The Sun's Financial Diary

Americans have short memories like goldfish, and the same thing is true about American investors and savers. With unemployment at its highest level since 1983, more people have been squirreling away money in rainy day funds and other investments recently. The recession, unemployment, and dwindling 401(k) plans have had everyone scared to spend [...]

Do you have a lot of coins? If you do, what do you do with them? Throw them away, or put them in your bank account?
Right now Coinstar is running a promotion for this coin counting machines with a free $10 Amazon.com gift card. If you cash in $40 or more in coins onto an [...]

In a rare promotional event, ING Direct is offering $121 account opening bonus for it Electric Orange Checking Account on Black Friday, November 27, 2009.
The reason for setting the bonus at $121, which seems to be a generous but odd amount, is that the bank says that consumers pay $121 overdraft fee every year on [...]

Looks like online brokers are running a lot of promotions these days to attract new customers.
SogoTrade is offering 100 commission free trades for every new customer. It’s quite easy to get the free trades: Open a SogoTrade account; fund the account with $500; receive the bonus. There is a restriction on the free trades though. [...]

Amazon.com is offering $10 off when you pay with your Discover Card on purchase of $50 or more this holiday season. To receive the $10 promotional discount, you need to follow these steps:

Browse for qualifying items. Qualifying items are select items sold by Amazon.com in Apparel, Electronics, Software, Video Games, and Computers displaying the offer [...]

A lot of us feel like we have a good handle on our financial lives. We balance the checkbook every month. We sock money away in our retirement plans. We even have a little left over to have some fun with. Things are going well, right?
It could be but the idea [...]

The reason I got my optionsXpress account two years ago was that the broker had a promotion at that time that gave every new customer $100 bonus with a minimum of $500 deposit. That’s 20% return without much work. So I opened the account, made the deposit and received the bonus. Unlike other free money [...]

This is the first post in our frugal holiday series. Saving money during the holidays is no small feat and anyone who manages to accomplish it should be praised and envied. Our frugal holiday series is going to focus on saving money in three areas:

Frugal Holiday Entertaining
Serving Holiday Food Frugally
Frugal Gift Buying

Today we are kicking [...]

It’s already the end of November and for many, myself included, that means holiday shopping. From holiday gifts to decorations to food for the family table, all the festivities can really add up. The good news is that even retailers have not been immune to the downslide of the economy and are now working hard [...]

I got myself a little holiday gift today: An Acer Aspire One AOD250-1165 Netbook. It’s on sale at Target store at $199 today. I have been considering getting a netbook for some time, but not at the regular price of around $300, like those sold at Amazon.com. So when I saw the ad today, I [...]