PFStock: Personal Finance and Stock Investing

Money Market Rates 1/12

2012-01-17T06:38:00.000-08:00

Here are the latest money market interest rates of the banks that I've been tracking on my blog. Note that these rates are sorted by APY, and represent institutions that I have accounts at, or have otherwise mentioned in my blog:

0.90% Discover Bank Online Savings
0.90% American Express High Yield Savings
0.85% Urban Partnership Bank Online Savings
0.84% Ally Bank Online Savings
0.80% ING Direct Orange Savings
0.80% HSBC Advance Online Savings
0.70% FNBO Direct Online Savings
0.40% Western FCU Money Market
0.15% E*TRADE Complete Savings
0.15% Chase Plus Savings
0.10% Citibank Savings Plus
0.10% Travis CU Flexible Money Market
0.06% Patelco CU Money Market Account

In some cases, MMA interest rates are tiered. If this is the case, I usually report the interest rate at the $10,000 tier in these updates.

Rates are believed to be accurate as of 1/16/12. I did not include banks that had special, or introductory rates in the list because they are not ongoing interest rates. I am also not including non-liquid accounts such as CD's in the list. I have included a few credit unions in the list so that readers have a comparison point with banks.

Discover Bank and American Express are currently tied for the highest interest rate of 0.90% among the banks that I'm tracking. A one-time favorite, Ally Bank Online Savings has dropped a few positions in my list. Rounding out the bottom of this list are two credit unions, Travis CU, and Patelco CU. I question the motives of those who have encouraged others to transfer their money from banks to credit unions during Bank Transfer Day last month. The credit unions on my list are on par with Citibank, which is really the bottom of the heap, as far as banks are concerned.

It seems that the general interest rate trend is down. I was especially disappointed that the interest rates for Citibank and Chase were so low. Since I still have significant funds in these institutions, I think that it is time for me to consider moving some money around to other institutions, but I won't be transferring the funds to a credit union.

So, that is the latest list of money market rates. Please let me know if you know of any higher interest rates.

DC

Money Market Rates 12/11

2011-12-09T06:54:00.000-08:00

Here are the latest money market interest rates of the banks that I've been tracking on my blog. Note that these rates are sorted by APY, and represent institutions that I have accounts at, or have otherwise mentioned in my blog:

1.00% Discover Bank Online Savings
0.90% American Express High Yield Savings
0.90% Urban Partnership Bank Online Savings
0.89% Ally Bank Online Savings
0.85% ING Direct Orange Savings
0.80% HSBC Advance Online Savings
0.70% FNBO Direct Online Savings
0.40% Western FCU Money Market
0.15% E*TRADE Complete Savings
0.15% Chase Plus Savings
0.10% Citibank Savings Plus
0.10% Travis CU Flexible Money Market
0.06% Patelco CU Money Market Account

In some cases, MMA interest rates are tiered. If this is the case, I usually report the interest rate at the $10,000 tier in these updates.

Rates are believed to be accurate as of 12/8/11. I did not include banks that had special, or introductory rates in the list because they are not ongoing interest rates. I am also not including non-liquid accounts such as CD's in the list. This month, I am adding two additional credit unions to the list so that readers have a comparison point to banks.

Discover Bank currently has the highest interest rate of 1.00% among the banks that I'm tracking. A one-time favorite, Ally Bank Online Savings has dropped a few positions in my list. Rounding out the bottom of this list are two credit unions, Travis CU, and Patelco CU. I question the motives of those who have encouraged others to transfer their money from banks to credit unions during Bank Transfer Day last month.

The credit unions on my list are on par with Citibank, which is really the bottom of the heap, as far as banks are concerned. However, Citibank does have a special promotion going on where you can get either $200 or $400 for opening a new Citi Checking Account. Of course, there are a few catches to this offer. First of all, you are required to set up direct deposit, and need to make electronic bill payments for at least two months. The Citibank account offers a $200 bonus, and the Citigold account offers a $400 bonus. While not a requirement to receive the bonus, you need to keep $6,000 ($15,000 after December 9, 2011) in the Citibank account to avoid a $20 monthly fee. And $50,000 is required to avoid a $30 monthly fee for the Citigold account. In spite of these potential fees, this bonus offer might be worthwhile for some depositors.

It seems that the general interest rate trend is down. I was especially disappointed that the interest rates for Citibank and Chase were so low. Since I still have significant funds in these institutions, I think that it is time for me to consider moving some money around to other institutions, but I won't be transferring the funds to a credit union.

So, that is the latest list of money market rates. Please let me know if you know of any higher interest rates.

DC

TurboTax Offers Free Tax Advice

2011-12-05T06:09:00.000-08:00

I just received a note from the PR folks at Intuit (TurboTax) letting me know that they are offering free tax advice to their customers. I guess it is time to start thinking about 2011 taxes. I have been using computer tax software to prepare my taxes since 1996, and I plan to do so again this year. Once again, the two main contenders are TurboTax and H&R Block. I have not yet decided which of these software products I will use.

Anyway, the point of this post is that TurboTax is offering this free tax advice service to registered TurboTax users from 12/1/2011 to 4/1/2012. Of course, the first question that comes to my mind is what constitutes a "registered TurboTax user"? On the TurboTax website, you can register and start your tax return for free. You are not charged until you decide to use their product for filing. In fact, TurboTax offers 1040EZ and simple tax return preparation for free. So, I would guess that anybody could be entitled to this free tax advice.

This is a departure from the service that they offered last year which allowed you to submit a tax question through their website: www.freetaxquestion.com. (Note that this website appears now to be disabled.) Any questions about the free tax advice offer should be directed to TurboTax Support.

The main thing that I like about their new offer is that it is valid until the beginning of April, when most people will need the advice. Previously, TurboTax limited their free advice service until the end of January. Few people are organized enough to know what tax question you want to ask before then. After January 2011, the price of their free advice increased to $39.95.

Getting back to tax preparation software, I have used both TurboTax and H&R Block to prepare my taxes. Without going into a lot of detail, the end result of using both programs was 100% identical. So, my recommendation is if you have used TurboTax in the past and were happy with the end result, you should probably stick with that choice. On the other hand, if you used H&R Block At Home (or other tax software) and found that to be satisfactory, you probably won't gain much in switching to TurboTax. I have found that TurboTax usually ends up costing a little bit more than the equivalent competitive tax software.

Note to Commenters: If you represent a company such as Intuit, H&R Block, Microsoft, etc., please leave your contact information or send me an Email (my Email address is listed in the sidebar) to let me know that you left a comment. If I cannot determine that your comment is authentic, it will be deleted.

DC

Gold IRAs: A Potentially Sound Investment in an Uncertain Time

2011-11-14T09:10:00.000-08:00

Remember the first time you heard the term "IRA"?

Long before the responsibilities of adulthood loomed, you probably overheard your parents using the acronym and dismissed it as yet another boring topic that only old fogies had to worry about. Alas, you finally grew up and realized that your parents were, well ... not that old when they used that foreign-sounding term. The truth is, planning for retirement as early as possible gives you the best possible chance of meeting your goals. A Gold IRA is an option that is often overlooked, but has the potential to be one of the soundest investments you can make in an economic climate fraught with uncertainty.

These days, a trip to your local amusement park is likely to offer fewer ups and downs than the economy. With the stock market fluctuating wildly, many investors have been left scratching their heads at the prospect of finding a reliable long-term investment. Even the purchase of land, once heralded as the best possible investment you could make, has proven to be a tenuous proposition due to the all-around instability.

How did we get here? The worldwide recession we're currently embroiled in (as a result of the sub-prime mortgage crisis) led to heavy borrowing, which in turn left smaller countries (like Greece) unable to repay their debts. The U.S. has had its share of debt-related difficulty as well, as was on stark display when its credit rating was downgraded for the first time in the nation's history. Consequently, the value of currency worldwide is dropping and stocks are plummeting while gold, often referred to as a "crisis commodity," has seen its value soar.

Planning for retirement amid such chaos can be overwhelming. If you're considering options, than you most likely know that an IRA (or Individual Retirement Account) is a form of long-term investment that was created to provide financial stability for you when you reach your golden years. In the past, investors generally thought of IRAs as being restricted to cash and cash equivalents, but in 1997, the Taxpayer Relief Act made adding precious metals like gold, silver and platinum possible.

The Relief Act provided investors an excellent opportunity to reduce portfolio volatility. Gold's remarkable ability throughout the ages not only to weather troubled times but to appreciate in value makes it a particularly dependable investment when compared to mutual funds, stocks or bonds. A rather striking statistic is that if you had invested $25,000 in gold coins 30 years ago, you'd have a net worth of $500,000 today. Since an IRA represents an entire lifetime of work, it makes sense to contemplate making gold a significant role-player on your journey to a successful retirement.

The most priceless commodity of all is peace of mind. A gold IRA is worth considering seriously when planning for a bright future, while living in an all-too-bleak present.

Are Credit Unions Really Any Better Than Banks?

2011-11-05T08:28:00.000-07:00

I've had a credit union account for over 21 years. With Bank Transfer Day upon us, many people will be moving their money out of big banks and into smaller credit unions. I am certainly no defender of banks. In fact, I have a saying that "There are no good banks, just some that are less bad." But I am not willing to give credit unions a free pass just because they are not-for-profit. I am simply not convinced that credit unions are any better than banks.

I regularly publish the money market interest rates of several financial institutions. There is one credit union on my list: Western Federal Credit Union. I have maintained an account at Western FCU (and at it predecessor credit union) since 1993. Regrettably, in my updates going back to 2008, Western has consistently scored in the lower half of the financial institutions that I track. This is certainly not a convincing argument for Western FCU.

In order to provide some additional points of comparison, I added a couple of credit unions that advertise quite heavily in my local area: Travis CU, and Patelco Credit Union. A bit of history: Patelco is the credit union for the company currently called AT&T (formerly SBC (formerly Pacific Bell (formerly Pacific Telesis Group (formerly Pacific Telephone Company)))). Thus, the name Pa-Tel-Co Credit Union. Anyway, I've digressed. So, I compiled an interest rate list for these credit unions, and a few selected banks.

0.89% Ally Bank Online Savings
0.76% EverBank Yield Plus Money Market
0.45% Western FCU Money Market
0.10% Citibank Savings Plus
0.10% Travis CU Flexible Money Market
0.06% Patelco CU Money Market Account

The two new credit unions are approximately on par with Citibank! And Citibank is pretty much at the bottom of the heap as far as banks are concerned. I realize that interest rates alone are not the only comparison point. There are, of course, customer service issues and fees. Thankfully, I am very careful about the types of accounts that I open, and have been able to avoid bank fees.

As far as Western FCU is concerned, I still have a sizable balance with them. However, they did close the one branch near my home (the next closest branch being a 30 mile drive away). And, they can be just as inflexible as the big banks on some matters.

But to sum things up, I am not particularly loyal to any bank. I will transfer my bank funds to a credit union if somebody can show me a credit union that I'm qualified to join, and has savings rates as high as Ally Bank, or branches that are as convenient as Citibank. In the end, I guess that I won't be transferring my money today after all.

DC

Get a $60 Cash Reward from EverBank

2011-11-03T07:27:00.000-07:00

EverBank just sent me an Email offering a $60 cash reward bonus for opening a new checking account. Of course, like every bank offer out there, they have a few terms and conditions that you must satisfy to receive your money. On the positive side, EverBank doesn't charge monthly account fees, or debit card fees. And, they have a decent interest rate for a checking account of 0.46% APY or higher. (My current checking account pays me 0.01%.)

Here is the fine print:

Bonus Offer: When you open your first Yield Pledge Checking Account ("Checking Account") before November 30, 2011, you may be eligible to receive a $60 cash reward. To qualify for the $60 reward, you must: a) apply for your first Checking Account and title the account for individual or joint ownership; b) your Checking Account must be opened, approved and funded with a minimum deposit of $1500 USD transferred to EverBank by November 30, 2011; c) you must establish and receive at least one direct deposit of at least $500 into your Checking Account before January 31, 2012; d) you must maintain an average daily balance of at least $1500 for the statement periods ending December 31, 2011, and January 31, 2012; and e) you must keep the account open until February 29, 2012. The $60 reward will be directly deposited into your Checking Account not later than February 29, 2012. Limit 1 reward per household. This offer expires on November 30, 2011.

DC

How Does Your Income Rank?

2011-11-01T06:25:00.000-07:00

The IRS has recently released percentile ranks for adjusted gross income (AGI) reported on 2009 tax returns. Currently, these are the latest statistics that the Internal Revenue Service has made available. Using this handy table, you can quickly figure out where your income ranks:

2009 AGI (Adjusted Gross Income)	Percentile Rank
less than $32,396	Bottom 50%
more than $32,396	Top 50%
more than $66,193	Top 25%
more than $112,124	Top 10%
more than $154,643	Top 5%
more than $343,927	Top 1%

This data comes directly from the Internal Revenue Service. A link to all of the Statistics of Income (SOI) data can be found on the IRS website.

I have also come across an interesting article on Kiplinger.com that further analyzes the IRS data. From this information, they conclude such facts as those making over $343,927 (the top 1%) account for 37% of all the taxes paid. Does anybody have some further insight on this statement?

So, now you have the data. Where do you rank?

DC

4 Tips for Saving Money in Times of Economic Transition

2011-10-10T07:44:00.000-07:00

While it is never easy to know when to spend, when to save, and when to invest, the current economic state is somewhat ambiguous, frustratingly so for some people, who'd much rather just get over being cautious. It's true that the economy is recovering, but before you go out and spend like it's 1999, know that we are in more of a transitional period than full-tilt prosperity, and you should spend accordingly. What does this mean exactly? The long and short of it is that you should still commit to saving, and at the same time monitor your spending to get an idea of where your spending. To give you an idea of some good financial strategies, here are some tips for surviving a transitional period:

Balance your regular expenses with days that you don't spend any money at all. This means sacrificing designer coffee, fast food, movie theaters, random shopping sprees, at least once or twice a week. You can just as easily prepare a lunch and dinner at home—and, yes, brew your own coffee. As scary as this sounds, you might be surprised at how limiting your spending in this way can improve your relationships and your life: making dinner at home can be a romantic change from eating out, and will also improve your culinary prowess.
Think about "the best things in life." The old saying tells us that the best things in life are free, but we all know that isn't really true. Houses, engagement rings, and cars (which are not themselves the best things in life, but do add to life considerably) are not free. If you are dreaming about a big purchase that will add to your collection of "best things," use that dream to help you control your spending.
Take a good, hard look at your expenses. It's really easy to get into a pattern of spending without even knowing it. This isn't always a bad thing, but these patterns can be very expensive over a long period of time. Buying a pack of gum every time you're at the grocery, for example, or continuing to pay for that gym membership even after you've stopped going to the gym. Track your expenses for a month to see where you can trim a little fat and save yourself a little green. With as many money monitoring apps and sites as there are today, this should be easy.
Make a focused effort at paying off debts. If you're still paying off school or credit card debts, consider consolidating them and paying a higher balance every month, instead of the minimum payment. The economy has more or less leveled out, and now would be a great time to attack your debt, so that when the economy recovers you can spend less guiltily (or if it does not improve, you won't have anything to worry about.

Following these four tips can really help you get a hold your finances in this strange economic time, and prepare yourself for the depression or prosperity that could follow. Either way, you want to be prepared—and these steps will put you on the path to preparedness.

About the Guest Author
Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031@gmail.com. If you are interested in writing a guest post, please contact PF Stock at the Email address listed in the sidebar.

The Importance of Public Liability Insurance

2011-10-07T10:31:00.000-07:00

The nature of the beast unfortunately means that cheap public liability insurance is not always the best public liability insurance. Of course, it helps to do your research, so you should always read every detail of the terms and conditions in every policy that is available to you before you go ahead and pay for one.

Image courtesy of Frosted Peppercorn

Policies that have similar or even identical prices quite often will not have identical terms and conditions. Indeed, the cheapest policies are cheap for a reason: because they are far less inclusive than all other policies. Every kind of business will need a different kind of public liability insurance to cover its specific requirements.

Public liability insurance is not a legal requirement for businesses, which means that the common trap that people fall into is thinking or, indeed, hoping that nothing will happen to customers or members of the public on their premises. In this case, as in many cases to do with insurance, it is far better and cheaper to be safe than sorry.

The potential costs of having to pay out of your own pocket for a claim that is not covered under an insurance policy are huge. Granted, insurance can be expensive on a monthly or yearly basis, but it will save you hundreds and possibly thousands in the event of a claim being made against your business.

Basically, public liability insurance covers you and your business against any kind of injury or illness that might be sustained on your premises by somebody not involved with your business. Such insurance is essential for a place like a pub, in which people can easily trip, slip or fall over a barstool or a spilt drink. Damage to a person’s property is also covered under most policies. A building firm, for example, would need public liability insurance to cover any potential damage that might accidentally occur to somebody’s house during a job.

It is worth reiterating here that some policies will not include certain cover for your particular type of business. Referring back to the previous example, a builder might regularly work at a height of above 5 or 10 metres, so he or she would need to specify such a requirement for cover in their insurance policy.

Depending on the seriousness of any possible claims, the potential ramifications of not having public liability insurance on your business can be devastating. In particular, if you run a SME, you could be at risk of bankruptcy if somebody files a serious claim against you, so it is not worth the risk. Bite the bullet and get insured.

Money Market Rates 10/11

2011-10-06T07:02:00.000-07:00

Here are the latest money market interest rates of the banks that I've been tracking on my blog. Note that these rates are sorted by APY, and represent institutions that I have accounts at, or have otherwise mentioned in my blog:

1.00% Discover Bank Online Savings
1.00% American Express High Yield Savings
1.00% Urban Partnership Bank
1.00% ING Direct Orange Savings
0.99% Ally Bank Online Savings
0.80% HSBC Advance Online Savings
0.70% FNBO Direct Online Savings
0.45% Western FCU Money Market
0.25% E*TRADE Complete Savings
0.15% Chase Plus Savings
0.10% Citibank Savings Plus

In some cases, MMA interest rates are tiered. If this is the case, I usually report the interest rate at the $10,000 tier in these updates.

Rates are believed to be accurate as of 10/5/11. I did not include banks that had special, or introductory rates in the list because they are not ongoing interest rates. I am also not including non-liquid accounts such as CD's in the list. At the request of readers, I added American Express and FNBO Direct to the list of institutions. Discover Bank, American Express, Urban Partnership Bank, and ING Direct currently have the highest interest rate of 1.00% among the banks that I'm tracking. By the slimmest of margins, Ally Bank Online Savings has dropped 3 positions in my list. This is because they have dropped their rate to only 0.99%.

At the very bottom of the list is Citibank. However, they do have a special promotion going on until the end of October where you can get either $200 or $400 for opening a new Citi Checking Account. Of course, there are a few catches to this offer. First of all, you are required to set up direct deposit, and need to make electronic bill payments for at least two months. The Citibank account offers a $200 bonus, and the Citigold account offers a $400 bonus. While not a requirement to receive the bonus, you need to keep $6,000 ($15,000 after December 9, 2011) in the Citibank account to avoid a $20 monthly fee. And $50,000 is required to avoid a $30 monthly fee for the Citigold account. In spite of these potential fees, this bonus offer might be worthwhile for some depositors.

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It seems that the general interest rate trend is down. I was especially disappointed that the interest rates for Citibank and Chase were so low. Since I still have significant funds in these institutions, I think that it is time for me to consider moving some money around to other institutions.

So, that is the latest list of money market rates. Please let me know if you know of any higher interest rates.

DC

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Ally Bank's Raise Your Rate CDs

2011-09-10T08:01:00.000-07:00

I recently opened a "Raise Your Rate CD" at Ally bank. The difference between this and a regular Certificate of Deposit is that if rates go up during the CD term, you are allowed to have Ally adjust the interest rate to the current rate. They have 2- and 4-year Ally Bank Raise Your Rate CDs available. The 2-year Raise Your Rate CD allows 1 such increase during its term, and the 4-year CD allows 2 increases during its term.

The biggest risk of any long-term CD is the chance that interest rates will rise and that you've already committed to a lower rate until the CD matures. The "Raise Your Rate" feature is a way for savvy depositors to mitigate this risk. I have previously written about opening a 5-year CD at Ally Bank in my "Pay the Early Withdrawal Penalty" post. This Raise Your Rate CD is the second CD that I've opened at Ally Bank.

All CDs from Ally Bank carry an early withdrawal penalty equal to 60-days of interest, except for the Ally: 11 Month No Penalty CD. I believe that it is not a good idea to open a CD with a term of 9 months or less at Ally Bank. The reason for this is based on simple math, and explained in my post: Don't Open a Short-Term CD at Ally Bank.

Interest rates are pretty low these days. But, my current plan is to ask Ally Bank for a rate adjustment if the rate goes up by a percent or so above the current rate.

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DC

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Innovative Way to Accept Credit Cards

2011-08-16T14:31:00.000-07:00

Sure it is easy to set up and accept credit card payments if your business is a bricks and mortar business. But what about those who aren't? These businesses could consist of landscaping companies which are often ran out of the home of the owner, small start up businesses like antique dealers or sales professionals, vendors who take their business to a location like food carts, or even freelance workers who sell their stuff at expos or other types of flea markets. Sure they can just as easily accept credit cards from their homes but that will be a tedious project with no payment guarantees. It would involve recording each customer’s contact information along with their credit card numbers, the date it expires, and the CVS security code and manually entering this all into the credit card terminal when you arrive home. It is a long and tedious process and the risk of a declined card or fraud are extremely high since you are processing the card without the customer or their card physically there. A common trait between these types of business is the lack of a fixed point of sale location.

Accepting credit cards does not have to be a stationary thing. The big boys in the merchant account industry offer wireless terminals. These terminals are big, bulky, and often slow. They also usually have the traditional fees associated with them causing many business owners to cringe at the idea of signing up for a contract. However, like every other technology out there, the merchant service industry is turning innovative. Developers for all the big companies are coming out with mobile credit card processing options. These options are often at lower cost and fit the life of those who do not have a fixed POS.

With mobile credit card processing services like Pay Anywhere out there, there is no reason for a business not to accept credit cards. Own a landscaping business? How convenient is it to allow your customers to pay at their doorsteps with a credit card rather than receive a check that you have to take to the bank? Customers will even want to see this process in action. It is a savvy feature that is also energy efficient. The reader which comes free plugs into the phone and runs off of the phones battery. It is paperless as receipts are e-mailed to the customer rather than printed off, and secure as no data is stored during any process of the transaction. The best part about this service, from an entrepreneur stance, is the low fees. Traditional merchant accounts will fee a user for processing the card, batching the machine at the end of the business day, a monthly rental fee, and even a monthly minimum fee. These fees factor in to a business’s decision on accepting credit cards as it can become costly.

The fees with mobile credit card processing are different. For example Pay Anywhere only charges users a processing fee. The fee is 2.69% plus an additional 19 cents for every card swiped. This is huge for someone who knows they will not be using the device daily. It is a manageable fee that is relatively similar to what processing fees are for standard credit card terminals.

Funny Message from Scottrade

2011-08-12T07:02:00.000-07:00

I recently requested some information from Scottrade about opening a new brokerage account. They asked for a telephone number, but rather than giving them my home or work phone, I instead supplied them with my Google Voice phone number. For those who are not familiar, that is a free telephone number that you can access through Gmail.

I had not gotten around to funding the new account, so one of their representatives with a thick foreign accent called me up to see if he could answer any questions. The way that Google Voice works, if I'm not available to answer the phone (the usual case), it sends the caller to voice mail and will try to transcribe the message to Email for me. Here is what my Email said:

Hi, this message for the rich and I just can't calling from Scott Chen moving. Com that you regarding a new account opening to send a I try to find out see if the but i mean, i think you're so opening up. I was call today Give me a call if you have any questions, our number 408 So I was, 370 800 cents of a good day. Bye.

OK. Now, I'm not so sure if it was Scottrade calling or if it was actually Scott Chen calling me. I later listened to the recording, and to be honest, the voice mail was not particularly intelligible either. I think that the man's name was Justin, but he spoke so quickly that I couldn't get the return phone number straight!

So I think that the moral of the story here is that if one is working in customer service, they ought to practice speaking clearly.

DC

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Money Market Rates 8/11

2011-08-03T08:10:00.000-07:00

Here are the latest money market interest rates of the banks that I've been tracking on my blog. Note that these rates are sorted by APY, and represent institutions that I have accounts at, or have otherwise mentioned in my blog:

1.10% Discover Bank Online Savings
1.04% Ally Bank Online Savings
1.00% American Express High Yield Savings
1.00% Urban Partnership Bank
1.00% ING Direct Orange Savings
0.85% FNBO Direct Online Savings
0.80% HSBC Advance Online Savings
0.55% Western FCU Money Market
0.25% E*TRADE Complete Savings
0.15% Citibank Ultimate Savings
0.15% Chase Plus Savings
0.07% PayPal Money Market* (closed)

NOTES: *The PayPal Money Market fund is NOT FDIC insured. PayPal closed the Money Market fund as of 7/29/11. This result is not surprising since the PayPal money market fund has been at or near the bottom of these rankings since 2009. It is also not FDIC insured, so clearly there are better choices available. The PayPal Money Market fund will be removed from the list in the future.

