Of course, until I find a way to definitively achieve financial independence or acquire a method to ensure a guaranteed passive income stream, I will inevitably have to end my extended vacation and return to my full time job sometime in the next few weeks. Thus I’ll be getting back to my regular full time day job as a self employed attorney and part time gig as a blogger very shortly. Blogging has been an interesting part time job for me for the last two years (bringing in a very steady and rather lucrative income stream), however at some point, the inevitable pangs of writer’s block and declined motivation inevitably creep. Thus it was nice to finally get away and get a multiple month breather after all this time. However, now that I’ve taken my sabbatical, spent time with the family, and pursued other extracurricular activities, I’m almost ready to get back on the horse again and retake the reins.

My Current Net Worth and Financial Status Update Compared To Last Month

Reliable Passive Online Income Through Blogging

Despite my multiple month absence from my normal blogging duties, I continue to rake in a steady monthly income via my small network on profitable blogs and affiliate websites. While I used to earn a significant portion of my monthly take via my small legal practice as an attorney, I have been undergoing a winding down process in recent months to slowly transition my way out of the whole trading hours for dollars routine that working as an attorney entailed. While the legal work and training has certainly been interesting at times, my heart has never been all that much into it. Pursing the viability of online businesses and trying to harness all that the Internet can provide has always drawn much more appeal for me. The lure of being able to make money online by blogging from the comforts of one’s home is what got me started in this industry years ago.

As my primary online blogs (most notably, the financial blog you are reading now) have grown to the point where their traffic levels are now inherently stable and the sizable income profits they now earn are now very reliably self sustaining, I am at the process of trying to decide where to go from here – call it a fork in the road if you will. Do I sell off a few major sites for instant income now and turn my entrepreneurial attention elsewhere, or do I put in the additional effort now and continue to grow these sites into something inevitably bigger?

While the nature of blogs and Internet businesses can be fickle at times, I truly believe that the future of media and information lies with the adaptive power of Internet. The web is continuously transforming how old and new information is consumed. While it would certainly be great to possibly sell off my most prized websites in terms of traffic levels and income, I am somewhat cautious about cashing out too soon when I think there is still tremendous upside to be had in the coming years. Of course, anything is possible and these things are just a handful of the issues that I’ll be pondering a lot about in the coming months as I slowly get back to my old blogging routine again.

Continue Investing In A Down Stock Market

Not much further needs to be pointed out about the stock markets beyond the truism that big wealth can be made during the worst of times. Markets have certainly been choppy and volatile recently, but given a sufficiently long period of time, they will almost always recover in spades. Despite having rather significant chunks of money invested into various index funds and individual stocks, I barely glanced at my holdings throughout the month. Perhaps it was because I’ve been traveling overseas, but more likely than not it was because I see my investments as appropriately geared for the long haul and I don’t want to be overly bothered by the emotional highs and lows of short term price swings. “Set it and forget it” is how I’ve been investing these past few months.

If you haven’t already opened up an investment account with a discount broker or opened up a retirement account with a Roth IRA broker, now is as good of a time as any.

My New Home Construction Is Nearly Complete

As long time readers may already know, my new house has been under construction since summer 2009. After months of construction activity and suffering through periodic pauses due to severe winter snow, the home is now nearly complete. With construction now projected to conclude by the end of March 2010 and with my home mortgage application paperwork eagerly waiting on the sidelines, I am preparing to close on the house by the end of March. It’s been an interesting ride in terms of my journey to become a first time homeowner. I went through spats of doubt, indecision, and even exuberance during my home purchasing process, so one can’t say that I didn’t fully think my decision through. I had and still have occasional doubts of the timing of my purchase, particularly in light of the reality that the real estate market is still lingering in the doldrums. However, I have faith that in due time, the home prices and sales numbers will recover, as early indicators do seem to be bearing that out. Particularly in the Washington D.C. suburbs of Maryland and Northern Virginia where I live, the housing market has been remarkably resilient. Living close to the epicenter of the federal government, which powers and maintains such a reliable supply of jobs definitely has its positive secondary benefits in terms of ensuring the need of a continuously growing housing supply.

Source URL: February 2010: Net Worth Report and Making Money By Blogging

Copyright Protected © 2010 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

For January 2010, the combined income accumulated from this personal finance blog, the revenue generated by my other online affiliate ventures, and the part time income I earned from my small legal practice as an attorney – all saw slight increases. However, much of the income stats were gobbled up by the hefty estimated tax payments I had to make to the federal and state government during the month. Because I operate my small business and solo legal practice using a cash basis form of accounting, I don’t spread the estimated quarterly tax payments evenly throughout the year, but rather record them on my personal financial balance statements only when they are actually paid out – resulting in these precipitous drops in total net asset value that occur four times a year.

