Fanelli's Personal Finance

Fanelli's Personal Finance Has Moved!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 21:58:00 +0000

I am still in the process on finalizing this move, so bear with me during the changeover. Please come visit me at The Journey to Success - My Finance and Accounting Blog! New and improved blog - will continue to concentrate on personal finance, however I will also be posting about current accounting issues, and the CPA exam! I am really looking forward to this change, as I hope you all are. Blogger just wasn't cutting it for me! If anyone has any advice to offer it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

-FPF-

Buying a New Laptop – Mac or PC?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:45:00 +0000

It seems that ever since the Apple ipod hit the retail store shelves, everyone is starting to consider Mac computers and laptops more frequently. I remember about 8 years ago I had a friend who purchased an iMac and I thought it was so weird. However, to his credit he was a big graphics junky, hence the reason for his purchase of the iMac. Now, I am at a point where I desperately need a new personal laptop. No more dealing with my 6 yr old Compaq PC, or having to use my employer-purchased laptop for personal usage. My wife and I will mainly use our personal laptop for email, Internet, word processing, and various photo projects (we currently use Adobe Photoshop).

For some reason I REALLY want a new Macbook. I am getting a little pushback from the ‘powers-that-be’ stating that we would have to buy all new software (ms office for Mac’s, Photoshop, etc) and the usually worry about file compatibility from PC’s to Mac’s.

The main reasons that I would like a Macbook are 1) the security of the Mac O/S seems to be much more secure than Windows XP or Vista, 2) to try something new, 3) I like the various software programs that can be purchased with a Macbook, i.e. iLife, iWork, etc. – however that adds cost to the puzzle.

I am essentially looking to spend between $1,000 and $1,300 for our new laptop purchase, and there aren’t any Windows based laptops that are really standing out to me at this time. Maybe a Sony Vaio? Maybe a Lenovo Thinkpad?

Does anyone have any experience with running Windows and the Mac O/S on a Macbook? I know this will cost more, however I am wondering how the usability is.

-FPF-

5 1/2 Month Break From Blogging!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 19:35:00 +0000

Hot of the press, Fanelli's Personal Finance is back in action! I took a 5 1/2 month hiatus from blogging, for a few reasons. 1) I got really busy at work, 2) I was planning a wedding, which takes of loads of time and loads of personal financial decisions (in which I should have been blogging about), 3) I lost focus of why I was blogging. #3 is the main reason that I want to focus on. I actually thought that I was going to start blogging to make some money on the side in advertising $'s. BAD IDEA! For all of you new bloggers out there, do not START blogging to make money. If the money does come - like sites such as Consumerism Commentary or All Financial Matters then GREAT, but the lesson of the day is.........blog about personal finance because you love talking about it and you cannot get enough of it. And that is what brings me to the present day. The wedding was absolutely wonderful, as was the honeymoon, and now it's back to reality. New items surrounding FPF consist of a new job coming 12/18, new education search - part time MBA or MS in Accounting upcoming in the near future, and back to studying for the CPA exam, which I got away from for the past 3 years. There is alot going on in the world of FPF, including a new Etrade account - love it - so let the blogging continue. Let's get back to basics and post once per week. Send me a comment - I'm ready to talk finances again!!

-FPF-

MSN Features PFBlog article!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 00:37:00 +0000

MSNBC.com - "Bloggers open up about money matters - Young online diarists reveal their financial facts, foibles to their virtual fans." This is just great! I love hearing about fellow pfbloggers in the news, I mean come on now, they are practically famous! To be featured on such a well-known site such as MSN is a great accomplishment. Bloggers mentioned were AllFinancialMatters, The Budgeting Babe, Boston Gal's Open Wallet, Make Love Not Debt, and of course our great friends at pfblogs.org!

I recommend that everyone reads the article. It is another feature that places pfbloggers on the map. Keep it up fellow bloggers!

Part 1 - Online Brokers - Which one is for me?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 22:08:00 +0000

Many people ask me “which online broker is best?” I always respond with, “well that depends on what you are looking for.” Readers do not like this answer, so I am going to try and break it down in a multi-part series here at Fanelli Finance.