In some cases, MMA interest rates are tiered. If this is the case, I usually report the interest rate at the $10,000 tier in these updates.

Rates are believed to be accurate as of 8/2/11. I did not include banks that had special, or introductory rates in the list because they are not ongoing interest rates. I am also not including non-liquid accounts such as CD's in the list. At the request of readers, I added American Express and FNBO Direct to the list of institutions. Discover Bank currently has the highest interest rate of the banks that I'm tracking.

It seems that the general interest rate trend is down. I was especially disappointed that the interest rates for Citibank and Chase were so low. Since I still have significant funds in these institutions, I think that it is time for me to consider moving some money around to other institutions.

So, that is the latest list of money market rates. Please let me know if you know of any higher interest rates.

DC

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Last Chance to Get a Free Dell Monitor

2011-07-14T06:07:00.000-07:00

A little while back, I mentioned that OptionsHouse was offering a free Dell computer monitor to new customers who deposit $5,000 or more. (See: Whats the Best Gift Received from a Bank or Brokerage?) I had considered taking them up on the deal. So a few weeks ago, I applied for a new OptionsHouse account and deposited $5k. In less than two weeks, I received my new 24 inch Dell monitor.

The monitor itself is a widescreen flat panel display with a maximum resolution of 1920 X 1080. It is a nice replacement for the 17-inch Dell CRT that I've had for over 10 years. Although the screen is much larger than my CRT, it is weighs about one fourth as much and doesn't get quite as hot as the old monitor.

Anyway, if you are interested in taking advantage of the deal, this is really your last chance. The OptionsHouse offer will expire on July 31, 2011. The offer is available from this link to the OptionsHouse.com website. According to their website, you have to keep the account open for at least 180 days. I did some checking, and found that the 24 inch Dell monitor (ST2420L) they are giving away retails for about $220, so it is a pretty generous gift. For a deposit of $100k, they are offering a 27 inch Dell U2711 which is worth $1100. Lastly, if you have $250k to reach the highest tier, they will give you a 30 inch Dell U3011, which costs $1500.

These last two tiers are pretty steep, but I think most readers could afford to deposit $5k if they want a new monitor. Also note that you have to enter promo codes DELL24, DELL27, or DELL30 as appropriate when applying.

DC

Don't Open a Short-Term CD at Ally Bank

2011-07-13T07:11:00.000-07:00

It is not a good idea to open a CD with a term of 9 months or less at Ally Bank. The reason is based on simple math. Here are the latest CD yields from Ally Bank (as of 7/11/2011):

3 Month CD = 0.44%
6 Month CD = 0.94%
9 Month CD = 0.99%

Instead of opening one of these shorter term CDs, it is a better choice to open up an Ally Bank 11 Month No Penalty CD with an APY of 1.19% APY. Because it has no early withdrawal penalty, you can withdraw your money from the 11 Month No Penalty CD at any time. The yield beats out any of the shorter term CDs that Ally Bank offers, so there is no need for any of the shorter term CDs which will charge an early withdrawal penalty. Also, there is no minimum deposit requirement on Ally Bank CDs, and Ally is FDIC insured.

DC

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When It Comes To Saving Money, Look Up - At The Roof Over Your Head!

2011-06-17T06:40:00.000-07:00

Housing is the greatest living expense for most people, so therefore it’s an area where saving money can have a huge impact. Consider the home you currently live in. Is it too large for you and/or your family? Perhaps downsizing to a smaller home is something you should consider.

From 1970 to 2004, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average household shrank by 27 percent, but the average square footage of homes grew by 66 percent. There are several theories as to why this is happening. First of all, people want a higher standard of living. Maybe it’s about keeping up with the Joneses. Maybe it’s because of the breakdown of the American family, which makes us need more space in which to avoid one another.

Whatever the case, do we really need the extra space? In 1950, a family of four could live well in a 1,500 square foot home. Why can’t we do that today?

Aside from the price tag attached to a larger home, consider the higher property taxes and insurance rates. A bigger home also costs more to heat, cool, maintain and repair.

Renting vs. Owning
Consider renting – it’s controversial advice for Americans, who’ve been taught that part of the American Dream is to own a home. But in recent years, this American Dream has become a nightmare as mortgage rates and rising unemployment have forced many to lose their homes. While mortgage rates have hit on the high side, rental rates have remained quite manageable.

If you purchase a home, be realistic about the size of the home. Do you really need five bedrooms, or can your family make do with three and save the difference? When it comes to this question, size really does matter. And remember: you can search the sale papers each Sunday for the rest of your life, and you’ll never find a coupon for $30,000 off on a new home.

When you search for a home, shop for a mortgage. By doing so, you can find the best rate from lenders you may have never even heard of. Learn to negotiate, whether you are renting or buying, in order to get the best deal.

Insuring Your Home
If you own your home, you know you must have homeowner’s insurance. The price you pay for that insurance can vary by hundreds of dollars, depending on the company you purchase your policy from. When seeking to purchase this type of insurance, shop around. Check consumer guides, insurance agencies, companies and online insurance quote services. This will give you an idea of the price ranges and tell you who’s got the lowest prices.

You may want to consider purchasing your car and homeowner’s insurance from the same insurer. There are often discounts for doing so.

When shopping for a home, consider factors that could save you money and save you 5 to 15 percent on your premiums:

The home is close to a fire hydrant.
The home is near a professional, not volunteer, fire department.
The home’s heating, electrical and plumbing systems are less than 10 years old.
If you’re in the eastern portion of the country, consider a brick home, which is more wind-resistant.
If you are buying home in an earthquake-prone area, look for a wooden frame house because it will more likely withstand that type of disaster.

Maintaining Your Home
Remember that there are things you can do on a regular basis to maintain your home that will save you money. These things include:

Close the fireplace damper when not in use.
Fix leaky faucets.
Unclog slow-running drains.
Inspect and test smoke and fire alarms. Replace the batteries regularly.
Inspect and replace filters regularly in your air conditioner, furnace and pool. Keep the compressor unit of central air conditioner clean as well.
Inspect the foundation for water penetration, settlement and cracks.
Clean the gutters and downspouts.
Inspect and treat the exterior wood for splintering, decay and damage.
Check the roof for leaks or warping.
Check for loose or cracked caulking around tiles, sinks, tubs, showers, toilets and counters.
Inspect and replace weather stripping around doors and windows.
Trim trees or shrubs touching the roof or exterior of the home.

About the Guest Author
Angye M. is the contributing editor for AmericaOneUnsecured.com. They help consumers nationwide obtain personal loans and business loans. If you are interested in writing a guest post, please contact PF Stock at the Email address listed in the sidebar.

Money Market Rates 6/11

2011-06-02T07:43:00.000-07:00

Attack of the Groupons: 5 Great Sites for Groupon Deals

2011-05-05T07:49:00.000-07:00

We have yet to meet one person who is not in love with the Groupon concept. It’s easy to see why: the Groupon concept is simple and attractive. Deals for just about anything from shopping discounts to service discounts are made available in certain websites and certain cities. Now, the catch is that the discount or group coupon can only be claimed if a certain number of people purchase the discount. It’s a great deal for both store owner and buyer, because the buyer gets the service for cheap, and the store owner gets enough customers to make the discount worthwhile. The success of the original Groupon concept has spurred on other companies to do the same. Today, there’s a variety of Groupon sites to pick from. Here are a few of our favorites.

LivingSocial- It’s safe to say that LivingSocial is one of the biggest Groupon competitors out there. Available in three countries and 89 cities, LivingSocial uses a great marketing gimmick called the "tempt strategy". If a user can tempt three or more of his friends to get a particular deal, then that user gets the deal for free. LivingSocial also has an iPhone app that allows its users to see the latest deals even while on the go.
Dealster- Available in over 50 cities in the United States, Dealster is another Groupon site that is slowly making it big. The great thing about Dealster is that its users are notified daily if there are any deals going on in their particular cities. Also, Dealster offers coupons that are transferrable, and can be given to friends and family.
Groupon- We can’t knock the original that started this awesome madness! Groupon still beats the competition as it offers more local deals in more cities in the United States compared to other group discount sites. The great thing about Groupon is that every major city in the US can more or less expect a deal to pop up every day. What’s more, Groupon purchases aren't limited to its users' needs. Users can get Groupon deals for their family, as well as Groupon gift certificates.
SocialBuy- This group discount site is most suited to the social individual, the one who always wants to go out. Compared to other Groupon sites that offer deals for just about anything, SocialBuy focuses on discounts for food, beverages, health products and entertainment services. Every time a SocialBuy user successfully recommends a friend to use SocialBuy, the website gives that user $10 SocialBucks to spend on the discount that he wants.
Homerun- Homerun is another site that uses a sly marketing concept. When you join Homerun, you are forced to use your own virtual currency to get deals and discounts. Members can choose from multiple deals within their first 30 days as members. Also, Homerun has been known to offer a lot of freebies for various restaurants and bars.

About the Guest Author
Sam Briones is a freelance writer who covers an array of topics from finding cheap auto insurance to safety tips. If you are interested in writing a guest post, please contact PF Stock at the Email address listed in the sidebar.

Get $100 When You Open a New optionsXpress Account!

2011-04-27T16:01:00.000-07:00

The brokerage optionsXpress is currently offering a $100 bonus promotion. First of all, don't let their name fool you. In addition to options optionsXpress also lets you trade stocks, bonds, futures, mutual funds and ETFs. And the name is really spelled with a lower-case "o" and an upper-case "X". There are a few conditions that you need to meet in order to receive the $100 bonus. But basically, you have to open a new account, deposit at least $500, and execute 3 trades within 12 months.

With optionsXpress, you will have access to innovative, powerful trading tools, investment education, and outstanding customer service. As for commissions, optionsXpress charges $9.95 for stock trades, and $1.25 per contract ($12.95 minimum) for options trades. I will also note that The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE: SCHW) has announced plans to acquire optionsXpress Holdings (Nasdaq: OXPS). You can read the Charles Schwab press release here.

So, if you were thinking of opening a new brokerage account, the extra $100 could come in handy. Visit the optionsXpress website to learn more.

Money Market Rates 4/11

2011-04-26T06:14:00.000-07:00

What's the Best Gift Received from a Bank or Brokerage?

2011-04-22T06:07:00.000-07:00

Over the years, I've collected my share of free gifts from banks and brokerage firms. These include T-shirts, mouse pads, flash drives, and the most unusual flashlight toolkit. But what is the best gift that you've ever received from a bank or brokerage? To be clear, financial institutions reserve the best gifts for their customers who take a specific action like opening a new account, or making a substantial deposit to an existing account. These gifts are generally much more valuable than a T-shirt or flashlight.

Some of the presents that I've claimed in the past include free airline miles, cash bonuses, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and an HDTV set. I have a few PDAs (Palm Tungsten 3, Palm VIIx, and Handspring Visor) that I've received from banks and brokers. Some brokerages like Fidelity offer customers airline miles for opening a new account. I've also opened a couple of credit cards that were offered in conjunction airline mileage programs. These usually offer generous bonuses for signing up.

Some banks and brokers offer a cash bonus for signing up. For example, right now optionsXpress brokerage is giving away $100 to new customers who deposit at least $500 and make 3 trades. Some credit cards such as Discover Card offer a cash back bonus for opening a new credit card account. I already had a Discover Card, but I found that they allow individuals (with good credit) to have two Discover Cards. So I went ahead and took advantage of their offer by opening a second account. I will note that some banks will report a bonus that you receive on a 1099 form. So, keep that fact in mind when you open a new account.

Lastly, another deal that I might take advantage of is the OptionsHouse.com offer of a new Dell computer monitor for a deposit of $5,000 or more. According to their website, you have to keep the account open for at least 180 days. I did some checking, and found that the 24 inch Dell monitor (ST2420L) they are giving away retails for about $220, so it is a pretty generous gift. For a deposit of $100k, they are offering a 27 inch Dell U2711 which is worth $1100. Lastly, if you have $250k to reach the highest tier, they will give you a 30 inch Dell U3011, which costs $1500.

These last two tiers are pretty steep, but I think most readers could afford to deposit $5k if they want a new monitor. Also note that you have to enter promo codes DELL24, DELL27, or DELL30 as appropriate when applying.

So there you have it. What do you think the best bonus gift from a bank or brokerage is?

DC

How to Add Supplemental Income to Make Ends Meet

2011-04-20T06:02:00.000-07:00

Most individuals do not save nearly enough money for their many needs and goals, including for the future and retirement. While personal income is often to blame for not having ‘enough to go around’, there is also blame to be put on the individuals not exploring the opportunities they have when it comes to savings goals and other income-earning opportunities.

Savings goals should be a part of everyone’s personal financial system. Without identifying and putting away adequate cash for the savings goals you have, you likely won’t be successful in achieving personal financial success. Saving goals are just as important as your overall budget plan for making ends meet. Many people will struggle just meeting their basic financial obligations because they do not make enough money in their job. They forget about prioritizing their savings goals because there isn’t enough cash on a monthly basis to meet basic bills.

However, there are other resources where money can be made and added to one’s overall income. These resources should be pursued in order to find financial stability rather than sit back and lament lack of funding.

Overlooked Options - Where Are Your Resources?
For people struggling with deep debts, it is often necessary to take on a second job for the needed income. When we are doing okay financially but still not well enough to achieve our savings goals, supplemental income can be the key to overall personal finance success.

The current job market is tough. Many full time workers who have been downsized or out of a job have taken on many of the part time jobs people used to use as a resource for supplemental income. While part-time retail jobs and similar hourly work is still very much an option, these jobs may be harder to come by or may only be found on a temporary basis. Many will also not pay the kind of money you need to earn especially if the job hours interfere with your regular employment.

Ideally, to control the financial and time aspects of supplemental income, you can turn to your own skill sets. There are literally hundreds of different services you can provide on your own within your local neighborhood or solely online. Because of today’s tough job market, many people have been turning to entrepreneurism in order to access extra cash. Of those who have ventured out on their own, many have found not only success at earning the extra cash they set out needing, they have come to find a brand new full time career.

Exploring Your Talents
The odds are high that you have some type of talent, skill, or know-how that can be marketable to others. From crafts to dog walking to gardening to blogging, you can likely find a way to turn your skills into supplemental cash. Even if your current paycheck covers the bills, you still need to be thinking about the future. The extra income you earn can be allocated exclusively to your savings. Whether you turn your talent into a full-fledged career or continue to earn extra money throughout the month doing odd jobs, it is essential to make sure your money goals stay on track.

Marketing your talents in the age of social media and other online interaction is a low-cost and very effective means of supplementing to the income you already are making. Start by asking friends and family what you do best if you are unable to find initial direction. Start small to keep overhead costs low and grow as necessary. It may be important for you to remain discreet about your additional work with your present employer, especially if you have plans of performing the same kind of job. You should also refer to your current Employee Handbook from your full time employer to be sure there is not clause including containing a non-competes agreement, meaning you can not legally perform similar services because you signed an employment contract.

Whether you opt to perform physical labor like woodworking or offer to freelance your bookkeeping skills, you are opening the door not only for a stronger financial picture for the future ahead with the supplemental income now, you are also possibly establishing even more of a financially secure future if the supplemental services becomes a success.

About the Guest Author
This is a guest post by James Quinn. James is a personal finance writer with years of experience in the space. Besides the usually debt relief, credit and investment topics, James also turns to some alternative solutions such as supplemental income planning. To find out more about traditional or innovative ways to fight debt, visit the debt settlement blog.

How to Start and Sustain a Successful Investment Club

2011-04-12T06:15:00.000-07:00

Investing in the stock market can be stressful. After all, you're risking your hard earned money in an attempt to make more money. There's no guarantee you won't lose it all. You may also make a killing, and that's what makes people take the chance. If you know next to nothing about the stock market but would like to get your feet wet, you may want to consider starting an investment club. It's a way to gain some experience without having to make all the decisions yourself. Following are a few tips on how to start and sustain a successful investment club.

What Is an Investment Club?
An investment club is where a group of people get together and pool their money to buy and sell stocks and bonds or pursue other investment opportunities. One of the advantages is that an individual will be able to benefit from the knowledge of others, while offering their own in return. You pool not only your money, but your knowledge and experience as well.

How to Start an Investment Club
If you're interested in starting an investment club, you must first decide whether you're getting into it simply to make money, or for the learning experience, or some combination of the two. Since this is an activity that will require not only money, but time, too, you should make sure you're willing to make the commitment. The first step is to research the concept of investment clubs. Use all the resources you have available to you, including the Internet and your own contacts.

Resources
Check out a group called the National Association of Investors Corporation (NAIC.) They have a track record of helping investment clubs become successful long-term investors, and could certainly be helpful to you. Talk to friends, relatives, coworkers, and other people you know who are interested in the stock market. Find out if they have any interest in joining an investment club or if they know anyone who does.

Like-Minded People
Your club will have a much better chance of success if you seek out like-minded people--those who have the same, or similar, goals. If one person wants to jump in with both feet and invest thousands of dollars immediately, they may not get along with someone else who merely wants to take a chance by investing a few hundred. The more you know about the people who are involved, the better the odds of your club becoming successful and staying that way.

Size Matters
If your group is too large or too small it can become a problem. Having too many people may make it difficult to come to a decision on what stocks or bonds to buy or when to sell. If you have too few people you won't be able to take full advantage of the greatest benefit of an investment club, namely feeding off the experience and knowledge of others. The perfect number is something only your club can decide, but a group of 12 to 15 seems to work well.

Goals
Before any money changes hands, you should organize the club. Elect officers just as you would with any organization. Determine what your goals are, then brainstorm ideas on how to attain them. This is where your group's ability to get along will be tested, and the reason you need to have people who want similar things. Another important factor is to agree not only on where you're going, but the method of getting there.

Long-Term or Short-Term Investing
This is one of the most important points your group must agree on before the actual buying and selling begins. You must all be of the same mind. Whether your group wants to make quick in-and-out investments, or is determined to stick it out for a long period of time, every member of the group should agree. Those who are determined to make a swift profit and then get out will definitely not get along with someone who wants to be more conservative with their money and is willing to wait long periods of time for their investments to pay off.

About the Guest Author
This guest post is from Bailey Harris. Bailey writes for http://www.insurancequotes.org. If you are interested in writing a guest post, please contact PF Stock at the Email address listed in the sidebar.

Annual Income Survey Results

2011-04-05T06:24:00.000-07:00

The results of PFStock's latest income survey are in. For a while now, I've had an annual income poll in the sidebar of PFStock that asks readers to respond to the question: "How much do you make?" In total, there were 85 responses to this poll. So, here are the latest poll results:

How Much Do You Make (April 2011 Results)

Annual Income	% of PFStock Readers
less than $50k	8%
$50k-$99k	25%
$100k-$149k	27%
$150k-$199k	11%
$200k-$249k	8%
$250k and higher	18%

Annual Income	2010 Survey	2011 Survey
less than $50k	17%	8%
$50k-$99k	26% *	25%
$100k-$149k	20% *	27%
$150k and higher	34%	37%

*Note: For the 2010 survey, the $75k-$124k range was split and divided between the $50k-99k and $100k-$249k ranges. The percentages do not add up to 100% due to rounding.

From these statistics, I see that there is a bit of a shift toward the higher income ranges. Does this mean that the economy is starting to recover in 2011?

Here are some other interesting related posts:

Annual Income Survey (2/10)
How much do you make? (4/09)
Net Worth Update (8/09)
Net Worth Comparison (6/08)
Are You Wealthy? (3/08)
Calculating Net Worth (9/06)

DC

Guest Post: Canola Oil Is Poisonous

2011-04-01T05:30:00.000-07:00

Recently I bought cooking oil that's new to our supermarkets, Canola Oil. I tried it because the label assured me it was lowest in "bad" fats. However, when I had used half the bottle, I concluded that the label told me surprisingly little else and I started to wonder: where does canola oil come from? Olive oil comes from olives, peanut oil from peanuts, sunflower oil from sunflowers; but what is a canola?

There was nothing on the label to enlighten me, which I thought odd. So, I did some investigating on the Internet. There are plenty of official Canola sites lauding this new "wonder" oil with all its low-fat health benefits. It takes a little longer to find sites that tell the less palatable details. Here are just a few facts everyone should know before buying anything containing canola.

Canola is not the name of a natural plant but a made-up word, from the words "Canada" and "oil". Canola is a genetically engineered plant developed in Canada from the Rapeseed Plant, which is part of the mustard family of plants. According to Agri Alternatives, The Online Innovation, and Technology Magazine for Farmers, "By nature, these rapeseed oils, which have long been used to produce oils for industrial purposes, are... toxic to humans and other animals". (This, by the way, is one of the websites singing the praises of the new canola industry.)

Rapeseed oil is poisonous to living things and is an excellent insect repellent. I have been sing it (in very diluted form, as per instructions) to kill the aphids on my roses for the last two years. It works very well; it suffocates them. Ask for it at your nursery. Rape is an oil that is used as a lubricant, fuel, soap and synthetic rubber base and as a illuminate for color pages in magazines. It is industrial oil. It is not a food. Rape oil, it seems, causes emphysema, respiratory distress, anemia, constipation, irritability, and blindness in animals and humans. Rapeseed oil was widely used in animal feeds in England and Europe between 1986 and 1991, when it was thrown out.

Remember the "Mad Cow disease" scare, when millions of cattle in the UK were slaughtered in case of infecting humans? Cattle were being fed on a mixture containing material from dead sheep, and sheep suffer from a disease called "scrapie". It was thought this was how "Mad Cow" began and started to infiltrate the human chain. What is interesting is that when rape oil was moved from animal feed, 'scrapie' disappeared. We also haven't seen any further reports of "Mad Cow" since rape oil was removed from the feed. Perhaps not scientifically proven, but interesting all the same.

US and Canadian farmers grow genetically engineered rapeseed and manufacturers use its oil (canola) in thousands of processed foods, with the blessings of Canadian and US government watchdog agencies. The canola supporting websites say that canola is safe to use. They admit it was developed from the rapeseed, but insist that through genetic engineering it is no longer rapeseed, but "canola" instead.

Except canola means "Canadian oil"; and the plant is still a rape plant, albeit genetically modified. The new name provides perfect cover for commercial interests wanting to make millions. Look at the ingredients list on labels. Apparently peanut oil is being replaced with rape oil. You'll find it in an alarming number of processed foods. There's more, but to conclude: rape oil was the source of the chemical warfare agent mustard gas, which was banned after blistering the lungs and skins of hundred of thousands of soldiers and civilians during W.W.I. Recent French reports indicate that it was again in use during the Gulf War.

Check products for ingredients. If the label says, "May contain the following" and lists Canola oil, you know it contains canola oil because it is the cheapest oil and the Canadian government subsidizes it to industries involved in food processing. I don't know what you'll be cooking with tonight, but I'll be using olive oil and old-fashioned butter, from a genetically unmodified cow.

Here is some more information...
Canola oil from the rape seed, referred to as the Canadian oil because Canada is mainly responsible for it being marketed in the USA. The Canadian Government and industry paid our Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) $50 million dollars to have canola oil placed on the (GRAS) List, "Generally Recognized As Safe". Thus a new industry was created. Laws were enacted affecting international trade, commerce, and traditional diets.

Studies with lab animals were disastrous. Rats developed fatty degeneration of heart, kidney, adrenals, and thyroid gland. When canola oil was withdrawn from their diets, the deposits dissolved but scar tissue remained on all vital organs. No studies on humans were made before money was spent to promote Canola oil in the USA.

Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is a rare fatal degenerative disease caused by a build up long-chain fatty acids (c22 to c28) which destroys the myelin (protective sheath) of the nerves. Canola oil is a very long chain fatty acid oil (c22). Those who will defend canola oil say that the Chinese and Indians have used it for centuries with no effect, however it was in an unrefined form (taken from "FATS THAT HEAL AND FATS THAT KILL" by Udo Erasmus).

My cholesterol level was 150. After a year using Canola oil I tested 260. I switched back to pure olive oil and it has taken 5 years to get it down to 160. Thus began this project to find answers since most Doctors will say that Canola oil is O.K. My sister spilled Canola oil on a piece of fabric, after 5 pre-treatings and harsh washings, the oil spot still showed. She stopped using Canola oil, wondering what it did to our insides if it could not be removed from cloth easily. Our Father bred birds, always checking labels to ensure there was no rapeseed in their food. He said, "The birds will eat it, but they do not live very long."

A friend, who worked for only 9 months as a quality control taster at an apple-chip factory where Canola oil was used exclusively for frying, developed numerous health problems. These included loose teeth & gum disease; numb hands and feet; swollen arms and legs upon rising in the morning; extreme joint pain especially in hands, cloudy vision, constipation with stools like black marbles, hearing loss; skin tears from being bumped; lack of energy; hair loss and heart pains. It has been five years since she has worked there and still has some joint pain, gum disease, and numbness.

