The Four Percent Rule is Dependent on Dividend Yields + MORE

For most taxpayers, the fiscal cliff deal made permanent the 15% rate on dividends and long-term capital gains — for investments longer than a year — that had been temporary since the Bush tax cuts of the early 2000s. Though the recent deal raised those rates to 20% for taxpayers with incomes exceeding $450,000 for filers of joint returns, and $400,000 for single filers, this is still low

My mom came for Easter and we had a fun time. It was nice to be away from work for a few days.Yesterday, we went to the Museum des Beaux-Arts which located on Sherbrook. Once our visit done, I show my mom the Montreal Ritz Carlton from the outside… and the inside LOL. From the outside, it was saying that apartments start from 1…

Regular readers of my blog would know that my parents are super resistant to any form of stock investments. This is due to the horror stories reported during the Asian Financial Crisis in 1998/1999. Reports of investors committing suicides were splashed all across the front pages of tabloids. My parents were not involved in the stock market back then, but the tragic stories were firmly etched in their minds…

I recently read a very interesting article from author Dave Van Knapp, related to the four percent rule. Dave analyzed research from Morningstar, which claimed that the four percent rule is no longer relevant, and should be replaced with a three percent rule. In this argument, I am going to discuss the root causes behind this issue, as well as the surprising reasons behind the real factors behind the four percent rule that made it truly successful…

In the latest look at the underlying components of the S&P 500 ordered by largest market capitalization, Microsoft Corporation (NASD: MSFT) has taken over the #6 spot from General Electric Co (NYSE: GE), according to The Online Investor. Click here to find out the top S&P 500 components ordered by average analyst rating »

As many of you know, I’m a big believer in Google (GOOG) as a long term play because of the significant upside in many of its projects such as Google Fiber, Glasses, and so many other features. Recently however, I’ve been seeing another side of Google. In the era led by Larry Page, Google has adopted a “startup” mode where everything is happening much more quickly…

Visit StreetInsider.com at http://www.streetinsider.com/Dividends/American+Financial+Group%2C+Inc.+%28AFG%29+Declares+%240.195+Quarterly+Dividend%3B+1.6%25+Yield/8222657.html for the full story.

Well, the time has come to update the Freedom Fund
once again as we start another month. The Freedom Fund is my
portfolio, and I think it’s aptly named. My portfolio is my
way to freedom; freedom from a traditional 40-year career to purchase goods I don’t need to impress neighbors I don’t care about…

We are conscious beings and we have the power to do anything we put our minds to. The human body itself is a marvel of chemical reactions, nerve impulses and regeneration that cannot be easily duplicated, even with most modern technology we have developed. The most powerful computers today can process and solve millions of calculations in seconds, yet they cannot process the amount of information the brain receives from one second of sight from your eyes, let alone the rest of the information it receives from the rest of the body…