The Sun’s Financial Diary

SmartMoney.com recently has an article which provides some model portfolios for investors who consider taking the all-ETF approach in building their portfolios. The article, titled “Ready for an All-ETF Portfolio? Here Are Some Models,” starts by making the arguments of under what circumstances an investor is better off to stay with the traditional index mutual [...]

The mail I received yesterday from Discover regarding the Discover Miles reward program says starting April, card members can enjoy more benefits with the “completely redesigned” reward program. The card, renamed to the Miles by Discover Card, will offer more flexibilities for cardholders to earn and spend the rewards. Here’s a comparison between the old [...]

A big sell-off as the one we witnessed yesterday always presents a buying opportunity, though for long-term investment, one-day drop won’t mean too much. That being said, when you are ready to invest, why buy high and you can buy low?
This morning when I logged in my Firstrade account, I noticed that the fund I [...]

Well, this is the worst day I ever had in my not-so-long investment life. More than $15,000 on paper are gone in one day, with the worst being all China related issues: GRRF, -$1.40 (10.17%), PGJ, -$2.10 (9.62%), and LFC, -3.72 (8.82%). The smallest decliners are PEY, -$0.44, 2.88% and OAKBX, -$0.43, 1.61%. The break [...]

For a day like today, there’s simply no escape.
With Dow off more than 260 points, the deepest drop since 2003, everywhere I look, all I see is red. When I checked my Scottrade account couple of minutes ago, I found my paper assets have shrunk nearly $8,000 already and that’s just stocks. The total loss [...]

The first round of March Madness is currently underway at Free Money Finance, and my post, Electric Orange — ING’s Paperless Checking Account, makes its appearance in Game 9 to 16, among 7 other great posts. Stop by at Free Money Finance and vote for the winners  of your choices (me, me, me, ……. [...]

That’s a pleasant surprise.
I didn’t realize that I have been using my AMEX Costco TrueEarnings card for a year already until I found a check in the mail tonight from AMEX. It’s a rebate check of $74 for spending $5,228 with the card in the past year for eating out, traveling and shopping at my [...]

I am not sure how trustworthy this is, but decided to share it with everybody who wants to give it a try.
I got this email last night from a survey website that sends me surveys everyday (I think I registered with them before) but I never took any, but this one certainly looked interesting:
A client [...]

HSBC is offering a $75 bonus for opening an interest checking account with them. With the checking account, customers also get “free Personal Internet Banking and Bill Pay and an HSBC Debit MasterCard with PayPass.” The Terms & Conditions for this offer says
HSBC reserves the right to charge your checking account an amount equal to [...]

Buy.com has CoolMax 3.5″ External USB 2.0 Hard Drive Enclosure [Buy.com affiliate link] for free after $29 mail-in rebate (expires March 2, 2007) with free shipping. This product supports “One touch backup function,” making data backup much easier to perform.
Buy.com also has Brother PT-80 Thermal Label Printer [Buy.com affiliate link] for $14.99 after $15 instant [...]