You may have seen that Charles Schwab has reduced its commissions to $0. But when you dig a little deeper you realize there’s a catch. As it turns out it’s free but Schwab gets to use your cash, lend it out, and pocket-the interest you could have made. “Schwab doesn’t use money-market funds or short-term Treasury funds, which could earn nearly 2% at recent rates,” explains Jason Zweig at the WSJ. “Instead, it shunts the cash into Charles Schwab Bank, which currently pays 0.55% on the money—and then turns around and lends it out at roughly 2%.” Clearly you can see Schwab isn’t working … [Read more...]
Living Your Best Life: FIRE! (Part I)
Are you familiar with the FIRE movement? You should be, and you will be shortly. And I’m not talking about a fire where, for example, a tree falls in your backyard onto power lines, ripping them down along with a transformer and nearly burning down your house on a quiet afternoon in Newport, RI. (You can read about that here). The FIRE I’m talking about stands for—Financial Independence, Retire Early—and it’s a big-time movement especially with Millennials. Because more and more of them, are disillusioned with a life working for “the man” and not “working” enough, i.e.: saving, for … [Read more...]
Fidelity Investments: Why it’s #1
You don’t build a company such as Fidelity Investments, with more than $2 trillion in assets, overnight. It takes constant focus and improvement, day by day, or kaizen—a Japanese philosophy of daily improvement espoused by former chairman Edward C. “Ned” Johnson III. When I worked at Fidelity, back in the mid-90s, Mr. Johnson encouraged us, through his memos, to apply the philosophy of kaizen to all aspects of our lives. Mr. Johnson paid particular attention to kaizen as it related to the firm’s investment in technology. He wanted to make sure Fidelity was second to none. That … [Read more...]
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