The Sun's Financial Diary

It has been a little over four years since I opened my Scottrade brokerage account and started trading stocks. Back then, I was so excited about making quick money from the stock market that I kept the Scottrade trading window open from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm almost every day and didn't really do any [...]

If it wasn’t the rate increase announcement from ING yesterday, I probably won’t check my INGDirect account any time soon as ING is no longer my primary savings account and I only have about $500 with them now. However, when I logged in last night, I noticed something new: the ING Direct Electric Orange Checking [...]

Jeff Schnepper at MSN Money has some year-end moves that could reduce your 2006 tax bill. The following are the summary of the article. For details, click here.
The easy stuff 

Charitable deductions. Make the charitable donations before December 31. 
Use up your flexible spending account (FSA) dollars. Use them  or lose them. The IRS allows purchases made up [...]

Yesterday, I read this interesting article on NY Times about how our personal income in 2004 (the year that the latest IRA data is available) compared to what we earned four years earlier in 2000. The title of the article, ’04 Income in U.S. Was Below 2000 Level, already decleared the conclusion of the comparison. [...]

For me, they are fine except there is no way to tell the denominations from the size. Yes, I really have to see to tell them apart. But what if I can't see?
Today, according to CNN, Judge James Robertson of the district court for the District of Columbia has ruled "that the U.S. Treasury Department [...]

Got this email this morning from Commission Junction that INGDirect has increased the rate of its Orange Savings Account to 4.50% APY. I then checked with INGDirect and found that newest rate has also appeared on their website.
It seems that ING finally decided to play some catch up, while other popular internet banks hold their [...]

As we entered the winter heating season, our focus shifted from gasoline to heating oil. Though the oil prices have dropped nearly 30% since July, don’t expect any significant decline going forward as the demand is still strong, especially if your house depends on heating oil. Being energy efficient is still the way to go [...]

One week after I called Ameriprise for our car and home insurance, the paper works from Ameriprise arrived last night. The estimated premiums and coverage options are exactly the same as what I got a week ago: home insurance one-year premium $207.27 and auto insurance six-month premium $666. However, I am not sure if all [...]

American Express My Wishlist starts today with the following products available:

Wish Product: Sharp 37" HD AQUOS Flat Panel LCD TV for $900 (listed price $2,999), available at 12:00 pm, 3:00 pm, and 7:00 pm ET.
Wish Certificates: 25% off Amazon.com purchase, available at 11:00 am ET.
Wish Certificates: Up to $150 Best Buy gift card, available [...]

Buy.com today has a good deal on flash drive. If you are looking for drives with large capacity, then this ACP-EP Memory 2GB Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Flash Drive [Buy.com affiliate link] may be the right one for you. Priced at $50.00, this piece is eligible for the $20 off $50 Google Checkout promotion offer, plus [...]