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Zecco: Go Paperless or Pay for Your Paper Statement

By Sun on May 1, 2008 | In Brokerage, Investing | No Comments »

Since I began to actively use my Zecco account to trade stocks in March, I got myself a task that I don’t want: find a place to store the mail Zecco sent me every time I made a trade. It’s not really a piece of junk mail that I can just throw away, but close to that status because I really don’t need it. It’s the trade confirmation. When I did only one trade every few months, getting a piece of mail isn’t a problem. However, when I traded seven times a month, all the unnecessary statements become a problem.

Because of the large number of accounts we are using, I have tried to minimize paper statements I receive from banks, credit cards, and brokers. Since most transactions are already conducted online, I am more comfortable to go to their websites to find information I need than looking for a statement from a pile of paper. For Zecco, I have long wanted to opt-out paper statement and receive email confirmation instead. Eventually, I called them about two weeks ago after I failed to make the selection myself. The problem was when I clicked the Account Record, there was also a link to Account Statement in the window on the right in addition to the one in the pull-down menu. But when I clicked the link on the right, nothing happened (another evidence of their lousy website). After I called, I was told that I had to use the link in the pull-down menu :(

Anyway, I am glad that Zecco decided to force its customers to switch to electronic statement and if you don’t, it’s going to cost you for every paper statement you receive:

If you don’t sign up on or before May 30, 2008, you’ll continue receiving paper documents by mail, and you’ll be charged $1.50 per paper trade confirmation starting June 1, 2008 and $2.00 per paper statement starting June 30, 2008.

You pay $0 commission for a trade, why pay $2.00 to receive a paper statement? Actually, I hope all the banks, credit card companies, and brokerages eventually offer only electronic statements. Yes, they will probably lose some marketing opportunities (all those extra stuff that come along with your statement), but they can also save a lot of money from paper and postage.

BTW, I hope that when everybody switches to electronic statement, Zecco can increase their monthly commission free trades from 10 to, say, 15 as the operating cost is reduced further :)

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And be sure to check out my review of the broker and my first trading experience before opening your account.

Free Museums Admission for Bank of America Customers

By Sun on Apr 30, 2008 | In Free stuff | 3 Comments

Musuems on UsBank of America is offering its customers free museum admissions on the first weekend of the month throughout the year through their Museums on Us program. The program currently covers 70 museums in 18 states: Georgia, New York, Rhode Island, Maryland, Michigan, Maine, Arizona, Delaware, New Jersey, Washington, Connecticut, California, Illinois, Florida, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Taxes.

If you are BoA customer, you can get free admission this weekend, May 3 and 4, with your BoA check, ATM, or credit card. Find out participating museums nearest you on their website. You can also sign up to receive email reminder when free museum admission is available.

Do You Budget?

By Sun on Apr 29, 2008 | In Personal finance | 3 Comments

If you do, then what’s the reason for you to budget?

I don’t and I don’t know whether that’s a problem for me or not.

There were several years in the 90s when I wrote every penny I spent in notebooks, not to better plan how to spend my money next month, but to know where it went :) I kept that habits for about five years and somehow it never transformed into a habit of budgeting :(

The main reason of not have a budget is that, after all these years, I feel I can self-control my spending without relying on hard numbers to tell me how much I should spend.

  • I don’t have the urge to spend money: I have no fancy toys like iPod, iPhone, or Wii game console.
  • For most of the workdays, I almost don’t spend any money: the $40 cash I have in my wallet can last weeks.
  • I always hear suggestions like using cash instead of credit cards to avoid/reduce debt, but I am doing just the opposite: I use credit cards to pay everything, from $2 postage to $4,000 car payment.
  • Most importantly, saving and investing always come before spending: every month, we invest in our savings accounts, investment accounts, college savings accounts, and retirement accounts automatically, and all the bills are paid on time.

From the way I spent money, I consider myself frugal, though not frugal enough to know where every dollar went.

Continue reading …

Weekend Linkage - April 27, 2008

By Sun on Apr 27, 2008 | In PF blogoshpere | No Comments »

Best Gas Credit Cards to Save You Money at the Pump Money Smart Life suggested use credit cards to save money when filling up your car. Some of them are also covered in my previous post. With gas price near $4/gallon, a 3% rebate isn’t too small to let go.

Military: Save Money With (Almost) Free Vacations Lazy Man and Money showed the benefits of being a member of military (not himself though), from hotel to car rental. With all of these, he can almost get a free vacation :)

Maybe Higher Food Prices Are Actually Good For Us as a Society Generation X Finance looked at the other side of what a higher food price could do to the society. How about stop us from wasting food that costs more money now?

Ask the Readers: Giving Money as a Gift, How Much? Million Dollar Journey discussed the size of a gift for different occasions. How much will you give for a friend’s wedding?

Create Your Own Dollar Plan: Step 1 My Dollar Plan went through the process of setting up your own dollar plan.

A Look At The Real Estate Market: Time To Buy? Real estate has gone down, a lot. The Digerati Life looked at the issue and wondered whether it’s time to buy.

How I Managed To Spend Almost $9000 On Lunch This Year Brip Blap, that’s a lot of money to “spend” on lunch, though the actual out-of-pocket is much lower

Forever Stamp: You Pay for Choice With postage going up again next month, Mighty Bargain Hunter asked whether it makes sense to stock up the Forever stamps. I will buy some :)

ING Direct Promotion: Orange Savings Account $25 Sign up Bonus

By Sun on Apr 27, 2008 | In Featured, Bonus, Free money | 2 Comments

ING Direct sign up bonusDo you need an ING Direct Orange Savings Account?

This product has been around long enough (probably one of the oldest online savings accounts) and I feel that anyone who wants to have an account probably already has one. Though their rate (3.0% APY) isn’t that great right now as it used to, many value their other features, such as easy-to-use interface and excellent customer service, over their rate. In case that you have postponed getting an account and are looking for incentives to get started, I still have some referral links available from my own account, though I no longer actively use that account any more.

Continue reading …

Bought another Piece of Gold from Bullion Direct

By Sun on Apr 25, 2008 | In Alternative, Investing | 2 Comments

Gold barA little over one year ago, I bought a Buffalo gold coin from Bullion Direct when the price was around $640 an ounce. Somehow, I never considered that as an investment, though gold has gained a lot in the past year. Currently at $885, gold actually made a good investment :)

Since then, I have always been thinking of getting another one, again not because of the rising gold price. We have two daughters, so we want to have two pieces. After watching gold went all the way to $1030/ounce then pulled back to under $900, I did what I have been waiting to do: I bought another piece of gold yesterday at $908 from Bullion Direct! This time I didn’t buy the coin. It’s a 1-ounce gold bar.

Will I buy another one? Probably not, at least not before it drops to under $640 if it can go down that much. I certainly hope it won’t return to that level :D

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