A fellow worker about 30 years old, who ate very little product, had a routine check up and found that his blood vessels were like those of an 80 year old man. Two employees fed the waste product to baby calves and their hair fell out. After removing the fried apple chips from the diet their hair grew back in.

My daughter and her girls were telling jokes. Stephanie hit her mom's arm with the back of a butter knife in a gesture, "Oh mom" not hard enough to hurt. My daughter's arm split open like it was rotten. She called me to ask what could have caused it. I said, "I'll bet anything that you are using Canola oil". Sure enough, there was a big gallon jug in the pantry. Rapeseed oil is a penetrating oil, to be used in light industry, not for human consumption. It contains a toxic substance. Even after the processing to reduce the erucic acid content, it is still penetrating oil. We have found that it turns rancid very fast. Also it leaves a residual rancid odor on clothing.

Rapeseed oil used for stir-frying in China found to emit cancer-causing chemicals. Rapeseed oil smoke causes lung cancer. Amal Kumar Maj. The Wall Street Journal June 7, 1995 pB6(W) pB6(E) col 1(11 col in). Compiled by Darleen Bradley.

HAFD

Guest Post: Fixed Home Loan - A Popular Choice But Is It The Right One For You?

2011-03-14T06:46:00.000-07:00

Fixed home loans are probably the most popular, and considered the least risky, home loan option that you can get. However, this option may not be right for every borrower. Just like an interest only loan is only right for certain people, the same can be said for a fixed rate home loan.

Should You Go With A Fixed Home Loan?
There are a variety of products to choose from in the home loan market. One of the most popular choices and the one that most of you will end up settling on is a fixed home loan. Fixed home loans offer a variety of features that many home buyers find desirable, specifically the stable, fixed interest rate that they offer. There are other options you might use, so look around. If you’re trying to decide if a fixed home loan rate is right for you, then here’s a closer look at what these loans offer you.

The maximum terms of a fixed home loan is thirty years, and features a fixed interest rate for the entirety of the loan. This allows borrowers to lock in a specific interest rate that can never change during the entire course of the loan.

The biggest benefit that comes with fixed home loans is the fact that the interest rate will never change. This means that you will know exactly what your payment is going to be, every single month. It won’t go up, it won’t go down. You will always pay the exact same monthly payment with your fixed home loan rate. With the market the way it is these days, a lot of people love the fact that they know their mortgage payment each month so that they can budget according to that dependable payment.

However, if you’re more comfortable with risks, then you might choose an adjustable rate mortgage. Unlike fixed home loans, these have payments which fluctuate with the official interest rate set by the Federal Reserve. This means you can take advantage of lower payments if you’re sure that you can handle higher payments that are sure to come in the future.

Ask Yourself These Questions To Find Out If A Fixed Rate Loan Is Best For You:
What Can You Afford?
Most borrowers will agree to an adjustable mortgage instead of a fixed home loan because they honestly can’t afford a home loan in the first place. They lie to themselves, saying they’ll be able to handle it later and they talk themselves into the adjustable mortgage, even though they can’t hope to afford it.

How Long Do You Plan To Live There?
The longer that you intend to live in your home, the better the chances you’ll benefit from a fixed home loan. If you go with an adjustable mortgage, you’re eventually going to see your payment go up as the interest rates change over time. However, if you don’t plan to own the home for long, an adjustable rate may be the way to go.

How Comfortable Are You With Risk?
Don’t like risk? Got with fixed home loan. Love risk? Then go with adjustable rate mortgages, but only if you’re confident that you can handle higher payments down the road. If you’re not sure that you can handle the higher payments that come with the higher interest, then you should look into fixed home loans. If you’re not completely sure you’ll be able to handle it, then don’t gamble away your home on the possibility.

Most home buyers will find that fixed rate loans are their best option for a mortgage. They’ll have the stability of knowing their payment every month without having to worry about jumps in their interest rates. This allows people to budget more accordingly, and always know exactly how much money they have at any given point. Adjustable mortgages can quickly throw you when your payment skyrockets in the space of just a few months.

About the Author
This article was written by William from homeloanfinder.com.au. Visit HomeLoanFinder for a range of articles and guides on home loan interest rates and variable home loans today.

Guest Post: Why Most People Lose Money Investing In Stocks

2011-03-09T06:20:00.000-08:00

The majority of people who ventured into stock investing within the past decade have seen the value of their stock portfolios shrink dramatically. One of the biggest mistakes made by stock investors is to incorrectly assume that investing in stocks will be guaranteed money over the long haul. This is simply not true because the stock market acts irrational on a regular basis. Stock markets, domestic and abroad, share one thing in common: they tend to defy common sense. This article will give you vital information that will hopefully prevent you from becoming a statistic of bad investment decisions.

Since stock markets are created by people, they often exhibit irrational behavior due to the fact that they are simply a reflection of people’s emotions. The up and down oscillations of stock markets mirror the fear and greed present in the investors who make up the market. Because the basic human emotions of fear and greed can cause people to sometimes make irrational decisions, it makes perfect sense that stock markets will also exhibit this same behavior.

Why is it important to understand the role that investor emotions play in stock investing? Because profitable stock investing requires you to have a basic understanding of human psychology in order to help you stay separate from the crowd. When it comes to making money with stocks, the crowd is almost always wrong. In fact, the crowd must be wrong in order for the masses to transfer their wealth to the small minority who do make money.

How do you avoid becoming apart of the incorrect crowd? One way is to try and think contrary to what your initial instincts tell you to do with respect to stock investing. Most investors tend to sell their losing stock positions at a loss during bear markets. This commonly occurs because these investors read the current negative news at the time which ends up scaring them out of their positions. On the contrary, you should be looking to buy more undervalued securities during bear markets. Why? Because the overall U.S. stock market has always bounced back since it’s beginning. The people that make serious money investing in stocks are most concerned with buying stocks at great prices well below their actual value. These situations occur most frequently during bear markets.

Before you invest in any stock, it is important that you get to know the stock and its related industry. Read as much as you can about the stock’s earnings history, past price performance, industry news, and any upcoming product releases. You can find a lot of this information online for free. The more informed you are as an investor, the better investment decisions you will make. The only thing separating successful investors from losing investors is the fact that the former has better information.

Successful investors always manage their expectations in order to avoid making rash and emotional decisions about their stock investments. Avoid setting unrealistic expectations, or you will increase the chance of investing in overly risky companies. Prudent investors acknowledge that although certain companies offer extremely high rewards, the corresponding risks may be too much to stomach. Instead, focus on buying stocks in high quality stable companies that are earnings leaders or rising stars in their respective industries.

Companies that are releasing hot new products in untapped markets are great stock candidates. Wouldn’t you have loved to bought some stock in Apple well before the release of the iPhone? If you can find out this information well beforehand on solid established companies, you can potentially reduce your risk of investing in one hit wonders. A good sign of an established company is one which has been out-performing the overall stock market over recent years while pay a steady dividend.

Last but not least, always diversify your holdings. Have you ever heard the expression, “never put all your eggs in one basket”? This is one of the best pieces of advice when it comes to stock investing. Investing your dollars across several different and unrelated stocks will effectively spread the risk. It is important to invest in several different stocks simultaneously because this prevents you from having all of your investment capital in only one company. Not only should you diversify across stocks, but you should also diversify across industries and investment instruments (ex., treasury bonds). For example, simultaneously investing in energy stocks, retail stocks, health care stocks, and treasury bonds would be an adequate form of diversification.

About the Author
Monti Simmons is a private trader who has been trading since the 90’s. He is also the creator of the popular Carnivore day trading software that makes it easy for individuals to succeed at day trading using fibonacci trading principles.

Guest Post: How to Lower Your Property Taxes

2011-03-03T06:36:00.000-08:00

Owning your own home has been a dream of many people since this country was conceived. It is a form of freedom--to be the Lord and Master of your own domain. Unfortunately, it is costing more and more to hold on to that dream. Property taxes are on the rise, with no sign of relief in sight. If you're like a lot of people, you're always looking for ways to lower your property taxes. These tips may help.

Who Levies Property Tax
In looking for ways to cut your tax burden, it's important to understand who makes the rules. Property taxes are generally levied on the local level, usually by a municipal or county assessor. The assessor uses a set of rules determined by the local government to place a monetary value on your property. A portion of that value is what you owe for your property tax. Using a complicated system of property value and improvement value, the amount is determined. It is usually somewhere in the neighborhood of .5% to 4%. Some states are less, others are more. If you feel you're being overcharged--i.e. you think your property is overvalued--there are steps you can take to try and lower the property tax.

Learn the Rules
The first thing you should do if you think your property is overvalued is to find out how the assessment was made. Learn the criteria that were used to determine the property value. The best way is to contact your local tax office and speak to the assessor directly, by phone or in person. Ask them to explain how they came to the conclusion they did--what their system is to assign a taxable value.

Check Their Work
After you've found out how your property was evaluated you need to go over the information and determine whether or not a mistake was made in valuing your property. If the assessor simply made an error, then you can appeal and more than likely have your evaluation reduced. If all the assessor's calculations are factually correct, the next step would be to look into the comps--properties of comparable value. Many municipalities use comps to assess the value of your property. If you feel the comps the assessor used are unrealistic you can challenge the appraisal.

File an Appeal
In order to prove the assessors valuation was incorrect, you will have to compile a list of comparable value properties you feel more accurately reflect your property's true value. You'll be expected to present your appeal to an appeals board and explain why you feel the evaluation was inaccurate. Contact real estate agents and tell them your problem. They will be an invaluable resource in finding comparable homes in your area that will prove your property was overvalued. Put together a file that contains all the information you gather, including pictures of your comps. If your appeal is granted and your taxes are lowered, the price you pay the real estate agent will be well worth it.

Tax Deductions
Even if your appeal is denied there are ways of lowering your property tax--well it may not actually lower the tax, but you'll save some money nonetheless. By doing certain home improvements you can claim them as deductions on your federal income tax, and possibly on state taxes as well. Ask your accountant or tax attorney for suggestions on ways to take advantage of any deductions that may be available. If spending the money on an improvement to your home will actually save you money in the long run, you'll get a double benefit from it--the initial tax deduction and the prolonged use of whatever improvements you make.

About the Author
Guest post from Bailey Harris, who writes about car insurance quotes for www.carinsurancequotes.net. If you are interested in writing a guest post, please contact PF Stock at the Email address listed in the sidebar.

Guest Post: When Does a Hobby Become a Business?

2011-03-01T06:41:00.000-08:00

If you or someone you know is a regular crafter, you may be familiar with the concept of selling crafted wares at fairs, school booths, websites like Etsy.com or eBay.com, or to people in general. However, did you know that your crafting hobby could actually be a business and therefore require you to acknowledge it in your taxes this year? If you have been making and selling your wares since at least last year, it is important for you to determine whether your hobby is still just a hobby (that happens to earn you a few dollars here and there), or whether it should be classified as a business.

Strictly speaking, a hobby is an activity that is conducted without the intent of earning a profit, whereas a business is any activity that is conducted for the purpose of making money. However, it can be tricky deciding exactly where your crafting hobby stands because some people craft and only earn a few dollars while others may earn hundreds. To determine what your hobby actually is, consider the following guidelines offered by the IRS:

Does your time and effort indicate an intention to make a profit? If you have devoted hours of each day into working and selling your wares, then you very well may have a business and not a hobby on your hands.

Do you depend on your crafting profits? If you need the money you earn from your hobby to support you and your family, then your hobby may actually be a business.

Have you ever changed anything in your hobby to make it more profitable? If you have ever made changes specifically to increase your crafting profitability, then you may be dealing with a business.

Do you know how to turn your hobby into a profitable one? This guideline is more vague, but if you or your spouse know how to turn your hobby into a fully functional business, such as if you already own a textile business and you sell custom garments on the side, then the IRS will be more likely to view your hobby as a business.

Does this hobby actually earn money? This one is simple if your crafting does not earn any money, then you do not have a business. However, if it does, no matter how small the amount, then you may have to classify it as a business.

Knowing where your crafting habit stands is important because every year, the incorrect adjustments and deductions of hobby-related businesses add up to approximately $30 billion in unpaid taxes, according to the IRS. In addition, those whose hobbies classify as businesses will need to obtain a local business license and state sales tax permit to legally operate. You may also be able to deduct business expenses on your tax returns, helping to save you some money that way. All in all, it is essential for you to correctly determine whether your hobby is just a hobby (where all of your sales are casual and isolated) or a business (where your sales are planned) so that you do not incur any legal ramifications.

About the Author
Lauren Bailey is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to: blauren99 @gmail.com.

CSN, Book Giveaway Winners

2011-02-23T06:40:00.000-08:00

The winners in the CSN Stores giveaway, and the financial book giveaway on PFStock have been drawn. For the CSN Stores drawing, "Annette E" will be receiving a $40 CSN Stores gift certificate from PFStock. For the book giveaway, Brandy Byrne will receive a copy of the book "Psych Yourself Rich" by Farnoosh Torabi.

Congratulation to the winners! For those who didn't win, please check back for future giveaways. Also for the 2011 Tax Tips Contest there were five winners drawn over five weeks. I have compiled a list of some of the best tax and money saving tips that were submitted by readers.

Thanks to everybody who entered. Even if you didn't win a prize, I hope that you will continue reading PFStock.

DC

Tax Tips Giveaway: Final Week

2011-02-08T07:09:00.000-08:00

The 4th of 5 winners in the PFStock Tax Tips Giveaway 2011 is Linda Fish. She will be receiving free H&R Block At Home Online Tax Preparation. If you haven't entered the drawing yet, please the is only one more chance to do so. The deadline to enter the last drawing is this Friday, February 11.

Here are some more user submitted tax tips that I've received:

My advice is to not lie about your income. Be honest and pay your taxes.
If you find you owe every year and adjusting your with holdings just isn't working out make sure to take the number you owe each year, divide it by the amount of paychecks you get per year, and stick it in a high yield online savings account. I say add at least $5-$10 more per paycheck so you have a cushion. In the worst case, you will have extra savings!

Please keep your tax tips coming, and good luck to everybody who enters. This contest will run through February 11.

PFS

How to Report a Class Action Settlement

2011-02-07T06:38:00.000-08:00

In June of last year, I mentioned receiving a $628.65 check from E*TRADE. This was the result of a class action settlement in the case of Greenberg v. E*TRADE. To give some background, the settlement arose out of allegations that E*TRADE recorded telephone calls without notifying the other party that they are being recorded. When I received my check back in June, I was surprised at the amount of the settlement.

Last week, I received a 1099-MISC form that lists the amount of $628.65 as "other income". As I mentioned in my previous post, only people in California were entitled to the full $628.65. People in other states received one-fifth of that amount or $125.73. Did anybody else get a 1099-MISC for this settlement?

The real question at this time is "How is one supposed to report this payment on their taxes?" Some readers have indicated that they've received conflicting information about how to account for this windfall. However, I believe that the correct answer is to report it as "Other Income" (This is Line 21 on Form 1040). But, I want to ask my readers if they agree that this is correct?

Disclaimer: This discussion is for information only. PFStock does not provide tax or investment advice. I encourages readers to consult with a tax adviser if they have specific questions when preparing their taxes.

DC

Tax Tips Drawing: Week 3

2011-01-23T08:16:00.000-08:00

The 2nd of 5 winners in the PFStock Tax Tips Giveaway 2011 is "Shel". She will be receiving free H&R Block At Home Online Tax Preparation. If you haven't entered, please do so as soon as you can. Non-winning entries will be carried over to the next drawing. You only need to enter once to be included in all 3 remaining drawings.

Here are some of the tax tips that I've received so far:

I use the internet as a tool to make sure I'm claiming every deduction and credit that I can qualify for.
My father was an accountant and used to say the best thing was to break even every tax year and not give the government an interest-free loan of your money (by getting a refund). I know that I'd never be able to save the money otherwise so I always made sure to have plenty of tax deducted in order to get a nice refund check. Now I make that money work for me; I put some aside every year and put it into a CD.
I make sure that I organize all year. I have folders I make in January for that year's taxes so that come tax time, I don't have to hunt for my receipts and paperwork.
Contribute the most you can to a 401(k) plan at work.

Please keep your tax tips coming, and good luck to everybody who enters. This contest will run through February 11, with a new drawing every week until then.

PFS

$40 Giveaway from CSN Stores

2011-01-13T13:16:00.000-08:00

CSN Stores has provided PFStock with a $40 gift certificate to give away to one of my lucky blog readers. CSN operates numerous websites that offer a variety of products ranging from furniture, cookware, and electronics to luggage. I was recently shopping for modern furniture on one of their sites. I have made purchases from CSN before, and I was quite impressed by their service and the speed of delivery. It only took one day for my order to arrive!

Anyway, I have decided to hold a random drawing for the gift certificate. You can have up to three chances to win the prize:

1) Any reader can enter by posting a comment below. My question is "What would you buy with a gift certificate from CSN Stores?" (You must post a comment to enter the drawing. If your comment doesn't show up or is caught by the Blogger spam filter, you are not entered in the drawing.)
2) For an additional entry, web site owners can link to this post, to let other know about this contest.
3) Lastly, my fellow bloggers can add PFStock.com to your blogroll (must be accessible from blog's main page) for one more entry in the drawing.

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If you have a problem leaving a comment, please Email me. If the entry form doesn't show up, please cut and paste this link to go to the form directly:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dDFHX1pnLU9ZUlVJWW51cERwYnNBZ0E6MA

Update: The promotional code that I received from CSN Stores expires on March 1, 2011. As a result, I've decided to move up the entry deadline to February 14, 2011 (Valentine's Day). This will give the winner ample time to spend
their gift certificate.

The drawing is limited to US residents. The certificate will be in the form of a promo code, and does does not cover any shipping costs. The code can be used on any product from any one of the CSN Stores. A winner will be randomly picked from among the qualified entries received by February 14, 2011. I will contact the winner by Email. Good luck to everyone who enters!

Please also check out the other giveaways that PFStock is offering. Look for "Giveaways" under the PFStock title at the top of my blog.

Finance Book Giveaway

2011-01-12T06:10:00.000-08:00

PFStock is giving away a copy of the new book Psych Yourself Rich by Farnoosh Torabi. This is personal finance book that is geared toward people who are either in their 20s, or who have not yet established clear financial goals. Farnoosh, as she prefers to be called, departs from the formula for a personal finance book to save X amount of income and let it compound at Y% interest for Z years. Instead the text does not focus on numbers, but rather on the "psychology" of money. Rather than setting a monetary goal or a specific ratio of savings to income, Farnoosh invites the reader to personalize their definition of rich. You are asked to define "the kind of rich that leads to personal gratification."

The book explores the topics of what your philosophy and money beliefs are, and how your past shapes your relationship with money. The text is punctuated with special sections ("My Story") where the author narrates an event that occurred in her life or in the lives of people she has met. In describing her being laid off from TheStreet.com, Farnoosh reflects that a full-time job is no guarantee, and that one should hope for the best and prepare for the worst. (Having been downsized twice in the last decade, these are ideas that I can personally relate to.)

Farnoosh goes on to ask the typical job interview question of "where you want to be financially five years from now?" The book concludes with to a to-do list of ideas that she believes one can use to build financial independence.

Psych Yourself Rich: Get the Mindset and Discipline You Need to Build Your Financial Life by Farnoosh Torabi is available at Amazon.com and other book stores. It is published by FT Press, and the retail price is $22.99. But here is your chance to win a free copy in this PFStock Giveaway:

I will hold a random drawing for the book. The entry deadline is February 18, 2011. In order to enter:

1) Any reader can enter by posting a comment below. Choose any topic, but I will suggest the question "Where do you want to be financially 5 years from now?"
2) For an additional entry, web site owners can link to this post, to let other know about this contest.
3) Lastly, my fellow bloggers can add PFStock to your blogroll (must be accessible from blog's main page) for one more entry in the drawing.

You can enter up to three times using the the form below:

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If the entry form doesn't show up click here to go to the entry form directly.

The drawing is limited to US residents. Visit farnoosh.tv for more info about Farnoosh Torabi and her book. A winner will be randomly picked from among the qualified entries received by February 18. Also, if you haven't already entered the 2011 PFStock Tax Tips Giveaway to win free tax software, you can do so here. Good luck to everyone who enters!

Guest Post: Sustainable Merchant Accounts-Which One is Right for You?

2011-01-10T06:29:00.000-08:00

Choosing a merchant account for a small business or personal online storefront is a delicate task. It can mean the difference between success and failure of a company. A merchant account is an account created for online retail business or physical storefronts that allows for the acceptance of credit cards online for business transactions. Before you decide on which merchant to handle your credit card processing, it’s best to research companies that can understand and comply with all your ecommerce needs. This is especially important if you are starting a small business and financing your company with personal funds or investment accounts. Find a company that will grow with your business and offer you the freedom to contribute to and assist you in increasing your sales by providing you with options.

You want a company that is experienced in handling both physical storefronts and online retail transactions. As a general rule of thumb, most banks only offer merchant credit card processing to physical storefronts. If you find a bank that is willing to provide you this service, they usually come with high percentage transaction fees. Research how different account merchant providers handle different situations and be familiar with their rules. This will allow you to make the best informed decision and compare companies based on a number of factors such as customer service, high-tech payment solutions and chargeback management.

There are a myriad of different options that merchant account holders need to decide. For example, real-time processing allows you to combine your merchant accounts and payment gateway directly into your website. You can also opt for a virtual terminal. This gives a business the option of manually processing a transaction with their merchant accounts from any PC that offers internet connections. All you need to do with virtual terminals is login into a secure website with a password and username and you’re off to the races! With a virtual terminal, companies can authorize or process any payment transaction at their leisure and in addition your business can keep a log of all merchant transactions and orders.

The final decision is whether your personal small business needs a point of sale software. Point of sale software will afford companies the addition of card readers that connect to phone lines or high speed internet connections and are definitely a popular choice among a lot of mail order businesses. Choosing wisely is critical in avoiding downgrade fees, high percentage yields, interchange rates and chargeback’s. It’s okay for your personal business to take risks, but don’t cut corners with major decisions such as picking a merchant account company.

About the Author
Tiersa Buckley is a personal finance writer for both www.CreditCardProcessing.net and www.Stocktrading.net. Both of her blogs offer tips and daily advice for putting your business and personal investments into overdrive.

Tax Preparation Software (Tax Year 2010)

2011-01-07T06:28:00.000-08:00

Last week, I received a copy of H&R Block At Home tax preparation software for tax year 2010 in the mail. I have noticed that if you register your copy of either TaxCut or TurboTax with the manufacturer, they will automatically send you a CD-ROM with their software for the following year. H&R Block did this again. If you get one of these package in the mail, don't be fooled into thinking that you are getting something for nothing. Usually, you aren't aware of the cost of the software until you insert the CD-ROM into your computer and read through the fine print. This time, H&R Block was a little more transparent about the pricing. It printed "Only $34.95" on the front of the DVD case that it came in. But, for most people the $34.95 version of the software will not be adequate for their needs. Expect to spend at least $45 if you plan on filing a state tax return.

This year the H&R Block At Home CD-ROM that I received in the mail did not include a $10 rebate coupon for store purchases of their software. Nevertheless, it usually ends up being cheaper for me to buy this tax software through a retail store (such as Amazon.com, Best Buy, or Office Depot) rather than installing the version I received in the mail. In the past, I've also noticed that some retailers will offer a free gift card or anti-virus software with purchase of any tax software, so I will usually hold out until I see a similar deal.

As far as tax software is concerned, I have always used the Deluxe or Premium "desktop" version of the tax software, which includes the state version of the tax preparation software. This year, H&R Block At Home has adopted the TurboTax naming convention for their products (i.e., Basic, Deluxe, Premium, and Business).

Tax Preparation Software pricing for Tax Year 2010.

TY 2010 Product	Basic	Deluxe w/State	Premium w/State	Business w/State
Block At Home	$20	$45	$65	$80
TurboTax	$30	$60	$90	$100

Both Block At Home and TurboTax offer a "Deluxe" version that does not include state tax preparation for $35 and $50, respectively. So, it works out to be $10 cheaper to go without the state. However, this version is NOT recommended unless you live in a state without state income tax. The prices quoted here are the list prices and are subject to change. In fact, I can practically guarantee that these prices will fluctuate throughout the tax season.

I also want remind readers that TurboTax is offering to answer tax questions for free. Here is a link to the Intuit offer from TurboTax. My main criticism about this offer is that it is only good until the end of January 2011. H&R Block offers the Get It Right Community where users can ask tax questions which are typically answered by one of their tax professionals.

For a chance to win free tax preparation software, please enter the PFStock 2011 Tax Tips Contest. There will be 5 weekly drawings in this giveaway for online tax preparation from H&R Block At Home.

Lastly, below is the same table as above with the current Amazon.com pricing for each of the software titles I've mentioned.

Current Amazon.com Prices for Tax Software.

