Eat for FREE - HelloFresh Meals via Groupon for New TopCashBack Members

TopCashBack is offering a $30/$36 cashback deal for NEW TopCashBack members on a Groupon deal for HelloFresh meals.   The Groupon deal is $29/$35 (vegetarian or regular) for a week worth of HelloFresh meals for two.   With the cashback the deal is effectively free and you can eat free for a week!   Looks like a week of membership is 3 meals for 2 people.

Follow this link for the deal

"Visit Groupon through TopCashback, purchase the 'one week of subscription cook-at-home meals for two from HelloFresh' deal priced at $29 for a vegetarian box or $35 for a classic box and within seven days either $30 or $36 cashback (depending on the box you choose) will post in your TopCashback account. "

Again this is only for NEW TopCashBack members.     Follow the link above to sign up with TopCashBack and then use their site to shop at Groupon.

And Yes I get a referral commission if you follow my link, so please do sign up via the link above.



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10 Years of Dividend Yield Ranges for VNQ

I looked at VNQ (Vanguard REIT ETF) just now and noticed the dividend yield is at 4.21% as I write this.   Thats a bit higher than I recall seeing it.   The dividends you get from VNQ will vary because the dividends of the REITS it holds vary.    The price you pay for VNQ will also vary but because its traded on the open market and its market value fluctuates.   The yield you get from VNQ will depend on what you paid and what the combined dividend of the REITs happens to be.

I pulled the high and low trading value of VNQ for the 2005 to 2015 period (all off Yahoo Finance VNQ).   I also summed up the annual dividend payment for those years.    Between these I figured the range of dividends you'd get if you bought VNQ in each year.    For example: in 2005 the ETF traded between a low of $51.12 and a low of $63.45.    The dividend total for 2005 was $3.56.    If you bought at the low or high your yield would be 5.6% or 7% respectively.

Here's the chart :

And the price  & dividend data :

	max	min	DIV
12/1/2005	63.45	51.12	3.561
12/1/2006	81.15	59.16	3.254
12/3/2007	87.44	60.01	3.111
12/1/2008	68.95	22.52	3
12/1/2009	46.64	19.95	1.964
12/1/2010	57.65	40.33	1.891
12/1/2011	63.32	47.10	2.05
12/3/2012	69.20	57.03	2.343
12/2/2013	78.86	63.40	2.791
12/1/2014	83.09	64.05	2.919
12/1/2015	89.27	71.67	3.124

The yields in 2008 and 2009 are higher for people who bought VNQ at cheap prices after the market crash.    In the past 5 years the dividend yield averaged 4%.

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Best of Blogs for Week of May 6th

Every Friday afternoon I share some of the more interesting or notable posts that I have seen in the personal finance blogs and other sources for the past week

TheBigPicture shared Drivers of Equity Returns in the Past 50 Years

MyMoneyBlog asks Mortgage Rates at 3-Year Lows: Refinance Check Time Again?

ClarkHoward's site explains Why paying off PMI should be a top financial priority

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I Wouldn't Worry About A Sub-Prime Auto Loan Crisis or Bubble

Looks like the "bubble to get worried about" for the day is the sub prime auto loan bubble.    I just saw two references about it in my daily twitter feed.     Apparently Esquire print magazine has an article and so does Slate.

So why shouldn't we get all worked up about it?

Buried halfway down a NYT article from 2014 in a mult-part discussion of the sub prime auto loan topic, they say :
"The size of the subprime auto loan market is a tiny fraction of what subprime mortgage market was at its peak, and its implosion would not have the same far-reaching consequences."

According to Credit.com as of 2015 the total car loan debt was $950B and sub prime market was 27% of that.    Thats about $256B in debt total.     I don't see general information on the average interest rates for the loans.   One reference, in that 2014 NYT article says that some bundled loans averaged 18.4%.    Of course thats way higher than the average car loan in general which is currently around 3% (sourced again from NYT).    

In 2006, just a single year, $600B in subprime home loans were originated.   (from Wikipedia)

Outstanding mortgage debt peaked around $14.7T in 2008 (the fed historical data )     Before the bubble burst about 20% of new loans were subprime.  

I also don't see any sign that this is really any kind of bubble.    There have always been high interest rate loans on cars for people with bad credit.   This isn't anything new and the rate of borrowing isn't even hitting the rate from before the recession.   This is really more along the lines of "business as usual" than a bubble as far as I see.

High interest rate car loans are certainly a problem and have really difficult impacts to low income / poor credit rating people who get them.   The loans are also often associated with predatory lending practices.    I don't want to minimize the negative aspect of these loans and the drag they have on peoples finances.    

But there isn't a bubble in the sub prime auto loan market and even if there was, if it were to pop it wouldn't have 1/10 the impact that the great recession housing bust had.


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