By Sun on Apr 13, 2008 | In Bond, Investing | 2 Comments
Do you invest in Treasury bills, notes, and bonds?
If you do, then there’s a good news. Starting early this week, Treasury Department has lowered the minimum purchase from $1,000 to $100. The change applies to Treasury bills, notes, and bonds with maturity from 4 weeks to 30 years, which means that 4-week T-bill is also included. I used to buy 4-week T-bills as short-term investment, but stopped last summer as the rates tumbled.
Now that Treasury securities are more affordable, will you plan to take advantage of change and buy “the world’s safest, most liquid investments”? I probably won’t. Affordability alone won’t make an investment a good choice. With 5-year notes at 2.595% and 10-year bonds at 3.510% (TreasuryDirect data), I’d rather keep my money in an online savings account that pays 3.28% APY (IGoBanking) and let me get my money at any time without a penalty 
The Wall Street Journal yesterday has an article yesterday discussing ways individual investors use Treasury securities to build bond portfolio themselves. Check it out if you are interested in doing so.
By Sun on Apr 11, 2008 | In Living | 10 Comments
Do you get a lot of junks, such as catalogs, coupon books, and pre-approved credit card offers, in the mail?
According to 41pounds.org, the average adult in this country receives 41 pounds of unwanted junk mail each year. That’s a lot of junk mail!
In the May issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, the magazine listed several ways to stop the junk mail for good, including both free and paid service.
Free Services
DMAChoice.org
DMAChoice.org is Direct Marketing Association’s consumer information site. At DMAChoice, you can register to get your name removed from mailing lists, email lists, and telemarketing lists. To register, you can choose either to finish the process online or by mail, but that will cost you $1. The online registration process is quite simple, taking only a couple of minutes, and it also allows you to create an account so you can change your preference later.
After creating an account by providing name, address, user name, and password (DMAChoice will send your a confirmation email for using their Mail Preference Service) , you can set your preference on what to receive and what not, including
- Catalog Option
- Opt-In/Out of other Mail Offers
- Opt-Out of All Mailing
For the Catalog Option, you will need to provide the name of the catalog that you don’t wish to receive. And for both the Mail Offers and All Mailing option, a valid credit card is needed in order to complete the process online, though it’s only for verification purpose and you won’t be charge. There’s a By Mail option, but, again, there’s a $1 fee.
Continue reading …
By Sun on Apr 10, 2008 | In Retirement, Personal finance | 4 Comments
There are only four days left before the April 15 tax deadline, but it isn’t too late to make 2007 IRA contribution which has a limit of $4,000 ($5,000 if 50+ years old). At this time, some brokers are offering incentives to encourage people to open IRA accounts with them. For example:
Scottrade: 1-year subscription of Smart Money magazine;
Commissions: Stock: $7; Mutual fund: $17 for transaction-fee funds;
optionsXpress: Get 3 free trades;
Commissions: Stock: $14.95; Mutual fund: $14.95;
E-Trade: 50 commission free trades;
Commissions: Stock: $12.99 for assets less then $50,000; Mutual fund: $19.99 for transaction-fee funds;
Fidelity: One-year commission free trades for rollover IRA only;
Commissions: Stock: $19.95 (lower commission available); Mutual fund: $75 for transaction-fee funds;
Firstrade: Six-month commission free trades for rollover IRA of $25,000 or more;
Commissions: Stock: $6.95; Mutual fund: $9.95 for transaction-fee funds;
TD Ameritrade: 30-day commission free trades;
Commissions: Stock: $9.99; Mutual fund: $49.99 for transaction-fee funds;
While it’s nice to receive incentives when opening an account with the broker at your choice, the bonus shouldn’t affect one’s decision on which broker to use. In fact, when I look at these brokerage firms, it’s quite clear that some, like Fidelity and Ameritrade, charge ridiculously high commission for mutual funds that are either not their own or not in their respective no-transaction-fee fund category. The no-transation-fee fund list could have hundreds of funds, but popular funds are usually excluded, meaning that if an investor wants to buy a Vanguard fund from TD Ameritrade, a $49.99 commission will be imposed. That doesn’t make too much financial sense for an IRA account with an annual contribution of $4,000. The commission could eat up a big chunk of the investment right at the beginning.
I always identify the fund that I want to invest first, then find the right broker to buy it for less. Not the other way around.
By Sun on Apr 9, 2008 | In China | 4 Comments
I LOVE my country, though I haven’t lived in China for more than ten years!
And I wish Beijing a successful Olympics this summer so people around the world who love sports can enjoy the games!
Good luck, Beijing!
By Sun on Apr 8, 2008 | In DRIP, Investing | 14 Comments
I bought my first share of Bank of America (BAC) through ComputerShare back in November 2006. Since then I have been making regular monthly purchase and consider it as a good alternative to buying stocks through a broker with a fixed commission.
If you’re also considering investing with ComputerShare, but haven’t started the process yet, then this post will give you a rough idea of what it takes to buy dividend paying stocks from ComputerShare. In this post, I will use Pfizer as an example to show the complete process of buying stocks directly at ComputerShare.
Investment plans
ComputerShare offers two kinds of investment plan: Direct stock purchase plan (DSPP) and Dividend Reinvestment plan (DRIP). Of them, DSPP is available to all investors, whether they own the stocks or not, and DRIP is for existing shareholders. If you haven’t purchased any stock from ComputerShare before, then you will need to use the DSPP link on the Investment Plans page to find the company you want to invest in to become a shareholder first.
Continue reading …
By Sun on Apr 7, 2008 | In PF blogoshpere | 3 Comments
Check out these interesting discussions:
- Want to stretch your dollars? The Digerati Life listed frugal some tips to make your ordinary things last a little longer so you don’t have to spend a lot of money to replace them. Meanwhile, My Dollar Plan also shared 30 money saving ideas she gathered from readers. Very practical stuff.
- With so many unsold houses on the market, there seems to be a lot of choices available, but do you have an idea on how much house you can afford? The Penny Saved considered all the pieces when determining the price of the house he can afford.
- Young Money answered a question: Should I save my money or invest it instead? In the post, two factors that determines whether saving or investing is the right course of action are discussed: time horizon and risk tolerance.
- Are you looking for personal finance books to read in spare time? If so, head to Free Money Finance where you can find 5 personal finance books that can change your life summarized by MSN Money.
- Got too much debt and have no idea which one to tackle first? Prime Time Money discussed the process of prioritizing the debt for payoff. Of course, the largest debt may not necessarily be the one with the highest priority.
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