Why do I say that it depends on what you are looking for? Each online broker is the same – they execute trades of various investment vehicles for individual investors. Each online broker is DIFFERENT. Each broker provides varying amounts of research, investment options, customer service availability, minimum account balances, interest on cash balances, no transaction fee mutual funds, commissions, and other various fees.

There are many online broker ratings out there on the web that break down various discount brokers, and I would recommend “googling online investment brokers” for further research.

Let’s start with some questions that you need to ask yourself before researching online brokers. 1) How much are you planning to invest, 2) How important is low commission fees, 3) How important is no load mutual funds with no or low transaction fees, 4) How important is stock research, 5) How important is an easy-to-use website, 6) How important is it to contact a customer service representative via phone, 7) How important is high interest rate on cash balances? This list of questions was utilized at Kiplinger’s Personal Finance web site.

Some individuals only care about low commission fees. For those of you out there check out Trade King ($4.95), Firstrade ($6.96), along with Scottrade ($7). Most other brokers have fees between $9 and $25 per trade, but will lower their fees if you make a certain amount of trades per year, or if you have above a certain amount ($) in your investment portfolio with them.

Commissions are one item, but most companies blatantly advertise these fees, and there are usually no hidden items behind them. However, there are some pesky fees that may arise for various items such as inactive accounts, annual IRA fees, and fees to close an account. Schwab’s online broker firm is one of the best for customer service and investment research, but charges $95 to close your account, $2.50 to send you an old statement, and $50 to obtain a stock certificate directly from Schwab. According to Kiplinger, Vanguard, OptionsXpress and Siebert are the best at minimizing these “nickel-and-dime fees.”

Here is Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Online Broker Ratings for a $50,000 account:
1)optionsXpress, 2) Muriel Siebert, 3) Wells Fargo, 4) Firstrade, 5) Fidelity, 6) Vanguard, 7) TradeKing, 8) Schwab, 9) E*Trade, 10) Scottrade, 11) TD Ameritrade.

Please look for future posts at Fanelli Finance for further breakdown of online brokers, and a more detailed description of each.

It's World Cup time, which means billions of $ in advertising

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 20:06:00 +0000

I am a huge soccer fan. The FIFA World Cup is the most watched sporting event of all time, no matter what any American naysayers have to say about it (fyi - I am American and love soccer). I just got done watching Germany beat Costa Rica 4-2 in a goal scoring frenzied game, and am currently watching Ecuador v. Poland, while hard at work of course. The World Cup also means huge amounts of advertising dollars spent throughout the world. Adidas is one main global sponsor, and American companies like McDonald's and Anheuser-Busch spend hundreds of millions of dollars for World Cup sponsorship rights.

I saw a great World Cup spreadsheet at http://www.2006fifaworldcup.co.uk/downloads.php, in which you can input the scores of all games, and it will automatically calculate the standings! Pretty cool stuff. Go USA!

“I want a large tax refund”…..No you don’t……

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 15:04:00 +0000

Here is a typical conversation between me and one of our employees at our company.

“YOU didn’t take enough money out in taxes out of my paycheck this year, and now I have to pay when I am filing my tax return.”

This statement makes me chuckle a bit, because it is very typical of an uninformed employee. I do like when someone asks this, because then I can give my dissertation on employee tax withholding and tax refunds in general. Another statement I get is, “I want to make sure that I get a large refund when I file my taxes, because I can use this money to pay for…..” This statement actually makes me want to vomit (sorry so graphic).

So, let’s address these two items. First, the employee is responsible for the amount of tax withholding from their paycheck. This is generated by that W-4 form that you fill out when you are hired, and most people don’t ever think about it or change it ever again. The more allowances you claim, the less is withheld. My goal is to “break-even” on my tax return, which I just about successfully did for 2005, having to pay approx. $100 to federal and state. Here is my rationale. If you get a large refund from your tax return at the end of a given year, which means you paid too much in taxes throughout the year. Therefore you essentially loaned the government your money for the entire year, and gained exactly 0% interest on that money. Just think, if you had that money throughout the year you could invest it and make money on the interest and/or appreciation in your investment.