Basic	Deluxe w/State	Prem. w/State	Business w/State

Note to Commenters: If you represent a company such as Intuit, H&R Block, Microsoft, Amazon, etc., please leave your contact information or send me an Email (my Email address is listed in the sidebar) to let me know that you left a comment. If I cannot determine that your comment is authentic, it will be deleted.

DC

Guest Post: First Generation White Collar

2010-12-26T08:40:00.000-08:00

Today's guest post was written by PF blogger L. Marie Joseph. She has recently published the book First Generation White Collar: A practical guide on how to get ahead and not just get by with your money. As a fellow blogger, I have corresponded with Marie for nearly four years and have gotten to know her through her blog, Moneymonk. It is my pleasure to present her guest post on PFStock.

In the excerpt below, L. Marie Joseph discusses her views on Housing:

So now you’re making a great salary and have a college degree under your belt. Now your eyes are getting bigger. You want a house! That apartment you have is starting become a prison cell.

A home is usually the biggest expense we have. That being said, try your best to qualify for a mortgage that has a fixed rate, you don’t want any surprises down the road. You want to also have a payment that is under 30 percent of your income. You know this is going to be your biggest expense, so try to make it as low as possible. Your loan should also be limited to a fifteen- to thirty-year debt sentence.

For example if your take-home pay is $5,000 a month, your monthly house payment should be no more than $1,500 a month. So let’s not get house fever and buy something $2,000 a month because it looks better. Get what you can afford! You want to be able to pay for house payment AND save and invest comfortably. Not just pay your house payment and expenses. You always want to build wealth while you are paying your home off. Stick to renting if your payments will be more than 30 percent of your income. You do not want to own anything that will jack more than 30 percent of your income.

Ideally, you’re the price of your home should be two and one-half times your salary (two times if you want to be wealthy). Don’t fall for what the mortgage company tells you can afford. They do not know your personal situation. Divorce, sickness, and layoffs can all happens during the life of the loan. Always think of these factors when agreeing to a contract for so long. No one is immune to Murphy’s Law. Mortgage Brokers will not discuss these issues with you. It is your responsibility to education yourself.

"Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don’t."
-Pete Seeger

So if you make $50,000 a year, and the mortgage company approves you for $200,000 —RUN. This is four times your income, and you cannot afford it.

Depending on where you live, this can vary; I have friends in Washington, DC, and New York, and they cannot comfortably make this happen. If you live in a large, high-expense state, such as California or New York, your percentages may be slightly different.

Interest only and adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) should always be avoided. ARMs almost always adjust higher not lower. You should always get a fixed-rate mortgage. You don’t want any surprises down the line.

Rule of thumb:

Take out a fifteen- to thirty-year mortgage
Make sure the payment is under 30 percent of your income, if you want to be wealthy.
Having a mortgage payment that’s below 30 percent of your household income gives you more room to save and invest.
Seek financing through a credit union or your local community bank.
Interest only and ARMS mortgages should be avoided.

About the Author
L. Marie Joseph is the author of First Generation White Collar. Visit her blog and you can also follow her on twitter.

Moneymonk had a post offering a free Apple iPad drawing to people who purchase her book. However, that offer has ended. Sorry for the inconvenience.

2011 Tax Tips Contest

2010-12-22T06:38:00.000-08:00

The folks at H&R Block have provided me with 5 online codes, each of which can be redeemed for H&R Block At Home Premium Federal Online Tax Preparation (a $50 value), to give away to lucky blog readers. H&R Block At Home was formerly known as TaxCut. This giveaway is for an (Tax Year 2010) online version of H&R Block At Home. While federal tax preparation is included in the prize, state returns are not included ($34.95 extra cost). For the purposes of preparing federal tax returns, this online software should be adequate for nearly all taxpayers to complete their own taxes. Although the software includes free federal e-file, you may have to pay extra if you want to also efile a state return.

I have decided to hold a random drawing each week (awarding one code per week) for 5 weeks for the software codes. The first drawing will be on January 14, 2011 and continue weekly until February 11, 2011. In order to enter:

1) Any reader can post a comment below describing your best tax or money saving tip.
2) For an additional entry, web site owners can link to this post, to let other know about this contest.
3) Lastly, my fellow bloggers can add PFStock to your blogroll (must be accessible from blog's main page) for one more entry in the drawing.

You can enter up to three times using the the form below:

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If the entry form doesn't show up click here to go to the entry form directly.

Note that this drawing is for an online version of the H&R Block At Home Software that requires Internet access. If you do not feel comfortable with using the Internet to prepare your taxes, I would suggest purchasing H&R Block At Home 2010 on CD-ROM. Unfortunately, I don't have any CD-ROM versions of the software to give away but it is available in many stores such as Amazon.com, or Office Depot.

The drawing is limited to US residents. Visit H&R Block for details about the online software. Winner will be randomly picked from among the qualified entries received by February 11. Winners will receive an online key code by Email to access the H&R Block website. The "key code" works like a gift certificate and is used on the payment screen before your taxes can be filed. In order to prepare taxes online with H&R Block, you will be required to create an account on their website. Good luck to everyone who enters!

DC

This promotion is held in conjunction with PFStock.com.
Note: H&R Block At Home provides tax preparation software. It is up to the individual winners to determine the suitability of this software for their tax situation. PF Stock does not provide tax advice or technical assistance. Contact H&R Block Customer Support for help with their tax preparation software. Opinions expressed here are those of PF Stock.

Guest Post: How is My Property Assessed?

2010-12-14T06:24:00.000-08:00

Are you wondering exactly what it is that happens when your property is assessed? It's a question that many people preparing for their first inspection may worry about and one that can easily be answered.

What Happens When Property is Assessed?
The property assessment process is one that is often steeped in mystery to people trying to sell (or buy for that matter) home. Everyone wants a property to assess well but the actual technique and tactics involved prove elusive to many curious onlookers.

The assessor will come to your home and perform a thorough inspection of the inside and outside of your home. He or she will take note of various property characteristics that buyers may or may not connect with or find appealing. He will then make a determination of the value of your home based on his findings including the good and the bad about your home. It generally takes about two working days to receive the report with the inspector's findings.

How do Assessors Determine Worth?
First of all, you shouldn't be worried about their determination of worth. It is a very narrowly defined scope that allows them to assign one value to a home over another home. It is not a reflection of the worth of the home on an emotional level. They use a formula that enables them to find the value of your home on the market right now or within the next 90 days based on other, very specific criteria.

There are many who believe that evaluating or assessing property is one part art and one part science. There is a little bit of intuition that comes into play. The best or closest evaluators are often those who have been in the business for quite a while and have a "feel" for neighbourhoods, homes, and the people in certain areas. These assessors are usually able to gauge the value a home will sell for within a 90 day window very accurately.

Key Elements Assessors Inspect
In addition to the general condition and state of repair (or lack thereof) of a home, inspectors also take note of the size of the land the home is on, the neighbourhood and its proximity to services, accessibility of the home, condition of the home, architecture of the home, size of the home, and features that may be unique to the tastes and interests of the current home owners but may not exactly be mainstream tastes and interests.

Your home inspector is probably going to open doors and drawers, peak through closets, find cobwebs in the corner and dust bunnies beneath your beds. It is the job of the assessor to inspect the home inside and out for positive features and potential problems. Some inspectors may help you discover problems that can be easily fixed today but might be major problems tomorrow if left alone.

Comparing Properties as Part of the Assessment Process
No one really likes to be compared to another person. It's just as hard to listen as your property is compared to another. However, most property assessors will pull the information from a comparable home in the neighbourhood or area that has sold recently and compare the condition, state of repair, land mass, and features of your home with the other to decide if your home should have more value, about the same amount of value, or less value than the other home in question was sold for.

Home inspections or assessments may sound big bad and scary but they are very important in setting the value for your home when it comes to selling your home or even when refinancing your home for a more favourable interest rate.

This is the perfect opportunity to make all the little repairs you've been putting off and get your home neat and clean prior to the inspection so you can enjoy even better results!

About the Author
This article was written by William. In between surfing, cooking and supporting his favourite football team Liverpool, William writes for a home loan comparison service Home Loan Finder. Visit the Home Loan Finder website to compare home loans for more tips and guides on property valuation.

Citibank 7-Eleven Free Coffee Coupon?

2010-12-07T06:26:00.000-08:00

When I received my most recent Citibank statement, it included an advertisement (which they refer to as a "marketing notice") for ATMs at 7-Eleven stores. The ad says that Citibank customers can get cash from 7-Eleven ATMs without paying any ATM fees. At the bottom of the advertisement was a coupon good for a free small coffee from 7-Eleven (expires Dec. 31, 2010).

This got me wondering that if I had previously signed up for Citibank paperless statements, then I wouldn't have received a statement in the mail. Therefore, I would not have received this free coffee coupon. It is merely a curiosity of mine, but do people who only have online statements get the free coffee coupon mailed separately? Or do they lose out on the deal?

DC

Final Results for Net Worth Poll

2010-12-02T06:09:00.000-08:00

For several months, I've been conducting a net worth survey in the sidebar of the PFStock blog. The poll is now closed and the final results are in. A total of 73 readers have voted on this poll. So without further ado, here are the reader poll results:

Net Worth Survey: What Is Net Worth

Net Worth	% of Readers
Negative	4%
$0 - $19,999	4%
$20,000 - $49,999	8%
$50,000 - $99,999	4%
$100,000 - $249,999	19%
$250,000 - $499,999	17%
$500,000 - $999,999	17%
Over $1 million	24%

Note that the percentages do not add up to 100% due to rounding. From these statistics, I found it interesting that a large percentage of my readers fall into the higher net worth categories. Over 75% of PFStock readers have a net worth greater than $100,000. Does anybody want to share their insights on this data?

From my last survey on annual income, I had calculated that the average median net worth of PFStock readers was over $500,000. However, the results of this poll show that the median is actually between $250,000 and $500,000.

If you've read this far, please participate in the annual income survey in the sidebar of my blog. Also, please leave a comment on this post: How much do you make?

Additionally, here are some additional related posts:
Annual Income Survey (2/10)
Net Worth Update (8/09)
Net Worth Comparison (6/08)
Are You Wealthy? (3/08)
Calculating Net Worth (9/06)

DC

Tax Questions for 2010

2010-11-09T08:01:00.000-08:00

Like Christmas time, tax season seems to start earlier every year. I just received a note from the PR folks at Intuit (TurboTax) letting me know that they are once again offering to answer personal tax questions for free. I guess it is time to start thinking about 2010 taxes. I have been using computer tax software to prepare my taxes since 1996, and I plan to do so again this year. Once again, the two main contenders are TurboTax and H&R Block At Home (formerly known as TaxCut). I have not yet decided which of these software products I will use.

Anyway, the point of this post is that TurboTax is again offering to answer personal tax questions for free. They have IRS-Enrolled Agents and tax preparers available to help you with your tax question. To get started, you need to submit your question through their website: www.freetaxquestion.com. A tax advisor will research your question and give you a phone call to discuss your tax issue. Questions about this offer should be directed to TurboTax Support.

There are a couple of catches to the offer. First, it appears that their hours of operation are 8am to 5pm PST, Monday to Friday. Second, this free offer is only valid through January 31, 2011. So, you need to be organized enough to know what tax question you want to ask before then. My criticism here is that the average person doesn't even get started with their taxes until February or March. By that time, it will be too late to take advantage of this free service. After January 31, TurboTax will charge $39.95 for this advice. In the past, H&R Block had a similar free offer, but I have not heard if they will be offering that service again this tax year

Getting back to tax preparation software, last year (tax year 2009) both TurboTax and H&R Block provided me with evaluation copies of their tax software. So, I prepared my taxes twice: once using H&R Block At Home, and again using TurboTax. Without going into a lot of detail, the end result of using either programs was identical. My recommendation is if you have used TurboTax in the past and were happy with the end result, you should probably stick with that choice. On the other hand, if you used H&R Block At Home (or other tax software) and found that to be satisfactory, you probably won't gain much in switching to TurboTax. I have found that TurboTax usually ends up costing a little bit more than the equivalent competitive tax software.

Note to Commenters: If you represent a company such as Intuit, H&R Block, Microsoft, etc., please leave your contact information or send me an Email (my Email address is listed in the sidebar) to let me know that you left a comment. If I cannot determine that your comment is authentic, it will be deleted.

DC

Money Market Rates 11/10

2010-11-05T06:25:00.000-07:00

Guest Post: A Graceful Exit-How to Sell an Investment Property

2010-11-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

While is usually considered wise to hold on to an investment property for as long as possible, there are certain instances when it is a good idea to sell. Here are some of the cases where selling might be a good idea.

1. Capital Growth
If capital growth hasn't been considerably higher than inflation for at least five years then the asset is no longer worth it and should be sold.

2. Decline in housing demands
If there has been a long-term decline in the demand for housing in the area, selling would be your best choice. There is a good chance that your yield on rental income and capital growth could remain negative for a long time. This would mean that the rise in vacancy rates would mean you would have to service a property loan and it would not be possible to make a claim for any tax deductions.

3. Near retirement
Another time when it would be a good idea to sell an investment property would be when you are getting close to retirement and want an income stream that is ongoing, consistent and also unencumbered. In this case it would be a good idea to go through your portfolio and keep any consistent income performers.

The cost of trading property
It can cost a lot of money to do property trading. Transaction costs can be as high as 10% and you will also have to pay the tax for capital gains. The amount of time that you have been in the real estate market should be maximized whenever possible so that a compound effect can take place.

You should never sell a property when the LVR (Loan to Value Ratio) is under 60% because once it reaches that level you will start to see a positive or neutral cash flow. From that point on, you will be able to enjoy the true income benefits that come with an investment property.

Even if the property value has doubled, it does not necessarily mean that the value will not continue to rise. This is the point where some investors choose to sell and this is usually not the best decision since the rise in value may continue for some time.

Selling because of need
There are certain things to avoid so that you don't end up having to sell due to poor management. Here are a few things you can put in place right at the beginning to make sure that everything goes smoothly down the road.

1. Always have the right insurance
You will need to have landlord insurance and if you have high gearing then you could also get some insurance for income protection. By having the proper insurance put into place you won't have to sell out if anything goes wrong.

2. Always have a plan B
Figure out what would be the worst thing that could happen and plan for it. An example of this would be a vacancy for an extended amount of time. If you plan ahead and know how to handle any problems before they happen you'll be well armed and will not be put in the position where you need to sell in a panic.

3. Look into the future.
What is your cash flow going to be in the future? You should consider future capital gain along with the rental returns you are receiving today, and always create a buffer. Figure in all of the costs that you will have to pay for the five years that follow and have a buffer put in place so that you don't end up selling if you don't really need to.

Having an exit strategy in place should be a key part of investing in the property in the first place. As long as you have created enough buffer and have planned for any shortfalls, you will be able to sell when you want to, not because you need to.

About the Author
This article was written by William. William writes about saving money, property investment and real estate for a home loan comparison service Home Loan Finder. If your looking for a low rate home loan, visit the Home Loan Finder website for great advice and to compare home loans

Two New Blogs for the Blog List

2010-10-18T06:24:00.000-07:00

I recently added two very interesting personal finance blogs to my blog list. The first one is Investrepreneurship written by Justin Teo. Justin is also the author of a recent guest post about the stock True Religion Apparel, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRLG) on PFStock. Justin told me that he is from Malaysia, and I am glad to have the international exposure for PFStock.

The next addition to my blog list is Smart Money Guide written by Leakkhena Ung. She is from Sydney Australia. So, I'm glad to have these additions to my blog list. I regularly read posts in my blog list, and it is automatically updated with the most recent posts at the top.

A few other PF blogs are listed on my Links page. Some bloggers have inquired why their blog is listed on the Links page rather than on the blog list.
The answer is blogs that don't have a traditional blogroll can only be listed on the the links page.

If you would like to be listed on the PFStock blogroll, please send an Email to the address in the sidebar. Being listed in the PFStock blog list can be a benefit, especially to new PF bloggers. The benefits should be apparent. PFStock has been continuously published since 2006. Once listed on the blog list, your blog will be linked from every page PFStock has published over the last 4 years. That translates to hundreds of inlinks, and is a great benefit, especially for new bloggers.

Please note that for a free listing, you must have a bona fide personal finance blog that links back to PFStock. Note that I do not currently link to commercial, real estate, or multi-level marketing blogs. I can delete the blog at the very bottom at any time, but usually only if it has been inactive for several months.

Only personal finance blogs that are written by individual bloggers on a not-for-profit basis qualify for a free listing in the blog list. Blogs and websites that do not qualify for a free listing may inquire about the advertising rates offered for PFStock sponsors.

DC

Guest Post: Are Hotel Rewards Credit Cards Worth It?

2010-10-13T06:01:00.000-07:00

As we all know, there are a plethora of reward cards on the market. Those that give cash back and airline miles tend to be the most popular, but what about hotel rewards credit cards? Are their rewards worthwhile? To find out, consider the following:

Do you always stay at the same hotel chain?
Hotel rewards credit cards are typically associated with a specific hotel chain. For example, there is the Marriott Rewards Visa, Starwood American Express, Choice Privileges Visa, and so forth.

With these, any rewards you earn can only be used at the card’s affiliated hotel chain. So if you always stay at Marriott, for example, then their card might be worth looking into. But if you find yourself staying at different chains all the time, then it probably wouldn’t make sense to get a credit card that’s only affiliated with one of them.

How much will you be charging per year?
With the exception of the Choice Privileges Visa and the Best Western MasterCard, almost every hotel credit card on the market charges an annual fee. Fortunately it’s not that much – usually around $45 to $65 – but it’s still something you need to take into account.

Let’s say your card had a $65 annual fee and the rewards were only worth 1 penny per dollar spent. If that were the case, that would mean the first $6,500 spent each year would just go towards breaking even on the annual fee. So it’s important to weigh your expected spending, the rewards, and the annual fee to see if a card is worth it.

How does the rewards program work exactly?
Of course the most important thing is the rewards program, but get out your calculator to figure out if they’re really worthwhile.

Take the Choice Privileges card; it gives 2 points per dollar spent which sounds nice at first (most people assume that would mean 2% on spending). But allegedly, the value of these points may only be worth as little as 0.6 to 1.0 cents each when you redeem them. The online source which claims this got the figure by comparing how many points it would take to get free rooms, compared to the price if you simply paid for the same rooms with cash. So make sure you take a close look at what your points will actually buy you before you apply for a hotel rewards credit card.

Do you want the ability to exchange points for airline miles?
The high-end hotel credit cards give you the option of converting reward points into airline miles. If this is something you plan on doing, make sure you pay attention to each card’s conversion formula. Only the Starwood American converts on a 1 point = 1 mile basis. The others penalize you big time. For example, with the Hilton credit card, 6.7 points = 1 mile.

What other perks does the card give?
Hotel rewards credit cards often give perks like free room upgrades, free breakfast, late checkout, and more. If you stay at their hotel frequently, those perks alone may be worth the annual fee.

Some cards also offer special benefits outside of the hotel. For example, the Best Western card includes an AAA basic annual membership; this gives members discounts at restaurants and various attractions. Benefits like these are something to take into account when trying to decide if a card is worthwhile.

What are the online credit card reviews saying about them?
There are a number of websites which feature credit card reviews. Check out the user-submitted comments to see what people are saying about a given card. Sometimes, a credit card may look good on the outside, but you may research it and find out that there are a lot of complaints about bad customer service or some other problem.

Conclusion?
If you travel frequently and often stay a specific hotel chain, it may be worth checking out their credit card if they have one. But just make sure you do your research to determine if the rewards and benefits truly outweigh the annual fee.

About the Author
This guest post was written by Michael from Credit Card Forum, a social media site for credit card reviews and discussion. He regularly writes on the site’s credit card blog and also assists with forum moderation.

Guest Post: Why You Should Have An Online Savings Account

2010-10-01T06:38:00.000-07:00

The whole idea of online bank may appear quite eerie to many people. What is an online bank? How can a bank operate without any physical entity or even an ATM? Such questions cross our minds when we discuss stuff like online bank. Well, an online bank is a banking institution that operates only on the internet; you need to transact either on the internet or over telephone.

The older generation accustomed to the safety vaults of normal banks may cast skeptical glances at it. But, the concept of online banks is gradually becoming a great hit among the net-savvy youngsters. If the absence of a physical bank location is a reason not to put faith in online banks, then there are plenty of reasons why you should have a savings account in an online bank. Wondering how? Then take a look at the following:

Higher interest rates: Having a savings account in an online bank can be quite lucrative. They usually offer higher rates of interest than the normal banks. Online banks can afford to give your more interest because they do not involve added costs of maintaining branches and teller facilities. The lower overall operational costs allow the online banks to offer you some tempting interest rates.
User friendly websites: Online banks have very sophisticated websites, where you can perform all the banking transactions easily. They usually get upgraded and user-friendly features built into the website to help you pay your bills, make instant or scheduled money transfers, change your account information and also create or close accounts as simply as possible. The more features they can incorporate, the fewer staffs they require to handle telephonic operations.
Lower charges: Most online banks charge you no maintenance fees and minimum balance fee for your accounts. Some banks even do not charge anything for opening an account. So, banking gets really inexpensive and super easy with online banks.
Your money is safe: The absence of a physical entity should not make you feel that online banks are unsafe. In fact online banks are Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insured, which means your money is in safe hands. Online banks are as safe as their brick and mortar counterpart. While in other investment options you need to take higher risks for higher profits, online banks will spare you such risks. Moreover, the FDIC is great assurance for the consumers.
Separate savings from expenses: If you are one of those kinds that do not want savings accounts to be easily accessible lest they end up spending more, then an online bank is just your cup of tea. Since online accounts provide no teller or ATM facility, your savings are not available at your fingers. And this could prove a great way to keep your savings from getting encroached by your spending sprees.
Automate your savings: Online savings account is a great way to automate your savings. You can have a certain amount automatically deposited into your online account from an attached account regularly. Recurring savings thus becomes quite hassle-free with online banks.
Time Saving: The best part of an online bank is that it is superb time saving banking option that allows transactions in as less time as possible. You can open an account and get your transactions performed within a few minutes.

Now if that seems convincing and you are already thinking of opening an online savings account, then you are just a click away from it. All you need to do is search online to find out an online bank that best suits your circumstances and get on with an online savings account. And then savings will be more fun, profitable, easy, secured and superbly time-saving!

About the Author
This guest post was written by "Jack Reed". He writes on various financial topics with a special focus on bankruptcy. If you are interested in writing a guest post, please contact PF Stock at the Email address listed in the sidebar.

We are the Super Rich

2010-09-29T06:01:00.000-07:00

My post about annual income and net worth was recently referred to in the comment section of another post titled Pity the Poor Couple Who Make $450,000 Per Year (Yet Another Failure of Our 'Elite' Educational System) on a blog called Mike the Mad Biologist. The commenter used the data from my post to declare that "the median net worth for people making more than $150k/year is $1.1 million." Ordinarily, I would not consider this to be a notable event since a few of my posts are frequently referenced by other websites. However, this post has over 60 other comments on it, and I wanted to find out what all of the hubbub was about.

It turns out that this post was a reaction to a blog post originally written by Professor M. Todd Henderson of the University of Chicago Law School. The original post was available on the blog Truth on the Market and had received over 400 comments. However, the author deleted the original article and has decided to get out of blogging all together. This left me even more intrigued as to what was said in the original post to start off this firestorm. So, I started a search for the original text.

Fortunately, I was able to retrieve an original version of the post and have included it below. Before I reproduce that post here, I wanted to say that I think Prof. Henderson's point of view is that President Barack Obama's plan to increase taxes will impact those who are in the lower end of the high-income tax bracket (i.e. making more than $250k per year) and those who are in a situation similar to his. It is clear that the author's family will feel the squeeze since they already have "less than a few hundred dollars per month of discretionary income" to spend. It seems that any tax increase will force the Hendersons to trim some expenses. However based the comments I've seen, I think that few readers will empathize with Prof. Henderson.

Here is the original article:

We are the Super Rich, posted by Todd Henderson on September 15, 2010 (Truth on the Market)

The rhetoric in Washington about taxes is about millionaires and the super rich, but the relevant dividing line between millionaires and the middle class is pegged at family income of $250,000. (I’m not a math professor, but last time I checked $250,000 is less than $1 million.) That makes me super rich and subject to a big tax hike if the president has his way.

I’m the president’s neighbor in Chicago, but we’ve never met. I wish we could, because I would introduce him to my family and our lifestyle, one he believes is capable of financing the vast expansion of government he is planning. A quick look at our family budget, which I will happily share with the White House, will show him that like many Americans, we are just getting by despite seeming to be rich. We aren’t.

I, like the president before me, am a law professor at the University of Chicago Law School, and my wife, like the first lady before her, works at the University of Chicago Hospitals, where she is a doctor who treats children with cancer. Our combined income exceeds the $250,000 threshold for the super rich (but not by that much), and the president plans on raising my taxes. After all, we can afford it, and the world we are now living in has that familiar Marxian tone of those who need take and those who can afford it pay. The problem is, we can’t afford it. Here is why.

