Lazy Man and Money

Who Wants In on the DRAFTApp Private Beta?

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This post is part of the #IwantDRAFT campaign with support from DRAFT, the app that uses crowdsourced data to help you understand and compare your portfolio, in partnership with Kasai Media. As always, the words and opinions, are mine and mine alone.

DraftApp

When I lived in Silicon Valley, I was fortunate enough to attend Finovate, a conference of financial companies, most of them very small start-ups. Companies like Mint and Lending Club cut their teeth there. I like to call that time in 2008 the Golden Age of consumer financial applications. As the years went on, companies seemed to put their focus on creating products that they could sell to banks. Those are great too, but they are a pain to write about. People can’t use them right away.

Over the last couple of days, a new company, DRAFT, has used Finovate to launch a new consumer-focused application for tracking your money. It’s 2008 all over again, and I mean that in an awesome way. They are opening up their private beta and all you have to do is give your email address to get in line.

So what is DRAFTApp? It’s a mobile application designed to help you manage your money in one place. It

One of the most interesting things to me is the crowdfunding aspect of draft. You can see this in the image. It gives you not only your returns, but also a comparison with the top 10% of DRAFTApp users. This really shines when it comes to understanding the investment fees that you’ll pay. I’ve seen hundred of charts about how fees greatly reduce investment returns… and perhaps I take it for granted that regular readers have seen some of them as well. Of course DRAFTApp highlights this as well.

I will be signing up for DRAFTApp just for this alone. (I’m going to bring down that Top 10% average… ha ha!)

One thing that I won’t focus too much on is the investment returns of the top 10%. By definition 90% of people are going to be disappointed in it. I had significant money in Europe, which didn’t perform well last year. I know my performance is going to be disappointing. I want to be careful to not let this disappoint change my diversification to chase winners.

That said, it is refreshing to have other options than just a comparison of my portfolio to the S&P 500. Many tools use a few basic indexes and in the last year, I didn’t compare well with that either. In most cases your portfolio isn’t an index, so I find such comparisons odd anyway.

There are a few more features that I could highlight, but I think part of the fun is discovering them on your own. So why not join the waitlist and give it a shot? You’ve got nothing to lose

Personal Finance Links: Levity edition

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I thought I’d have a little fun today and go with some humor. It seems appropriate since I missed posting this on the weekend. It’s not always my strong suit (which is why I don’t write a comedy blog), but every now and then, you have to do something a little different. Hopefully, it will cheer up your Monday.

One of my favorite quotes of the past week comes from former Red Sox relief pitcher Julian Tavarez. This is the guy who had one of the most jaw-dropping moments of sports history when Fox mic’d him up on July 22, 2006. He was talking with Jonathan Papelbon about his horses and how they had “sexy lips” like himself. Unfortunately this great moment is well documented on the Internet, but I can find the video or transcript anywhere. I put it up there with the Joe Namath, “I wanna kiss you” interview with Suzy Kolber and the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction in the top 3 most outrageous sports moments I’ve seen live. I literally fell out of my seat laughing at all of them. I think this quote tops them all…

“Why did I sign with the [Washington] Nationals?” Julian Tavarez said on Sunday. “When you go to a club at 4 in the morning, and you’re just waiting, waiting, a 600-pounder looks like J-Lo. And to me this is Jennifer Lopez right here. It’s 4 in the morning. Too much to drink. So, Nationals: Jennifer Lopez to me.”

I watched Bill Cosby Himself last night (thanks Comcast OnDemand). It was (and maybe still is) one of my mom’s favorite comedic performances. It’s amazing to me that it’s 25 years old… and it still timeless. Well timeless except for the bit about the “beatings.” I think Jillian Michaels the only person on television who can still policatically correctly administer beatings? (As for the performance itself, I still use the “uphill, both ways” in everyday conversation.)

I’d still give Steven Wright the title as my favorite comic (narrowly edging out George Carlin). I have his HBO special from 1985 (or so) on DVD. Like Bill Cosby, it’s pretty timeless as well except for the bit about his learning to speak Spanish and his record skipped – so he can only stutter in Spanish. Jokes I still use too much in everyday life include:

  • “my typewriter types in pencil”
  • “I made a few mistakes” (when asked if he slept well)
  • “I couldn’t find my socks, so I called information” – I actually did this when I was little. I asked for the score of the Celtics’ game… They gave it to me.

