Before I started this website, I worked in the municipal bond business. Everyone in that world knows New Jersey’s finances are a basket case. However, no one is talking about right now is how badly the the latest stock market crash has affected the New Jersey Teachers’ Pension Fund. It speeds up the timeline for Armageddon in New Jersey by years. People are lazy. They look at the latest published reports for their information. However, by simply extrapolating their cash burn rate it is clear that the New Jersey Teachers’ Pension Fund will run out of money. The fund will be totally gone within 10 years. New Jersey will owe billions in payments to retired teachers that it doesn’t have. At that point, I conservatively estimate that New Jersey slashes teacher pensions by 50% and New Jersey raises taxes by about 30%. Continue reading “New Jersey Teachers’ Pension Fund Has Eight Years to Live”
Category: In the News
What is Going on With the Chinese Stock Market Right Now?
If you don’t follow financial markets too regularly, you might have missed the fast and spectacular drop in Chinese stocks the past few days. We have seen a daily negative 7% performance in the broad Chinese stock market indexes two times in 2016 already. Since experts have been talking about the possibility of a Chinese recession destroying the demand for oil and causing global slowdown, I thought I would explain my take on it for Moola readers. This is not to be scientific, just a personal opinion in what is a very complex market situation. Continue reading “What is Going on With the Chinese Stock Market Right Now?”
Millennial Moola 2015 Year in Review
It’s been a good year here at MillennialMoola.com. I’ve gotten a kick out of writing for you all and finally putting digital pen to paper on a lot of my best ideas. I started blogging not to make money, but to help, entertain, and educate people on all things financial. It’s been really fun, and now that I have figured out a lot of the technical aspects of website management, I’m hoping a for a prosperous 2016. In the interests of being transparent and helpful to anyone who’s thinking about starting their own website, I wanted to include my web traffic, income, and expenses for Millennial Moola 2015. Continue reading “Millennial Moola 2015 Year in Review”
New Guest Post on White Coat Investor!
I got a cool opportunity to write a guest post on White Coat Investor, run by a very savvy doctor turned blogger named Jim. As I’ve written before, I worked for a few years as a municipal bond trader at Vanguard. I was looking for a chance to share some of the knowledge I gained trading $8 billion in municipal securities for the tax-free Vanguard bond funds, and I finally got a chance. Jim’s WCI blog is targeted at high income physicians who have high tax burdens, so I thought I’d write a piece on how to earn tax free income by investing in the municipal bond market. If you are or will be in a high tax bracket one day, it’s very relevant to you. Check it out here
Obamacare and the Hidden Penalty That Will Cost Working Families Thousands
Obamacare is heralded for its accomplishment of extending health insurance to millions of Americans. Proponents also tout the fact that no one will lose health insurance due to pre-existing conditions ever again. Regardless of whether you are for it or against it, when I signed up for Obamacare a few weeks ago, I realized that Obamacare and the hidden penalty in it could bankrupt working families. It must be changed. Continue reading “Obamacare and the Hidden Penalty That Will Cost Working Families Thousands”
Would Marco Rubio’s Personal Finances Be the Worst of Any President in History?
After seeing a few articles about Marco Rubio’s personal finance habits, I thought it would be fun to compare Rubio to other presidents in the past to see if he would have the worst money management skills in the history of the Presidency. Most folks outside of Florida had no clue who Marco Rubio was before the presidential campaign started this past year. His stellar GOP primary debate performances and the struggling campaign of Jeb Bush have led many to say that he will be the choice of the Republican establishment heading into the national primaries. That belief has caused a big change in the betting markets for his odds to win the nomination. Predictwise placed his odds of winning at 47% even though he usually places third to fifth place in the national polls. Clearly, it is not out of the realm of reason that Rubio could become the Republican nominee and possibly US President. Continue reading “Would Marco Rubio’s Personal Finances Be the Worst of Any President in History?”
TSA Airport Screeners Are a Good Investment
Honestly, I was expecting to write the complete opposite. I got bored one day after spending a long time stuck in the security line at the airport, and I started thinking that the TSA airport screeners had to be a big waste of money. My rationale is that I’ve seen multiple people get through security with knives in their bags, so it can’t be THAT worthwhile. Supposedly it costs $6 million for every 1 gun the TSA finds. With these kind of stats, there’s no way tight airport security makes sense right? The TSA has an annual budget of $7 billion. Airport security costs customers millions of labor hours worth of wasted time while they are waiting to get through to their flights. All these figures made me think a cost benefit analysis would show the TSA is not worth it. Here are the numbers that led me to a different conclusion. Continue reading “TSA Airport Screeners Are a Good Investment”
Why You Should Be Mad About Those Red Starbucks Cups
If you check Facebook at all this week, you’ve noticed that your feed lit up like a Christmas tree over the latest battle in the culture wars. People are outraged that Starbucks would dare to remove all holiday symbology from their iconic Holiday cups. Instead, they’ve opted for the more spartan solid red Starbucks cups as seen above. However, I have a far more radical question to ask. Is Starbucks more important than Jesus? Because many Christian households’ budgets would make you think it is. Continue reading “Why You Should Be Mad About Those Red Starbucks Cups”
Men Whose Pay is 1000 Times Higher and Whose Taxes Are 50% Lower Than Your Local Brain Surgeon
When political debates about income inequality happen in America, they almost always seem to center on CEOs. The pay gap between the company chief and the average worker has grown tremendously over the past several decades, but what if CEO pay is pedestrian compared to an occupation you’ve probably never heard of, that of the hedge fund manager. These men whose pay is 1000 times higher than many CEOS pay much lower taxes than mere millionaires. Here’s how they do it. Continue reading “Men Whose Pay is 1000 Times Higher and Whose Taxes Are 50% Lower Than Your Local Brain Surgeon”
You Don’t Always Get What You Pay For, But If You Are Cheap You Get Way More
For those of you that follow NFL Football, the Philadelphia Eagles have been giving me lots material to work with lately on how to make better financial decisions. Eagles QB Sam Bradford and RB DeMarco Murray are having two of the most mediocre seasons of any blue chip contract holders in recent memory, showing us why it’s dangerous to pay a lot of money for shiny new toys. For those of you that don’t love following sports, looking at the structure of NFL contracts is a great way to learn how to think about spending, where being cheap is rewarded with Super Bowls. Continue reading “You Don’t Always Get What You Pay For, But If You Are Cheap You Get Way More”