Poll
Federal Minimum Wage at $7.25/Hour – Chart of the Day
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 [...]
Poll: Do You Save in 401(k) Without Company Match?
We paid a sizable tax bill last April. One of the reasons was that I only made partial contribution to my 401(k) account in 2007.
After changing my job middle of the year, I didn’t make any contribution to my retirement account because 1) there was a three-month delay preventing me from contributing immediately; 2) I [...]
Poll: Are You Concerned about Your Bank After the Collapse of IndyMac?
In the past few days, I heard a lot of news about the collapse of IndyMac bank and how anxious depositors arrived 4:00 am in the morning at the door of the bank’s branch offices in CA, hoping to get they hard earned money out as soon as possible. Though for most of the bank’s [...]
Poll: Who’s Your Favorite Broker?
If you have read this blog long enough, you know that I have multiple brokerage accounts. If I have to count, then I have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Yes, a total of seven brokers. Of them, Firstrade, ShareBuilder and optionXpress have been idle for a long time after I moved money out [...]
Poll: Did You Do Better in 2007 than in 2006?
Bush and Cheney did.
According to the tax returns released to the public, Mr. and Mrs. Bush reported a total taxable income of $719,274 for the tax year 2007, an increase of $76,369, or 11.88%, than 2006. The vice president couple did much better last year than a year ago. Mr. and Mrs. Cheney’s 2007 total [...]
Poll: So, Did You Buy Visa?
I did. Did you?
I called my broker Scottrade this morning when the markets opened, but had to wait nearly 20 minutes before my called was transferred to Scottrade’s national service center instead being answered by brokers at my local office. I never had problem contacting them before.
When my call eventually went through, I was told [...]
Poll: Visa is Coming this Week. Are You Buying?
Credit card network giant Visa Inc. is scheduled to go public on Wednesday, March 19th with its massive IPO, according to Marketwatch.com. The stock will be traded on NYSE under the symbol V. If Visa indeed goes ahead with its IPO in the middle of the current stock market turmoil, the offering will be the [...]
Poll: What’s Your Top Concern in Case of a Recession?
Let’s face it, what we are seeing now are not pretty: turmoil in the financial market, slumping home value, slowing consumer spending, rising unemployment rate, and falling stock prices. The talks of a possible recession, if we are not already in it as some people have argued, are getting louder and louder these days as [...]
Poll: What Concerns You the Most When Getting a Credit Card?
Credit card companies’ interest rate policy is the subject of a congressional hearing this week as executives from major credit card issuers went to Capital Hill to defend their actions on rising card member’s interest rates, even when they had good credit history. A USA Today story yesterday portraits a victim, Janet Hard, who paid [...]
Poll: Passive or Active
Last week I posted an entry on what it means to be a better investor nowadays after reading an article from Jason Zweig. The main message Mr. Zweig is sending is that investors will gain more by reducing investment costs. For average Joe and Jane, the simplest way to achieve that is using index funds. [...]
