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Fiscal Zen - Investing, Personal Finance and Smart Spending
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Fiscal Zen provides tips and insight on investing, personal finance and smart spending to help individuals make the most of their money. You won't find us touting penny stocks, get-rich-quick or multi-level marketing schemes here. Instead, we firml
Recent Posts Tagged With 'investing'
Learn Trading and Have Fun With These Seven Fantasy Investing Sites
NPR had a segment this morning that talked about the recent surge in popularity of fantasy investing sites. These sites allow you to learn and test your trading acumen by competing against other would-be investors without risking real-mon...
Learn Trading and Have Fun With These Seven Fantasy Investing Sites
NPR had a segment this morning that talked about the recent surge in popularity of fantasy investing sites. These sites allow you to learn and test your trading acumen by competing against other would-be investors without risking real-mon...
Good News Among the Economic Doom and Gloom
There’s no doubt about it: the economy is a mess. The job rate continues to rise and it seems like just about everyone is asking for support or a handout from the government. In addition, it seems like 300 and 400 poin...
Good News Among the Economic Doom and Gloom
There’s no doubt about it: the economy is a mess. The job rate continues to rise and it seems like just about everyone is asking for support or a handout from the government. In addition, it seems like 300 and 400 poin...
S&P 500? It could happen
Over the course of the year, analyst’s estimated earnings for the S&P 500 have been dropping steadily. Back in March, the average forecast called for earnings of $81.52 per share; and as of October 14th, that forecast had dropped ...
Do Stock Dividends Matter?
Back in the 90’s, dividends and traditional value companies fell out of favor while growth companies were all the rage during the dot-com boom. But is there value in dividend paying stocks? The obvious answer is yes, because dividend-paying s...
Do Stock Dividends Matter?
Back in the 90’s, dividends and traditional value companies fell out of favor while growth companies were all the rage during the dot-com boom. But is there value in dividend paying stocks? The obvious answer is yes, because dividend-pa...
Is Intel (INTC) Stock A Bargain?
Like many high-tech companies, Intel has taken it on the chin this year. As of Friday, it's down about 45% for the year. But does it deserve the haircut it has received? Overview Intel's primary business is supplying the x8...
Practice Stock Trading and Win Prizes at Wall Street Survivor
I’m a big proponent of practicing a new stock strategy (a.k.a “paper trading”) before I commit actual money to it. I recently ran across an interesting site called Wall Street Survivor, which provides a free platform that you can us...
Looking For A Solid Investment? Think "Toothpaste"
There’s no doubt that the stock market has been tough over the past year. All three indicies – the Dow, the NASDAQ, and the S&P are all down over 30%. In an economic downturn, there are some safe havens, however. T...
Is It Time to Buy Google (GOOG)?
The market downturn has not been kind to Google. It hit a high of nearly $750 back in November of last year. But since that time, it has fallen by nearly 50% to it’s after-hours price of $389. And yet even with the economy in tur...
Jim Cramer: A Great Contrarian Indicator?
I’ve mentioned Jim Cramer on this blog in the past, both here and here. And while I’ve always looked at his rants with mild amusement; some of his schizophrenic ramblings leave me perplexed; and I wonder if perhaps he’s doing more h...
The Stock Market Is Down, But The Smart Money Is Buying
So far this year, the major indices are all down by over 20%. It’s gotten so bad that a lot of us don’t even open up our retirement statements when they arrive in the mail. So what’s the smart money doing? They’re buy...
GE Stock Selling at Fire Sale Prices
The current turmoil in the market is causing some real bargains to pop up. GE, for example, is typically considered to be a solid, blue-chip stock with a well-diversified revenue base and a well-defended franchise. In other words, a...
Time to Question Warren Buffett's Integrity?
The Motley Fool recently published an article entitled Why Would Warren Buffett Stoop So Low? which points out a potential conflict of interest between Buffett’s recent five billion dollar investment in Goldman Sachs and his recent comments...
Are There Any Quality Bank Stocks Left?
The recent past has been really interesting where financial stocks are concerned. It seems like almost everyone has exposure to bad mortgage debt. And once solid institutions such as Wells Fargo and Bank of America have issues: ...
Avoiding Value Traps in Today's Market
When a stock’s price falls and corresponding valuation metrics like Price/Earnings and Price/Sales drop to attractive lows, bargain hunters tend to begin salivating like Pavlov’s dog. In fact, when MBIA and Ambac began to crumble la...
Is It Possible that Housing Prices May Not Stabilize Until 2014?
Jeffrey Gundlach, the chief investment officer for TCW recently told clients that the current credit and housing slump may not subside for several more years. His thesis is that mortgage default rates will continue to worsen as housing...
Stocks That Perform Well During an Economic Recovery
With the economy continuing to flirt with a recession, a recovery may still be a ways away. However, markets tend to be forward-looking and will begin to move up prior to an upturn in the economy. Therefore, it’s not too soon to b...
Performance Update: Stocks That are Best for a Recession
Back in mid-June, I posted an article that discussed the types of stocks that tend to perform best during a recession. I thought it would be an interesting exercise to look back and see how those picks have performed in the intervening t...
Interesting Bits From Around The Web - August 30th
Ali Hale talks about tracking your money with a Spending Log. The Huffinging Post explains how the weak economy is speeding the demise of the newspaper. Yahoo! provides some tips on 5 Big Bills You Can Cut Fast. The Motley Fool explains Why I...
Performance Report: Green Revolution Stock Picks
Back on July 20th, I published an entry on Five Stock Picks for the Green Revolution, where I presented five stocks that stood to benefit from the trend toward green energy. The selection criteria that I used was fairly straight-forward:&...