As stated above, you, the employee, are responsible for this. Each individual should consult a tax professional (or review it yourself) to determine how much you should withhold from your paycheck in taxes each pay period. If this amount needs to be changed from your current amount, fill out another W-4 form, which can be attained from your employer or at www. Irs.gov and elect the appropriate amount of allowances, and even withhold an “additional amount” if needed. See what’s changed each year. Did you purchase a new home? Did you have large capital losses? Did you get a raise or earn less than you did the year prior? All of these items will change your taxable income.

The easiest way to check your withholding is by using the IRS Withholding Calculator, which gives you a step-by-step process through the calculation.

The Withholding Calculator can be found here.

A printable W-4 form can be found here.

I hope this helps, and if you have any comments, questions, or concerns, feel free to comment!

CNN Money Five Tips: Stocks are down, but rates are up = opportunity

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 01:26:00 +0000

Gerry Willis, a CNNMoney.com contributing columnist has five personal finance tips for the current market environment. It involves being patient with your stocks and mutual funds, and getting your cash out of traditional savings accounts, and into high-yielding savings accounts, such as with online banks. Her five tips are as follows:
1.) Don’t be asleep at the wheel
2.) Hands off your 401k
3.) Protect your emergency fund
4.) Catch the CD fever
5.) Get into bonds

You can read this entire article here. If you are a buy-and-hold investor, like most of us, the key to investing during a down market is patience. Keep pouring money into the stock market even when the market is down, and remember, the only time you need to worry about the exact state of the market on a particular day is when you are about to retire. (Notice I am not talking to all of you day-traders out there)

Vonage

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 15:22:00 +0000

With all of this talk about the Vonage “IPO-gone-bad”, I figured I would add fuel to the fire by sharing my Vonage experience as of late. At my company, we are opening up a new office in South Carolina, which will be smaller than the rest of our current offices. Due to ease of set-up, we are not going to place this new terminal on our current phone system. So, I had the bright idea of getting them a Vonage Business account, for a nice cost savings. I establishup the account for my company and purchase a Motorola VT 2442 router as my hardware. Well, a day goes by and I realize that I do not want the router, but I want a D-Link adapter, because I will be hooking it up to a VPN router. So, simple enough, I call to change hardware. Well, they already shipped my Motorola router, but a customer service representative put in my order for the D-Link adapter and just advised me to return the Motorola router when I receive it.

Well, a few days go by, and I receive to boxes. I open these boxes up, and look what I have here……2 Motorola routers. Wahoo! Nothing that I wanted. So, today I call Vonage to advise them of this situation and that I want to return both routers, and to purchase the D-Link adapter (again). I figured this would be a pretty easy task. Well, I thought wrong. The first customer service rep. insisted that I keep one Motorola router and he will send the D-Link, “when available.” Well, “when available” really meant that he had no idea what he was talking about so he asked if he could transfer me to someone “higher up”. I said ok. Next rep: looks up my account information, puts me on hold to contact her supervisor (3rd customer service employee involved) and lets me know that I have to speak with Account Management.” I said, “what for? If you don’t mind me asking.” Well, you see sir; you actually have to cancel your account now, due to the fact that we sent you these two routers. Since you want to actually purchase the D-Link adapter, you should cancel your account, and then open up a new account to purchase the D-Link adapter, and we will credit your current account of all charges, since you are still in the 14-day money back guarantee stage.

WOW! Am I overreacting?? I cannot believe some customer service departments. If upper management or sales heard this whole conversation, which by the way, I am still currently on hold waiting for “account management,” and my office phone states that I have been on with Vonage for 55 minutes, 52 seconds, and counting, they would flip their lids!

Someone, anyone, if you know of an IP-based phone service in the Spartanburg, SC area, please let me know.

Well, back to being on hold. It is amazing how much work you can do while being on hold with speaker phone…..

