The Sun's Financial Diary

Last Friday we received a membership renewal letter from Costco. Together with the notice is a $64.86 reward gift check from Costco. As a Costco Executive Member, we are able to enjoy the 2% cashback for shopping at Costco and the reward check is what we have accumulated last year, which also means that in [...]

Real estate investing is one of the fastest growing industries in the world today. Though to a substantial extent the global economic recession has hit the industry, the future looks bright and thus as a real estate investor, you stand to continue gaining in the long term. In fact, some wise sage said that in [...]

Just got this offer from ING Direct.
The online bank is running a $50 promotion for its Electric Orange Checking Account. If you open a new checking account before May 31 and use its debit card to make three purchases within the first 45 days, the bank will you deposit $50 in your account. Sounds pretty [...]

Banks that pay you 3% or more APY for your money are rare these days. In fact, right now there’s only one bank as far as I know willing to give you that kind of *high-yield*. Not long ago, we had a Redneck Bank that paid an unbeatable 3.10% APY, but the bank was quickly [...]

A quick summary of credit cards that currently offer incentives:

Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express 25,000 Starpoints: Open a Starwood Preferred Guest Card and get up to 25,000 bonus Starpoints that can be redeemed for airline tickets, hotel stays, or room upgrade. $45 annual fee is waived for the first year. Find out more [...]

The new credit card regulations that aim to rein in excessive, and sometimes abusive, practices by credit card companies won’t take effect until July 2010. Congress is proposing a new legislation that will further regulate the credit card industry, protect consumers, and, hopefully, speed up the implementation of the new rules passed by federal agencies [...]

Are you still receiving paper statements from your banks, credit card issuers, or phone companies?
Since I do transactions, such as checking account activities, paying bills, and transferring funds, I want to eliminate paper statements all together if I can because there’s nothing on the paper that I can’t find online. So there’s just no reason [...]

Good news for 55 million social security benefit recipients who are looking forward to the one-time $250 economic recovery payment.
I mentioned early that the Social Security Administration plans to issue the checks to SSI recipient this month. Now it looks like the waiting is over. An announcement on the SSA website says that first payment [...]

Most of us understand why we need life insurance. We know that our families depend upon us for dozens of things, and we want to make sure they could maintain a comfortable lifestyle if we passed away. But even though people realize they should buy life insurance, they put off a decision because they think [...]

Market Recap
U.S. stock market stretched its gain into third month after consumer confidence improved unexpectedly last month and the Fed said that the worst of the recession may be behind us. Stocks were also boosted by quarterly earnings news as two-third companies in the S&P 500 have reported strong numbers so far. For the week, [...]