In an earlier post, we discussed the limited menu of mediocre funds found in most 401K Plans.
This is what happens when investment platforms are designed for the benefit of the provider rather than the plan participant.
But there are same major design flaws at the macro level that need to be addressed as well.
Let’s start with […]

At long last….some serious competition for fixed and variable annuities.
You can easily understand the anguish facing investors when confronted with converting their hard earned savings into payout annuities.
It’s like going to Vegas, and placing it all on the red.
Here’s the way you win the annuity bet: You live longer than average. Since annuities are […]

We need to do some heavy lifting here, because the ideas presented are not in the mainstream. We have allowed the problem to be defined as such:

All high school graduates go directly to college. Whether they are ready or not.
All funds come from the parents.
Or massive, lifetime Student Loans.
Or as a free ride […]

Part I explained what drives higher education inflation. Today we will try to cope.
This is highly topical, because so many private lenders are bailing out on college loan funding. This is a self-inflicted wound Congress brought on itself, when it cut the margins on such loans, just as the credit markets locked up […]

There are two massive markets almost impervious to free market discipline: Health Care and College Expenses.
Both are increasing at rates much higher than core inflation would indicate. Both owe their inefficiency to the stealth factor of third party payment, which obscures and prevents marketplace clearing and pricing.
Expect both to be major campaign issues in […]

It’s amazing how every simple spending habit leverages your financial security.
Positively, or negatively.
Today we take up the topic of food…very much in the news since we started diverting grain into fuel, thus distorting two markets for the price of one idealistic, but simple minded goal.
Unimpeded markets send pricing signals to both producers and consumers, pulling […]

Everyone’s talking about it: Forbes, WSJ, and my hippie-slacker internet friends all over the web.And with good reason! In a period of soaring food and gas prices, pinching pennies - or at least keeping track of them! - is as crucial as ever. So when a website boasting some of the most sophisticated, streamlined money […]

Blue Jeans Millionaire welcomes Angie, Richard’s eldest daughter, as our newest contributor.
Hi there!
I’m Angie, Richard’s eldest daughter, and I hate budgeting.
I really wish I didn’t. After all - fluency with numbers should be in my blood! My Mother taught math for years before coming to the States, and my father’s gift with numbers is […]