The Monday Void…..What to do now that Season Five of 24 is complete?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 17:23:00 +0000

My favorite TV show of all time is 24; a Fox based TV show as most of you know. I am not a big TV-watcher, so for me to be completely hooked to a TV show is pretty impressive. I am at the point where I cannot do anything on Monday nights from 9 to 10 pm, which would jeopardize my 24 watching. Well, Season Five is over now, so I have to wait until January 2007 before I will see a new episode of 24. What do you think is going to happen in Season Six? Before every single episode of Season Five, I would ask my fellow 24 fanatics, “When is the Chinese Government going to come into play again? They are not just going to let Jack go about his business after his actions in Season Four with the Chinese Consulate??” And of course, in typical “24 fashion”, with 2 minutes left in the entire season, the Chinese kidnap Jack, and leave the rest to our imagination, or at least until next January.

I am feeling a large void in my Monday night life without 24. However, tonight no void will be felt because the Carolina Hurricanes will be playing in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals tonight, against the Edmonton Oilers. I have to admit, I am not a HUGE hockey fan, I never actually played ice hockey, but I do love to watch it in person, and on TV. Especially when the team from the town I live in (Raleigh, NC) is in the Stanley Cup Finals! So, 8:00 pm tonight, watch the puck drop as the ‘Canes take on the Oilers in search of Lord Stanley’s Cup.

I am going out on a line by saying Carolina is going to take the series in 6 games. You heard it here first folks.

The Ever-So-Precious Emergency Fund – Build It Now!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 16:39:00 +0000

This is probably the most talked about personal finance topic of them all, other than debt paydown. I am a huge believer of building an emergency fund. Most personal finance experts, including Dave Ramsey, say that you should have 3 – 6 months of expenses stashed away in an emergency fund, NOT to be used except for emergencies. From my perspective, this account should not be your traditional savings account. You should separate this emergency fund into its own account, not to be touched except for various emergencies such as, but not limited to, job loss, unexpected car maintenance, unexpected medical bills, or a leaky roof.

I am currently in the process of changing where I house my emergency fund, to Emigrant Direct, taking advantage of a 4.65% interest rate with no fees! These online savings accounts such as Emigrant Direct, ING, HSBC, etc. are a great place to house an emergency fund, because usually this account is not tied to an ATM card (more difficult to withdraw the money), and the money will work for you with the great interest rates that each company is currently providing.

I would recommend starting with an emergency fund of $1,500. Then I would pay off all high-interest debt, such as credit card debt. After all credit card debt is paid off, get aggressive and save up to 3 – 6 months of expenses, so any emergency will seem like a walk in the park! I wouldn’t start investing in stocks or mutual funds until this emergency account is fully-funded.

Bankrate.com has a great article on “22 ways to build an emergency fund.”

Bankrate.com also has an article on "Sizing up an emergency fund."

I Need Blogger Help: Archiving

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 15:38:00 +0000

I hope some fellow pf bloggers read this post, because I am looking for some help on my archiving. As you can see, I use Blogger (pain in the #&%) for my blog creation, and I am wondering if there is an easy way to archive my posts by category, and not by month as it is now. I'm not sure if there is a universal way to do this, or if there is a specific way that I must do it within Blogger. I would LOVE to hear your comments! More finance talk to come soon....

Your Biggest Expense: The Home Mortgage Payment

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 01:12:00 +0000

"Don't bite off too much house", says Liz Pulliam Weston, a writer for MSN Money. She states that buying a house that translates into a mortgage payment that may be too much for you to handle can "leave you with too little money for other goals: retirement, vacations, college funds for the kids. At worst, it can leave you vulnerable to foreclosure and bankruptcy." I'm sure this is part of the reason that personal savings rates are near all-time lows, which I wrote about during my first post on this blog which can be read here. A direct quote from that post: "The Commerce Department reported that for 2005, the savings rate fell into negative territory at minus 0.5 percent, meaning that Americans not only spent all of their after-tax income last year but had to dip into previous savings or increase borrowing. The savings rate has been negative for an entire year only twice before -- in 1932 and 1933 -- two years when the country was struggling to cope with the Great Depression, a time of massive business failures and job layoffs Contributions to IRA and 401(k) plans are counted toward the savings rate. So when the rate is negative it becomes very clear that a lot of people aren't participating in retirement plans."