The biggest expense for us is financing government. Last year, my wife and I paid nearly $100,000 in federal and state taxes, not even including sales and other taxes. This amount is so high because we can’t afford fancy accountants and lawyers to help us evade taxes and we are penalized by the tax code because we choose to be married and we both work outside the home. (If my wife and I divorced or were never married, the government would write us a check for tens of thousands of dollars. Talk about perverse incentives.)

Our next biggest expense, like most people, is our mortgage. Homes near our work in Chicago aren’t cheap and we do not have friends who were willing to help us finance the deal. We chose to invest in the University community and renovate and old property, but we did so at an inopportune time.

We pay about $15,000 in property taxes, about half of which goes to fund public education in Chicago. Since we care the education of our three children, this means we also have to pay to send them to private school. My wife has school loans of nearly $250,000 and I do too, although becoming a lawyer is significantly cheaper. We try to invest in our retirement by putting some money in the stock market, something that these days sounds like a patriotic act. Our account isn’t worth much, and is worth a lot less than it used to be.

Like most working Americans, insurance, doctors’ bills, utilities, two cars, daycare, groceries, gasoline, cell phones, and cable TV (no movie channels) round out our monthly expenses. We also have someone who cuts our grass, cleans our house, and watches our new baby so we can both work outside the home. At the end of all this, we have less than a few hundred dollars per month of discretionary income. We occasionally eat out but with a baby sitter, these nights take a toll on our budget. Life in America is wonderful, but expensive.

If our taxes rise significantly, as they seem likely to, we can cut back on some things. The (legal) immigrant from Mexico who owns the lawn service we employ will suffer, as will the (legal) immigrant from Poland who cleans our house a few times a month. We can cancel our cell phones and some cable channels, as well as take our daughter from her art class at the community art center, but these are only a few hundred dollars per month in total. But more importantly, what is the theory under which collecting this money in taxes and deciding in Washington how to spend it is superior to our decisions? Ask the entrepreneurs we employ and the new arrivals they employ in turn whether they prefer to work for us or get a government handout.

If these cuts don’t work, we will sell our house – into an already spiraling market of declining asset values – and our cars, assuming someone will buy them. The irony here, of course, is that the government is working to save both of these industries despite the impact that increasing taxes will have.

The problem with the president’s plan is that the super rich don’t pay taxes – they hide in the Cayman Islands or use fancy investment vehicles to shelter their income. We aren’t rich enough to afford this – I use Turbo Tax. But we are rich enough to be hurt by the president’s plan. The next time the president comes home to Chicago, he has a standing invitation to come to my house (two blocks from his) and judge for himself whether the Hendersons are as rich as he thinks.

Any opinions?

DC

New Poll: How Much Do You Make?

2010-09-27T06:34:00.000-07:00

I've asked the question before, and I'm asking again. It is the question that everybody wants the answer to, but nobody wants to ask it. Since I write an anonymous blog, that gives me the unique luxury of being able to ask the question without personally offending anybody. I mentioned before how readers are innately curious other people's net worth. I think this is because of people's natural curiosity -- wanting to assess how one is doing compared to others.

The last time I asked the question, I received a few responses such as these:

married female, 30 years old (husband is 30 years old). both of us completely self made professionals with degrees from state schools. rental income is approximately $60,000. combined household income is approximately $200,000.

Male, Married,Age 29 and 28, both MSEE, both work for the same company, combined salary 240k. Networth 273k.

So, now I'm asking again: how much do you make? Anonymous comments are welcome. I want to assure you that my Blogger account does not collect Email addresses or any other personal information, if you select "Anonymous" on the comment form. To be doubly sure, you can also sign out of Blogger.

Also I have an updated annual income poll in the sidebar of my blog. I recently reset the poll to adjust the income ranges. In constructing the original poll, I deliberately set the income ranges to correspond with the net worth comparison tool on the CNN Money website; the ranges that CNN Money used were not consistently spaced. This time, I've evenly spaced the ranges in $50k increments. Also, I mentioned that I've been having problems with blogger polls, and that the old poll was no longer recording new submissions. If you've answered the old poll before, please submit your answer again.

DC

Celebrate Arts Month 2010 and Win Prizes

2010-09-24T07:05:00.000-07:00

This blog originates from Silicon Valley, California. One of my local readers has again asked me to mention an event celebrating the arts that will take place in Mountain View, California. During the month of October 2010, Arts Action 21, the City of Mountain View's Performing Arts Committee and the Community School of Music and Arts will present "Sunday Arts Live" -- a new performance series celebrating National Arts and Humanities Month. The first event will be "A Multicultural Celebration" on October 3; and the second event will be "Finding Home: A Kaleidoscope of Musical Journeys". More information about these events is available at: Arts Action 21.

In addition, there will be a free random drawing for prizes worth several hundred dollars, which will be awarded on October 17th. In order to enter the contest, you need to fill out an "Arts Challenge" entry form, and return it by October 16, 2010. Drop off and online entries are accepted. The online entry can be found here: ArtsChallenge2010 Survey

Most of the prizes are provided by local, Silicon Valley organizations. So even though the entry is free, the giveaway is really geared toward people who will be able to attend events and participate in activities in the area. The following organizations will be giving away prizes:

The Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View.
The Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.
The horn quartet QUADRE.
Art-n-Fun of Los Altos.
The Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose.
The Peninsula Youth Theatre.
The Tech Museum in San Jose.

For last year's entry form, I wrote that entries could be mailed in. This year, it seems that you have to drop off your form at the Mountain View library, which is located at 585 Franklin Street, Mountain View, California. Alternatively, you can submit an online entry.

If you would like to publicize a local, Silicon Valley event or know of other special deals that readers might be interested in, please send me an Email message (my Email is in the sidebar) with the details.

DC

Chase Screwed Up!

2010-09-18T07:24:00.000-07:00

Many people are aware that the Chase website, Chase.com, was offline for a couple of days this past week. For three days (Monday, September 13 through Wednesday, September 15), customer account information was either inaccessible through the website, or there were intermittent outages. Bill payments that had been previously scheduled were not being made. How this affected me is that I had scheduled a bill payment for my American Express card to be sent on Monday, and completed on Tuesday, September 14 (which was the bill's due date). Unfortunately, that payment was not received by American Express until Thursday, September 16 (two days late).

What happens if you pay a credit card bill late? It could result in a late fee, finance charges, and the credit card issuer can increase the card's interest rate (in my case, that would be increased to 27.24% APR). And that is not even to mention the effect that a late payment can have on your credit score. Well, this was definitely not my fault; I had scheduled the bill payment on-time. It was Chase that screwed up!

Anticipating that many angry customers might be contacting Chase, they sent me a message explaining the situation. Here is the message that I received from Chase:

We are sorry for the difficulties that recently affected chase.com and we apologize for not communicating better with you about this issue. As you may know, we experienced a significant service interruption at the time you tried to initiate, cancel or modify one or more of your scheduled online bill payments. As a result, the request was not processed.
Please log on to chase.com to check the status of your payment.
If you tried to change or cancel your payment, we are asking that if you have not done so already, please log on to chase.com and resubmit your cancellation or change, if appropriate. If you have concerns about a bill payment that has been made, please contact us.
If you tried to initiate a new payment and it was not made (if you do not see your payment in your online account activity summary), we are asking that if you have not done so already, please log on to chase.com and submit a new bill pay request for any payment that was not made. If our delay in processing your bill payment resulted in late fees, we will cover 100% of those late fees.
If your payment was made after the date you scheduled, there is no further action needed on your part. Please note:
·    If your payment was to another Chase account (for example, Chase Credit Card Services), we are automatically refunding any late fees.

·    If your payment was to anyone other than Chase (for example, your telephone service, utilities or another financial institution), we are contacting many payees to prevent late fees from being charged.

o   However, if your payee charged you a late fee, please call us at one of the numbers below or visit your nearest Chase branch. We will refund the late fee to you.
We recommend that you keep this letter in case you need to provide information to your payee.
Please be assured that Chase's online security has not been compromised as a result of this service interruption. Your accounts and confidential information remain safe and secure.
Giving you 24-hour access to your banking is of the utmost importance to us. This was not the level of service we know you expect, and we will work hard to serve you and communicate with you better in the future.
Again, please accept our apology for this disruption and thank you for your patience. If you have any questions, please stop by your nearest Chase branch or call:
·    1-800-935-9935 for Personal accounts
·    1-877-CHASEPC (1-877-242-7372) for Business accounts
·    1-800-848-9136 for Home Lending and Auto accounts
·    For credit card accounts, please call the number on the back of your card.

Sincerely,

Patricia O. Baker
Senior Vice President
Chase Executive Office

One of the key points of this message is that Chase is contacting payees to prevent late fees from being charged. They should; it is their responsibility! It remains to be seen what will happen. I haven't seen any late fees assessed to my credit card yet, and I hope that there won't be any.

Was anybody else impacted by Chase's problems?

DC

Guest Post: True Religion at a Glance

2010-09-15T06:21:00.000-07:00

It can be quite a lengthy process to properly research a stock. That’s why I established a few guidelines to help me identify stocks worthy of further research. In this article, I will use these guidelines to evaluate the attractiveness of True Religion Apparel, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRLG) as a candidate for potential further research. All the data I need to do that can be obtained from Google finance.

P/E ratio
I usually look for stocks with low P/E ratios or at least reasonable P/E ratios (generally about 13-15 for blue chips, maybe a bit higher for the really good quality ones), but may accept a higher P/E ratio if the stock has good revenue and profit growth. True Religion has a P/E ratio of a bit more than 10.5 at the time of writing. That’s very good, considering True Religion has had pretty good revenue and profit growth.

Revenue and profit growth
I also look for companies that are growing profits and revenue healthily, and True Religion is doing great in those categories. True Religion grew revenue from about 140.5 million USD in the year 2006 to about 310 million USD in the year 2009. Operating income grew from about 35 million USD in 2006 to about 77.5 million USD in 2009. In percentage terms, from 2006 to 2009, True Religion had a compounded annual growth rate of about 30.2% for revenue and a compounded annual growth rate of about 30.3% for operating income.

Profit margins and return on equity
Investors should generally look for companies with high profit margins and high returns on equity. True religion had an operating profit margin of around 25% and a return on average equity of about 28% in 2009; all in all, pretty good. I looked at operating income growth and operating profit margin instead of net income growth and net profit margin, as the operating profit is the one that gives us the better picture of the company’s everyday business performance.

True Religion might have earned lower profits in the second quarter of 2010, but there will only be trouble if we base our investment decisions only on the latest quarterly reports. Investors need to look at profit growth in terms of years, and True Religion has had stellar growth over the past few years.

Companies don’t always grow straight up, they are capable of having some down years, which is OK; what matters after all is long-term growth. I believe that True Religion is still a very attractive candidate for further research, where we can try and determine, among other things, if the drop in profit is due to permanent impairment to True Religion’s business or if it is a result of the company spending more on activities like opening new stores, which will set True Religion up for greater future profits.

Low debt and good liquidity
Everyone knows that too much debt is bad, and that’s why I usually look for companies with low or at least reasonable debt levels. Liquidity is also very important, as there have been many companies that got into trouble because of a lack of liquidity. At this stage, I simply look at current assets to current liabilities to determine if a company has ample liquidity, I will take into account things like inventory turns and etc later when I look into the annual reports and conduct proper research.

At 2010/06/30, True Religion had 120 million USD in cash and short-term investments to only about 35 million USD in total liabilities, which indicates the company has good liquidity and very little debt.

Conclusion
If a company meets the guidelines that I have set, I would then consider digging into at least its latest annual report and its latest quarterly report, and conduct thorough research. When conducting proper research, all decisions that require information from the financial statements should be based on the financial statements in the company’s annual report, as I think that’s the best source.

In my personal opinion, I think True Religion meets the guidelines I have set. But as always, decisions to invest or to single out stocks for further research should be independent and based on your own research. If you liked this article, you might like to check out: Real Estate Real Returns and Things I think about before making investment decisions. Take care and may your portfolios generate good returns.

About the Author:
Justin Teo is a private investor and is currently studying for his degree in international business.

Guest Post: Why Credit Card Companies Charge Yearly Fees

2010-09-13T06:36:00.000-07:00

For many consumers, credit cards provide a very helpful tool in their pursuit of financial independence. If used properly, credit cards can help people build their credit and even reward users with cash bonuses and gifts. However, if not used properly, that little piece of plastic can engulf irresponsible shoppers in a vicious cycle of debt that spirals out of control.

How Credit Card Companies Make Money
Credit card companies make the majority of their revenue from interest charged on existing debt. So while consumers enjoy the advantages of delaying full payment and accumulating rewards, credit card companies will happily oblige because they're making a mint on interest. On the surface, it seems like a mutually beneficial relationship.

In theory, it would make the most sense for financial institutions to have as many people using their cards as possible. Like most businesses, having more people use your product should equate to making more money.

That isn't necessarily the case, however, with cards offering generous rewards. Sure, most companies provide bonuses to consumers to instill customer loyalty and encourage frequent transactions each month. That only works if those same users are keeping a balance on their card.

Users who pay off their full balance each month, but still spend enough to collect hefty rewards, are known in the industry as "free riders." To dissuade these types of users, credit card companies charge annual fees. Doing so filters out these frugal chargers. Further, with the Credit CARD Act of 2009 taking effect, financial institutions are trying more than ever to find new ways to cut costs and drive new revenue streams.

No More Free Rides
In the past, credit card companies would entice new customers with low interest rates and high rewards. Companies could make more money on customers who accumulated debt interest than on annual fees. Once in the door, they could get their money back in many different ways, chiefly, raising interest rates at a whim. Not anymore.

So while annual fees do provide revenue for financial companies, it's not really a huge factor in relation to how much they can potentially earn from high-frequency users who carry a balance.

Also, if you notice, large annual fees can also serve to attract more desired customers, which helps to maintain a level of prestige for the brand. They want those customers who are willing to pay the annual cost. Yes, there is such thing as luxury-brand credit cards. It's the same idea of paying $200 for a T-shirt with a designer logo on it.

Credit Card Rewards
So does this mean that all rewards cards charge annual fees? Not even close. There are still many cards that provide users bonuses without the yearly membership payment. The difference is the rewards aren't as bountiful as they once were. That doesn't mean you can't still take advantage of them, though.

Here are a few cards that offer customers generous rewards, with and without an annual price tag. Depending on how much you earn back, sometimes it does make sense to bite the bullet and accept the fee.

No Annual Fee Rewards Cards
As with most no annual fee rewards cards, these usually require good to excellent credit to qualify:

Chase Sapphire and Chase Freedom: These two cards from Chase charge no annual fee and offer cash back rewards at select merchants. Sapphire lets you earn $100 cash back after your first purchase. Free lets you earn 5 percent cash back on select quarterly categories, and an unlimited 1 percent on all other purchases. Both cards provide additional discounts with cash back rewards through select retailers.
Discover More: This card provides 5 percent cash back on changing categories that you need to sign up for like travel, restaurants, shopping, etc. You can also earn 1 percent on all other purchases. There are additional discounts available through select retailers.
Capital One No Hassle Rewards: If you're looking for a card with no expiration date for rewards, this card has it covered. You can earn 2 percent cash back on gas and groceries, and 1 percent on other purchases. The card does charge annual fees for average to low or limited history credit scores.

Premium Reward Cards with Fees
Usually, credit cards will charge annual fees for individuals with less than stellar credit. In this section, we're focusing on cards that charge fees for their premium rewards.

American Express Green and Gold Cards: These cards waive the annual fees for the first year ($95 and $125, respectively) and let you earn one point for almost every dollar spent, three points when shopping with select online retailers and double points on its travel program. Though you can redeem points for rewards, there isn't a cash back option.
Chase Sapphire Preferred: For $85 a year (first year waived), earn one point for almost every dollar spent, and double points for airfare booked through the card's reward program. There is also a 7 percent annual points dividend for all points earned. You can also get $250 in rewards; that is, if you spend $3,000 within the first three months.
CapitalOne Venture Rewards: If you're a traveler, you can accrue miles with this card. The $59 annual fee is waived the first year. You can earn two miles on every purchase and get 10,000 bonus miles if you spend $1,000 in the first three months. Reward points allow you to fly free on any airline with no blackouts. You also won't get dinged for foreign transaction fees.

High Roller Cards
This bunch stand in a class of their own:

American Express Centurion Card: Though it isn't necessarily a credit card, you can't mention high roller cards without mentioning the original "black card." The Centurion card is actually a charge card that users have to pay off each month. There is a one-time activation fee of $5,000 and an annual fee of $2,500. It's so exclusive, even the website is designed to be cryptic and vague for outsiders.
American Express Platinum: Like the Centurion, this is also a charge card. The annual fee is a friendlier $550 per year, but applicants need to have an annual income of $65,000 or more. While you earn one rewards point for every dollar spent that can go to travel or charity donations, the card also provides luxurious perks, too. Members can get complimentary airline tickets for companions, access to VIP lounges, complimentary upgrades and more.
Visa Black Card: Designed to compete with the two above, the Visa Black Card is actually more of a traditional credit card than charge card. The annual fee is $495, but members get similar benefits as the American Express Platinum. One difference is that users can opt for a 1 percent cash back return over airline points.

So there you have it. Which rewards cards do you like using? Are you willing to pay an annual fee for extra bonuses?

About the Author
This guest post was written by Go Banking Rates, bringing you informative personal finance content and helpful tools, as well as the best interest rates on financial services nationwide.

Guest Post: Learn To Be Smart With Your Savings

2010-09-03T06:24:00.000-07:00

With the debt figure in America rising precariously every minute, it is no surprise that most of the people today are rather unwise with money management. What should one do in such a scenario? Resort to debt relief companies for help? Well, they can probably help you but is it really an answer to your problems? Can these companies help you keep away from debt problems in the future too? Face it, the problem lies in you! And you are the solution yourself. The answer to your worries lies in some smart ways which can teach you to save your money and be financially savvy!

Listed here are some steps you can consider to start saving your money:

Open a savings account: The very first step you can take is to open a savings account with a bank. Shop around and choose a bank which just suits your needs; the one which offers the highest interest rate and low service fees.

Start saving: Now, start putting your money in your savings account. Do not be bothered about filling your savings account with huge cash, it is important to first start putting something into the account, however small it is. Develop the habit of contributing something regularly towards your savings account.

Consider investing your money: You can make more money by starting to invest in the market. Here are some investment options to consider:

Stocks: When you buy a stock, you actually buy a tiny piece of a big company. Though the stock market abounds with several market risks, you can still make quite a lot of money here with some intelligent dealings. Since there are fluctuations in the stock market, it is advisable that you start investing in stocks after gaining considerable experience at the stock market.
Bonds: Bonds are defined as a piece of big loan. This can be one of the safest investment options for you because it has the backing of the government. When you buy a bond, you get it back with interest on the date of maturity of the bond.
Mutual funds: The risk involved with mutual funds is very low because of the diversification of assets across different sectors. Therefore, this can be the perfect choice for you to start your investment career. Because of this reason, sometimes mutual funds are also regarded as risk free investments.

Everyone should try to build up some easily accessible cash to be prepared for the rainy day. In the current environment of market uncertainty, there is no better way to help oneself other than building up a solid foundation of some wise money management. It requires a degree of commitment and making a determination to make your money work for you is what is required to secure a financially secure future.

About the Author This guest post was written by "Jack Reed". He writes on various financial topics with a special focus on bankruptcy. If you are interested in writing a guest post, please contact PF Stock at the Email address listed in the sidebar.

Guest Post: How to Earn Passive Income At Home

2010-08-27T06:22:00.000-07:00

Nearly everyone has the desire to earn extra income, I know that I did. My situation was probably similar to many of you. I was the stay-at-home and take care of the house portion of our large family. While I did not mind staying home each day and watching my husband go off to work there were a few things about having a job that I missed like earning money and feeling like I was contributing financially to the household. However, with a brood of children, I knew that the cost of day-care would not be worth my going to work outside the home. Instead my husband and I started researching ways for me to earn a few dollars on line, just to keep me a little busy.

If you want to work from home you first have to think about what it is that you are good at, in my case it was writing. Even though I stay home now I used to work and had a Master's degree so I knew a little bit about writing. There are tons of ways to earn money on line if you want to write, web sites like Elance, Textbroker, Ezine, and HubPages are great places to look for work or to post articles that you have written. In my case, the first job a found was from a webmaster looking for someone to write a blog about different reality based television shows. All I had to do was watch the programs and then write an interesting and opinion filled recap of the episode.

This first job was not at all difficult, but it did require a lot of time. Between watching the actual episodes and then writing the article I had to spend a lot of time on lock down in front of the television or computer screen. The lucky thing was that I could record an episode, and watch it late at night or during the day at nap time. This allowed me to continue taking care of the house and the family while still earning some extra money. This job was a great way to get my feet wet and learn a little bit about Internet writing. I did not make a lot of money at first, but that was alright with me. What was more important to me was to make sure that this was something that I actually enjoyed doing and to find out if I was any good at it.

If you are thinking about taking on an at home job I suggest following a similar path. Others might suggest that you throw yourself whole-heartily into your new at home job, but I prefer a more cautious approach. I went into my online job search expecting nothing. Even when I got a job, that only paid about $50 a month at first I knew that there was a possibility that it would not work out and that the pay was not going to be very much. I even referred to it as my "shoe money" so that it never was considered part of the family budget. In the end it turned out that I was pretty good at writing so I started taking on other writing jobs that I found at the previous mentioned web sites and eventually left that low paying blog job in favor of higher paying gigs.

You might be reading this thinking that you hate to write so maybe earning passive income from home is impossible for you. However, there are loads of at home income options that do not require you to write one single word. You can also do customer service from home. This is especially great for people who crave interaction with others. With these jobs you simply have wait for calls to come in from people placing orders for items or looking for customer service assistance. All you usually need is a reliable Internet connection and a phone line to get started in this lucrative field.

Data entry is another way to earn extra income and requires neither great writing or customer service skills. While this type of work can be a little bit repetitive it also has the benefit of requiring no special skills and allowing you to work whenever you want. Much like writing articles you can set up a schedule where you work in their early morning hours before the rest of your household gets up, after they go to bed for the night, or any other time of day when you can get an hour or two to focus on your work.

In my opinion, the best part about earning passive income from home is that you get to decide when you work and how much you work. If you want to add a little bit to the household income you only have to work a little bit. But, if you decide it is time to start working full time you can do that too, the choice is completely up to you. Just remember in the beginning to be both patient and cautious.

Be cautious about working for just anyone that you meet on line. Make sure that the person or company whom you are doing work for is reputable. Trust me, there is nothing more discouraging then not getting paid for a job. However, if that does happen do not give up, those who do not pay are truly the exception and not the rule.

Also, be patient. Do not start out expecting to make a hundred dollars on the first day or even in the first month. If you are writing, be willing to write a few things for a low price in order to build a strong reputation, once you have that you will be able to command higher rates. No matter what job you choose to do from home you will quickly find that you can earn a lot more money in a much shorter time then you ever anticipated. Before you know it you will be adding to your household income and feeling great about your choice to work from home.

About the Author
Timothy Ng is an experienced personal finance writer, specialising in credit card comparison. Check out his guide to best credit cards where he will step you through the process of finding the best credit card.

Guest Post: Stock Investment Tips for Beginners

2010-08-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

If you are planning to invest your cash then you need to have a stable financial base. Your priority task would be to pay off your existing debts, added to it save a decent amount of money from your income and control your expenses. In order to avoid any loopholes in the plan a guidance of a financial advisor is mandatory.

You need to have an excellent understanding about your financial condition. If you are still not aware then try to acquire more knowledge in the field of financial investment.

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In case you are planning to invest your hard earned money in stock market then you need to study the stock market structure carefully. This article would share few tips for the beginners in the investment field so that you can glide in this journey.

Some Useful Tips:

Right financial education: The newbie in the field of investment should acquire enough domain knowledge about the stock market. Do an extensive research on annual report and market history in order to get better perception on stocks. You need to expand a wide range of knowledge in case of personal finance. So consult the experts in order to get right information on the investment theories. Keep yourself updated with latest news on finance so that you can analyze the market well.
Definite time for investment: If you are nascent in this field of investment then take some time out to trace the definite period for investment. If this is your first investment then take advisors guidance to make correct decisions. Once you start buying and selling stocks you would get a better knowledge on this field.
Logical approach: Always have a logical approach when you are dealing with stocks. As you are investing your money so you would always expect a successful deal. While investing get a fair idea about the investment plan where you are putting the money in order to get a positive result. Look for companies that are booming and has a good reputation in the investment market.
Look for a stock broker: If you are looking for a reliable broker only online searching won’t fetch you better result. Ask your friends and relatives who are veterans in this field to find you a trustworthy broker. Even if you have found one then verify his reliability from your friends and relatives as well as his market reputation. If you make a wrong choice in this case then you might land up in a soup.
Look for a reputable company: If you look for investment in a reputable company then you are bound to get reward for it. The success rates of the investment plans are quite high. If you are investing your hard earned money then you need to go for loyal and trustworthy companies.
Investigation is crucial: You need to collect information regarding the investment plan as it would help you to take correct decision. Try to get information from multiple sources and do a comparative study of the different plans as this would help you get a better result. In case you are evaluating the investment plan it would help you to trace the flaws in it.
Go for low risk investment: One of the low risk investments would be to invest in bonds. If you compare the returns of savings account with bonds then opting for later would be a better option. In this case your money is quite secured and would also boost quickly. As you would invest in low risk securities so you would reap a low income from it.

