Archive for January, 2006
Almost exactly a year ago, I pondered whether to convert my Traditional IRA into a Roth IRA. I ended up not doing it right away after realizing that I might hit the ceiling that limits conversions to those with a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) of $100,000 or less. The same ceiling applies for both a single person and a married couple’s combined income! And if you go the married filing separately route, you can’t convert your IRA at all. I never understand these marriage penalties.
Of course, then I quit my job in July so I should have just gone ahead and converted it. But then I thought, maybe we might even end up in the 15% tax bracket for 2006! That would really save on taxes. But it doesn’t look like it (which is a good thing of course.) So we’ll most likely convert this year. Some additional things I want to take into account are:
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Posted in Retirement | 12 Comments »
Perhaps inspired by Greenspan’s parting rate hike, the rate on the Presidential Internet Checking Plus (review) account has been raised to 4.25% APY and their Presidential Premier Savings (review) account is now at 4.37% APY. I consider my Prez account as my main checking due to their good rate (for a checking account) and flexibility, but their savings account has a $5,000 minimum. I was hoping they’d raise rates higher, especially on the savings end, but this is about what I expected.
Posted in Banking | 5 Comments »
Not saving for retirement? Need a good excuse why? Not to worry - here are some 25 ideas for you, all for free!
1. I’m young, I need to enjoy life.
2. I’m too old, it’s too late for me.
3. I’m scared of money. It’s too complicated.
4. It’s all the credit card company’s fault.
5. Interest rates are still pretty low. Borrow now!
6. I don’t have enough time in the day.
7. I have to pay for my kid’s college.
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Posted in Retirement | 11 Comments »
HSBC Direct is now paying 4.80% APY on their OnlineSavings accounts. It’s not updated on their front page, but it is shown on their Rates page. For those with accounts, check out my Rate Chaser Calculator if you are at a lower rate right now and are thinking of transferring money. Use the HSBC transfer schedule for reference. For those without, don’t miss the $25 HSBC Direct bonus.
Update: It’s only until 4/30.
Posted in Banking | 12 Comments »
Cash back credit cards are all the rave now, especially the 5% ones. Citibank has had their Dividend card giving 5% cash back for groceries, gas, and drugstores for years now. Chase then copied Citi with their own version. American Express and Discover now have ones with 5% off gas. But are they really that awesome?
I was catching up on some old Carnival reading and found this post on NoCreditNeeded about how cashback credit cards are crap. Granted, from the title of the blog you wouldn’t expect to hear praise for them, but there are some good points made. Of course, I disagree with some of them as well. Let’s hit each one:
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Posted in Credit Cards | 27 Comments »
Everyone who sent me their Form #2 in December as part of my Emigrant Direct Bonus should have an e-mail with payment enclosed. If not, e-mail me. I’ve now sent out over $1100 in bonus payments! Thanks again to all who participated and followed the instructions.
Posted in Deals & Offers | 1 Comment »
I’ve been getting a lot of the same questions regarding this site and my finances, so hopefully this helps clear up the confusion:
Why do you have so much cash?
We are saving up for a large house downpayment. While other investments like stocks and bonds may offer better long-term returns, they also carry more volatility. Given our time horizon of less than 2 years, we want to keep it safe while maximizing returns. Thus the focus on things like online savings accounts. Please also see the next question for the other reason why I have so much cash.
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Posted in General | 1 Comment »
As mentioned in my last post, Amerivest is Ameritrade’s new attempt to bringing a flat annual fee to discount investment planning, instead of commissions for each trade. First, they have some software ask you a few questions on your risk tolerance and investment amounts, which spits out one of 25 predetermined baskets of index ETFs. Each basket has what looks like 4-7 ETFs in the proportion to create the asset allocation that it decides you need. It then tells you how much you need to invest each month to reach your goal.
I used their online chat to find out more about the service:
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Posted in Investing | 3 Comments »
Amerivest is Ameritrade’s new financial-advisor-in-a-box, which I’ll blog more about later. But first, I tried out their Simulator. I put in basically the same information that I used for my retirement nest-egg calculations - We want the equivalent income of $96,000 a year in retirement. Inflation is estimated at 3% annually. We’ll retire at age 60, and live for about another 30 years after that. I picked the most aggressive options for all the risk-tolerance questions. The answer? We need just a lump sum of $75,226.13 now to achieve our retirement goals. What?
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Posted in Investing | 23 Comments »
The rate wars continue! EmigrantDirect announced today that they raised their interest rates to 4.25% APY, matching HSBC Direct. For those with accounts, check out my Rate Chaser Calculator if you are at a lower rate right now and are thinking of transferring money. For those without, check out my $10-$20 EmigrantDirect Signup Bonus.
Posted in Banking | 17 Comments »
I was surfing Food Network last night and caught a show spotlighting a place called Dream Dinners. They provide you a kitchen, recipes, and pre-measured and chopped ingredients to prepare your own meals, which you then pack up, take home, and put in your freezer. When you’re hungry, you just stick it in the oven. Their menu changes monthly and looks pretty tasty and healthy.
I’ve been analyzing how much it actually costs to buy a meal from the grocery store and make it and it can get pretty expensive. 2 lbs. Chicken - $6. 4 tomatoes - $2. 2 green peppers - $1.25. 1 lemon - 50 cents. It all adds up! This place will sell you 12 dinners for about $200, with each dinner being 4-6 servings. They even let you split the meals in half, which works great for our two-person household. So that’s 24 dinners - about $8 for a meal for two. Not dirt cheap, but it’s better than McFastFood for sure. I’m intrigued - Anyone tried them?
Posted in Frugal Living | 64 Comments »
So, I have my Free Money Account all set up and ready to go. Now I just have to figure out what to invest in. At $1 a trade, I can dollar-cost-average into a new ETF every month for the price of a Wendy’s Frosty. Now, I want to be aggressive but somewhat diversified, so I am looking for suggestions for index ETFs with low expenses in the following areas:
Micro-Cap / Small-Cap / International / Emerging Markets
So far, I have the following on my list: IWC, PZI, IWM, IJS, VBR, EFV, EEM, VWO. Opinions on these? Any other suggestions? I’m somewhat open to different areas like sector ETFs, but you’ll have to argue a good case.
Posted in Investing | 20 Comments »
I recently opened a MB Trading brokerage account. While it took almost 3 weeks since I had to mail in the paperwork and check for deposit, their customer service seemed pretty good and kept me updated. I wasn’t in a hurry, so no big deal. They do not have a web-based trading interface, you must do all your trades through their MBT Navigator software or by phone. The software has tons of bells and whistles, but as long as it gets the job done I’m happy.
My plan for this account is to put all the free money I get via various Deals and other Offers I do, and instead of spending it I’ll invest it aggressively in ETFs to allow it to grow. I opened the account with $2000, the minimum allowed. Although I haven’t quite made $2,000 in free money from bonuses alone, the minimum opening deposit was $2,000 so I’ll start with that. I’m sure I forgot some bonuses anyways.
Posted in Investing | 1 Comment »