Comparing a home purchase today with your parent's home purchase 30 years ago or so, may be different because of the following reasons, says Weston. 1)Inflation, 2) Two-income couples, 3)The lending industry, 4)Retirement.

Check out her article using the link at the beginning of this post. It is a must read for anyone, even individuals who aren't currently looking to purchase a home.

Beginning Investing 101 - Where to Start?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 31 May 2006 01:30:00 +0000

In response to a comment posted to my post regarding the keys to rolling over your 401k into an IRA, an anonymous reader asked a question which can be seen here. While pondering this thought-provoking question, I would have to say that there are many determining factors here. One is the fact that no % of appreciation on your assets is definite (obviously), so when investing you must have the mindset of being able to wait out any ups and downs in the market. This 10 or 20% appreciation may be negative at a point in time, so be prepared for this. First, I would assess your risk tolerance. Most younger investors have a higher risk tolerance than older (in age) investors, but once again this comes to personal preference. If you are looking for 15-20% returns, you must be able to go through the tough times when the market may be down 10%. After assessing your risk tolerance I would say that you should look for a broker to purchase your investments through, and also make sure you diversify. Yes the most overused buzz word of them all - diversification is very important when investing long-term.
How many times have you heard someone say, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket"? When it comes to investing, that's very good advice.
Successful investors know that diversifying their investments can help reduce the impact that a single, poorly performing investment can make on their overall portfolio, or mix of investments.
Diversification means having different kinds of investments, such as stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. It also means having a mix of investments in different sectors or industries. A well-diversified portfolio might include bonds, money market funds, and stocks of small, medium, and large companies in a variety of industries and countries. International stocks, for example, may rise at the same time domestic stocks are falling, softening the blow to your overall portfolio. Even if your risk tolerance is low, you can still consider diversifying into riskier investments as long as you keep the overall risk of your portfolio low.
The next item you will have to decide on is what broker to use. This can be a very tedious process without the appropriate background knowledge. The Motley Fool states the following “10 Ways to Size up a Broker.”
-Trading Commissions
-Other Fees
-Minimum Initial Deposit
-Customer Service
-Traditional Banking Services
-Research
-Mutual Funds
-Investment Product Selection
-Other Methods of Getting Your Trades Executed
-Other Freebies and Perks
See the entire description of the “10 Ways to Size up a Broker” here. When you are at this point, please let me know, and we will go through and research your online and traditional broker options through this blog. You heard it here, please visit Fanelli’s Personal Finance,” for all of your personal financial choices.

Check out these cool electronics

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 26 May 2006 19:52:00 +0000

Bestselling Electronics New electronic devices are always fun to buy, or at least dream about buying....

The Keys to Rolling Over Your 401k into an IRA

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 26 May 2006 16:35:00 +0000

The days of defined benefit plans and staying at one job for your entire career are over. The modern day worker has many more savings responsibilities than of past laborers. Most likely an individual will have to rollover a retirement account at least once in your lifetime. The time that this may occur is when you leave your current employer and take your 401k with you. You also may be eligible to rollover your current IRA into a Roth (see my post about Traditional vs. Roth IRA’s). This can be an easy process, as long as you know a few key elements.

Your company will be happy to simply send you a check for the amount of your vested 401k balance, but if they make the check out to you they are required to withhold 20% for taxes. To avoid the tax withholding, you must conduct a direct rollover (trustee to trustee or custodian to custodian) – simply stated, the check must be made out to the trustee or custodian of the IRA account you choose, and it may state “for the benefit of (Your Name Here). To arrange this transaction, you must notify your former employer that you would like to make a direct rollover and they will provide you a form to fill out detailing where the new account will be formed. Contemporaneously, you must decide where it is that you are going to open this newly formed Rollover IRA. There are many choices that you have regarding where to house this IRA, namely, at a bank, mutual fund company, insurance company, full service brokerage firm, or online brokerage firm. In my opinion, the most important aspects to look for are fees, commissions, number of investment options available, and customer service.

