The Sun's Financial Diary

It’s not a secret that entry level salaries aren’t the greatest paying, but college graduates still need to survive and somewhat enjoy their lives. This is why I really wanted to write about how college graduates can stretch their entry level salary as much as possible. Don’t worry because today I [...]

I bought my first stock nearly 8 years ago with Scottrade, which is also my first stock broker, in 2002 and one that I have been actively using since then. Throughout these years, as more and more online discount brokers emerged, I have also got accounts with other brokerage firms in order to reduce trading [...]

Just got this email from ING Direct.
The online bank is currently running a promotion for its Electric Orange Checking Account. The promotion will give $25 bonus to each new customer when the following conditions are met:

Open an Electric Orange with promotion code EM298 by August 22, 2009;
Activate the Electric Orange MasterCard Debit Card;
Use the Electric [...]

I spent most of the time last night and another two hours this morning shredding our documents as we are getting closer to moving to Virginia. Believe me, it isn’t any easy job because we have accumulate more then ten years of bank statements, credit card bills, investment records, and pay stubs. Even though [...]

trade MONSTER is another online discount broker that generates quite some interests recently.
I first noticed trade MONSTER when I compiled the list of discount brokers with the lowest commissions for online stock trading. Actually, if you look at the list, trade MONSTER isn’t really attractive from the point of view of costs. The broker charges [...]

In case you forgot, today, July 24, 2009, the Federal minimum wage goes up to $7.25/hour from last year’s $6.55/hour.
Following is a plot of historical Federal minimum wages from 1939 to 2009 (the blue line). In 1939, the minimum wage was only 30 cents. The next adjustment didn’t come until 1945 when the minimum wage [...]

Money can be stressful. From earning to managing to spending, money consumes a large part of our lives and can even define how we feel about ourselves and how others view us, and that is during good economic times.
When times turn tough, any little cracks in our money handling run the risk of becoming giant, [...]

Nearly five months ago I started to invest through Lending Club in order to add a little bit more diversification to my investments. Since then, I have been steadily building up my portfolio. The process is rather slow though since I can only buy notes on the secondary market, which I sometimes forgot to do [...]

Early this year, Discover introduced a new prepaid debit for teenagers, the Discover Current Card. Even though the Current card is designed specially for teens, it gives their parents a great deal of control on the way their children use the cards. The goal is by using this card, parents and teens can work [...]

I opened an OptionsHouse brokerage account a few weeks ago after noticing that it has lowered its online stock trade commission to $2.95/trade. That price beats what I currently get from other popular discount brokers, such as TradeKing, Firstrade, and even Zecco. However, since OptionsHouse requires some paperwork (such as a signed form and voided [...]