Archives for January 2006

Where To Invest My Free Money? Suggestions Please

Posted on January 24, 2006 // 20 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.

Filed Under: Investing //

Free Money Brokerage Account Opened With $2,000

Posted on January 24, 2006 // 1 Comment

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.

Filed Under: Investing //

Money Blogger Podcast With Yours Truly

Posted on January 24, 2006 // 7 Comments

Reader Scott has given me the honor of being a part of his new interview series – Money Blogger Podcast. It looks very promising. I’ll be perfectly honest – I haven’t yet figured out how to listen to the podcast (iPod is now charging). I’m creeped out when hearing myself anyways, but I would like to listen to his interview of fellow blogger Dawn of FrugalForLife.

While in the interview I babbled truthfully that I don’t have a favorite post, in retrospect I would say I am most often referred to for my zeal in giving detailed instructions on how to extract money from credit card companies. Also, I stated I don’t have a favorite blog. Another truth. I read every single blog on my links list, and like them all. I’m all about personal experiences.

Filed Under: General //

Carnavales Del Dinero

Posted on January 24, 2006 // Leave a Comment

Carnival of Debt Reduction – Canadian Capitalist
Carnival of Personal Finance – Be Capitalism
Carnival of the Capitalists – Patent Baristas
Carnival of Investing – Blueprint for Financial Prosperity
Festival of Frugality – Canadian Capitalist

Filed Under: General //

Rate Chasers – Should You Move Your Money?

Posted on January 23, 2006 // 7 Comments

With the proliferation of new high-yield savings accounts and them leapfrogging each other’s rates, we come to the all-important question – Should I move my money to the higher rate? Well, with the data from my transfer-time experiment, I can better gauge the answer.

First, let’s find the formula for figuring out how long you must keep the money at the new higher rate account to counteract any interest lost during the transfer. I’m not the inventor of this simple formula, I just derived it right now with good ole’ pencil and paper.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Banking //

Online Bank Lost Interest Experiment Results – Surprising!

Posted on January 22, 2006 // 17 Comments

Here are the results of my bank transfer timing experiment to help estimate the lost interest when transfering money from one online bank to another. I scheduled transfers very late on Monday (~9pm Pacific) to and from various online banks and recorded when the money was taken out of the originating bank, and when the money was noted as deposited in the destination bank.

I would have posted the data earlier, but I’ve been trying to pore through all the fine print to figure out exactly when the banks stop and start paying interest during withdrawals and deposits. I’m still fuzzy on several things, but I just made some assumptions and ran with them for now. Here are the (I think reasonable) assumptions I made:
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Banking //

Online Savings Accounts: Where’s The Fine Print?

Posted on January 21, 2006 // 7 Comments

Every time there is an issue with a bank, I have to go digging to find their fine print again. No more! I have tracked down the direct links to the Terms & Disclosures for each of the banks on my high-yield savings account comparison page – Capital One 360, Emigrant, HSBC, and VirtualBank. I’ve also highlighted some of the useful information from each. Hopefully it will serve as a good reference.

Capital One 360 – Terms & Disclosures
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Banking //

Emigrant Direct Announces Mediocre Credit Card

Posted on January 20, 2006 // 5 Comments

What do I think? Pretty much what Caitlin of Clutter2Cash thinks. Pass.

Filed Under: Credit Cards //

Book Review: Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People

Posted on January 20, 2006 // 18 Comments

Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy PeopleSmart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People. Whew, what a long title. I was putting off reading this book because it seems like ‘just another personal finance book’ by another so-called Money Guru. (I’d never heard of Ms. Quinn before getting this book from the publisher.) And in many ways it was. But I also learned a couple of new things.

I found it amusing that she makes fun of David Bach’s “latte factor”, while the rest of her book is so similar to his Automatic Millionaire book. Save a certain percentage of your money automatically every month. Invest it into diversified index funds. Let it compound happily. Sound familiar?
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Book Reviews //

Estimating Our Needed Retirement Nest Egg

Posted on January 18, 2006 // 19 Comments

Right now I’m reading Yes, You Can Still Retirement Comfortably! by Ben Stein and Phil Demuth, at the recommendation of my friend Trip of Musing Money. So far it’s pretty good. I’m not quite done, but as part of the book it gives you a step-by-step procedure to estimate the nest egg that you’ll need when you reach your desired retirement age. It’s all based on historical market returns and life expectancy charts which I’ll leave to those who buy the book, but here are the rough results for my wife and I together:

1) Estimate Post-Retirement Income Needed. A suggested estimate is 80% of your (expected) final salary when you retire. I’m going to estimate this at 80% of $120,000, or $96,000.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Retirement //

Separating Personal and Business Worlds: Got An Employer Identification Number

Posted on January 17, 2006 // 17 Comments

I am trying to separate my personal and business finances, so my first step was to get an Employer Identification Number (EIN), sometimes called a Tax ID. An EIN is used by the IRS to track businesses and takes the place of a Social Security Number in many areas. They are free, you can either apply online or over the phone. I chose the latter because that way you get it instantly.

I technically don’t need one, since I am not incorporated and currently don’t have any employees, but it allows me to separate my business finances by using it to open business bank accounts, business credit cards, and so forth. Also, now whenever I get paid via 1099s it will be through my new EIN.

Filed Under: Entrepreneurial //

Best of MyMoneyBlog: The 4th Quarter

Posted on January 17, 2006 // 3 Comments

Time flies when you’re havin’ fun. Continued from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Quarter flashbacks. Here are what I feel are the more worthwhile posts to read from my blog from September to November 2005.

September
» Brainstormed options for keeping an Emergency Money Fund.
» Worked out How To Predict I-Bond Savings Bond Rates, even before the official rate announcements.
» Started my very popular $10 Sign-up bonus for EmigrantDirect, a no-fees no-minimums savings account currently offering a 4% interest.
» Revealed that, once again, I am just a simple college student, trying to get by.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Best of MMB //
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