The rest of the research and decision-making is up to each individual investor. Here is a link to the “Motley Fool” which compares some online IRA Brokers, with a fee schedule. Here is a “Consumer Reports” table listing Banks, Brokerages, and Other IRA Sources, with fee schedules, min. balances, and investment choices. One company not detailed on either of these tables, but that I would recommend researching due to the impressive fee schedule and number of investment options is Scottrade.

I look forward to your comments…

BREAKING NEWS! Enron Executives Lay and Skilling found Guilty

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 25 May 2006 16:27:00 +0000

As time passes us by, history will tell that the Enron collapse was one of the biggest scandals EVER. We were able to live through it, and today, at 12 Noon EST the jury for the Enron trial, founded Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling guilty of fraud and conspiracy charges. See CNN Money article.

Please comment! ING, Emigrant, or HSBC? What would you recommend?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 25 May 2006 15:50:00 +0000

I am looking to stash some cash away in an online savings account for my cash emergency fund. I have heard many good things about ING, Emigrant, and HSBC. I do not want to have to open a checking account in order to get this new online savings account. I would like to take advantage of some sort of referral bonus or sign-on bonus, if there are any out there. HELP! Do any of you have any suggestions? What is your opinion on which online savings account is best? Quickest transfers, best customer service, best website, quickest process to begin account....Let me know what you think - comment below.

Bill Gates on “The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch”: “I wish I wasn’t the richest man in the world.”

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 25 May 2006 12:02:00 +0000

CNBC aired an interview with Bill Gates on “The Big Idea” with Donny Deutsch last night, and I found it very intriguing. To me, Gates is the most interesting person in the world, along with being the richest man in the world (which is nice), however he stated that he wishes he wasn’t the richest man in the world because, "nothing comes good out of that.” I decided to look up some information on Bill Gates at Wikipedia and of course found some very interesting information.

• Forbes international rich list has ranked him as the world’s richest person for the last twelve straight years. In 1999, Gates’ wealth briefly surpassed $100 billion, making him the world’s first centribillionaire, but that has since decreased due to Microsoft’s stock price, along with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation giving billions away to charity.
• Gates donates about 52% of his total fortune.
• In 2005 he was named Person of the Year, along with his wife Melinda and Bono from U2.
• Bill Gates went to Lakeside School, Seattle's most exclusive preparatory school where tuition in 1967 was $5,000 (Harvard tuition that year was $1,760). Lakeside rented time on a DEC PDP-10, which Gates was able to use to pursue an interest in computers, a rare opportunity at the time. Gates was a member of the Boy Scouts of America and attained the rank of Life Scout. While in high school, he and Paul Allen founded Traf-O-Data, a company which sold traffic flow data systems to state governments. He also helped to create a payroll system in COBOL, for a company in Portland, Oregon.
• During his second year at Harvard, Gates (along with Paul Allen and Monte Davidoff) co-wrote Altair BASIC for the Altair 8800. Gates dropped out of Harvard during his third year to pursue a career in software development.
• He licensed a CP/M-compatible OS called QDOS ("Quick and Dirty Operating System") from Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products for $56,000, and IBM shipped it as PC-DOS.
• According to King County public records, as of 2006, the total assessed value of the property (land and house) is $125 million, and the annual property tax is just under $1 million. Also among Gates's private acquisitions are the Codex Leicester, a collection of writings by Leonardo da Vinci which Gates bought for $30.8 million at an auction in 1994, and a rare Gutenberg Bible.
• Time magazine named him one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th century, as well as one of the 100 most influential people of 2004, 2005 and again in 2006. Gates and Oprah Winfrey are the only two people in the world to make all four lists. He was listed in the Sunday Times power list in 1999, named CEO of the year by Chief Executive Officers magazine in 1994, ranked number one in the "Top 50 Cyber Elite" by Time in 1998, ranked number two in the Upside Elite 100 in 1999 and was included in The Guardian as one of the "Top 100 influential people in media" in 2001. Gates has been number one on the "Forbes 400" list from 1993 through to 2006 and number one on Forbes list of "The World's Richest People" from 1995-2006. In 2004, he became a director of Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company headed by Warren Buffett, the second wealthiest person in the world according to Forbes and a long time friend of Gates.
• According to a 2004 Forbes magazine article, Gates gave away over $29 billion to charities from 2000 onwards.
• Bio:
Born: October 28, 1955 Seattle, Washington