There was one major financial hit however which came from a furious stock market correction that reared its ugly head at the latter half of the month, which pretty much wiped out the hefty gains I would have been on track to record. But as far as the worth of my stock investments go, I don’t generally pay substantial attention to them – as I see them as long term investments that will ultimately pay off years down the road. Month to month dips in stock portfolio value don’t generally rattle me in any significant way (so long as there aren’t serious financial Armageddon type issues lingering in the market). On the whole, so long as I can continue to pull in a steady income with my online website businesses and small legal practice, I am generally content to stay the course. No one ever said becoming a millionaire would be easy, as there are bound to be unexpected bumps on the road. But so long as the rules haven’t changed to any major degree, the economic and financial landscape will inevitably improve in the long run, and such long term investments will ultimately enjoy much success.

My Current Net Worth and Financial Status Update Compared To Last Month

Paying My Quarterly Estimated Taxes As A Self Employed Taxpayer

For those not familiar with what quarterly estimated taxes are in general, or not sure as to why they took such a big bite out of my networth this month, here’s a quick explanation. Estimated taxes are basically the  income taxes that self employed individuals like myself  pay on income that is not subjected to withholding. This income includes everything  from self employment income, interest, stock dividends, rental income, and gains from the sale of assets, etc. It’s important to pay attention to this obligation, because failure to timely pay the quarterly assessed estimated taxes on time does result in a hefty penalty and associated interest charges, even in those cases where you are ultimately due a refund when you file the tax return.

Most people never have to deal with paying estimated taxes because their employers usually already withhold their federal, state, and social security taxes on their paychecks. But for self employed small business owners like myself, because we don’t have someone else to withhold these types of taxes for us, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has mandated that we do so ourselves – requiring us to make four projected pre-payments throughout the year at set intervals on April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15 of the following year. One of these hefty tax payment dates occurred in January, which is why the vast bulk of the income I generated during the month was siphoned off to pay the Man. But next month, my networth will likely return back to its regularly anticipated upward growth trajectory.

Buy Low, Sell High – And Continue Investing In A Down Stock Market

Some are saying that we are up for another routine market correction after a somewhat furious run up from spring 2009, while others are running around in circles predicting another major collapse again. But once you cut past the rhetoric and emotional hyperboles, you realize that it’s really just business as usual. The economy naturally ebbs and flows and there is always bound to be good stock market days and bad ones as well. But if you are generally optimistic about the distant future as I am and are willing to make your long term investment bets today, I am confident that years from now, your investments will pay off quite handsomely.

While I keep a rather sizable amount stored away in my safe and secure FDIC insured high interest bank accounts for emergency fund purposes, the vast bulk of my savings reside in discount broker accounts – invested into a variety of long range investments. I intend to stay invested for quite a few years – at least 3-5 years before I plan to engage in any significant portfolio reshuffling. I think the market is currently at its low and that all indicators strongly suggest that there is only tremendous upside from hereon. It is certainly possibly for the market to continue getting spooked and experience a pullback, but I don’t think we are in for another financial Armageddon scenario or are on the verge of a serious economic depression – the likes of which were talked about during the early part of last year. We are definitely on the road to economic recovery – however, admittedly, the road is long, and heavily paved with pot holes and obstacles.

Cashing In and Taking Advantage Of Credit Card Rewards and Bonuses

This month I also happened to redeem a rather large chunk of the credit card rewards I’ve accumulated over the last many months – converting my various credit card reward points into usable currency – namely, gift cards. Overwhelmingly, the more lucrative card reward program I use at the present time is the Citi Thank You network, with the American Express Blue Cash program being a close second. Because I used reward credit cards to pay for pretty much everything I purchase, I tend to rack up a substantial amount of reward points in a very short period of time.

The amount of credit card reward points I had accrued after only a year of routine credit card spending was rather enormous (in my opinion) – an amount that exceeded a value of $1,500. Ultimately, I decided to convert the majority of them into gift cards to places like Marshall’s and Macy’s. I don’t go shopping for clothing very often, but I’ll probably go on a small shopping spree in the near future with my new found loot. I had the option to convert my accrued credit card reward points into a cash lump sum, but for those who are familiar with credit card rebates and rewards, the point to cash conversion rate is frequently pretty low – and you tend to lose a big chunk of your points during the conversion process. While pure cash back credit card rewards are more versatile and bypass the hassle of having to manually convert accrued points into usable gifts or rewards, I’ve found that point based reward programs tend to offer a higher purchase rebate percentage. If you don’t mind a little work or putting in a little effort towards micro-managing your points, you’re better off going with a point based reward program.

