The Sun’s Financial Diary

Starting January 2010, anyone can convert a traditional IRA into a Roth IRA. In the past, only those earning less than $100,000 were eligible to do contributions to Roth IRA (even after January 2010, you still can’t contribute to Roth IRA you earn more than $100,o00). According to media reports, this conversion opens up 13 [...]

In the last week or so, we started to receive tax documents for filing our 2009 income taxes. At the around the same time, I also got email notifications from credit card issuers that the 2009 Year-End summaries of our credit card spending are also available for us to view. While we are waiting for [...]

There are still nearly three months away from the 2010 tax deadline, but it’s not too early to start prepare to file your 2009 income taxes, especially if you expect a refund. If you plan to do your own taxes this year, whether this is the first time or you have done it for many [...]

An old adage might say that ignorance is bliss, but in actuality it rarely is. And when it comes to your money, it never is. The good news is that with a little effort it can be easy to educate yourself and truly become your own best advisor and your budget’s best advocate.
Start by seeking [...]

If you are already on Facebook, you can get a $5 eGift Card if you become a fan of Babies R Us. The offer is valid for today only.
Free eGift Card!* Become our Facebook Fan today and get a $5 eGift Card as our thanks to you! Use your eGift Card online or in-store at [...]

I bought a lot of individual stocks in 2009 in my brokerage accounts, mostly with Scottrade. Many of them were purchased before the market hit the bottom (now we can safely call it the bottom) in March. But those stocks were not all what I bought last year. In addition to stocks purchased here and [...]

When you live in a fun state to visit, like I do, you are frequently barraged with incoming guests. It starts with a simple phone call, “Hey, we’re on vacation in March and we are coming down to visit you . Mind if we bunk in the guest room?” Not wishing to ruin anyone’s great [...]

I bought a few American Express gift cards just before holiday last December because I thought they make good holiday gifts. Now AMEX is celebrating the upcoming Valentine’s Day and Chinese Lunar New Year, both are the same day, February 14th, with free shipping codes for their gift cards. In addition to the classic cards, [...]

One of the more intriguing stories coming out of Capitol Hill recently has been the struggle over whether or not Ben Bernanke will (or perhaps more importantly should) be nominated for a second term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
To briefly recap events, President Obama announced in late 2009 that he would nominate Bernanke for [...]

Do you want to have a TradeKing brokerage account?
If you do, then here’s a chance for you to receive $50 to get started.
Discount online broker TradeKing is celebrating Ben Franklin’s birthday this year by offer a $100 bonus for existing users for every new customer they refer to TradeKing. Since I am already using [...]