Occupation:
Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Corporation

Annual salary:
US$1 million

Net worth:
$50.0 billion USD (2006)

Spouse: Melinda Gates

Website: microsoft.com/billgates

Beginner Investors: Utilize Sharebuilder to Start Your Stock Portfolio

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 24 May 2006 14:54:00 +0000

ShareBuilder.com is the most popular dollar-cost averaging brokerage with nearly one million accounts. It is a great place for a gift account, building up a college savings plan or for the starter investor. As far as I am concerned, Sharebuilder is the perfect online brokerage company for the beginning investor with the desire to build a stock portfolio. I would recommend first building your cash emergency fund, then funding your company 401k, and furthermore funding an IRA – Traditional or Roth, depending on your own personal needs. Once you have this savings shell and you now desire some individual company stocks in your portfolio, choose Sharebuilder to take advantage of automatic investing, and dollar-cost averaging.

Some cons to
ShareBuilder.com are an investor is limited to stocks and ETF’s through Sharebuilder, and has limited equity research compare to its competitors, for a site aimed at beginner investors.

Interesting fact: Sharebuilder has a special section devoted to understanding and investing in ETF’s. 40% of the top ten most-bought stocks by its users are ETF’s.

ShareBuilder.com offers three different purchasing plans based on steady long-term monthly investin: Basic ($4 per investment, $16 market order), Standard ($12 per month fee, six free auto-investments per month, $2 for each additional and $15 per market order) and Advantage ($20 per month, 20 free auto-investments and $1 for each additional and $12 per market order). I would try to avoid the Basic plan unless you are only investing in one or two stocks: you don’t get the gain/loss tracker with the Basic plan.

3 great finance articles from the week – Topic: Investing

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 18 May 2006 12:29:00 +0000

The Motley Fool is a site that I like to read for free financial advice and research. This week the Fool had three interesting articles relating to investing, that I thought were worth linking to in this post.

• The Easy Way to Better Returns
by Tim Hanson
Screen Boy Hanson's recent home-buying experience forced him to sell many of his small-cap holdings -- which, looking back, may have saved him from a boatload of volatility. Small-cap investors need more than a steely stomach, though, and Tim offers up five Foolish tips all investors should post on their fridge.
• Total Returns Are Better Returns
by David Meier
Investing luminary John Neff guided his mutual fund to market-beating returns over the course of several years. What's his secret, you wonder? Well, you're in luck -- Neff freely discusses the things he looked for in prospective investments, and David Meier applies those criteria to a few of today's bargains.
• Keeping the Faith at Berkshire
by Nathan Parmelee
Warren Buffett is probably the greatest investor on earth. But what will happen to Berkshire Hathaway when the Oracle moves on? Fresh off his trip to the Berkshire shareholders meeting, Nathan Parmelee explores the line of succession.

When should I lock into a mortgage rate? When should I float?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 May 2006 17:18:00 +0000

My fiancé and I will be closing on our first home purchase in about a month or two, in Raleigh, NC. This is another huge undertaking in the personal financial arena, one in which most people really know nothing about, unless they are in the business. Well, we are not in the business of mortgage lending, so we had to educate ourselves in the various topics that go into a home purchase.

As most individuals know, your monthly mortgage payment depends on your interest rate. This interest rate that becomes applied to your mortgage is stated on the day that you close on your purchase of your new home. That is, unless. you ‘lock-in” to a rate prior to closing, which can usually happen anytime after your application, but at least 5 days prior to your scheduled closing.

