Comments on: Personal Saving and Investing System

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 20:46:41 +0000

I have ING Direct for “Electric” Checking and Savings plus HSBC for savings (they usually have a slightly better rate on savings than ING). I have a brick and mortar credit union which usually holds a balance of less than $500 and I use it as my vehicle to deposit checks.

I use Scottrade for my Roth IRA investment account, 3 years running now. I either pay $17 DODFX or $7 VTV and VWO per trade with a buy and hold philosophy. I buy about 2 or 3 times a year and have never sold. I wish Scottrade would automatically reinvest dividends on ETF’s. They also only pay a measly .42% on cash in the account, though cash has been a nice place to be the past few months.

By: Sun

Sun — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 02:07:48 +0000

Keith: The reason for having multiple bank accounts was that each offered a good rate when I opened the account. As other banks, especially those small players, started to offer online savings accounts with better rates, I sometimes opened accounts with them without closing the old ones. I thought having the old accounts open gives me the option to go back to them should their rates become attractive again. However, that’s almost never the case. Once they lagged, they will never be a leader again. I am in the process of reducing the total number of accounts I have. I have closed two already and will probably close another one soon. As much as I like to use only one account, I still want to get the most of my money. However, I probably won’t get any new account since the difference between rates in the top tier is small. It won’t be worth it if I only have a small amount of cash.

As for brokerage accounts, it won’t be as simple as just close the account and move the money somewhere else though I could essentially use Zecco for all the trading. But I am not comfortable with them. What’s the benefit of OptionsXpress? I heard of this firm, but don’t know much about it. When I choose a broker, the most I am concerned is commission.

By: Keith

Keith — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:58:53 +0000

Wow that’s an amazingly complicated system you have created. What’s the point of having 3 on-line banks? Why not just pick one on-line bank and consolidate your savings there? Better yet, consolidate everything except your brokerage account with Vanguard and use their money market fund as your back account, assuming your BofA checking account offers on-line bill pay. Personally I have one bank account with Wells Fargo which provides me with free brokerage trades and then all index funds directly with Vanguard with automatic monthly withdrawls and lastly a brokerage account with OptionsXpress. (One could argue that I could even consolidate everthing with Wells Fargo but I still like the “balance of power.”)
The bottom line is that I really applaud your commitment to savings, it’s just that I would simplify things just to make tracking and rebalancing a lot easier on yourself in the long run.

By: Sun

Sun — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:01:02 +0000

It’s true that I can essentially do the same thing with fewer accounts and I am actually in the process of reducing the number of accounts I own, especially the online bank accounts and brokerage accounts. The hardest part is the brokerage accounts as each one has its own feature and tax consequences have to be considered as well. Though it’s still at a manageable level so far, having fewer accounts to manage is my goal

By: Stock Broker reviewer

Stock Broker reviewer — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 08:01:52 +0000

Just my opinion, but don’t you think you could do essentially the same thing with fewer accounts. It also seems that with more accounts with more companies that it exposes you to a greater chance of being the victim of fraudulent charges.
Although, I do see that it being much easier today to manage all of those accounts from your computer.