mere weeks. Can we still identify the best stocks for 2020? Yes, we can, but first let’s map out some context and conditions for how we can explore this subject. First, you have to identify your timeframe. For the purposes of this discussion, we’re going to assume a long-term perspective. We’re going to discuss the best stocks for 2020 assuming you are holding them for at least ten years. Second, our goal here isn’t to find ultra beaten down stocks
Netflix vs. Disney: Comparing the streaming platforms and the stock in 2020 and beyond
The Netflix vs. Disney conversation entered a new phase as 2020 got underway. Both streaming services (Netflix and Disney+) were launched and widely used in the United States. With the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic shutdown now in effect, 2020 is something else altogether now. So, how should we look at Netflix vs. Disney in 2020? How should we compare the streaming services? How should we compare the stocks themselves? Which company is the better investment long-term? Let's try to answer these questions a bit. Netflix vs. Disney+ Much of this article will be about the business models of Netflix and Disney and how they are coping with 2020 and beyond, but since much of the discussion around these two companies is about
Stocks to buy for the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic and stock market crash
Today, let’s talk about winners and losers from the coronavirus epidemic. Prior to getting into some fun speculation, let’s quickly remark that in a general sense, we’re all losers. People are sick, some have died, and the economic damage to many has been real. We’re in no way trivializing the very real, troublesome elements of this current reality. But today our goal winners and losers in the sense of which industries, businesses and investments might outperform and which ones might underperform. By discussing this, perhaps it can help investors identify some businesses and stocks to own in the aftermath of the 2020 stock market crash. Travel Few industries were impacted as immediately and severely as travel-related businesses
The 2020 stock market crash: Timeline, what caused it and more
The 2020 stock market crash was related to the coronavirus pandemic that spread from China in late December and early January to much of the world in February and March. In order to mitigate the spread of the virus, large parts of the economy were shut down especially in travel related industries. This led to enormous stock market volatility starting in late February. As can be seen in the following graphic, the ups and downs swings starting in late February and much of March dwarfed the up and down moves from earlier in the year. During the 2020 volatility, a major indicator of falling stocks was the collapsing yields in the U.S. Treasury market. Collapsing yields infers that money is flowing into treasuries. Treasuries are often
How low can the stock market go?
When market crashes occur, the question of how low can the stock market go is a common one. Investors are scared and want to try and get a decent grasp on what the extent of losses can be. It's unnerving to think about the wealth destruction occurring, and investors will continually ask in response how low can it go? How bad can it get? Maybe by looking at other historical market crashes, we can get a feel for where we are, what the worst case scenario is, and let's identify a few levels in the Dow and what that means for the overall decline. When looking at how low the stock market can go, let's first identify some key levels in the Dow and what that means for overall market declines. The Dow Jones Industrial Average peaked at