The Sun's Financial Diary

Update: Emigrant Bank, the owner of Emigrant Direct, has launched a new high-yield savings account, Dollar Savings Direct (my review), which offers 4.00% 1.50%APY. Check out my other discussions on Dollar Savings Direct here and here. Now it’s really the time to say “Goodbye”
Emigrant Direct was good, for some time.
I have been using [...]

I have noticed recently two “direct” online banks that offer competitive rates. Though both of them have decent introductory rates, the high minimum balance required to get rates make them less appealing if you have a small deposit.
One is WT Direct, a division of Wilmington Trust. For balance of $10,000 or more, the bank [...]

I have four online savings accounts already (all join accounts with my wife): ING Direct, Emigrant Direct, HSBC, and Virtual Bank. ING Direct used to have all my deposits when it offered superior rates than other online banks did. Now it fell far behind with a 4.50% APY. At one time early this year, I [...]

Every month, I put some money in our savings and investment accounts and I do it on fixed dates. Yes, I am not trying to time the market, but rather making sure that saving/investing comes first.
Both my wife and I get our paychecks every two weeks, and most of bills (mortgage, credit cards, phones, and [...]