The Sun's Financial Diary

In the June issue of Consumer Reports, the magazine gives its readers some ideas to save money at the pump. In addition to tips that we have already knew, such as avoiding rapid acceleration/stop, there are also tips that I didn’t know before or haven’t paid any attention, such as the rolling resistance of tiers. [...]

In a sign that interest rates may stop falling and start rising, E*Trade Financial sent me an email this afternoon with a surprising update: Start May 8, they will increase the interest rate of their Complete Savings Account from the current 3.01% APY to 3.15% APY, though the Fed has cut interest rates by another [...]

Back in February, the U.S. Postal Service announced that the postage for one-ounce first-class mail will go up by 1 cent to 42 cents next Monday, May 12th, so does the price for a Forever stamp.
When the stamp was first introduced in 2007, I didn’t buy any extra other than the booklet of 20 when [...]

April has turned out to be a pretty good month for equity investors. After all three major indices dropped to 52-week low in early March, stocks rebounded last month after financial firms indicated that the worst part of the current crisis may be over. The Dow ended April with a gain of 4.54%, the S&P [...]

Health Insurance for New College Graduates – Shopping Around for Affordable Coverage Money Smart Life provided tips for newly grads can get health insurance.
Finovate Demos Lazy Man and Money blogged live from Finovate Startup last week. Lots of new names in the business of personal finance.
Is it Smart to Buy Disability Insurance? Generation X Finance [...]

Yoplait is giving away coupons for a free 6-pack yogurt for kids. The coupon, however, is not available for residents of California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey , North Dakota, and Tennessee. If you are living outside these states, you can use this link to provide your contact information. The coupon will then [...]

With the economic stimulus checks coming out earlier than originally scheduled, some may have already received their payments. Though I haven’t got my check yet (filed paper return on April 14th could mean a long delay), I did wonder whether I have to pay taxes for the “found money”. So I searched around a [...]

I have been a reader of Financial Planning magazine for nearly two years and find it’s a pretty good source for financial information. Actually, it’s one of two magazines that I currently subscribe to (the other one is Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, but I won’t renew it when the subscription expires in a couple of months).

Micro-cap fund specialist Washtch Advisors today announced that it will temporarily reopen two micro-cap funds, Wasatch International Opportunities Fund (WAIOX)
Wasatch Micro Cap Value Fund (WAMVX), to all investors. Unlike other funds that were recently reopened, these two funds seem never available to individual investors because they were both closed on the day when they [...]

After five straight monthly loses, we finally saw some meaningful increase in our paper wealth in April, thanks to a strong showing in the stock markets. Our net worth has suffered huge losses since last November when stocks peaked and started trading lower and lower amid financial market turmoil. In the past five months, our [...]