Last week, I wrote about how few “retail investors,” that’s folks like you and me, have come back to investing in the stock market after the craziness of the Great Recession. The market has made significant gains, erasing the losses of the Great Recession, but many investors are still on the sidelines.

Then came word that the Japanese stock market, the NIKKEI 225, dropped 7.32% on Thursday (Wednesday night for us in the United States). It was the worst percentage decline since the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. The fall continued into the FTSE 100 (London index), which shed 2.1%, but given better than expected numbers here in the U.S., the drop didn’t translate to anything significant here. For the year, all of the stock markets have been going gangbusters. The NIKKEI was up 50% year to date before the fall but no one (meaning retail investors) saw it coming, which adds to this feeling of loss of control.

On Wednesday, a perfectly happy U.S. stock market was up until Bernanke started talking and it ended up down for the day. The market was down to open Thursday but eventually made its way pretty close to even. For someone like myself with a time horizon of decades, these gyrations are kind of scary but with thirty years to go, they’re not that scary. But there is a feeling that I have no control over it. It makes me wonder if I can trust the stock market. I know people are telling me that investing is the path to wealth… but is it?

7% single day drops, even if it’s the NIKKEI, doesn’t give me much confidence that I can trust the stock market. Any stock market.

How do you feel about the market? Trust it? Don’t care?

(photo: credit)

One of the most expensive financial decisions many of us make is having a wedding.

While my wedding was pretty modest (coming in at right around $3,000), the average cost of a wedding as of this writing is a little more than $28,000!

Who has $28,000 to spend on a wedding — especially if you have student debt and you are hoping to save up for a house?

One way to pay for your wedding is to obtain sponsorships to help you take care of the costs. This is the approach Donnie Gallagher and his fiancee Jennifer are taking. They hope to raise $25,000 in services and and cash to pay for their dream wedding on February 14, 2014 (yes, that’s Valentine’s Day). If they manage to raise more than $25,000, everything extra will be donated to charity.

(Click to continue reading…)

Remember Book It? I used to love that program… free personal pan pizzas from Pizza Hut just for reading. I used to read Encyclopedia Brown and Hardy Boys and all those books for free. When I learned I could get free pizza for reading… it was like Christmas in June. It was incredible.

Well, it’s almost summer and TD Bank is once again offering a summer reading promotion in which customers with a Young Saver account (kids) can get $10 if they read 10 books. All you need to do is have your child read ten books, fill out the summer reading form, and take it to the bank. They’ll get $10 deposited into their account and the fun of reading ten books.

If you aren’t a TD Bank customer, this isn’t that great of a promotion if you’re promotion hunting. Most banks offer closer to $100 for you to join them, though their promotions aren’t as easy to fulfill as this one. They usually require direct deposits and minimum balances.

If you are already a TD Bank customer, and your kids don’t have a savings account, this isn’t a bad time to consider introducing them to saving. And reading.

$10 will be deposited into a new or existing Young Saver account. One coupon per Customer during the promotional period. Cannot be combined with any other offers. Valid May 5, 2012, through September 29, 2012. Must be 18 years of age or younger to participate. Bring form of ID for child for new account opening.

This is a guest post from Michael of Financial Ramblings.

Editor’s Note: I was chatting with Michael the other day when he told me his story about buying a suit at a major men’s retailer. He told me how he walked in expecting it to be your typical retail experience, that is you pay what’s listed, but discovered that it was closer to buying a car. There’s a lot of wheeling and dealing involved and I was surprised so I asked him to share his story – being able to negotiate the price of a suit is something the stores probably don’t want you to know!

A couple of weeks ago I had to dress for success. Actually, I had to dress because of success. I was receiving a work-related award and I was expected to wear business attire.

(Click to continue reading…)

As we mentioned a while back, we’re buying a home and it’s a very exciting time for us. It wasn’t always so exciting though and if you’ve ever looked for a home, you’ll agree. The actual task of finding a house you like can take a very long time and there are no guarantees you’ll ever find one you like. I’ve heard horror stories, they were horror stories to me anyway, about people having to look at a hundred homes before they found one they liked… only to lose out on it because their offer wasn’t good enough.

A hundred houses. If you spend a minimum of half an hour inside, that’s still 50 hours. That’s more than a standard work week. Add in travel time and you’re probably pushing 80 hours. Two solid weeks. It’s incredible.

Here’s the secret… it’s up to you to be efficient.

(Click to continue reading…)

Insider trading has been going on ever since the stock market existed. Everyone is looking for an edge and no one is willing to play fair. Martha Stewart did it and was treated to several months in one of our nation’s fine institutions. Raj Rajaratnam did it and was sentenced to 11 years in prison and penalties of over $150 million. Heck, someone you know has probably done it.

Some are brazen about it, others are a little more secretive. I first realized how prevalent it was when I read Trading with the Enemy, an anecdotal book written by Nicholas Maier as he worked at Jim Cramer’s hedge fund. The story that struck me most was how they’d get news stories before they hit print and used it to their advantage. It’s not necessarily insider knowledge about a company but getting it a few minutes before the rest of the world, even if it was a third party, is a big advantage.

So, as for insider trading, if you want to learn how to do it, this is what you need to do to get away with it.

(Click to continue reading…)

Yesterday, Miranda wrote a post that talked about how marketers are using zip codes to reach new customers. It made me think about the research we’ve done when looking at real estate investments (we dabble a little here and there). One interesting tool I wanted to share with you is ZipSkinny. You give it a zip code and it gives you a ton of demographic data including race, age, gender, but it also includes social and economic indicators. It’s all taken from the 2000 Census, so it’s a little dated but still works quite well I think.

This is probably a light version of what marketers use but probably not that different. 49.3% are in the same home for 5+ years. 28.9% never married, 55% are married, and 9.3% are divorced. You have household income breakdown, occupation (in some broad categories), and even unemployment and poverty. It’s amazing what is available on census alone.

I had two questions – have you ever researched data like this and does it bother you that marketers are using it?

(Credit: Eric Fischer)

Every few months, I receive coupons for baby formula in my mailbox — despite the fact that my only child is now 10 years old. I also receive the random copy of America Baby. And, until recently, I had no idea why Family Circle started showing up at my house monthly.

Now, though, after reading stories on CNN Money and NBC News, I suspect that these are attempts at marketing based on my ZIP code.

You probably already know that information in your credit report is used to market items to you. Credit card issuers, personal lenders, and insurance companies all use information garnered from your credit report to send you marketing mail. But your ZIP code can also provide information to marketers that use “big data” to get information about you and your habits.

(Click to continue reading…)