Category: Fun with Numbers

How Hard is it to Build a Terrible Portfolio?

Monday, November 26, 2012 at 10am
By John Friedman

Over the years I’ve noticed that most people’s 401k plan portfolios tend to do about the same — they tend to pretty closely track the market as a whole, and ultimately each other, especially if given enough time. Many of these plans tend to offer a middle-of-the-road menu of mutual […]

Friedman’s Law of the First Thing, as Applied to Income Taxes: Marginal Tax Brackets

Tuesday, November 20, 2012 at 3pm
By John Friedman

Friedman’s Law of the First thing says that, for each aspect of your financial life, you should know, at least, the first thing about it. Now, it might be that some of you should know, or might benefit handily from knowing, the second, third, fourth and even the x’th thing about […]

What Does It Mean When Big Negative Numbers Get Smaller?

Wednesday, October 17, 2012 at 12pm
By John Friedman

So, say you have a big negative number, such as, oh, I dunno, a negative 1 trillion, and say that that number measures something. And say that you measure that thing a year later and it now measures out at a negative 900 billion. Is that second number smaller or […]

On Shelter Comings and Goings, and Refinancings: The Certainty of Uncertainty

Monday, October 15, 2012 at 12pm
By John Friedman

One week off from writing, and I felt at a loss for a topic, until listening to Dave Ramsey on the radio this morning and then . . . I listened to Dave answer an emailed question along the lines of, “Dave, I can re-fi my mortgage, which is at 5.125%, […]

Interesting Number Sets Constantly Coming Out for the Next Six Weeks, and How to Use ‘Em

Tuesday, September 25, 2012 at 2pm
By John Friedman

Ralph Fielding is the guy who took the ever-lovin’ math right outta me. Ralph was my math teacher in 1970-something, when I was a freshman in high school. It might have been Geometry — I don’t remember the exact topic. What I *do* remember is that Ralph had an odd mouth and […]

<<   Older Posts
Newer Posts   >>