Stash vs Acorns vs Robinhood vs Betterment vs Wealthfront

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acorns robinhood stash wealthfront betterment

It is time for a mega-review session where we review Stash versus Acorns versus Robinhood versus Betterment, and Wealthfront. Why these apps? These are current front runners in a crowded space that encourages small investments from regular people as a way to invest rather than the traditional broker models of investing. In a way, this Wealthfront review versus the other money investing apps begs for a new investing apps versus Fidelity, Schwab, ETrade, Ameritrade, ScottTrade review. That will have to wait for another day since I’ve already bitten off more than I can likely chew with an in-depth look at each of the Stash, Acorns, Robinhood, Betterment, Wealthfront apps and financial services. The Quick and Dirty Look (No Fine Print) Is Stash safe? What does Betterment do? Why is Wealthfront better or worse than Acorns? These questions demand an in-depth look at each one, and a thorough review of the fine print. Before that, we can take a look at what each money app and financial service say they do, and how that fits for regular investors. What Is Stash? Stash is why I’m writing this mega-review. People keep asking me about Stash. Then they ask me if Stash is …

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Stocks Rise on Inauguration Day

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new president investing strategy

Stocks are racing higher here on Inauguration Day. The question, as always, for us non-day traders is whether or not the day’s news and the stock market’s reaction to it is worthy of our time and attention. Why Are Is The Stock Market Higher on Inauguration Day Does the stock market just love Joe Biden? Not really. However, the stock market does love two things about today. One, is that there wasn’t any sort of violence or disturbance that would signal danger to the forthcoming economy. The second, is that with control of all three branches, Democrats are likely to enact at least some form of additional stimulus, which will help prop up the economy, and more importantly, stave off the reckoning of a possible recession. Washington Can Finally Help the Fed Prop Up The Economy As the Federal Reserve Chairman has been saying to anyone that will listen, the economy is actually on very weak footing right now. Sure, the stock market has been rising. However, the market’s optimism has largely been fueled by the idea that an America on its knees from the unchecked spread of Covid-19 has nowhere to go but up. Behind the scenes, however, is …

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Business Tax ID Number – FEIN and EIN Explained

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fein ein difference ssn

There is an unfortunate amount of confusion surrounding the concept of the Federal Tax Identification Number. It is ironic, because the whole Tax ID, FEIN, and EIN thing is actually very simple, mostly because they are generally all the same thing. However, it isn’t surprising that this concept confused many personal finance students because when it comes to things like laws and taxes, tiny variations in terms usually mean very different things. What is a Tax ID Number? Tax ID Number, or Tax Identification Number (TID), and the like, all refer to the same thing. When taxes are filed, whether they are personal income taxes, or business income taxes, there must be a unique identifier used on the tax return. Likewise, if income is reported, that income must be reported to the IRS with a unique number identifying who it was paid to. In the case of Federal Income Taxes, the tax ID number is a Social Security Number. However, businesses do not have SSN, so they need a different unique number to use for identification purposes on tax documents. FEIN stands for Federal Employer Identification Number. It’s “brother” is the EIN which stands for Employer Identification Number. What Is …

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Energy Stocks Up In 2021 Article

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energy oil production

As a freelance finance writer, I get a steady feed of financial news stories and articles. I thought I would share this one from investors.com. Headlines Matter A lot of financial writers are under instructions to post something every day, or even several times a day. Under those circumstances, they can’t all be diamonds, but this one about 2021’s runaway sector, is cracking me up. For those of you not paying attention, today is January 14. That just the 9th trading day of the year (New Year’s Day is a holiday, plus weekends). So the sector that’s running away “so far” in 2021 is not exactly a meaningful time period. Why Are Energy Stocks Up? Saudi Arabia announced it would cut production. As the world’s largest oil producer, that is big news to the energy markets and resulted in oil prices rising, even though Russia says that it will increase production because it doesn’t want U.S. shale oil markets benefiting from the higher prices. Whatever higher oil prices happens to trickle through is good news for U.S. oil producers, hence the quick runup in the last few days to make it the “runaway” sector for 2021… so far. My favorite …

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Wealthfront Review: Safe, Scam, or Legit?

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wealthfront reviews

I keep getting questions about the pros and cons of Wealthfront, probably because they are advertising pretty heavily on Facebook and other platforms. So, it’s time for a Wealthfront review. The most important thing is to make sure Wealthfront is legit. It is SIPC insured (that’s like FDIC insurance for brokerages) so it at least has to be a real financial organization. Of course, that doesn’t mean that Wealthfront has good investment advice or good service advice, but it does mean that if they go under all of the sudden, then Wealthfront is safe insofar as your money is insured. Wealthfront reviews agree that Wealthfront is not a scam. Wealthfront Fees Wealthfront’s trademark is “Self-Driving Money.” It’s value proposition is that it will take care of your money, and manage it for you. Wealthfront is a robo-advisor, and one of the mini-investor platforms. Wealthfront fees are low. The main Wealthfront fee is the advisory fee of 0.25% on the amount deposited with Wealthfront. Of course, like any other wealth app, or brokerage, the investments Wealthfront uses have their own expenses. According to the company, the funds Wealthfront uses charge between 0.06% and 0.13%, which are very low fees for mutual …

