Dividend Stock Review – McDonald’s

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Dividend Stock Review - McDonald's 1

After nearly a half century on this planet, McDonald’s has become one of my favorite dividend stocks. You see, every 10 or so years, McDonald’s stops growing, or starts having lower sales, or whatever. There is panic all around, the CEO gets replaced, and then McDonald’s goes back to doing what it has done for longer than I’ve been around, making burgers and making money. McDonald’s Dividend Increase No one is currently panicking about their same store sales, or that Americans are eating healthier. However, McDonald’s has a company to run and can’t just wait around for some analyst somewhere to spook investors. So, along with McDonald’s latest quarterly earnings, the company announced a dividend increase. Unless you are trying to live on your McDonald’s dividends, the exact amount isn’t really that important. In the interest of having all the information, the increase is 15 cents. If you’re still growing your investments, or just looking to get some sweet returns from McDonald’s while you are holding onto their stock, what we really care about is where that puts MCD’s dividend yield. This morning at around $248 and change, McDonald’s’ (I’m gonna have to check on that punctuation) annual dividend yield …

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Federal Reserve Holds

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Federal Reserve Holds 2

The Federal Reserve Board voted not to raise interest rates at their October meeting, finally realizing that the runaway freight train of interest rate hikes might be more detrimental to economy than the inflation that they are supposedly fighting. Did the Fed Stop Too Late The big question on everyone who actually participates in the economy’s mind is did the Fed stop raising interest rates too late. Already the housing market is seizing up as home buyers realize they have been priced out of homes by higher interest rates and sellers find that they no longer can sell their home in a weekend, or maybe within several weeks. Higher food prices are still cutting deep, but so are those credit card bills. Variable rate credit cards and HELOCs have spent the last year delivering higher and higher payments to borrowers. Many borrowers who were perfectly fine servicing their debt suddenly find themselves staring down bankruptcy. And we all know what happens when a huge chunk of America goes and declares bankruptcy. The only high point in all of this is rising wages and low unemployment are keeping more people above water than in the past. In states with rising minimum …

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Is Grifin a Good Way to Start Investing

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is grifin good at investing

Important Grifin Update It was always probably a little too good to be true. An app that invests a dollar every time you make a purchase with no fees or user face costs. Everything costs money, especially running an app that accesses credit cards, makes transfers from banks, and then buys and tracks investments in partial shares of stocks. I have no idea what the plan was in the beginning, but I can only imagine it was something like, “We’ll figure out how to monetize it when we’re huge,” or maybe, “We’ll get big enough someone will buy us for a big exit before we run out of venture capital money.” Neither of those worked out, so instead, Grifin will start charging $5 per month. They did their best to sugarcoat it. There are some new features, but none that can justify $60 a year in fees for accounts that have just a few thousand in them. After all, even stock where you shop doesn’t necessarily add up that quickly, as I pointed out here and in my comprehensive Grifin review. From my first investment back in fall of 2021 to now, I’ve built up a nice littel $1,100 or …

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7 Things You Should Know About Pell Grants

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7 Things You Should Know About Pell Grants 3

Although there is a growing movement that finds a college degree unnecessary, many jobs and arrangements still require a college degree. In other cases, the lack of a degree may hold back certain opportunities for future advancement. Higher education is often viewed as a prerequisite for career stability and upward mobility. The financial barriers to obtaining such education cannot be ignored. Pell Grants are a form of federal financial aid. What Are Pell Grants? Named after U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell, the Pell Grant program was established under the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended in 1972. Named after U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell, the Pell Grant program was established under the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended in 1972. Pell Grants are government issued grants for college or university students. Like most things having to do with paying for college, Pell Grants are means tested. Whether you are looking for Pell Grants for veterans, or Pell Grants for single mothers, it all comes down to how much money you make. 7 Things To Know About Pell Grants Other Financial Aid If you don’t qualify for Pell Grants, you may not be able to qualify for much of the other …

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Are Credit Unions Better Than Banks?

