Carnival of Investing on Martin Luther King Day

Welcome to The Carnival of Investing of January 15, 2007, the day that we commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Before I begin the representation of the Carnival, I’d like to cite the following from Dr. King’s speech on August 28, 1963:

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope.

Now let the Carnival begin!

Read the rest of this entry

Related Posts You Don't Want To Miss

1. Carnival of Investing: Call for Submissions
2. The Carnival of Investing is UP
3. Carnival of Money Stories
4. 2007 Consumer Reports Ultimate Money Guide (III) - Investing & Goals
5. Carnival of Personal Finance No. 177

Nine Dollars Easy Money

Early last month, I bought Norton AntiVirus 2007 from Buy.com when it was offered with a $40 Visa debit card as mail-in rebate. The listed price was $51, but I paid only $31 with Google Checkout which gave me another $20 discount during the promotion period. So if everything works out, I could not only get the product for free, but actually make 9 bucks from this purchase as well. Guess what? Less then one month since I submitted the rebate, a sparkling Visa debit with $40 balance was in the mail today! That's nine dollars of easy money.

Actually, later on in December I also bought Norton Ghost from Buy.com which offered an additional $20 competitive/upgrade rebate. I used the Norton AntiVirus to get this rebate. If successful, I can get another $14 of free money from that transaction. In total, I got two boxes of software (how good they are is another story) and $23 of free money. Not a bad deal. And if I can sell the software on Amazon.com (Norton AntiVirus 2007 for $37.98 and Norton Ghost for $32.80), I could make a little more. Of course, I can set a much lower price since I got them for free.

Related Posts You Don't Want To Miss

1. Another $14 Free Money: What’s Not to Love MIR
2. Deal: Make $14 with Norton Ghost 10 at Buy.com
3. Easy Money
4. Make Hundreds of Dollars by Referring People
5. Random News: Value of My Buffalo Gold Coin, Supermodel Refusing US Dollars, and China’s Diversification Plan

IGoBanking Account Setup Completed

I opened an IGoBanking Savings account last Sunday for their 5.30% APY, which is better than what I am getting from HSBC and EmigrantDirect, two of my primary savings account. Last Mondy, January 9th, two trial deposits were made to my Bank of America checking account to verify my ownership of the account that I provided during the account application process. After the successful verification, $10 initial deposit (I funded the account with a small amount since I won't have an access to my account until a temporary password is mailed to me) was drawn from BoA account on January 10th. Today, January 13th, two pieces of mail with temporary password for both me and my wife (I opened a joint account) arrived in the mail. The whole process took 6 days, much shorter than what it takes to open a HSBC account. 

Read the rest of this entry

Related Posts You Don't Want To Miss

1. IGoBanking Savings Account Opened
2. IGoBanking Account Fully Functional
3. FNBO Direct BillPay Account and IGoBanking Transfer Limit
4. ShareBuilder Account Transfer Completed
5. $100 OptionsXpress Bonus Received, Zecco Referral Bonuses Distributed, and Account Transfer to TradeKing Completed

Another Site for You to Make Free International Calls

Both Jonathan at MyMoneyBlog and Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity have reported today that you can now make FREE international calls by dialing a gateway number (712) 858-8094 at somewhere in Iowa (details can be found at Allfreecalls.net, the operator of the 712 number). 

A couple of days ago, when one of my colleagues mentioned about making free call to China through a website called FuturePhone.com, I was a little skeptical of why people offer this without getting anything in return and that's why I didn't try it. Apparently they make money when people dial their gateway numbers. For FuturePhone.com, the gateway number is (712) 945-1111. According to my colleague, he had to wait about 4 or 5 minutes before being connected. If you make a lot of international calls, this may be a good deal. But I don't have high expectations on the quality of the voice.

Related Posts You Don't Want To Miss

1. Add Stock Quotes to Your Site for Free
2. Oakmark to Re-open International Funds
3. State Street Launched S&P International Dividend ETF (DWX)
4. International ETFs Suffer as US Stocks Plunge
5. My New Site Is Up And Running

Dollar-Cost Averaging: For Higher Return or for Lower Risk?

In the past couple of days, I did some further study on VFINX after I took a look at the market value and shares owned at the beginning of 2007 if I started investment in January 1988 with four different investment schemes (here’s the previous post). In this study, I want to find out the annual return for each investment plans from January 1988 to January 2007 and consider the risk of each plan by comparing the annual performance against S&P 500 during the same period.

Read the rest of this entry

Related Posts You Don't Want To Miss

1. So How Bad is Dollar-Cost Averaging? My Own Study of VFINX from 1988 - 2007
2. Dollar-cost-averaging with ETFs: Bad Idea?
3. Low-Cost Vanguard Goes with Even Lower Costs
4. Lower Cost at CollegeAdvantage, Earn Free Trades at TradeKing Community, and Win a Share of Google at Cake Financial
5. Understanding M*’s Mutual Fund Risk Measures: Alpha, Beta, and R-squared