I was reading an article that related to this topic recently on the site of “National Education Association Member Benefits” (not sure how I stumbled upon there) and the site gave some suggestions on when you should “lock” and when you should “float.”

When should you lock?
• Your loan pricing is protected from changes in financial market conditions
• Your final rate will reflect the pricing that was available at the time you locked in for loans with your specific transaction characteristics (points paid, loan-to-value, etc.) and your credit profile.
• You can select a specific length of time, usually 30 or 60 days – but sometimes as long as a year.
• You can lock anytime you locate a property, or start your refinancing process, up until five business days before the closing.
• Returning to a float status after you’ve locked typically involves an additional fee.

When should you float?
• You can take advantage of falling rates before you close on your loan. Lower rates mean lower monthly payments.
• You are not tied to a specific rate.
• You can switch from floating your rate to locking it in anytime after applying and at least five business days before closing.

So, in conclusion I think that we are going to take advantage of a 120 day lock which gives us a little time cushion, and also this particular one allows for one free change of status from “lock” to “float” in case rates do go down in between now and the closing date (which I doubt will happen). This requires a non-refundable, but fully applicable 1% deposit at the time of lock. Non-refundable if you decide not to buy the house or not to use the particular lender involved, and fully applicable in regards to the fact that this amount gets applied to your down payment at the time of closing. This is really a no-lose situation. Any suggestions out there for a first-time home-buyer?

pfblogs.org posting statistics update

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 May 2006 01:25:00 +0000

I've always wondered when the best time to post on my blog was to generate the most traffic from pfblogs. "John" from The Financial Ladder stated that he has had the best results when posting around noon during the weekdays. Obviously the image on this page is only a snapshot of one particular day, May 16 2006, but he seems to be correct. The most page views on pfblogs.org come between the hours of 11 am and 2 pm. Apparently many financial bloggers like to read during their lunchtime! I will continue to follow this topic to see if I can find any other information and to solidify this hypothesis. It also seems as though (not seen in this image) that page views decrease on Sundays. Happy Blogging.

MS Word 2007 to Feature Built-In Blogging!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 13 May 2006 16:40:00 +0000

Word is a great tool for writing stuff, right? Blogging is all about communicating with words (and pictures, too). So, why not use Word to write your blog posts?

I was reading Slashdot this morning and noticed a post from Joe Friend, a leading Program Manager at Microsoft, which detailed one new feature for MS Word 2007 of blog post authoring. And yes, Word actually generates the html behind your post, so you can manipulate as you would like if need-be.

There have been many instances, especially since I am not by any means an intermediate or advanced in html, that I wanted to use many of the tools that MS Word provides, but something like Blogger does not, and a rookie blogger like me would not know how to write the html from scratch for these various tools.

This application software is however in a very much ‘beta’ state, but you can view a preview on the Microsoft web site.

I highly recommend that you check out this post to see some of the new features coming with MS Word 2007 directly relating to blogging.

Here is also a link to the "Top 10 reasons to upgrade to Word 2007".

What is the best time to post – specifically for pfblogs.org?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 13 May 2006 00:11:00 +0000

Pfblogs.org is without a doubt one of my favorite websites to visit on a consistent basis. It can be difficult to choose which Personal Finance Blogs to read on a specific day, but with the Ad-Free Personal Finance Blogs Aggregator, you have them all right at your fingertips. I was wondering if anyone has done a study regarding when the best time to post is, to benefit from the most readership through pfblogs.org. Does anyone know this? I would love to know if you do. Here are few quotes from fellow pf bloggers regarding pfblogs.org

“[Pfblogs.org is] fairly new, but their site is already one of the best sites I’ve seen.” — Jack's Cash

"pfblogs.org - When you can’t choose just one personal finance blog, choose them all—without ads." – Consumerism Commentary

"First off, let me just say that I LOVE pfblogs.org." – Done Dirt Cheap

"Like reading investing and personal finance blogs like this one? I'd encourage everyone to take a look at the outstanding personal finance blog aggregator -- pfblogs.org." – Stock Ferret