About the Author
This is a guest post by Kevin Craig who is a financial writer. He has helped lots of debt burdened people with free counseling and advices on many finance related topics.

Money Market Rates 8/10

2010-08-21T09:39:00.000-07:00

Problems With Blogger Polls

2010-08-16T06:44:00.000-07:00

For a while now, there have been technical problems with some of the polls that I use in the sidebar of my blog. I have one poll about annual income and one about net worth in the right sidebar. In short, these polls have not been properly recording votes. In my post about annual income and net worth, I stated that there were already 93 respondents to the annual income poll. However, since I wrote that post, new votes have not been recorded and the total number of votes has actually dropped below the 93 that were already recorded.

I first noticed this problem when Blogger upgraded their "Template Designer" a couple of months back. The polls in Blogger are supported by Google. Some bloggers have complained about this problem in the Blogger help forum. But, judging by how Google is responding in posts like this one, it is clear that the polls are not working. Google doesn't really have a solution to the problem, and they are denying that any problem even exists.

In any case, this is a word of caution that my polls might not be up to date. Are there any suggestions for more reliable polling sites that I could use for my blog?

DC

Guest Post: Simple ways to pay off your credit card debt

2010-08-11T06:16:00.000-07:00

The total consumer credit card debt in the U.S. today exceeds a whopping $800 billion! Credit card debt can be crippling and lead to a lot of stress. This menace is almost like an epidemic today gripping a large number of people across the globe. Are you also one of the victims? If yes, then read on to know how you can avoid being in credit card debt.

Assess your financial situation: First of all, you should stop panicking. Try to get a complete picture of your financial situation. Figure out how much debt you need to deal with. Prepare a list of your debts and prioritize them as paying the wrong debts could be costly. Tackle the balance with the highest interest rate first, when that one is paid off move on to the next highest interest rate.
Prepare a budget: If you think that budgeting means financial handcuff, then you are wrong. On the contrary, it helps to inculcate a sense of financial discipline in you. When you are fully aware of your financial situation, you are less likely to overspend. Thus you keep yourself away from debt. Create a budget that will help you to stop relying on credit cards.
Reduce your expenditures: You are in the process of repaying your debts; therefore cutting out on expenses would be a great idea. Look for ways to lower your phone bill, electricity bill, auto insurance and the like. Challenge yourself to restrict your expenditures for bare necessities. You will be surprised at the savings that you make after this. Now apply your savings to pay off your debts.
Opt for low interest cards: Transfer your balances from high interest rate cards to the low interest one. Now you can make a single monthly payment towards this card. You are basically consolidating your credit card debts into one affordable payment. This way you are eliminating the need to manage too many payments at one time. While transferring your balance, do not close all your cards at once as this can affect your credit score.
Increase the monthly payments towards your balances: Now that you have started paying down your new consolidated balances, double the minimum payment you were paying on the old balances. Avail yourself of the low monthly interest and pay more in order to reduce your total debt.

Keep these points in mind to ensure that you stay away from debts forever. Clearing off your debts completely takes time and you should be patient. Determine to take a pro-active approach and then even you can proudly live a debt free life!

About the Author
This guest post was written by "Jack Reed". He writes on various financial topics with a special focus on bankruptcy. If you are interested in writing a guest post, please contact PF Stock at the Email address listed in the sidebar.

S&P 500 Video

2010-08-10T06:22:00.000-07:00

I have recently figured out how to embed videos into my blog thanks to the folks at INO.com (pronounced "I know"). This video is about the Standard & Poor's 500. More specifically, it is about the battle between the Bulls and the Bears, and analyzes whether the S&P 500 and the general stock market will move up or down. INO.com uses Trade Triangle technology for technical price analysis of the stock market. You can view this video without leaving PFStock.

This short video talks about the price movements of the S&P 500 over the past couple months. The presenter, Adam Hewison, shares his views on the stock market. I think you'll find this video technically interesting as well as educational.

For more trading ideas, visit the Trader's Blog

When I viewed the video, I noticed that it appears a bit grainy unless you view it in full-screen mode. The embedded video also seems to slow down the loading of blog pages slightly. So, I'll try not to publish more than one video at a time. Please Email me, or leave a comment if you have any difficulty viewing the video. At the end of the video, you can click on the video for a Free Email Trading Course offer. I encourage you to sign up for this since it is free.

Disclaimer: I am an affiliate and member of INO.com. Although I have been able to make money using their MarketClub product, no guarantees can be made. All investments involve risks, so please consider your objectives wisely before investing.

DC

Pay The Early Withdrawal Penalty?

2010-08-05T06:36:00.000-07:00

When you hear the term "Penalty" as in Early Withdrawal Penalty, do you automatically recoil thinking that if you have to pay a penalty that you have done something wrong, something bad? I am here to tell you that one alternative to keeping your cash in a low-yielding money market account or short-term CD is to get a long-term, 5-year CD now. Then "pay the penalty" if you need to withdraw the money, or find a better interest rate later.

I recently opened a 5-year High Yield CDs at Ally bank that yields 2.94% APY. Some people may think that it is not a good idea to lock in such a mediocre interest rate for 5 years since only a couple years ago, these interest rates were in the range of 4-5% or higher. However, the rate currently being offered by Ally is much better than any short-term CD or money market available.

The second part of the equation is that Ally Bank charges an early withdrawal penalty of 60-days simple interest if you close your account prematurely. I did some research and found that this is one of the lowest early withdrawal penalties available.

If CD or money market rates go back up to the 4-5% range, I intend to close my CD account, pay the penalty, and establish a new account at the higher rate. I already did some back-of-the-envelope calculations that show I would be much better off doing that even after having to pay an early withdrawal penalty.

Let's take a quick example of a $10,000 CD and for simplicity, round off the interest rate to 3% instead of the 2.94% offered. Assume that you deposit the $10,000 in a 5-year CD, but have to withdraw your money after a year to handle an emergency. At 3% simple interest, you will earn $300 before the penalty. Sixty days of interest equals about $50. So your actual return for the year would be $250, or 2.5%. Even with the penalty, the 5-year CD beats out the typical rate on a 1-year CD (which currently yields about 1.5%) by a wide margin. Another point is that the $50 penalty is tax-deductible as an above the line deduction. (This is line item #30 "Penalty on early withdrawal of savings" on form 1040).

The main risk of a long-term CDs is the chance that interest rates will rise and you’re committed to the lower rate until the CD matures. But with a small early withdrawal penalty, if rates rise significantly, you can still consider withdrawing the money, paying the penalty, and putting the money back into another account with a higher interest rate.

Disclaimer: The example provided here is for illustrative purposes only. I am not providing tax or investment advice. I encourages readers to consult with a tax adviser if they have specific questions about how to deduct early withdrawal penalties on their taxes.

DC

Guest Post: 7 Keys to Smart Stock Investment

2010-07-28T06:25:00.000-07:00

Have you been contemplating lately to make money by trading in the stock market? Are you aware of the fact that thousands of people have filed for bankruptcy after suffering huge losses in the stock market? Are you sure your knowledge of how the market functions is good enough to give you a great return on your investment? If you really want to maximize your trading opportunities for maximum gains, then read on to know how you can go about achieving it.

Plan: Many investors do the mistake of jumping into the investment market without even having a clue as to what they want to accomplish from it. This is the worst mistake you can make. Sit down and plan. Prepare a strategy and ask yourself what you want to achieve with your investment plan. Do you want to buy a car by the end of this year or a house after 5 years? Planning out this way and being clear about your goals helps you to plan effectively.
Do extensive research: You should identify the industries which are losers today but are posed to return handsome investments in the long run. Be aware that the companies which are doing well today may altogether be left behind in the investment race tomorrow. The market is volatile and the losers of today might provide you with great returns once the economy turns around.
Begin with small investments: It is advisable to start of your investment career by investing small. If you start off with big investments and lose it immediately, it might put you off stock investing for life. Learning the basics and gathering experience is vital to increase your confidence in the investment market.
Diversify: An effective strategy in building a long term investment plan is to opt for a combination of investment options. Just going for an arbitrary collection of stocks will not be very beneficial. The idea is to find a combination of investments which will help you to achieve your financial goals. Spread your investments to lower the risks involved. This will help you create an unsinkable portfolio!
Wait for the right time: Timing is everything in the stock market. To maximize your returns, you should know how long you should hold on to your investment before selling them. It can make the difference between earning and losing money.
Seek advice from a stockbroker: Stockbrokers are experienced and can help you out with valuable advice with your investment plans. However, they charge fees and it’s up to you whether you want to seek their advice.
Never risk more than what you can afford to lose: The most important advice is never to risk more money than what you can afford to lose. People are tempted to invest beyond their means if the potential investment seems safe. This is a mistake, there is always a risk involved and it’s better to always be prepared for it.

Making money in the stock market requires learning. Do not get carried off by stories of people making millions of dollars in the stock market overnight. The shifts and turns in the stock market are consistently fluctuating. With patience, practice and education you can also pave the path to a successful and rewarding investment career!

About the Author
This guest post was written by "Jack Reed". He writes on various financial topics with a special focus on bankruptcy. If you are interested in writing a guest post, please contact PF Stock at the Email address listed in the sidebar.

Money Market Rates 7/10

2010-07-16T06:34:00.000-07:00

Tesla Motors: A Broken IPO

2010-07-07T06:10:00.000-07:00

Shares of electric car maker Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA) began trading last Tuesday, June 29 after the stock's initial public offering (IPO) at $17 per share. Tesla's shares rose 40 percent on their first day of trading, and peaked as high as $30.42 on Wednesday. The hype surrounding a new IPO is usually the main driving force behind a rapid run up such as this one.

However five trading days after its IPO, things seem to be turning around for Tesla Motors. Yesterday, July 6th, Tesla dropped over $3 to close at $16 and change ($16.11 to be specific). This closing price is below its initial $17 offering price. Traders call an IPO that has dropped below its initial offering price a "broken IPO". So, Tesla is now a broken IPO.

On this blog, I have written about buying IPOs before. While getting into an IPO can be a way to make money quickly, I have warned that not all IPOs go up in price. A point that I will again underscore is that buying an IPO can involve significant risk! This is certainly appears to be the case with Telsa.

Disclosure: I do not own any interest in Tesla Motors.

DC

Annual Income and Net Worth

2010-07-01T06:31:00.000-07:00

The single most popular post that I've ever written for PFStock is my Net Worth Update post. This post has several tables listing median networth versus age and annual income. I found that most people are searching for hard data that compares how they are doing compared to others, especially those who are the same age with a similar income.

For a while now, I've had an annual income poll in the sidebar of PFStock that asks readers to respond to the question: "How much do you make?" So far there have been 93 responses. In constructing this poll, I deliberately set the income ranges to correspond with the income ranges for the CNN Money website. This table tells you the median net worth for people that fall into each income category. Here are the latest data from the sidebar poll:

CNN Money: Net worth by income and percentage of PFStock readers within each income range.

Annual Income	Median Net Worth	% of PFStock Readers
less than $25k	$1,250	4%
$25k-$49k	$34,375	13%
$50k-$74k	$168,500	9%
$75k-$124k	$301,475	34%
$125k-$149k	$644,100	3%
$150k and higher	$1,122,900	34%

Note that the percentages do not add up to 100% due to rounding. From these statistics, I found it interesting that a large percentage of my readers fall into the higher income categories. Approximately 70% of PFStock readers have an income greater than $75,000 per year. Does anybody want to share their insights on this statement?

Given that I have the median net worth for each income category and the percentage of readers that fall within each category, it would be tempting for me to calculate the "average median net worth for PFStock readers" based on the CNN data. But, what value could such a data point possibly provide? Nevertheless I will throw caution to the wind and and let you know that using an Excel spreadsheet of these data I have calculated that the average median networth for PFStock readers is $532,050.27.

This result corresponds well with the other poll that I have on PFStock: What is your net worth? Again, I was surprised that a large percentage of readers fall within the higher net worth categories, with more than one-half of all readers reporting a networth of more than $500,000. If you haven't already, please participate in the polls in the PFStock sidebar, and I will update the information periodically.

Here are some interesting related posts:

Annual Income Survey (2/10)
How much do you make? (4/09)
Net Worth Update (8/09)
Net Worth Comparison (6/08)
Are You Wealthy? (3/08)
Calculating Net Worth (9/06)

DC

$628.65 Check From E*TRADE Class Action Settlement

2010-06-17T06:23:00.000-07:00

The other day, I opened up my mail and was surprised to discover a $628.65 check from a class action settlement. This arose out of allegations that E*TRADE recorded telephone calls without notifying the other party that they are being recorded.

For some background, in September of last year, I received an Email asking if received any telephone calls from E*TRADE during the period from September 3, 2003, to May 22, 2009. If I did then E*TRADE illegally recorded my conversation, and I could be eligible for a settlement of up to $5,000 if I filed a claim with the attorneys for the case of Greenberg v. E*TRADE.

I explicitly remember that I did receive at least one call from E*TRADE in 2007 after I asked for information about certain bonds (Principal Protected Notes) that they were offering to sell. These bonds were described in a post I wrote 3 years ago about New E*TRADE Offerings. For the record, I never did buy the bonds, but a broker called me to explain how the offering works.

Getting back to the class action, I was a little bit skeptical, but I completed the online claim form anyway. It only took a few minutes to fill in. I also remember reading some forum posts where several people expressed their skepticism that this was even a legitimate class action. In this forum, one poster even quipped that consumers might receive only $7.46 after waiting 4 years. Several people on the forum believed that this may be a scam that probably wasn't worth the trouble.

To make a long story short, E*TRADE did settle this case, and paid out $7.5 million. Of that, the lawyers took nearly $2 million, and the rest of the money was divided among the claimants. Based on the payment amount, I speculate there were probably around 10,000 completed claims. Anyway, this is an unexpected windfall for me.

I have also read that only people in California were entitled to the full $628.65. People in other states are supposed to receive one-fifth of that amount or $125.73. So, did anybody else receive a check from this settlement?

DC

Free Flash Drives Received

2010-06-10T06:34:00.000-07:00

In the past, I've written about receiving free USB flash drives at various conferences that I've attended. I have been searching the Internet to see if I could also find websites that offer USB flash drives freebies. For reference, a USB (Universal Serial Bus) flash drive is a portable computer memory that plugs into a computer USB port and can be used like a miniature hard disk. Also known as thumb drives, they were once considered a novelty among computer enthusiasts. But nowadays, USB flash drives can often be purchased in many locations, including drug and discount stores.

In my post about fake USB flash drives, I mentioned finding a few websites that claim to offer USB flash drive freebies. But in most cases, the websites were outdated, or that particular offer has expired. I didn't want to send my readers on a wild goose chase, so I haven't published any of those unconfirmed offers.

Now, I am happy to report that I have received a couple of free USB flash drive from legitimate offers. And, I want to share this information with my readers. The first flash drive I received is from MicroCenter. You can get one for signing up for their CENTERewards program. A link to their offer is here:

http://www.microcenter.com/images/at_the_stores/rewards.program/rewards.052709.pdf

This offer is for a 4GB Micro Center Flash Drive or a 4GB SD (SDHC) memory card. Although the form is available online, you have to actually go to a Micro Center store to claim the flash drive. So, that might not work out for everybody. I have received the actual drive, and can confirm that it is of good quality.

When I went to Micro Center to pick up my flash drive, they happened to be out of their own brand of 4Gb flash drives. They substituted this Kingston DataTraveler 4 GB USB Flash Drive instead.

I received my second flash drive by requesting program information from Columbia College. This college offers online course and have several campuses throughout the United States. I requested the flash drive through this link:

http://www.ccis.edu/offices/marketing/landing_pages/more/

It took a long while to receive my flash drive; I requested this drive in March 2010, and received it in June. When I first heard about the offer, I noticed that the page above didn't have any mention of the free flash drive. However, I did receive this Email in early March that confirmed a flash drive would be on its way:

Congratulations on taking the first step toward getting more out of your life! Soon you will receive a USB flash drive that is preloaded with a viewbook detailing what Columbia College offers, including testimonials from current students and alumni. So keep an eye on your mailbox for a package from us.

Then in late May, I got another Email saying:

We just wanted to let you know to keep an eye on your mailbox for the information you requested a few weeks ago from Columbia College. As promised, you’ll be receiving a free USB flash drive that is preloaded with the Columbia College viewbook. We apologize for the delay, but there was an overwhelming response — apparently, you are not alone in your desire to get more out of life.

After about three months, I finally received my drive in early June. In my post, about promotional USB flash drives, I mentioned a type of drive that shows up as two different drives when you plug it into a computer. One of the partitions on the Columbia College flash drive is identified by the computer as a CD ROM drive, and it contains an Autorun script that loads the Columbia college viewbook, which is a PDF file that gives an overview of their programs. The second partition looks and behaves like a regular USB flash drive. The total capacity of the the drive is 2GB.

So, these are two legitimate free USB drive offers. Does anybody else know of any other free USB offers? Can anybody report on the successes (or failures) that they've had?

DC

PFBlogs.org is Down for Maintenance?

2010-06-06T12:30:00.000-07:00

I use a website called PFBlogs.org both for reading other personal finance (PF) blogs, and for publishing the PFStock site RSS feed, so that more readers can find my posts. Over the past several days, I've noticed the following message when I have tried to go to that site:

pfblogs.org is down for maintenance.

Has anybody else taken note of the outage? Usually when this happens, the site comes back online within an hour or so. I suspect that it is not really down for maintenance, and that some larger problem exists with the site. I have noticed a less traffic to PFStock these days.

Another larger question that I would like to ask is what other personal finance aggregation sites do people use? I am starting to go into PF Blog withdrawal these days.

DC

Money Market Rates 6/10

2010-06-03T06:14:00.000-07:00

Good Riddance Beal Bank

2010-05-17T06:35:00.000-07:00

Several years ago, I opened a checking account at Umbrellabank.com. This online bank offered a checking account with a decent interest, and the bank would reimburse ATM charges if you made a withdrawal from a "foreign" ATM. I later opened a Pot O' Gold Money Market account with them, and eventually had tens of thousands of dollars at Umbrellabank.

Fast forward to December 2009, when Umbrella Bank (a division of New South Federal Savings Bank) was taken over by Beal Bank after being closed by the FDIC. At first, Beal Bank tried to reassure customers that everything was business as usual at the newly acquired bank, stating in a letter to account holders that "Your ATM/debit card will continue to work, and bill paying will work as it has in the past."

Just last month, I received a packet of material from Beal Bank essentially saying that they were eliminating all Umbrella Bank Checking accounts, and that ATM cards, bill payments and checks would no longer be honored as of May 10, 2010. This was the first time I had heard about this change.

So with less than three weeks notice, they sent me scrambling to find other places to put my money. I was especially annoyed because I used Umbrella Bank's online bill payment services. I had to setup another bank account to handle those payments. To make matters worse, it seemed that when Beal Bank eliminated online bill payments, they also eliminated online transfers, making it much harder to get your money out of Beal Bank once the conversion was completed.

Well, to make long story short, I finally got the last of my money out of Beal Bank, and I can now confidently say "Good Riddance!" to Beal Bank.

DC

Book Review: Personal Capital

2010-05-05T06:50:00.000-07:00

I was asked to write a review of the book "Personal Capital: Foundational Concepts of Capitalism" by J.L. Eaton. The book is approximately 200 pages, and was self-published by the author through Lulu.com. The text serves as a good introduction to personal finance. In the introduction, Mr. Eaton spells this out, saying "This book is written for those who have recently joined the professional workforce after finishing college and who are just starting out in the respective careers."

The book contains five main sections covering these topics: Basic Economics, Debt, Taxes, Real Estate, and Investments. Drawing upon such works as The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko, the author builds a case for accumulating investment assets and reducing debts. The author covers some of the most basic of economic ideas, such as The Rule of 72.

The author defines the term "Personal Capital" to represent the value of your investment assets minus all debts owed. This roughly corresponds to what most of us would refer to as Net Worth. However, he specifically excludes non-financial assets such as televisions, DVD players, laptops, desktop computers, and the like. Also excluded from Personal Capital is one’s primary residence. In addition to an extensive discussion of real estate, the author devotes a major section to the treatment of taxes. There is a lot of good information here, but one caveat that I can give is that some of the information is dated. The book was recently published (at the end of 2009), but the author often references tax rates and rules for 2008. As we all know, tax regulations are moving targets that change almost every year, so his numbers may not be current.

There is a section about securities that mostly cover bonds, and leaves only a short discussion of stocks. As the writer of a stock investing blog, I had hoped that the author would give a more detailed treatment of stocks. However, I understand that he has a broad topic to cover, and cannot get into every detail. The book is written in the style of a research paper where the author highlights the main points of each topic by drawing upon other writings. He makes generous use of footnotes throughout the book that refer to such texts as The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach, and Warren Buffet’s Letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders.

The general financial advice given is solid and straightforward. It should not surprise anybody with a basic understanding of personal finance. Thankfully, there are no get rich quick scams presented in this book. The author does a good job of covering a lot of material within 200 pages. Unlike popular finance authors like Robert Kiyosaki, and David Bach, Mr. Eaton hasn’t trademarked any buzzwords like "The Cashflow Quadrant". So, I don’t get the feeling that he is trying to sell me something else (like another book or audio program) when I’m reading this book.

Overall, I think that the author’s target audience may benefit from this well-written book. You are not likely to find Personal Capital at your local bookstore, but it is available through Amazon.com for $14.99. It can also be purchased as a PDF file download (ebook) from Lulu.com for only $6.

J.L. Eaton lives in Northern Virginia (near Washington DC) with his wife Marci. He maintains the Capitalism Curriculum website.

Money Market Rates 4/10

2010-04-09T07:05:00.000-07:00

Two Week Free Trial of MarketClub

2010-04-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

I hesitate to recommend a product on PFStock unless I feel that it is really worthwhile. MarketClub from INO.com, which I've mentioned before in my post MarketClub Pays for Itself, is one of those exceptional products. Now for a limited time, MarketClub is offering a 2-week free trial. This is a risk-free way to try out the powerful technical analysis tools at MarketClub -- which have earned my personal recommendation.

I don't know how long they will have this free trial offer available, but MarketClub is regularly priced at $449.00 per year. INO.com (pronounced "I know") normally offers a 30-day risk-free period, but they would ordinarily ask for your credit card number upfront. But, if you Click Here you can sign up for the free trial without giving them your credit card information. Even at full price, I feel that MarketClub is worthwhile because I've made much more than the cost of a subscription using their tools.

Anyway, there are 4 powerful trading tools available to MarketClub members that you, as a free trial member, will have access to: Smart Scan, Trade School, Chart Analysis, and Data Central. You also will have access to numerous videos from Adam Hewison, the creator of MarketClub. One other major bonus about this trial is that their, customer support team will be providing unlimited support! You can call or email MarketClub for an instant response to any question, comment or concern.

DC

Should You Invest in Gold?

2010-04-01T06:15:00.000-07:00

On this blog, I haven't talked much about investing in gold or in precious metals. With the upward trend of gold prices in the last few years, I have started to consider gold as an investment. But, I've been afraid that I might be a little bit late to the party. To give me more to think about, the folks at INO.com (pronounced "I know") recently sent me an Email with a link to their video about the future of gold prices. I thought that it would be useful to re-post their message here.

Note: The views expressed are those of the original author, and do not necessarily reflect those of PFStock.

Why gold will not make new highs or lows this year
by Adam Hewison, INO.com President

Gold has had some dramatic moves in the last eighteen months and we expect it will have some equally dramatic moves in the future, but not right now.

Click Here to see Adam's 4-minute video about gold.

While I recognize that gold is one of the few commodity markets that people are really passionate about; the purpose of this article is not to take sides either with the gold bugs or those who reject the argument that gold is forever. Rather, I want to discuss my interpretation of the markets cycle.

After spot gold made an all-time high against the dollar on December 2 at $1,226.37, gold has been in retreat mode. For the for the past several months gold has been in a broad trading range, seemingly unable to move one way or another. This process has created frustration from bulls and bears alike.

Here is the dirty little secret about the gold market. It can be a horrible investment and here's why:

Gold first started trading in the 80s while I was on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in Chicago as a member of the International Monetary Market, (IMM) which was at that time a division of the CME now the CME Group. When gold opened up the public clamored to buy into the gold futures market and guess who sold it to them? That's right it was the pros- the guys who made their living trading. As a result, gold hit an all-time high of around $850 an ounce back then and it took almost 25 years for gold to move over that level, at least in dollar terms. I don't know what your timeline is, but 25 to 30 years is an awful long time to get even again.