Okay, enough of the fun, let’s go back to boring financial topics (cue the big groan):

More Financial Posts:

I owe some apologies to Trevor from Financial Nut. He tagged me to write about myself. I have done this numerous times in the past and still provide a bit of that once a week in this links post. I just think the tagging of people gets old after a few years… especially when it’s the format of “X things you didn’t about me” which I think I’ve done before.

Weekend Links – Napa Treat Edition

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Yesterday, I had the unique opportunity to get a couple of private tastings and tours in Napa. It was due to a connection that I had through a group that I am a part of. We drank bottles of very rare production lines. This reinforced my notion that it’s often more about who you know than what you know. It was a tremendous experience that was only dampered by waking up extremely early and the cold-wet weather.

Here are some links that I liked this week:

I had another article published by the Prosper Blog. This one discusses the differences between trading and investing.

The Digerati Life writes about ten free personal finance tools. She’ll be needing every last one now that she is quitting her job.

Money Smart Life is focusing on energy saving tips. I plan on writing about that in the next week or two.

Sun found that it is possibly to sue a 401k administrator. I think it only makes sense if you can prove negligence to perform basic tasks of their job (which seems to be the case).

Generation X Finance had a guest writer who wrote how he learned NOT to invest.

Free Money Finance quickly profiles a half million dollar dating website. I’ve thought of creating a dating web site in the past, but it’s a very crowded field with many dominant and well-funded companies.

No Credit Needed is trying to descreaes his taxes with a SEP-IRA. I should look into that this year.

Mighty Bargain Hunter says that nobody likes a winner. I found that out rooting for the Patriots throughout this year. While on the topic of Mighty Bargain Hunter, I’d like to thank him for including me in the most recent festival of frugality.

Million Dollar Journey asks whether a 40 Year mortgage is a good idea. My thought is that it matters what the interest rate is. I’ll happy take a 60-year mortgage at 1% for example. You may pay more over the 40 years with that type of mortgage, but if you have the discipline to invest wisely the savings from the money from lower payments it shouldn’t matter.

Weekend Personal Finance Review – High Cholesterol Edition

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My wife got a cholesterol test yesterday. We’ve known that she’s had high cholesterol in the past, but this was off the charts bad. As some people know, the ratio of good to bad cholesterol is also important. Unfortunately this number isn’t on her side either. I’ve spent the morning researching what can be done to improve her numbers. Sadly, she’s doing a lot of the recommended things already. I did get a few ideas to ask the doctor about – one of which will be increasing her garlic intake.

While I’m studying, enjoy these links:

Personal Finance Review – “Living the Dream” Edition

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I was talking with a friend the other day and I mentioned how I now work at home. He said I was “living the dream.” Someone forgot to tell me that rationing your Ramen is living the dream.

While on the topic of living frugally, Golbguru is about to experience some lifestyle deflation. I’ve been living that for the last 4 months and it’s quite stressful.

I’d like to send a “gung hay fat choy” to Sun. I hope that means what I think it does. It looks like he got the same letter I did about Ohio’s 529 Plan. Our low cost investment just got a little lower.

Generation X Finance shows off his new new site design with a 15 ways to improve your Fico Score.

The Digerati Life writes why to love to a down market – you get buy low. Unfortunately, this isn’t a silver lining for me as I don’t currently have the cash to invest.

Ben at Money Smart Life has free long distance phone calls. I thought everyone had that five years ago with cell phones and Internet phones like Vonage.

No Credit Needed has found an annual discount on the Dish network. The question is, is it worth it? Click through to find out why.

Free Money Finance asks Should Unhealthy People Pay More for Medical Insurance? My answer is simply yes. I know that unsafe drivers pay more driver’s insurance, what’s the difference?

Mighty Bargain Hunter asks how strong your piggy bank is. Mine is paper-mache and I love it.

I was featured in a few carnivals this week. You can read them here: