The Sun's Financial Diary

When we received our economic stimulus payment of $201.10 last Friday, we didn’t know what went wrong because the note from IRS said we should get $383.95, and I was actually expecting another check. Now, a week later, I guess I can forget about another check and the reason for the reduced payment is my [...]

WT Direct became the latest online bank to increase the interest rate of its online savings, following similar move early from E-Trade, HSBC Direct, and FNBO Direct. The increase is 0.10%, from 3.16% to 3.26% APY with a minimum requirement of $1o,000. After 60 days if the minimum balance is below $10,000, then the interest [...]

There are apparently some discrepancies among what we think we should get, what we were told we will get, and what we actually got! Last Friday, when I checked our checking account balance, I noticed a payment of $201.10 from the Treasury Department as tax refund. This can’t be the regular tax refund because we [...]

Then, are you going to use it? I didn’t know until yesterday after reading an article on MarketWatch that IRS can actually deposit the economic stimulus payment directly into tax-sheltered accounts such as IRA and Roth IRA (well, we are still waiting for the check to come, which is supposed to be later this month). [...]

My answer is: No, nobody needs to be an expert in order to open and invest in an IRA account. The biggest obstacle from I can see is not whether you know investing or not, but whether you are determined to save for your own retirement. If you make tons of money, you probably don’t [...]

After having been cut rates continuously since last September when the Federal Reserve began the current rate reduction campaign, some banks seem to start to reverse course in order to compete for our money even when the Fed is idle. Since April, E-Trade Financial and HSBC Direct each bumped up the interest rate of their [...]

I almost forgot I still have a HSBC Direct account until I received an email notice this Monday from HSBC regarding the change of their HSBC Direct Online Savings Account rate. The new rate, effective June 2, is 3.50% APY with no minimum balance requirement (well, technically you do have to have at least $1 [...]

and I told them screw it. As I mentioned when I switched to electronic trade notification and statement with Zecco early last month, I want to get rid of all the paper statements before I have no use of them. Since most services I am using, whether it’s a bank, a broker, or a credit [...]