So what is really happening in this market?

Everyone is aware of the problems in Europe with Greece, Portugal and a host of yet to be named countries. We all know that the huge amount of money being printed, coupled with the bank failures abroad contribute to the dollars declining value. These events, in conjunction with the American governments actions, also contribute to the devaluation of the dollar. The government claims that this is beneficial to exports, but the bottom line is that the purchasing power of the American dollar continues to erode in world markets.

Based on the declining value of world currency against gold you might ask- why isn't gold trading at $2,000 or even $3,000 an ounce? What is wrong with this market? This is because a great deal of what goes into the gold market is psychological and reacts to cyclic trends driven by both psychological and economic factors.

So what does all this have to do with the price of gold now? It has everything to do with gold and nothing to do with gold.

Here is what I've been able to observe in the last several years in gold and seems to be holding true. It is something that you should pay attention to if you're interested in the next big move in the gold market.

Before gold can move higher it needs to create what I call an "energy field". The most recent energy fields in gold were between May 12, 2006 and September 20, 2007. This 17 month energy field saw gold prices oscillate between a broad trading range bound by $730.08 (upside) and $541.80 (downside). That energy field produced enough power to propel gold to the new high of $1,012.40 on March 17, 2008. This marked the first time gold exceeded, in dollar terms, the highs set in the early 80s mentioned earlier.

The energy fields I have observed for gold are taking somewhere between 17 and 18 months to complete. If the energy field holds, then the December 3rd 2009 high of $1,226.37 should remain in place for quite some time. If the same cycle remains true then the recent lows that we witnessed, at $1,050, should also remain intact as they represent the 15 to 16 month cycle low.

With the lows in place the next question becomes when is the next cyclical high in gold? Based on the existing cycle, we can expect the next major gold high in 2011.

To summarize: I expect gold to be locked in a broad trading range for the next 12 months bounded by the December 09 highs of 1,226.37 and the lows of $1,050.00. If the gold cycle holds true, we expect that gold tops the $1,226.37 marker by April or May of 2011.

On the upside we will also be looking for gold to make a nature cyclic high in October or November of 2011. It's impossible to predict the future with any degree of accuracy; however when we look at the cycles in gold this reads as a pretty good bet.

No matter what happens we expect gold will offer some great trading opportunities that investors and traders should be able to take advantage of.

Listen to Adam's technical analysis of the gold chart.

As I always discuss- in trading one should approach gold or any other market with a game plan and proper money management stops. The key to success in this decade will be an investors willingness to move in and out of asset classes such as gold and be well diversified into more than one asset class. That way you wont be left holding the bag for the next 25 years. Our World Commodity Portfolio is a good example of this approach and one I believe will serve investors well in the coming years.

--
Adam Hewison is the Co-creator of MarketClub. For a limited time, MarketClub is offering a 2-week free trial. This is a risk-free way to try out the powerful technical analysis tools at MarketClub -- which have earned my personal recommendation. For more information, see my post MarketClub Pays for Itself.

DC

How Much Does A Free TV Set Cost?

2010-03-15T06:33:00.000-07:00

A while back, I wrote a post about receiving a free HDTV when I opened a new Certificate of Deposit (CD) account at Irwin Union Bank. Specifically, the offer was made to customers who open an 11-month CD with a minimum deposit of $20,000. At the time, the bank informed me that they would report the value of the free gift ($280) to the IRS (on a 1099 form). Since it was clear that a 1099 form would translate into additional income taxes, I knew that the free TV set was not truly free.

The TV itself is a 22 inch Toshiba model 22AV600U. It is the first HDTV that I've owned, and the picture is quite sharp compared to our old tube TVs. The new TV includes a built-in NTSC/ATSC/clear QAM tuner that can tune into both broadcast TV and cable. (It is an unadvertised fact that cable subscribers who have a clear QAM tuner can often receive unencrypted HD cable TV, without adding "digital" cable to their service.)

Anyway, how much did the "free" TV end up costing me? Our Federal marginal tax rate (aka: tax bracket) is 25%, and our California state tax bracket is 9.55%. So, the TV costs is (25% + 9.55%) * $280 = $96.74. It is not a free TV, but that is still a lot less than the retail price for a new 22" HDTV (typically about $250-300).

I deposited $20,000 in the CD for an 11-month term with an interest rate of 1.96% in July 2009. Then in September 2009, Irwin Union Bank was closed by the FDIC with its accounts and assets transferred to First Financial Bank (of Ohio). Subsequent to the Irwin Union Bank closing, the acquiring bank (First Financial) sent me a letter saying that it reduced my CD interested rate to 1.5% for the remainder of my CD's term. Ironically the FDIC says that this is all perfectly legal. However, they would let me withdraw my money from the CD without any early withdrawal penalty. And I would get to keep the free TV, too.

DC

Fake USB Flash Drives

2010-03-08T06:50:00.000-08:00

A while back, I wrote about collecting free promotional USB flash drives at various investment conferences that I've attended. I have been searching the Internet to see if I could also find websites that offer USB flash drives freebies. For reference, a USB (Universal Serial Bus) flash drive is a portable computer memory that plugs into a computer USB port and can be used like a miniature hard disk. Also known as thumb drives, they were once considered a novelty among computer enthusiasts. But nowadays, USB flash drives can often be purchased in many commonplace stores, including drug and discount stores.

Anyway, I did find a few websites that claim to offer USB flash drive freebies. In many cases, the website is outdated, and that particular offer has expired. Among the unexpired offers, I ended up submitting my mailing address and contact information to a few sites. But, I am disappointed to report that I haven't received a free USB flash drive from any of them. Can anybody report on any successes (or failures) that they've had?

In my searches on the web, I did uncover a disturbing trend: fake USB flash memory. To be clear, the flash memory itself is not fake; rather the capacity that the USB device reports to the operating system is fake. For example some people have reported purchasing a 32GB flash drive on eBay that they later found out could only store 4GB of data. To make matter worse when the real capacity of the drive is exceeded it starts to overwrite their existing data. Not surprisingly, when the end user finally realizes that they've been duped, they also learn that the eBay seller has closed shop and doesn't respond to Email messages.

As a technical matter, these unscrupulous sellers are reprogramming the USB controller chip to falsely report the capacity of the flash memory. To help detect this fake flash memory, there is a tool called h2testw that tests your USB flash drive by filling the memory with real data and trying to read back every bit of it. The tool can be be downloaded here: h2testw. This site is written in German. If you can't read it, you can click here for a translation that somewhat resembles English. The tool itself has instructions in both German (liesmich.txt) and English (readme.txt).

There is a website called SOSFakeFlash that contains a lot of helpful information about the problem of fake flash memory. It seems that much of fake flash memory sold on eBay originates from foreign sellers in Asia and Europe. However, there also appear to be domestic (U.S.) sellers who are also getting into the act. Their tactics are similar.

In my experience, I have purchased items on eBay before, such as a used DVD recorder. Regardless of the item, one suggestion that I can offer about buying items on eBay is to avoid sellers that have little feedback history, and are listing a large number of items for sale at once. These sellers are trying to make as many sales as possible before they get caught selling fraudulent goods. If it is a legitimate deal from a legitimate seller, it will still be there in the future. Also, bear in mind that the price of flash memory goes down in time (Moore's Law).

If you are a victim of this scam, I would first suggest contacting the seller. Inform them that you know that they are selling bogus flash memory, and demand a refund. If they don't respond, open a dispute on eBay that the item is not as described (e.g., I paid for a 64GB USB flash drive, but received a 4GB flash drive). I don't recommend that you claim the item is counterfeit because many of the fake flash drives out there are generic and don't represent a particular brand name (e.g., Sandisk, Sony, HP, etc.) If you make a counterfeit claim, eBay may ask for third party verification of the claim which you would have to pay for.

From my standpoint, I am glad that I haven't bought any bogus USB flash drives. All of the flash memory that I do have seems to check out fine when I run the h2testw program. But, I am curious if any of my readers have any experience with this bogus flash memory.

Note: While I was writing this post, I saw a 128GB Kingston DataTraveler 200 USB flash drive offered on eBay at the "Buy It Now" price of only $27. However, Kingston's list price for this item is $547. A few hours later, the seller had racked up hundreds of sales. And shortly after that, the listing and the seller disappeared from eBay... Doesn't that sound suspicious to you?

DC

Decoding Tax Acronyms

2010-03-02T11:30:00.000-08:00

The PR people at TurboTax recently sent me a list of "taxcronyms". Presumably, a taxcronym is a tax acronym that many people are not familiar with. In any case, I found their blog post to contain a lot of useful information, and I have asked for permission to reproduce it on my blog. Note: The views expressed are those of the original blogger, and do not necessarily reflect those of PFStock.

Common and Complex Taxcroynms Decoded

The TurboTax Blog

By Lauren Young, TurboTax Deductionista

http://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/taxes-101/common-and-complex-taxcroynms-decoded/

Anyone who has ever looked at the tax code knows about the alphabet soup of acronyms associated with taxes. In addition to the big one—IRS a.k.a. Internal Revenue Service—I’m guessing that there are more than 100 taxcronyms out there. Here’s a guide to decoding some common as well as complex tax acronyms.

AGI

Your Adjusted Gross Income is key to figuring out your taxes, but computing it can be tricky. Thankfully, TurboTax takes care of the legwork for you. The AGI includes your income, minus certain deductions such as alimony, interest for student loans and contributions to a retirement account.

AMT

The Alternative Minimum Tax was originally designed to tax the 150 most wealthy Americans back in 1969. But because the AMT was never indexed for inflation, millions of people pay it today. A temporary patch for 2009 returns sets the AMT exemption at $46,700 for single filers and $70,950 for joint filers.

Here’s how I describe the AMT: It’s a bizarre parallel tax universe in which you lose most of your valuable tax deductions, including the standard deduction along with state and local taxes. Overall, some 4 million taxpayers are expected to pay $35.5 billion in AMT in 2009, at an average of about $8,400 each, according to the Tax Policy Center.

It’s pretty hard to avoid the AMT, if you stuck in this tax trap—I know this firsthand. We’ve been paying the AMT for nearly a decade.

EIN

If you work in corporate America , your employer has a nine-digit Employer Identification Number. And this number is key to making online tax filing easy. With this number you can import your employment tax information directly into TurboTax.

EITC

The Earned Income Tax Credit is designed to give the lower-paid workers—I like to refer to them as the worker bees—a chance to lower their taxes or claim a refund. To get the credit, your income cannot exceed $13,440 if you are single and have no children. (The income threshold is $18,440 if you are married and filing with your spouse). If you fit the bill, you are eligible for a $457 credit.

Those little (or not-so-little) bundles of joy living in your home make this tax credit even more valuable. Depending on the number of children you have, the credit increases from $3,043 (one child) to $5,657 (three kids or more), But you cannot earn more than $43,279 if you are single and $48,279 if married and filing jointly with three or more qualifying kids.

Overall, the EITC was responsible for helping Americans realize $49 billion in tax credits in 2008.

FSA

A Flexible Spending Arrangement lets you save pretax money for qualified health-care services every year. They are typically a use-or-lose proposition, though, so it is important to set a careful estimate of your health-related expenses. If you end up with a lot of money left in your FSA at the end of the year, consider donating medical supplies to a local school or clinic.

HSA

As the cost of health insurance continues to climb, more employees are opting for Health Savings Accounts. These high-deductible health plans (HDHP) let employees make contributions to a savings account with pretax dollars. While your employer may or may not contribute to the account, any money you do not use can continue to grow, similar to a retirement savings plan.

For the 2009 tax year, HSA holders can deduct up to $5,950 if the account is for family coverage. And if you are 55 or older, you can add another $1,000.

IRA

An Individual Retirement Arrangement is one of the best—and simplest—ways to save for retirement, especially if you don’t have an employer-sponsored retirement savings plan. Since your savings are tax-deferred, IRAs also help reduce your overall taxable income. If you discover that you have a big tax bill, you may be able to open a traditional IRA for the corresponding tax year to minimize your financial burden. But, like everything related to taxes, there are bells and whistles.

If you are under age 50, the maximum amount you can stash in a traditional IRA for 2009 is $5,000. If you are older than 50, the contribution cap rises to $6,000. But you also have to meet certain income restrictions to get the tax benefit of an IRA. For example, if you are married filing jointly, your modified adjusted gross income must be $89,000 or less to get the maximum deduction.

IRAs come in several distinct flavors: while traditional IRAs help cut your tax bill now, it makes sense for some folks to use Roth IRAs which require you to pay your taxes upfront. In 2010, the once-restrictive rules for Roth eligibility are shifting in a big way. Here’s a rundown of the changes.

MSA

A Medical savings account is mainly used by self-employed folks or employees of small businesses along with their spouses and dependents. They are similar in scope to HSAs–you can accumulate savings for medical expenses tax-free. The money you save is portable if you change employers.

MFJ

Married couples have the option to file their taxes together or separately, but most save thousands of dollars by filing jointly (married filing jointly). That’s because filing separately disqualifies you from some of the most significant tax credits and deductions which include the EITC (above) along with valuable childcare and dependent care deductions.

MFS

While it usually makes sense for married couples to file their taxes together, there are a few exceptions to this rule-of-thumb. You’ll want to use the married filing separate tax status if your spouse is in trouble with the Feds and hasn’t paid taxes in a while. (I actually know a couple who encountered this problem. NOT good.) Married couples should also consider filing separate returns if one of you has a huge tax bill and the other could get a refund. Here’s some more information about marriage and taxes from TurboTax.

SIMPLE

In addition to traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs, there is also the Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees. SIMPLE IRA plans are a favorite retirement savings vehicle for small businesses (100 employees or less) because they are actually fairly easy to set up. Employees and employers can make contributions to traditional IRAs, although there are limitations.

OIC

The financial crisis has left a lot of taxpayers with big bills and little financing options. An Offer in Compromise is an agreement between a taxpayer and the IRS to settle a taxpayer’s tax debt for less than the full amount owed. But the reduced equity taxpayers have in their real estate holdings may complicate the deal.

To decode more taxcronyms, check out this handy, dandy IRS tip sheet.

Annual Income Survey

2010-02-22T06:25:00.000-08:00

In April 2009, I asked my blog readers the question: How much do you make? That is the question that many people have on their mind, but few people are willing to ask. And even fewer are willing to answer... In spite of that, my post invited readers to leave a comment revealing their annual income, as well as their age and occupation. Some readers also state their gender and geographic location.

Very few comments have been entered to date, even though readers can enter anonymous comments on PFStock. However, I recently placed a poll in the sidebar of PFStock that asks the same thing: "How much do you make?" With over 35 votes so far, the response to this poll has been much better than to my post. Here are the latest data from the sidebar poll:

Annual Income of PFStock Readers (as of 2/20/10)

Annual Income	Percentage
less than $25k	5%
$25k-$49k	15%
$50k-$74k	5%
$75k-$124k	35%
$125k-$149k	5%
$150k and higher	33%

(Totals do not add up to 100% due to rounding.) These statistics will give you some insight about how your income compares against other PFStock readers. It seems that the median income of my blog readers is about $100k per year. I found it interesting that one in four readers has an income over $150,000. (In fact, this number fluctuated, but is sometimes as high as one-third of all readers making more than $150k.) I wonder how the average income of PFStock readers compares to the readers of other personal finance blogs. Does anybody have any insight on that? I think that I can say that 70% of PFStock readers have an income greater than $75,000 per year.

I was surprised at how willing people were to vote in an anonymous poll. At the same time, my post did not receive such a response. Perhaps people are skeptical that their responses will be kept anonymous. Or maybe they are unwilling to spend a few minutes writing a response, while clicking a button on the poll only takes a few seconds. In any case, I encourage you to participate in the anual income poll in the sidebar, and/or leave a comment here. I want to assure you that my Blogger account does not collect Email addresses or any other personal information, if you select "Anonymous" on the comment form. To be doubly sure, you can also sign out of Blogger.

Over the years, I have found that readers are innately curious about other people's finances. This natural curiosity -- wanting to assess how one is doing compared to others -- has led me to write my most popular post of all time: Net Worth Update. Thousands of readers have seen this post, but again very few comments have been entered. In other words, people want to have a peek at others finances, but very few are willing to reveal any details of their own personal finances.

So, what should my next poll be? A poll about net worth seems to be logical choice. Please see the sidebar to participate in the new poll.

DC

Tax Tips Software Winner

2010-02-17T06:56:00.000-08:00

Congratulation to Stephen Grimes, who is the winner of the H&R Block Giveaway Contest. He will be receiving a copy of H&R Block At Home Deluxe (formerly known as TaxCut) which includes tax preparation for both federal and state returns.

His tax tip was to harvest stock losses, saying "I did this a year ago near market bottom, and I will be deducting $3000 per year off my income tax for five years!!"

Here are some of the other tax tips I've received (as well as some of my own).

File your taxes for free online. Many websites offer free online filing if you meet their criteria.
Buy a copy of J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax or the Ernst & Young Tax Guide to help with understanding tax laws and with preparing your taxes. Better yet, check out a copy of either one from your local library for free.
Contribute the most you can to a 401(k) plan at work.
Read PFStock and other personal finance blogs. (I think that this contributor has his own personal finance blog.)

The contest is over now, but if you have any other good tax or money saving suggestions that you would like to share, I encourage you to leave a comment below.

If you missed out on the H&R Block At Home giveaway, I do have a couple $10 rebate coupons good through 4/15/10. The rebate is good for $10 off of an H&R Block At Home Deluxe or higher purchase from retail stores. If you are interested, Email me your mailing address. I cover the postage to send it to you, but this offer is limited to the first two responses that I get since I only have two coupons.

DC

Last Chance To Win Tax Software

2010-02-03T07:29:00.000-08:00

The deadline to enter the H&R Block Giveaway Contest is approaching. This contest will end on February 12, and the winner will be drawn from among the eligible entries. To recap, the folks at H&R Block have provided me a copy of H&R Block At Home Deluxe (retail value $45) to give away to one of my lucky blog readers. H&R Block At Home was formerly known as TaxCut.

This giveaway is for a new Deluxe (Tax Year 2009) version of H&R Block At Home which includes tax preparation for both Federal & State returns. That should be adequate for most people to complete their own taxes. Although the software includes free federal e-file, you may have to pay extra if you want to also efile a state return.

I am holding a random drawing for the tax software. Based on the current number of entries, your chances of winning are still pretty good. You can enter to win by posting a comment here.

As a reminder, you will need to send me an Email message letting me know that you posted a comment. Blogger does not retain your contact information, and anonymous comments are permitted.

DC

This promotion is held in conjunction with PFStock.com.
Note: H&R Block At Home software was provided for review by H&R Block. All opinions expressed are my own.

H&R Block Giveaway Contest

2010-01-23T07:59:00.000-08:00

The folks at H&R Block have provided me a copy of H&R Block At Home Deluxe (retail value $45) to give away to one of my lucky blog readers. H&R Block At Home was formerly known as TaxCut. This giveaway is for a new Deluxe (Tax Year 2009) version of H&R Block At Home which includes tax preparation for both Federal & State returns. That should be adequate for most people to complete their own taxes. Although the software includes free federal e-file, you may have to pay extra if you want to also efile a state return.

I have decided to hold a random drawing for the software. You can have up to three chances to win the prize:

1) Any reader can post a comment below describing your best tax or money saving tip.
2) For an additional entry, web site owners can link to this post, to let other know about this contest.
3) Lastly, my fellow bloggers can add PFStock to your blogroll (must be accessible from blog's main page) for one more entry in the drawing.

There is one more step. Since Blogger does not automatically collect contact information, and I allow anonymous comments, you will need to send me an Email message letting me know that you posted a comment, created a link to my post, and/or added PFStock your blogroll. (My E-mail address is in the sidebar of my blog.)

The drawing is limited to US residents. The software requires Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Mac OS X 10.4.11 or greater. The winner will be randomly picked from among the qualified entries received by February 12. I will contact the winner to get their mailing address, and I'll pick up the cost of postage. (Note that the software come in a sealed retail box, but it got a little bit crushed when it was mailed to me.) Good luck to everyone who enters!

DC

This promotion is held in conjunction with PFStock.com.
Note: H&R Block At Home software was provided for review by H&R Block. All opinions expressed are my own.

Do You Need 60X Annual Expenses to Retire Early?

2010-01-19T06:26:00.000-08:00

Three years ago, I published a post titled The Millionaire's Rule of Thumb which presented an often quoted formula for expected net worth based on age and income. Many readers have expressed their dissatisfaction with the formula which is attributed to the book, The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko. I predicted that someday a reader would develop a new and improved formula.

Three years to the day after I first posted that article, a reader who goes by the name of "dunkelblau" has indeed come up with a new and improved formula! Below is summary of dunkelblau's comments taken from this post, and from my very popular Net Worth Update post. (Note: Comments have been edited.)

I agree that wealth should be measured in units of time rather than dollars -- as in how long you can holdout without any wage income. But the correct denominator is annual expenses, not annual income. You're ready to retire when your networth divided by your annual expenses reaches 100 minus your age in years.

I don't blame you if you didn't catch that. What the reader is saying is that if you take your net worth and divide that by annual expenses, that should equal 100 minus your age. The reader refers to net worth as the "numerator" and annual expenses as the "denominator". Reading on, dunkelblau continues by saying:

Investing well increases the numerator, but even investing badly still shrinks the denominator (assuming you don't borrow to invest). I think a conservative target number [for this quotient] is 100 minus your age in years. This way there's little chance of outliving your money.

So, as further clarification, another way to say this is that your net worth should equal your annual expenses times (100 minus your age):

Net Worth = Annual Expenses * (100 - age)

Lets take the example of a 40 year old who has saved $1 million for retirement. If this person can reduce expenditures to $40,000 per year, a common rule of thumb is that one can live off of the $1 million saved by assuming a conservative 4% safe withdrawal rate. See Resources for Early Retirement.

However, the "new and improved" wealth formula dictates that one needs (100 - age) times annual expenses to retire. In the case of a 40 year old, that would be 60X annual expenses, or a whopping $2.4 million for this individual to retire! Conversely, this person could further reduce their spending to less than $17,000 per year in order to live off of the $1 million. No wonder people assume that early retirement is impossible! The other curious thing about this new "formula" is that as one ages, the expected net worth actually goes down if annual expenses are kept constant. The one thing that I agree with dunkelblau about is that if you follow this formula, there is little chance of outliving your savings.

Anyway, my common sense tells me to take dunkelblau's formula with a grain of salt. In my opinion, this is definitely a new formula, but where is the improvement? What do the readers think?

DC

Update on Merck

2010-01-04T06:59:00.001-08:00

Back in November, I wrote a post about buying Merck. I made this decision based on a stock analysis service called MarketClub. This is part of a website called INO.com (pronounced "I know") where I can research stocks, futures, or forex products. I recently used their Trade Triangle analysis to help me decide on buying Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK).

At the time of my post, Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) was trading around $34, but it has increased significantly since my previous post. I had actually bought the stock about a month earlier than my post. Although I usually don't disclose the full details of my stock transaction on my blog, I thought that it would be instructive to share the details of this trade. For my own reference, this post will serve as a record of a trade that I got right.

Here is the summary of my trade: On 10/12/09, I bought 300 shares of MRK at 32.99. On 12/24/09, I sold 300 shares of MRK at 36.76. As I mentioned, the opening transaction was based on technical analysis done using Trade Triangles from MarketClub portion of the INO.com website. The closing transaction is due to a stop order that I placed after the stock started to move up. The idea behind a stop order is to protect gains from a potential decline in the stock price. However, volatility will sometimes cause one to be "stopped out" prematurely. That is one danger of placing a stop order.

On a percentage basis, this trade was not as successful as my investment in Bare Escentuals (NASDAQ: BARE ). Nevertheless, it still represents an 11.4% gain over the period. I don't usually compare my trades with the S&P 500 index, but I know that a lot of investors consider that to be an important measure of success. For the record, the S&P rose 4.6% over same period. The difference between my return and the S&P is 6.8%, and is referred to by some analysis as "alpha". There are entire websites that exist for the sole purpose of seeking positive alpha.

From a personal standpoint, I am always happy to rack up a good gain regardless of whether it generates a positive alpha. I also can't argue with success, and while I was at first very skeptical of technical analysis tools like Trade Triangles, I have had good success with INO.com, so I intend to continue using this technique in my investing.

DC

H&R Block At Home (formerly TaxCut)

2009-12-23T08:02:00.000-08:00

Last week, I received a copy of H&R Block At Home (that is the new name for TaxCut) tax preparation software in the mail. I have noticed that if you register your copy of either TaxCut or TurboTax with the manufacturer, they will automatically send you a CD-ROM with their software for the following year. H&R Block did this again. If you get one of these package in the mail, don't be fooled into thinking that you are getting something for nothing. Usually, you aren't aware of the cost of the software until you insert the CD-ROM into your computer and read through the fine print. This time, H&R Block was a little more transparent about the pricing. It printed "Only $34.95" on the front of the DVD case that it came in. But, for most people the $34.95 version of the software will not be adequate for their needs. Expect to spend at least $45 if you plan on filing a state tax return.

