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Investment Strategy News

Does Brand Loyalty Belong In Your Portfolio?

Tuesday Nov 3, 2009

Should your spending habits guide your investment decisions?

Five Signs You're Caught in a Market Bubble

Friday Oct 30, 2009

Learn the warning signs, and you'll see the next bubble before it bursts.

Fidelity Pumps Up Foreign Trading

Thursday Oct 22, 2009

Fidelity's online-brokerage services will now allow investors to trade foreign stocks and currencies directly.

Family Trusts Seek to Avoid New Rules

Wednesday Oct 21, 2009

New rules considered by Congress would more tightly regulate private investment groups.

Apple Earnings Good for Holders, Bad for Buyers

Monday Oct 19, 2009

Brett Arends warns investors against buying Apple stock as a sound investment.

Take Off Blinders When It Comes to Fees

Saturday Oct 17, 2009

Investors rushing to buy bond funds are overlooking fees.

Employers Begin Driving Your 401(k)

Saturday Oct 17, 2009

More business are moving from the old model of employees running their 401ks and are taking control.

Insurers Take Step Away From Raters

Thursday Oct 15, 2009

The proposal to reduce the importance of ratings firms in sizing up insurers' investment portfolios is moving forward.

Dow 10,000: Déjà vu All Over Again

Thursday Oct 15, 2009

The Dow may have reached 10,000 again, but investors still have more issues to face than reasons to celebrate.

How Investors Can Play the e-Reader Battle

Tuesday Oct 13, 2009

Barnes & Noble is entering the e-reader battle, and investors may earn more profits from going against the crowd rooting for Amazon, says Brett Arends.

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Recent Comments


David R Hanson
FiLife Contributor
7 days ago

A really fine piece Robert. A couple of reactions: -I agree with you that p2p lending is an innovative concept. I do fear that your excellent indictment of proper.com's specific implementation will be read as reason to dismiss other more viable p2p models. -As of today, Prosper.com's performance as per the link you provided is notably worse than when you wrote the piece. As unemployment continues to rise and middle- and working-class citizens keep struggling, I expect this trend to continue. -At the same time, the "spread" between what banks pay savers and what they charge typical borrowers has never been greater. Small business loan and credit card rates keep soaring, when they're still available at all...yet the deposits used to help fund these loans costs banks less than one percent in interest. These provides a greater than usual opportunity for those who would act as intermediaries between borrowers and savers without needing such a massive spread to stay afloat. I'm thinking of models like the Grameen Foundation at http://www.grameenfoundation.org/ , or community based credit unions that focus on local "meat and potatoes" lending, complete with careful underwriting. If models like these received even a fraction of the government support currently given to the largest banks, they could do a great deal to revive the economy on a much more sustainable basis than would programs like cash for clunkers, homebuyers tax credits, and bailouts for megabanks. In any case, thanks for giving FiLife readers good reason to pause and think before giving their hard-earned money to flawed models like prosper.com's .


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Today’s Rates

Type Today Week Ago
15 Year Fixed 4.62% Rates_down 4.67%
30 Year Fixed 5.15% 5.15%
1 Year ARM 3.48% Rates_down 3.51%
5/1 Year ARM 3.62% Rates_down 3.68%
Type Today Week Ago
Line of Credit 4.89% Rates_up 4.88%
10 Year Loan 7.47% 7.47%
15 Year Loan 7.61% Rates_up 7.60%
Type Today Week Ago
Interest Checking 0.28% 0.28%
Money Market/Savings 0.38% 0.38%
12 Month CD 1.13% Rates_deposit_down 1.15%
60 Month IRA CD 2.40% Rates_deposit_down 2.41%
Type Today Week Ago
Cash Back Cards 12.66% Rates_down 12.68%
No Annual Fee Cards 12.08% Rates_up 11.97%
Reward Cards 12.75% Rates_up 12.61%
Small Business Cards 11.01% Rates_up 10.94%
Student Cards 13.77% Rates_up 13.49%
Platinum Cards 12.26% Rates_up 12.11%
Provided by Informa 11.06.09