Author: troyashbacher

Warren Buffett speaks during the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska on May 3, 2025.CNBCWarren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway revealed a new position in Alphabet, making the Google parent the conglomerate’s 10th largest equity holding at the end of September, according to a regulatory filing.Berkshire disclosed a $4.3 billion stake in Alphabet at the end of the third quarter, a surprising move given Buffett’s traditional value investing philosophy and reluctance toward high-growth, tech names. While Berkshire has owned Apple for years, Buffett has called it more of a consumer products company than a pure tech play.The purchase was also…

Hi! I’m Amanda. I’m Tommy. And we’re deal experts! (Can you hear us shouting it in unison?)We gave ourselves the title, but we do know deals. We literally shop for a living, scouring the internet for the best discounts during the biggest sale periods of the year. Since we work at NerdWallet, we try to be smart with our spending decisions, even when the Black Friday hype hits the fan. We’ve covered major shopping events for more than four years, including Black Friday and Prime Day. We tracked prices on everyone’s favorite tech, home and toy items for years to see…

Key Takeaways After a choppy week for stocks, savers are leaning on safer places for cash. Top high-yield savings and money market accounts still pay up to 5.00%, while the best CDs pay 4.50%. Brokerage and robo-advisor cash accounts continue to offer competitive yields in the upper-3% range, while U.S. Treasuries pay up to 4.74% for investors seeking stability. Compare today’s best safe-haven rates to find a secure spot for your cash as markets wobble and savers focus on keeping returns steady. The Best Cash Yields Still Range Up to 5% It’s always smart to make sure your money is…

Enjoy the current installment of “Weekend Reading For Financial Planners” – this week’s edition kicks off with the news that a recent study commissioned by Morgan Stanley demonstrated that investors with a financial plan are more confident in their ability to meet their future goals, which in turn makes them more likely to avoid overreacting to short-term events like market volatility and stay on track to achieve their goals in the long run. Also in industry news this week: New research from Cerulli shows that despite RIA firms wanting to focus more on organic growth, they remain constrained in the…

Walmart has released a bunch of early Black Friday deals.   There are toys, electronics, clothing and more on sale.  I highlighted a few of the deals already that stood out to me- this Anchor Hocking set of glass storage containers (16 pieces with 16 lids) are available for $20.   You can find a ton of other items by clicking here.

A financial plan should be just that: a step-by-step guide to what you need to do to reach your goals with your money.The irony is that financial plans go stale almost immediately. Goals shift. Assumptions change. Life is constantly moving. Two years ago, I would have told you my family of four was complete. Today, we are a family of five.Sometimes, financial planning on an ongoing basis is more important than the plan itself. It allows you to iterate, shift resources and stay on track. From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance Be a smarter, better informed investor. CLICK…

In This Article This article is presented by RentRedi. When I first started managing my rental properties, maintenance requests would throw off my entire week. A tenant would call, text, or email about something being broken, and I would drop everything and scramble to find the right vendor, follow up for updates, and track receipts for bookkeeping. This scramble was not sustainable, and I realized I needed a better system if I was going to continue self-managing my rental properties. Creating a standard operating procedure (SOP) for handling maintenance requests is one of the easiest ways to streamline your property…

You’ve worked and paid into Social Security for decades. Deciding when to claim those benefits is one of the few choices that can truly move the needle on your retirement income. For most retirees, it is the only income source that is guaranteed for life and adjusted for inflation, making it the foundation of a strong retirement plan. The timing of your claim determines how strong that foundation really is. Your claiming choices seem straightforward: start benefits at 62, wait until full retirement age, or hold out until 70. Yet that decision determines how much income you receive for the rest…

As policymakers seek ways to unfreeze the housing market, one idea under review is the portable mortgage, which would let homeowners transfer their existing mortgage interest rate to a new property. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte confirmed on X that the agency is “actively evaluating portable mortgages.”More than half of U.S. mortgage holders have rates at 4% or lower, and about 80% are below 6%, according to Realtor.com. These historically low rates have created a “lock-in effect,” where millions of homeowners are staying put because moving would mean giving up a once-in-a-lifetime mortgage interest rate.Supporters argue that portability…

Welcome back to another edition of my weekly blog! If you are new here, this is just a fun little way that I write down the frugal and off-grid living things we did this week to hopefully give you some ideas and tips, and also just to be able to connect and share! Like many of you, we were blessed with an amazing light show on Tuesday night. I’m so glad it was early because all the kids got to enjoy it as well! Table of Contents Toggle Meals We AteProjects We Worked OnShopping We DidBooks We Read Meals We…