Pottery Barn Unstuffed

As I was weeding my growing collection of old magazines over this Thanksgiving break, I came across an interesting article in the October 2006 issue of Smart Money: Pottery Barn Unstuffed by Smart Money's investigative reporter, Ann Kadet. (Thanks to the power of google search, I discovered that folks have helpfully scanned and uploaded this article online. See links below.)

This article reminds me why I have, and continue to resist buying furniture from Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware and Crate & Barrel. Are their products worth their high prices? Apparently not.

As Anne Kadet's article Pottery Barn Unstuffed reveals interesting discoveries. A $400 Pottery Barn coffee table has a very thin one-fortieth of an inch veneer. A $900 Crate & Barrel chair has hollow plastic legs, and a $1,200 Crate and Barrel bed has a heart of particle board and is held together by screws.

Links to the Smart Money article:

• Web version
• PDF version
  

Bargain Hunting at Target

Missed out on Black Friday deals? Looking to pick up bargains at Target after Christmas? You can pick up holiday and other merchandise at fantastic discount after Christmas.

From my past experiences, Target's typical post-holiday discounting schedule is as follows:

• 50% off on day 1-3 after holiday
• 75% off on day 4-6 after holiday
• 90% off on day 7-9 after holiday

You should confirm with your local Target, as local managers have some leeway to set their own timetable.

In the past, I have picked up Christmas trees at 50% off (I wanted a fabulous tree), as well as Christmas cards, decorations and wrappings at 90% off.

When I enter my local Target, I often head straight to the markdown sections where the clearance items (with red price tags) are found. Target regularly mark down items with red tags at 30%, 50%, and finally 75% off. I normally wait until 50% or 75% before I buy.

Shopping with Coupons

New to using coupons? Wonder how is it like to start using coupons without prior experience? Slate.com's Alicia Barney has written about her experiences as a coupon newbie using coupons in a post entitled Supermarket Sweep: Using Coupons to Get Free Groceries. This article has links to useful coupon blogs and resources, as well as her own experiences.

Link: Supermarket Sweep: Using Coupons to Get Free Groceries

You Can't Handle The Truth About Stocks

Over the Thanksgiving break, I was catching up on my backlog of magazine reading. An article in the September 2009 issue of Money Magazine caught my eye: You Can't Handle The Truth About Stocks, which profiles the economist, Zvi Bodie of Boston University School of Management, who argues against conventional financial planning:

"If you need the high return of stocks to reach your goals, then you can't afford to invest in them."

Here are some of his thoughts:

"... The standard models that are used to give investment advice to millions of Americans are fundamentally wrong. We're told that over time, stocks get less risky, but that's bull. Stocks are always risky -- whether in the short or long run. Prices dropped by 37% last year. While improbable, there's nothing to say they couldn't drop by that much again next year or the year before you retire. And diversification doesn't take away that risk. That's why retirement money belongs in truly safe assets whose value won't go down -- not in stocks..."

"... If you look at most online retirement calculators, they make two assumptions: one, that you want to retire at age 65, and two, that people will be able to save only a certain amount -- say 10%. As a result, they spit out risky portfolios to get a higher return. Well, who says we all want to retire at 65 and can save only 10%? What if I retire at 70 or 75? What if I save 30%? Suddenly, you don't need to take so much risk in your portfolio..."

"... notice what they're being told. They're being told that by investing in equities, they are going to get a higher return without extra risk. That's the problem. You have to make a sacrifice somewhere -- whether that means accepting a lower standard of living now, picking a later retirement date, or taking on risk in your portfolio..."

Professor Zvi Bodie echoes what I earlier blogged in April 2009 in a 4-part posting entitled "Frugal Living & Managing Risk" (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4) where I explained why I invest 100% of my 401K in a stable value fund.

As I see it, Americans want to have their cake and eat it. They want to retire in style but do not want to sacrifice, i.e., save, for it. If we only save 5% of our monthly income for our retirement vs. 30%, then we would have to take a lot more risk to have the 5% match up to the 30% savings rate. No wonder we take too much risk with our retirement funds. For me, the answer is clear: a simple and frugal lifestyle, with less stress and blood pressure worrying which direction my retirement savings is heading.