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Microsoft Money in Excel

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microsoft money excel

Once upon a time, Microsoft produced and supported a money, budgeting, and personal finance software called Microsoft Money. It was an attempt to compete with Inuit and its near monopoly in tax and finance software. It was one of the best personal finance software options out there, and it was free. While Microsoft Money had a hard core following, it never built a large following and was eventually abandoned by Microsoft who put out a final version sunset edition, and let everyone know that it was free, but there would be no more support. Microsoft Excel Money Template Microsoft is back with a template add-on for Microsoft Excel that offers the kind of personal finance management that used to come from its standalone software offering. By making MS Money into an Excel template instead of its own software, the Microsoft Money team has to support and update a lot less. You have to be a Microsoft 365 Personal or Microsoft 365 Family subscriber in order to get the Money in Excel template. Like Mint has done for a long time, Money in Excel will automatically pull in your transactions and keep them updated via a third-party called Plaid. I had …

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5 Keys to 2021 Stock Market Predictions

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stock market predictions crystal ball

The 2021 stock market predictions will start flowing from the pens of the financial media as the end of 2020 fades into the background. There can be no question that stocks are pricing in a very happy new year. Does that make it a bubble? I think the better question is to understand what is holding up the market. The following tenants are why this market keeps going higher. If any one of them falls apart, then the market gets on shakier ground, and investors will start looking for an exit, whether in a nice, methodical path, or a bubble-bursting flee for the exits based upon how quickly the pillars crumble. What’s Holding Up The Stock Market? 5 Keys to Stock Market Predictions Low Interest Rates – The irony is that the economy is very shaky, and everyone including the Fed knows it, that’s why interest rates are at zero. These low rates are a key to propping up the market. Coronavirus Improvement – Look, the U.S. can’t do any worse with Covid than it did in 2020. Between the federal government just ignoring the whole thing, and the states opening and closing randomly, the U.S. Covid response was about …

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Jeremy Grantham Calls “Epic Bubble”

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stock market bubble

One of my favorite themes here on Finance Gourmet is accountability. Accountability for your financial advisor, accountability for talking heads on money TV, accountability for analysts making “calls” about the market. Too often, all of these predictions and calls are simply forgotten until one of them is “right” and then, they won’t shut up about it. I try, in my huge amounts of spare time (Hah!) to bring a little bit of accountability to the big names and headlines that fly by. Today, it’s Jeremy Grantham. Epic Bubble Every article with the name Jeremy Grantham in it makes sure to “credit” him with predicting the housing bubble of 2007. Some also credit him with predicting the dot-com bubble of 2009. That’s pretty cool, but it is now 2021. Wondering about the TurboTax card? What has he predicted in the last 11 years? Have any of those predictions been good … or bad? Never mind that, the finance press says. He predicted those two things over a decade ago and now he says, “Epic bubble!” Print it! Jeremy Grantham Track Record First off, let’s give Mr. Grantham some credit. In January 2018, he predicted a “melt-up” in the stock market. He …

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Tesla Stock Buy or Sell?

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Wall Street gave up giving honest buy and sell rankings years ago. Everyone knows “Hold” is code for sell, without making the company you are covering too mad to use your bank for future deals. But, even that wasn’t enough, with most firms adding a slew of not-so-easy to decode terms like overweight, moderate buy, underperform, underweight. All of this is to obfuscate the actual track record of these analysts which is often abysmal. The less accountability on Wall Street, the better. Is Tesla Stock a Good Buy? Traditionally, I don’t do buy/sell on stocks. It’s a slippery area, but when folks show up in my comments and email asking over and over again for the same thing, I at least consider it. Tesla and Bitcoin I’m writing about Tesla stock today, because I wrote about Bitcoin 20,000 last week (or was it the week before? — Holidays are tricky). Bitcoin and Tesla might sound unrelated, but their performance and trajectory as late are very similar. Bitcoin is a revolutionary idea in currency that is so new there is no real way to know how it will react or behave in the long term. Recently, however, all the naysayers have …

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What Else Is In New Covid Stimulus Bill

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new covid stimulus bill details

If you are interested in financial independence, you know you need to watch and manage your money beyond a new $600 stimulus check. You need to know what else is in the new Covid stimulus bill. Here are the new Covid stimulus bill details you need to manage your money. New Covid Stimulus Bill Breakdown New Covid Stimulus Checks By now, you have probably heard about the new $600 stimulus checks, and the fight over whether or not to get $2,000 stimulus checks. Mitch McConnell has blocked $2,000 stimulus checks and runs the Senate like he is the King of the Senate, so that means there is no debate, no compromise, and not chance of $2,000 stimulus checks coming, so don’t bother worrying about that. The $600 is per person, and includes children. So, if you are married with two kids, you can look for $2,400 stimulus checks. It works the same as last time with the IRS using your direct deposit information. If you did something to fix your direct deposit info last time, it should stay fixed for this time as well. There are income phaseouts again to keep the payments from going to higher-income earners. Couples making …

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