The H&R Block At Home (formerly TaxCut) CD-ROM that I received in the mail did have a $10 rebate coupon for purchases from certain stores (specifically Amazon.com, Best Buy, Target, Office Depot, Microcenter, Staples, and Fry's Electronics). So, it usually ends up being cheaper for me to buy this tax software through a retail store rather than installing the version I received in the mail. In the past, I've noticed that some retailers offer a free movie DVD with purchase of Taxcut, so I will usually hold out until I see a similar deal.

As a side note, H&R Block used to offer a rebate for certain financial software (e.g., Microsoft Money) with the purchase of TaxCut. But, MS Money has been discontinued by Microsoft. The 2008 version (Microsoft Money Plus) was the last planned version of this financial software. (I might consider converting everything over to Intuit's Quicken in the future.)

As far as tax software is concerned, I have always used the Premium "desktop" version of the tax software, which includes the state version of the tax preparation software. This year it looks like H&R Block At Home has adopted the TurboTax naming calling their product "Deluxe" rather than Premium. An online version is available for both TurboTax and TaxCut, which I have not used. I also haven't tried using e-file yet, but I might consider it this year.

One last thing that I wanted to bring up is that TurboTax is offering to answer tax questions for free. Here is a link to the Intuit offer from TurboTax. My main criticism that I have about this offer is that it is only good until the end of January 2010. I would guess that the average person doesn't even get started with their taxes until February or March. By that time, they will be too late to take advantage of this free advice.

So, what tax software do you use?

Note to Commenters: If you represent a company such as Intuit, H&R Block, Microsoft, etc., please leave your contact information or send me an Email (my Email address is listed in the sidebar) to let me know that you left a comment. If I cannot determine that your comment is authentic, it will be deleted.

DC

Tax Questions Answered

2009-12-14T08:40:00.000-08:00

It is that time of year again when you should start thinking about your 2009 taxes. I have been using computer tax software to prepare my taxes since 1996, and I plan to do so again this year. Once again, the two main contenders are TurboTax and H&R Block At Home (formerly known as TaxCut). I have not yet decided which of these software products I will use, although I have been using the H&R Block product for the last several years.

Anyway, the point of this post is to mention that TurboTax is once again offering to answer personal tax questions for free. They have IRS-Enrolled Agents and tax preparers available to help you with your tax question. To get started, you need to submit your question through their website: www.freetaxquestion.com. A tax advisor will research your question and give you a phone call to discuss your tax issue. Questions about this offer should be directed to TurboTax; contact Alexandra Cuccias (Alexandra@outcastpr.com) with any questions.

There are a couple of catches to the offer. First, it appears you that can only submit a question between the hours of 8am and 5pm PST, Monday to Friday. Second, this free offer is only valid through January 31, 2010. So, you need to be organized enough to know what tax question you want to ask before then. My criticism here is that the average person doesn't even get started with their taxes until February or March. By that time, it will be too late to take advantage of this free service. After January 31, TurboTax will charge $23.95 for this advice. In the past, H&R Block had a similar free offer, but I have not heard if they will be offering that service again this tax year

Getting back to tax preparation software, I have usually chosen TaxCut because it is generally cheaper than TurboTax. Also, I have usually been able to get a free copy of Microsoft Money Deluxe with the purchase of TaxCut. However, MS Money has been discontinued by Microsoft, and H&R Block is no longer offering any free financial software with the purchase of their tax software. Some retailers are offering a free copy of Quicken Starter Edition 2010 with the purchase of TurboTax, but that version of Quicken would be too underpowered for my circumstances.

Note to Commenters: If you represent a company such as Intuit, H&R Block, Microsoft, etc., please leave your contact information or send me an Email (my Email address is listed in the sidebar) to let me know that you left a comment. If I cannot determine that your comment is authentic, it will be deleted.

DC

Money Market Rates 12/09

2009-12-04T06:26:00.000-08:00

Here are the latest money market interest rates of the banks that I've been tracking on my blog. Note that these rates are sorted by APY, and represent institutions that I have accounts at, or have otherwise mentioned in my blog:

1.95% Shorebank Direct Online Savings
1.59% Ally Bank Online Savings
1.35% HSBCDirect Online Savings
1.30% ING Direct Orange Savings
1.15% Citibank Ultimate Money
1.15% Citibank Ultimate Savings
1.10% Umbrellabank Pot O' Gold Money Market
0.55% Western FCU Money Market
0.53% Chase Online Savings
0.50% E*TRADE Complete Savings
0.06% PayPal Money Market*

NOTES: *The PayPal Money Market fund is NOT FDIC insured.
Rates are believed to be accurate as of 12/3/09. I did not include banks that had special, or introductory rates in the list because they are not ongoing interest rates. I am also not including non-liquid accounts such as CD's in the list.

So, there is the latest list. Please let me know if you know of any higher interest rates.

DC

Trade Triangle: Merck (MRK)

2009-11-19T06:13:00.000-08:00

A couple months ago, I wrote about making money by using a stock analysis service called MarketClub. This is part of a website called INO.com (pronounced "I know") where I can research stocks, futures, or forex products. I recently used their Trade Triangle analysis to help me decide on buying Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK).

Over the past several months, I have been looking for individual stocks that I can get back into. I used MarketClub to get an instant analysis of Merck, and the results are shown below.

This analysis shows that Merck is now in a strong uptrend, and that this is an ideal time to buy the stock. MarketClub's Smart Scan analysis calls this situation a "Trade Triangle" with a +100 being the highest possible score. This kind of technical analysis is great for trend traders who like the "red-light, green-light" simplicity of investing. So, I bought some shares of MRK based on this information.

With a very strong gain yesterday, I have already made more money on Merck than what a MarketClub subscription costs for one year. Note that Trade Triangles are strictly a technical analysis tool. I don't use the MarketClub analysis to tell me what to buy. I rely more on fundamental characteristics like Earnings Per Share (EPS) and PE ratios to decide on which stock to buy. But, I use MarketClub to tell me when to buy. I now have a stop order in place to help protect my gains.

Another comment that I have is that MarketClub does not require you to download and install any software. This is good because you can access your subscription from pretty much any computer. The downside is that your access speed will be limited by your Internet connection. In other words, MarketClub is not the fastest analysis tool that I've ever seen. But, it is pretty good considering that the software runs on their servers and not your computer.

You can subscribe to MarketClub for $150 per quarter or $449 for a year. You will have complete access to many of the investment tools available on INO.com. There is a 30-day risk-free trial period in which you can try them out. They will ask for a credit card when you sign up, but you have the right to cancel within the first 30 days and get all of your money back. So, what do you have to lose?

Another free tool that I utilize to help me keep on top of my portfolio is called Trend Analysis. Trend Analysis is a daily email analysis tool that gives me insight into exactly what my portfolio is doing. For investors who are following many stock symbols, MarketClub sends a daily Email for every symbol in your portfolio.

The links above takes you to a screen where you can get your first stock (future or option) symbol analyzed at no cost to you. After you sign up, you can easily add more symbols to get a daily update, which I find very helpful.

DC

Disclaimer: This material is for general information only. It is not intended as an offer to sell or buy, or as an endorsement, recommendation or sponsorship of any security or fund.

Countrywide SavingsLink Revisited

2009-11-10T06:48:00.000-08:00

I first wrote about the Countrywide Bank SavingsLink account in 2007. This account offered interest rates as high as 5.5% at one point. It featured free online transfers between linked external bank accounts. Countrywide was acquired by Bank of America early last year, but the final merging of accounts was not completed until September 2009.

The SavingsLink account is no longer offered by Bank of America, and has been replaced by the "Growth Money Market Savings SL" account. According to my last statement, I am getting an APY of 1.23% in my account, but I think that the rate varies based on account balance. I was not able to find a rate sheet for this particular account on Bank of America's website.

Bank of America's Money Market Savings SL account does not have the same transfer features that the SavingsLink account did. The accounts that I had previously linked to my SavingsLink account were no longer available. When I try to transfer funds to or from Bank of America, it asks me to sign up for SafePass which applies an extra level of security (and complexity) to online transfers. SafePass requires a cell phone, and it will send a 6-digit, one-time passcode as a text message (regular text message fees will apply) to your mobile phone. If you don't have a cell phone, they can set you up with a standalone SafePass card for a one time fee of $19.99.

According to their service agreement, BofA charges a fee of $3 for each outbound transfer. There is no charge for inbound transfers. But there are transfer limits of $3,000 per day or $6,000 per month. I remember transferring as much as $25,000 at one time into my SavingsLink account. I called Bank of America to ask a customer service representative about the reason for these limits, but I only got a vague explanation to the effect that certain customers may have higher limits depending depending on their relationship with the bank.

One other major change is that unlike Countrywide Bank, Bank of America has branches everywhere. Whereas physical deposits to Countrywide Bank had to be mailed to processing facility in Texas, you can make deposit to Bank of America at nearly any branch. At this point, I figure that if I need to transfer money in or out, it might be easier to just go to the branch.

I am no longer tracking the SavingsLink account in my regular money market rates posts because it is no longer available to new depositors.

DC

Annoying Phone Calls

2009-10-06T09:20:00.000-07:00

I didn't sleep well last night. We received a couple of annoying phone calls that woke me up at around 3:30 am, and again at 5:30 am. My caller ID tells me that the caller's phone number is 408-651-8179, and it is identified as either "TOWER SOFT", "OUT OF AREA" OR "UNAVAILABLE". Searching the web, it seems like I am not the only person whose sleep was disturbed last night. See Caller Complaints, 800 Notes, and Who Calls Me? I found dozens of complaints from last night alone on these websites.

Like me, many of the recipients of these phone calls are on the Do-Not-Call Registry. In most cases the phone rings two or three times, but there is nobody on the other end when they answer. A phone call like that would be frustrating during the daytime, but it is highly abusive when they call and wake you up. What can you do about these types of annoying phone calls?

DC

Can An Established CD Interest Rate Be Reduced?

2009-10-05T06:40:00.000-07:00

Can a bank reduce the interest rate of an established certificate of deposit (CD) account? I learned the hard way that the answer is YES. Let me be clear that I am not talking about a bank changing the interest rate at the CD maturity date, but actually lowering the rate during the original term of the CD. This happened to me, and it turns out to be all perfectly legal and approved by the FDIC.

Readers of my blog may remember that I wrote about receiving a free HDTV for opening a CD account at Irwin Union Bank. I deposited $20,000 into an 11-month CD with an interest rate of 1.96% in July. Then on September 18th, Irwin Union Bank was closed by the FDIC with its accounts and assets transferred to First Financial Bank. Subsequent to the Irwin Union Bank closing, the acquiring bank (First Financial) sent me a letter saying that my interest rate had been reduced to 1.5% for the remainder of my CD's term.

Does that seem right to you? On the FDIC webpage about the failed bank (Irwin Union Bank), there is a long-winded document called a Purchase and Assumption Agreement. Reading through the FDIC gobbledygook, I came upon this paragraph explaining how the assuming bank (First Financial) may change the interest rate on its CD acquired from Irwin Union Bank:

2.2 Interest on Deposit Liabilities. The Assuming Bank agrees that, from and after Bank Closing, it will accrue and pay interest on Deposit liabilities assumed pursuant to Section 2.1 at a rate(s) it shall determine; provided, that for non-transaction Deposit liabilities such rate(s) shall not be less than the lowest rate offered by the Assuming Bank to its depositors for non-transaction deposit accounts. The Assuming Bank shall permit each depositor to withdraw, without penalty for early withdrawal, all or any portion of such depositor's Deposit, whether or not the Assuming Bank elects to pay interest in accordance with any deposit agreement formerly existing between the Failed Bank and such depositor; and further provided, that if such Deposit has been pledged to secure an obligation of the depositor or other party, any withdrawal thereof shall be subject to the terms of the agreement governing such pledge. The Assuming Bank shall give notice to such depositors as provided in Section 5.3 of the rate(s) of interest which it has determined to pay and of such withdrawal rights.

I was following along up until the phrase "and further provided"... In any case, the net result of all this is that although I have not lost any principal or interest accrued before the failure of Irwin Union, the future interest rate has been reduced. The FDIC has also provided that a depositor could withdraw their funds without a penalty for early withdrawal. From my previous post, I mentioned that for the free TV offer, "The penalty for early withdrawal is substantial -- $500 plus 91 days of interest. That works out to about $600 if you need get your money out early."

I called my new bank, First Financial, to quiz them on this issue. They confirmed that my CD interest rate has been reduced, and that there would be no further reduction of the interest rate for the remainder of the term. And, I could withdraw my money anytime before maturity with no penalty. When I asked about the HDTV set, they said that there would be no penalty to keep that either.

So, what should I do? I could withdraw my money and keep the HDTV without penalty. That would work out to a pretty good equivalent interest rate. Or, I could keep my money in the CD account since 1.5% is still better than most money market or rates for a similar term CD nowadays.

What would you do in this situation?

DC

Money Market Rates 10/09

2009-10-01T06:15:00.000-07:00

Here are the latest money market interest rates of the banks that I've been tracking on my blog. Note that these rates are sorted by APY, and represent institutions that I have accounts at, or have otherwise mentioned in my blog:

2.15% Shorebank Direct Online High-Yield Savings
1.35% HSBCDirect Online Savings
1.35% Umbrellabank Pot O' Gold Money Market
1.30% ING Direct Orange Savings
1.25% Citibank Ultimate Money
1.25% Citibank Ultimate Savings
0.75% Chase (formerly WaMu) Online Savings
0.65% Western FCU Money Market
0.60% E*TRADE Complete Savings
0.05% PayPal Money Market*

NOTES: *The PayPal Money Market fund is NOT FDIC insured.
Rates are believed to be accurate as of 10/1/09. I did not include banks that had special, or introductory rates in the list because they are not ongoing interest rates. I am also not including non-liquid accounts such as CD's in the list.

The SavingsLink account is no longer offered by Bank of America, and has been replaced by the Growth Money Market Saving account. Guaranty Bank has been closed by the FDIC, and was taken over by BBVA Compass. I will no longer be tracking these accounts here.

In my last update, I mentioned Irwin Union Bank which was offering a free 22" HD LCD TV or a Flip MinoHD Mini Camcorder to open a new bank account. Unfortunately, Irwin Union Bank has also been closed, and taken over by First Financial Bank.

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So, there is the latest list. I intend to write a couple of follow up posts about the recent bank closing, and how changes may affect your accounts.

DC

Celebrate Arts Month and Win Prizes

2009-09-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

My readers know that my blog originates from Silicon Valley, California. However, I have not focused on posting about local events. Nevertheless, one of my local readers has asked me to mention an event celebrating the arts that will take place in Mountain View, California during the month of October that encourages people to participate in the arts. More information about this event is available at: Mountain View Celebrates the Arts in October.

What caught my eye is that there will be a free drawing for prizes with a total value of over $800, which will be awarded in November. In order to enter the contest, you need to fill out an "Arts Challenge" entry form (which will be available for download at the website), and return it by November 1. Mail-in entries are accepted.

Most of the prizes are provided by local, Silicon Valley organizations. The prizes that will be given away include:

Three $75 gift certificates for classes or camps at the Community School of Music and Arts in the spring, summer or fall 2010
Four vouchers for performances at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts (value of up to $50 each)
Two tickets to QUADRE's Horns for the Holidays concert on Dec. 8, 2009 (value of $18 each)
Four tickets to Talk Cinema in Palo Alto (value of $20 each)
One voucher for a birthday party at Art-n-Fun in Los Altos (value of $156); will expire on December 15, 2010
Five vouchers for an introductory clay/art class at Art-n-Fun in Los Altos (value of $26 each); will expire on December 15, 2010
Tickets to a performance at Pear Avenue Theatre (value of up to $30 each)

In addition, the reader also mentioned that they may also be giving away free gift cards from Starbucks, which should be usable anywhere. In any case, it is worth downloading the entry form and entering for the price of a stamp. If you would like to publicize a local, Silicon Valley event or know of other special deals that readers might be interested in, please send me an Email message (my Email is in the sidebar) with the details.

DC

MarketClub Pays for Itself

2009-09-17T06:15:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago, I mentioned that I signed up for a stock analysis service called MarketClub. This is part of a website called INO.com (pronounced "I know") where I can research stocks, futures, or forex products. I recently used their Trade Triangle analysis to help me decide on buying a stock.

The stock that I was interested in buying was Bare Escentuals (Nasdaq: BARE). Readers of this blog may remember that I first purchased shares of this stock during the Bare Escentuals IPO. I sold that stock a while ago. But with the stock market recovering, I have been looking for individual stocks that I can get back into. I used MarketClub to get an instant analysis, and the results are shown below.

This analysis shows that Bare Escentuals is now in a strong uptrend, and that this is an ideal time to buy the stock. This type of analysis is great for trend traders who like the "red-light, green-light" simplicity of investing. So, I bought some shares of BARE at $9.25 per share at the beginning of August. It recently closed above $11 a share.

Based on the number of shares that I purchased, I have already made more money that what the MarketClub subscription costs for one year. Note that Trade Triangles are strictly a technical analysis tool. I don't use the MarketClub analysis to tell me what to buy. I rely more on fundamental characteristics like Earnings Per Share (EPS) and PE ratios to decide on which stock to buy. But, I use MarketClub to tell me when to buy. I now have a stop order in place to help protect my gains.

Another comment that I have is that MarketClub does not require you to download and install any software. This is good because you can access your subscription from pretty much any computer. The downside is that your access speed will be limited by your Internet connection. In other words, MarketClub is not the fastest analysis tool that I've ever seen. But, it is pretty good considering that the software runs on their servers and not your computer.

You can subscribe to MarketClub for $150 per quarter or $449 for a year. You will have complete access to many of the investment tools available on INO.com. There is a 30-day risk-free trial period in which you can try them out. They will ask for a credit card when you sign up, but you have the right to cancel within the first 30 days and get all of your money back. So, what do you have to lose?

Another free tool that I utilize to help me keep on top of my portfolio is called Trend Analysis. Trend Analysis is a daily email analysis tool that gives me insight into exactly what my portfolio is doing. For investors who are following many stock symbols, MarketClub sends a daily Email for every symbol in your portfolio.

The links above takes you to a screen where you can get your first stock (future or option) symbol analyzed at no cost to you. After you sign up, you can easily add more symbols to get a daily update, which I find very helpful.

PF Stock

Disclaimer: This material is for general information only. It is not intended as an offer to sell or buy, or as an endorsement, recommendation or sponsorship of any security or fund.

Whoops!

2009-09-09T06:25:00.000-07:00

That is a word that you never want to hear your doctor say... Well, I had a "whoops" moment last month when I accidentally overpaid my telephone bill -- to the tune of nearly $700. I pay most of my bills through my checking account online, and I must have somehow confused a credit card bill with the phone bill. It was a few days after the payment went through to the phone company that I realized my error.

This turned into a panic when I also realized that my credit card payment hadn't been made, and it was too late schedule another bill payment since the due date had passed. After a frantic call to the credit card company, I explained the situation to them. They agreed that I wouldn't be charged any late fee if I could make an over-the-phone payment that same day, which I did.

To make a long story short, the issue with the credit card was resolved without any problem. However, I still have over $600 in credit on my phone bill. I guess that I could request that they send a refund check for the overpaid amount, but I haven't decided what to do yet.

I guess that old age is catching up with me. Has anything like this ever happened to you?

DC

Update On My Free HDTV

2009-08-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

Last month, I wrote a post about a bank offering a free HDTV or a mini Camcorder for opening a new CD account. Specifically, the offer was made by Irwin Union Bank to customers who open an 11-month CD with a minimum deposit of $20,000. After funding their account, a depositor would receive a Sharp or LG 22 inch HD LCD TV or a Flip MinoHD Mini Camcorder within 30 days. I took Irwin Union Bank up on their offer, and opened a new CD account. It has been about a month since I opened my account, and I just received my HDTV.

About a week ago, the bank sent me an Email that saying that the manufacturer had run out of 22" TV sets, and that I would receive a Toshiba model 22AV600U instead. The TV itself is the first HDTV that I've owned, and the picture is quite sharp compared to our old tube TVs. The new TV includes a built-in NTSC/ATSC/clear QAM tuner that can tune into both broadcast TV and cable. (It is an unadvertised fact that cable subscribers who have a clear QAM tuner can often receive unencrypted HD cable TV, without adding "digital" cable to their service.)

A new 22 inch TV set retails for about $250-300, so it is a generous gift considering how stingy banks are with interest rates these days. This offer was scheduled to end on August 31, but it seems that Irwin decided to end the promotion early, as I can no longer find the offer on their website. Readers who are still interested in the TV or Flip Mino might try calling the bank directly. It can't hurt to ask.

The bank informed me that they will report the value of the free gift ($280) to the IRS (on a 1099 form), so the "free" TV will probably end up costing around $100 in taxes. I thought that the days of banks offering a TV set to new customers was a thing of the past. Has anybody else taken Irwin Union Bank up on this offer? If so, could you share your experiences here?

DC

Net Worth Update

2009-08-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

Readers keep coming back to PFStock to read my Net Worth Comparison post. Curiosity definitely gets the best of people -- wanting to assess how one is doing compared to others. Basically, people want answers to the question of "How am I doing versus other people my age with a similar income?"

In March 2008, PFStock asked the question: Are You Wealthy? This post examines a formula from the book The Millionaire Next Door For your reference, the formula is repeated here:

Multiply your age times your realized pretax annual household income from all sources except inheritances. Divide by ten. This, less any inherited wealth, is what your net worth should be.

In addition to the Millionaire formula, I mentioned a couple of websites for readers to look at. CNN Money has a Net Worth Comparison Tool that asks you to enter your age and annual income. These numbers have changed since my original post. Since people are most interested in the "numbers", I've decided to reproduce the results here (with appropriate credit given to the information source: Nielsen Claritas).

Net Worth by Age (from CNN Money)

Age	Median Net Worth
younger than 25	$1,475
25-34	$8,525
35-44	$51,575
45-54	$98,350
55-64	$180,125
65 and older	$232,000

Net Worth by Income (from CNN Money)

Annual Income	Median Net Worth
less than $25k	$1,250
$25k-$49k	$34,375
$50k-$74k	$168,500
$75k-$124k	$301,475
$125k-$149k	$644,100
$150k and higher	$1,122,900

From these statistics, you can compare net worth for an average 30 year old, 40 year old, 50 year old, or whatever your age. The income ranges are fairly broad, but should also give you an idea of where you stand.

Note: Please also participate in the annual income / net worth polls in the sidebar of my blog. See also: How Much Do You Make? And leave an anonymous comment. Comments to this post are also welcome.

The other website that I mention as a data source is NetworthIQ. This site has compiled a set of Net Worth Statistics based on what its members have reported. This data was current as of 4/22/2009. In addition to age and yearly income, Networth IQ lets you compare net worth based on education, occupation, and state of residence. The age groups and income ranges are broken out in finer increments than the CNN Money data.

Net Worth by Age (from NetworthIQ)

Age	Median Net Worth
under 25	$9,660
25-29	$37,229
30-34	$136,629
35-39	$298,500
40-44	$491,100
45-49	$690,090
50-54	$702,552
55-59	$1,123,000
60-64	$507,000
65-69	$2,294,492
70 and over	$2,734,001

Net Worth by Income (from NetworthIQ)

Annual Income	Median Net Worth
$0 - $9,999	$1,830
$10,000 - $19,999	$839
$20,000 - $29,999	$1,808
$30,000 - $39,999	$3,582
$40,000 - $49,999	$22,211
$50,000 - $59,999	$32,461
$60,000 - $69,999	$50,177
$70,000 - $79,999	$96,520
$80,000 - $89,999	$113,100
$90,000 - $99,999	$176,548
$100,000 - $149,999	$267,042
$150,000 - $199,999	$513,000
$200,000 - $249,999	$549,446
$250,000 +	$1,035,000

There are a couple of peculiarities in the NetworthIQ data. Specifically, it appears that net worth goes down in the 60 to 64-year old age group. Also, net worth also seems to drop in the $10,000 to $29,999 income range. This non-monotonicity is probably due to the way that these data are reported.

Some would argue that the NetworthIQ data is not a good representation of the population as a whole. This is because the net worth people report is not audited, and you can see only what people choose to disclose. Arguably, there are those who may have overestimated the value of their home, cars, and personal property in order to inflate their net worth. But taken with a grain of salt, one can still find some usefulness in the numbers.

Even the detailed data from the last two information sources leave some questions in my mind. I have made the assumption that these data are meant to measure the net worth of American citizens. However, NetworthIQ also includes a significant number of profiles for residents of other countries, such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. It is also unclear if the reported networth is based on individual or household net worth? Obviously, per capita net worth would be lower than household net worth. Does anybody want to weigh in on these issues?

So there you have it: three ways that you can compare your net worth to others. So, how do you stand?

DC