Finance Roundtable

Bill Miller, the manager of Legg Mason Value Trust, shares some advice about building wealth.

[My father said…] “See this ‘plus .25’? That means that if you own one share of this company today, you have 25¢ more than you had yesterday.” I had come in from mowing the grass ...

Without getting too specific about the company I work for, a large company like mine has to make efficient use of its financial assets. Most of a company’s money should be invested in bonds, equities, or even more complex financial instruments, but a portion needs to be in regular ...

Earlier this month, IndyMac, a bank and mortgage lender, collapsed, and through an interesting process the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) assumed responsibility of the bank’s deposit accounts. This collapse, only a few months after NetBank closed and its deposits were acquired by ING Direct, has people everywhere ...

A recent Nielsen study revealed that almost two-thirds of consumers in the United States, many more than those surveyed just one year ago, have cut back their expenses, specifically due to escalating gas prices.

According to the study, which queried about 50,000 consumers during the first week of June, ...

Back in the late 1980s, I collected baseball cards just like millions of other kids. That’s around the same time that popularity of baseball card collecting skyrocketed and the producers of cards—and Major League Baseball—ruined the hobby, never to recover.

Taking advantage of collector—and even investor—interest, the companies ...

Nicholas emailed me with this question.

I’m trying to find some kind of free accounting software for balancing my checkbook, and that sort of thing. I already use Mint.com, but it isn’t much good if I plan on writing a check, or if I want to create a recurring ...

The Dow and the S&P 500 indexes were both up 2.5% and the Nasdaq index was up 3.1% today. Is this a sign of things to come? I wouldn’t mind if it were. My 401(k) has been decimated this year. That’s a literal decimation, a reduction ...

Five years ago today, on July 16, 2003, I began Consumerism Commentary, writing a short post about myself, the purpose of this website, and my first “public” financial update. By that time, I was about a year and a half into a corporate job, a change from my ...

One of the most important metrics for tracking financial progress is net worth. I write about my net worth, or a modified form of it, every month when I report my balances. By watching my net worth change over time—usually increasing from month to month but occasionally decreasing—I ...

Homeowners in New Jersey are eligible for a partial rebate of property taxes paid. If you owned and lived in a house in New Jersey on October 1, 2007, you are eligible. Renters like me are eligible for a separate rebate up to $860.

If you haven’t received an ...