Check out this graphic I found on the myFICO website: I took the information found in that chart and made another graphic showing just how much interest a person would pay over a 30-year mortgage...

Take a look at the following graph which shows the maximum dollar amount subject to social security taxes each year: Using the base amount of $3,000 in 1937 and $106,800 in 2009, I calculated...

Long time readers of AFM know that I like to look at things differently through the use of spreadsheets. I have kind of gotten away from such posts in recent months. But, after reading comments...

I read about this Kimberly Strassel column about Safeway’s health plan last week and meant to mention it but forgot. As recently as 2004, Safeway was suffocating under health-care costs growing...

2008 screwed everything up! Take a look at the returns for the S&P 500 Index over the last 10, 20, 30 and 40 years: The last ten years were pretty pathetic and have led to new “research” like...

As it stands at the writing of this post, the S&P 500 Index returned -9.16 over this past decade (January 2000 – December 21, 2009). Here are a few interesting tidbits I gathered from the data: • Of the 120 months of this past decade, 50 of them had...

I couldn’t sleep last night so I grabbed my iPod and scrolled through until I found something interesting to listen to. I settled on Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto E minor, Op. 64 (classical music titles confuse me). This concerto has three...

Beth sent me a link to this story this morning: Credit Card’s Newest Trick: 79.9 Percent Interest Basically, this bank used to charge $256 per year in fees on a credit card with a $250 credit limit. The new credit card laws limit fees to 25% of the...

I read this in the WSJ this morning: Next spring, Fine Living Network, a cable channel created in 2002 at the height of America’s infatuation with affluent living, is slated to be phased out. In its place, Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. will launch...

I listened in on a Roth IRA Converstion conference call with a Charles Schwab representative this morning. Schwab.com offers a pretty nice resource for Roth IRAs. In 15 days an opportunity will become available that will allow people at all income...