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Are Credit Unions Better Than Banks? 4

Credit unions and banks are both financial institutions that offer similar services such as checking accounts, savings accounts, loans, and credit cards. However, there are some key differences between the two that make credit unions a better choice for many people. Regulatory Foundations: A Brief Background Before diving into the direct benefits, it’s essential to understand the foundational differences between these two types of financial institutions. Banks are for-profit organizations owned by shareholders. They aim to generate profits to increase shareholder value. In contrast, credit unions are not-for-profit financial cooperatives that are owned by their members. The primary goal is to serve those members rather than generating a profit for external shareholders. Regulatory Environment The regulatory environment also varies. Banks are usually regulated by a mix of state and federal agencies such as the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), whereas credit unions are overseen by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). Each comes with its own set of rules and customers. Credit Union Ownership Credit unions are not-for-profit organizations that are owned by their members. This means that they don’t have to pay dividends to shareholders or generate profits for investors. Instead, they …

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Real Credit Scores for Free

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real credit scores with a phony graphic

Can you get a real credit score for free? The answer is yes, no, maybe, and well… sort of. If you don’t like that answer, let’s jump right in with some specifics that will make it clear whether or not you can really get real credit scores for free. Real Free FICO Credit Scores One of the issues with free credit scores is the idea of what a real, true, or legitimate credit score is. Technically, there is no such thing as a real credit score or true credit score. This isn’t physics. All credit scores are mathematical models of the information on your credit report. This produces a number that lenders can use to determine the approximate default rate of borrowers. In a way, it is similar to the mortality rates life insurers use to price life insurance. It doesn’t matter if it is right or wrong for a single person, as long as the overall pool of insured (or borrowers in this case) behaves as predicted. What Is a Real Credit Score? Theory aside, in the real world the vast majority of lenders use the FICO credit score by Fair Issac when they make lending decisions. Different lenders …

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Merrick Bank Credit Card Reviews

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merrick bank credit cards secure credit card

Recently, someone asked me about a credit card offer they received from Merrick Bank. I wasn’t familiar with Merrick Bank, so I agreed to look into it. The Merrick Bank credit card is pretty interesting for the right type of person. The Merrick Bank secure credit card lets people with no credit, or terrible credit, rebuild their credit or build a high credit score for the first time. They also seem to offer people who recently emerged from bankruptcy low-limit unsecure credit cards as well. So, if you are looking for something that works as a credit card for 500 score, this might be your huckleberry. Let’s dive in a bit deeper than most Merrick bank reviews. Merrick Bank Credit Card Reviews The first thing about Merrick Bank is where it is located. If you’ve never heard of Merrick Bank, don’t worry, you aren’t alone. Most people don’t realize that “bank” can mean a lot of different things. In this case, bank means an issuer of loans and credit cards, not a bank that takes regular deposits and has branches. It is FDIC insured and is one of the top issuers of Visa cards, but you won’t see a Merrick …

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Real Power of Compound Interest

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I have a full follow-up coming in response to some of the questions I received on a recent post about how to get rich fast investing in the stock market. In that post, I showed how it is nearly impossible to get rich investing in less than a decade or two, unless you start out with a sizable amount of money in the first place. The reason this is so shocking to people is that they hear all the time about the power of compound interest. While it is true that over the long-term, compound interest is very powerful, it takes a long time to get going. Imagine the trickle of a mountain stream building slowly over miles and miles until it becomes the Mississippi River, and you get some idea of what the real power of compound interest looks like. In the meantime, I stumbled across this instructive comic from xkcd.com about the power of compounding interest.

7 Things Your Bank Probably Won’t Do These Days

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There is a lot of good information about money management, investing, and banking on the internet. Unfortunately, there is a lot of old, incorrect, or outdated information out there as well. Here are 10 things that your bank or credit union may not do anymore, no matter what that article says. References:

Should the Fed Stop Now?

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Should the Fed Stop Now? 5

Below is a quick belt out of information and opinion before I head off with the family on a last-of-summer vacation. Don’t bother letting me know about other links, grammatical errors, or the like. I’ll go back to normal when I get back next week. Should the Fed stop raising interest rates now? Even the staid financial press is starting to ask the question that obsequious interest rate hawks insisted was off the table, is it time to stop raising interest rates? Inflation Is Down In the carefully written narrative of the Federal Reserve fighting inflation, the Fed bank must raise interest rates, longer, and more painfully than the lesser economic hawks can stomach. Only then can inflation be brought under control by the tough love of inflation hawks. But, as they like to say, a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. It seems that if the economy were overstimulated into inflation by various temporary economic measures such as government checks from a larger child tax credit, and student loan borrowers unleashed temporarily from their burdensome payments, then the boost to inflation was temporary as well. The result is that with a tap on the brakes in …

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