Personal finance

Year-End Personal Finance Checklist from Morningstar

Posted by Sun on October 5, 2006 (2) Comment

Morningstar today has an excellent article that offers tips for year-end personal finance checkup. Following is the summary. To read the full article by Sue Stevens, click here.
1. Supercharge Your Portfolio

Rebalance: Keep your target asset allocations.        
Net gains and losses: Offset gains by selling losers.          
Check year-dnd fund distributions: Buy a fund after [...]

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What Is VoIP And Why Is It Popular?

Posted by Sun on October 4, 2006 Comments Off

Simply speaking, Voice of Internet Protocol, commonly known as VoIP, is a technology that can carry voice signal over the Internet rather than traditional telephone lines. Though the technology was originated from a technology developed in the 1970s, it became commercially available only in recent years. Now big players such as Vonage and SunRocket are [...]

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ING Direct Bonus Reference Codes for $25 Bonus

Posted by Sun on October 3, 2006 (2) Comment

Update: If you are looking for reference codes to open an ING Direct account, check out the master list of ING Direct $25 bonus referral links.  If you open an ING Direct Savings account with any of links and make a deposit of at least $250, you will receive a $25 bonus and the referrer, [...]

Categories : Banking, Personal finance Tags:

Moving Part of My Roth IRA to Vanguard

Posted by Sun on October 1, 2006 (4) Comment

Back in July, I learned from Scottrade, which holds my Roth IRA account, that one of my favorite Vanguard funds, Vanguard Wellington fund (VWELX), is closed to investors who invest in the fund through a brokerage firm. I have been investing in the fund since 2001 and have no plan to give up my positions. [...]

Categories : Personal finance, Retirement Tags:

September 2006 Score Card — Part I: Expenses

Posted by Sun on October 1, 2006 (1) Comment

September was just the second time in as many months that I recorded our monthly expenses. Though the history is kind of short, I can still see some patterns of how and where we spent our money. One problem, however, is that since I didn't have a budget ahead of the spending, I really can't [...]

Categories : About me, Net worth, Personal finance Tags:

So, It’s not a Rumor

Posted by Sun on September 30, 2006 (9) Comment

Yesterday, I heard that Emigrant Direct is to lower its savings rate. It was kind of surprise because I also have an account with Emigrant Direct and I didn’t get any notice about their rate change. Last night when I logged into my account in preparation of this month’s balance sheet, the savings rate was [...]

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Emigrant Direct Lowers Its Rate to 5.05%

Posted by Sun on September 30, 2006 Comments Off

Last night when I logged into my Emigrant Direct account, the savings rate was still at 5.15%, the same as the past four months. However, when I checked again this morning, the rate dropped to 5.05%, matching the offer from HSBC.
Though the rate is not attractive as it used to be, it’s still one of [...]

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It’s so Close, yet also Far Away

Posted by Sun on September 29, 2006 Comments Off

Today, the Dow made the second attempt in as many days to surpass and stay above its all time high of 11722.98, set on January 14, 2000. With only five points away when it closed yesterday, that magic number seemed so close that nobody would doubt it was there for the taking. Yet, when all [...]

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My First Payment From PayPerPost

Posted by Sun on September 28, 2006 Comments Off

I started to take the paid-to-blog opportunities provided by PayPerPost last month. Yesterday, I received my first payment via Paypal from PPP for an entry I wrote a month ago. Yes! Actually, at the beginning, I was a little skeptical about PPP. My feeling is much more positive now, however, as I believe it is [...]

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Write A Testimonial And Receive A Gift From Newegg.com

Posted by Sun on September 28, 2006 Comments Off

If you’re a Newegg.com customer (yes, you have to have an account with them), now you can get a free gift by writing a short testimonial. Here’s how to get your gift:

Login to your Newegg account;
Use this link to write your testimonial;
Submit your testimonial.

I wrote my testimonial on Sept. 26th and was notified yesterday that [...]

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