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Current Bank & Broker Promotion Bonuses

Posted by Sun

If you are looking for a little incentive to open a bank or brokerage account, there are a few promotions currently running which will give you as much as $50 bonus for a single new account. Check them out. Maybe there’s something you need

TradeKing $50 bonus for a new account: Open an account [...]

$6 Staples Coupon Give Away

Posted by Sun on August 8, 2006

I have a $5 and a $1 Staples coupons that I no longer need. The coupons will expire on August 15th. If you still have some back-to-school shopping to do at the Staples and could use these coupons, please use the like on the right to email me and I will send you the printable [...]

An Unwelcome Byproduct Of The Housing Boom

Posted by Sun on August 8, 2006

And it is the rise of property tax.
Today’s New York Times article offered a glimpse on how personal income increases since 2002 were outpaced by the rise of property tax. According to the article, from 2000 to 2004, personal income went up 16 percent nationwide, while property tax soared 26 percent. In the tri-state area [...]

The Rate Game: What’s Your Bet?

Posted by Sun on August 8, 2006

It’s about 30 minutes away from the latest Fed interest rate decision. With speculations intensified in recently weeks that the Fed may pause this time after the two-year rate-tightening campaign, what’s your guess for the Fed’s next move? Though the economy seems slowing down, we kept getting conflict reports.
I say we get another 0.25 [...]

MSFT Shares Stay With Me, For Now

Posted by Sun on August 7, 2006

I received in the mail a notice from Microsoft today regarding their announced share buy back plan. The offered cash price is between $22.50 to $24.75 per share and the offer will expire on August 17, 2006.
Currently I have 200 Microsoft shares, purchased in November 2004, days before their special $3 dividend distribution. Since [...]

Loaded More Nortel Shares

Posted by Sun on August 7, 2006

I bought another 320 shares of Nortel Network, at $1.99, with some dividend money accumulated in my Scottrade account. This brings the totoal number of shares I owned to 2720. Since early 2002, I have been on and off with NT several times and when I first bought NT in 2002, the shares were traded [...]

Partial Transfer to Vanguard

Posted by Sun on August 7, 2006

Well, after a long delay, I finally called Vanguard this morning to check out the possibility of transferring my Roth IRA assets currently at Scottrade to Vanguard. I currently have a total of five funds in my portfolio and four of them are Vanguard funds: VTSMX, VWELX, VGTSX, and VIPSX. The only exception is [...]

Enhanced Login: Is It Really Necessary?

Posted by Sun on August 3, 2006

Think you have enough online passwords to remember? How about adding a couple of more questions each you try to access your account?
Recently, there is a wave to improve securities at several financial institutions by adopting the so-call “enhanced login process”. For the past month, among various accounts I own, I have seen HSBC Direct, [...]

Save Now, Girls!

Posted by Sun on August 3, 2006

I came cross an article on SmartMoney.com yesterday titled “The Girl’s Guide to Retirement,� and there are some interesting numbers in the article that caught my attention.
Everybody knows women tend to live longer than men (on average five years longer), yet when it comes to retirement expectations, women usually underestimate the amount they need in [...]

No Phily Tax Refund

Posted by Sun on August 2, 2006

From 2002 to 2005, I have worked in Pennsylvania while keeping my residence in New Jersey. Before 2004, my employer had withheld NJ income tax for me and I didn’t need to pay PA income tax (if there was any PA income tax withhold, I could get it back without any problem). For [...]

What’s In Your Wallet?

Posted by Sun on August 2, 2006

Remember the CapitalOne commercial? While CaptialOne is not in my wallet, I do carry a couple of cards:

American Express True Savings card: It’s associated with my Costco membership and I only use it at Costco, which gives me 1% rebate together with the 2% cashback I get from Costco of being an executive member. I [...]

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