The way the financial community seems to be covering it, we are currently attending the funeral of Asset Allocation. Long live Asset Allocation!

A common topic on financial pages world wide web wide (a cheer for alliteration?) is about the supposed death of asset allocation. Asset Allocation is the idea that the best retirement play for most investors is to allocate financial resources among a number of investment baskets. Supposedly by spreading one's investments across a diverse set of asset classes it is possible to catch the hot performance in any corner of the market while absorbing any shocks in other corners. Of course, the uninspiring performance of asset classes during the 'Great Recession' seem to throw this theory into question. Read on and decide for yourself if we need to find some pallbearers for this financial heavyweight.

Before I read this article, I could not imagine a scenario which would lead a company to sue itself. Yes; you read that correctly. Wells Fargo is suing itself in Florida in order to facilitate the foreclosure of a property in which it has multiple liens.

Investing in real estate? Too Soon!

Just kidding. Real estate investing is not limited to house 'flipping' or becoming a landlord. There are other ways to play real estate - to the downside or the upside. Real estate investing can cover much more than simply buying residential property to rent or resell. Read on for a look at a few of those 'other' forms.

Our article, "Investing in the 79th Element", is hosted over at Man vs. Debt for the Carnival of Personal Finance! Go check it out, the theme is New Zealand!

Gold, the 79th element in the periodic table, is perhaps the most controversial of any investments. Every investor seems to have an opinion on the metal. Some people, particularly enamored with the constitution, read into it the necessity for the government to only issue gold (and silver) coins.

Regardless of your viewpoint on the legality of fiat currency, perhaps you have decided to invest some of your hard earned funds into the stuff. There are many ways to approach investing in gold; I will lay out a few approaches to gold investing in this article.

Visit Darwin's Finance for the 212th Edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance! Our article, "Are California IOUs Constitutional?" is a featured article for this week. Keeping with the emotions of the 4th of July, the theme is countries which have declared independence.

Check out this week's Money Hacks carnival, posted at the Personal Finance Playbook!. Our article, "The Failure of Dollar Cost Averaging" is hosted this week.

I've written plenty about gasoline lately, but only about gas taxes. Let's shift gears a bit... Do you think gas prices will increase? If gas prices increase, is there a way for you to hedge against that increase so it doesn't affect you? Of course!

The article "If You Don't Have One... Get One" has been featured in the 211th edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance! Check out the carnival, and the hosting site, Green Panda Treehouse. The theme is a good one too...

"Of Risk and Men", an article about the state (and the state of the budget) of California, was featured in the 71st edition of the Money Hacks Carnival. Check out the carnival, and the host, The Canadian Finance Blog.

If I told you that increased fuel efficiency leads to more fuel consumption, what would you think?

Jevon's paradox states that increases in the efficiency of the use of a resource lead to the increased usage of that resource. Throughout history, examples of this effect in action can be found. This brings me back to the topic of the gas tax. If you are of the belief that we need to reduce our consumption of gasoline, increased efficiency (and attempted legislation to increase efficiency) alone will only lead to more gasoline usage. If less gasoline usage is the goal, only a tax on gasoline will make it happen.

Editor: we originally wrote this as a four part blog post in June 2009, only a few months after we […]