It’s Happy Hour and a perfect time to take a break before you file your tax return.  So sit back, relax and enjoy some recommended reading before you have to rush off to meet the deadline.

Springfield, Oregon?

The cat is out of the bag.  The truth is out in the open.  It only took 23 years to finally reveal what most people stopped caring about years ago.  Matt Groening finally came clean about the true location of Springfield in The Simpsons in an interview with Smithsonian magazine.  My life is now one step closer to complete.

Project Glass Parody

Last week, I mentioned Google’s new Project Glass.  Since it’s release there have been a bunch of funny Youtube parodies that have since been released.  I still think the glasses are cool, but the videos are funnier. Continue Reading…

Welcome to Happy Hour and the first week of financial literacy month.  With that I bring you some of the more interesting topics of discussion I came across this week.

First Quarter Earnings Season

The market has had a great first quarter of the year so far.  The S&P 500 is up about 11% for 2012.  That’s a nice annual return for only three months.  It might be ahead of itself as we’ve seen some sell off this week.  But news has been almost nonexistent and I believe too many people are waiting for an unwarranted repeat of last year.

With earnings season kicking off April 10, it’s a good time for a portfolio review.  Listen to the conference calls as the earnings reports are released.  Keep an eye on revised revenue and profit numbers too.  We want to see upward revisions and positive outlooks on the year.  If a majority of the earnings beat analyst expectations we can expect the market to move higher from here.  Don’t be sold by a few good or bad reports early on.  There’s still 9 months left on the year and an election to  mess with the markets.

Google Glasses

It’s like a product of a sci-fi flick, Google announced the testing of Project Glass that allows for hands free mobile.  And phone free mobile too.  You’ll just have to check the video out. Continue Reading…

Welcome to Happy Hour!  Sit back, relax, and enjoy some of the great reads and topics I found interesting to wrap up the week.

The Mega Million Lottery Taxes

If you don’t know already, the Mega Millions lottery drawing is sitting at $540 million.  It will probably end even higher, but at the moment it means a lump sum payout of $389.8 million or 26 annual payments of about $20.7 million.  The return on investment is incredible.  But so are the state lottery income and withholding taxes.  So if you happen to be the lucky 1 in 176 million to win, be ready to pay.  Not a bad deal for the states, since it keeps about 40% of ticket revenues too.  Looks like the states always hit it big!

The Roth IRA Movement

Jeff Rose, at Good Financial Cents, was the mastermind behind the recent Roth IRA Movement.  It’s all about improving financial literacy for young adults.  You couldn’t have kicked off April’s Financial Literacy month any better.  When you have some free time, head over and check out the 140 plus bloggers that contributed so far. Continue Reading…