I know credit cards tend to get a very bad rap with many out there believing them to be the source of all evil as evidenced by the government’s recent crusade to regulate every aspect of how credit card issuers run their businesses. However, I personally feel credit card programs are what you make of them. If you spend responsibly and pay off your balances in full every month, the credit card usage incentives they provide can be extremely lucrative. Even those who persistently carry monthly balances are not without options – there are a variety of 0% balance credit cards and low interest credit card deals out there for the qualified applicants to take advantage of. Keep those FICO credit scores high and monitor them regularly with programs like MyFICO Score Watch like I do, and you’ll ensure that you’ll always have access to the best credit card offers according to your personalized needs.

Source URL: January 2010: Net Worth Update and Paying Estimated Taxes

Copyright Protected © 2010 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

According to most public sentiment surveys I’ve seen thus far, the overwhelming consensus is that 2009 was a particularly terrible year. The economy tanked, retirement savings were largely wiped out, and home equity values were pretty much eviscerated. However, where there’s misery, there always seems to be a smidgen lining of hope. Despite most people’s vastly negative opinion of 2009, the great majority of surveys indicate a very optimistic outlook for 2010. Maybe it’s because this time around, we are no longer staring at the barrel of an imminent financial sector meltdown and hearing the ghastly doomsday warnings of a possible decade-long economic depression, but things certainly feel less dire than the same time 12 months ago.

Most certainly, while we are still languishing under the worst economic recession in decades with depressive unemployment rates continuing to climb, the pace at which the economy continues to worsen has drastically decreased. In other words, while the economy is still deteriorating, it’s worsening at a significantly slower pace than before. This is very good news for the aspiring optimists and opportunists in all of us. Most significantly, there also does appear to be tangible economic metrics emerging to back up the growing optimistic fervor for 2010. While I personally think we are still many months away from a real and sustainable recovery, I think we are decidedly heading in the right direction as punctuated by the fact that I’ve been jumping back into the stock market of late and starting to invest strongly and aggressively in long term positions again – positions that I think will pay off handsomely in the future. Previously during the very early part of spring 2009, I exited and stayed away from the market to protect myself from the effects of the irrational fear and panic that was crippling the American psyche. But with the way things are now, I am pretty confident that the worst case scenario has been averted and all that remains now is for the economy to begin its long and steady natural progression towards recovery. While home prices will almost undoubtedly not return to pre-recession levels anytime soon, home prices will most likely stabilize during 2010, leading to a positive and steady ripple effect across other sectors.

In terms of my New Year’s resolutions for myself in the financial planning and income growth department, I plan to make 2010 a banner year for my bank savings account balances and investment holdings. Now is the most opportunist time to start placing one’s bets for the distant future. Despite the mild market run up since spring 2009, stock market prices on the whole are still lagging and have not returned to pre-recessionary panic levels. If you have cash on the sidelines and have been waiting for the so-called “best time to start investing”, now is the time to start opening up a discount broker account and start investing those excess savings into long term mutual funds, or better yet – into the exchange traded funds (ETF’s) of your choice. I’ve personally chosen to invest heavily into riskier financial and emerging market funds (such as the XLF and EEM funds) to fully maximize the potential of my future gains. However, your personal investment strategy is up to you and dependent on your willingness to assume risk today for a greater payday in the not too distance future.

My Current Net Worth and Financial Status Update Compared To Last Month

Allocating Cash Savings For The Closing Of My New Home Purchase

Back in August 2009, I signed a contract for the purchase of a brand new construction 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom cottage style single family colonial home. For several months now, I’ve been patiently monitoring the construction progress of my first home purchase ever – swinging by the home lot to take photos of the inside and outside at least once every week. Most recently, the transformation from a pile of dirt to a free standing wood and concrete structure has been nothing been dramatic. With the roof tiles now in place and the windows having been installed, the home is starting to really take shape. While the housing construction is proceeding rapidly and steadily, there have been a few slow downs due in large part to the recent snow storm activity that we’ve been experiencing in the D.C. Baltimore area the last few weeks. Coupled with the time off effects of Christmas and New Year’s, construction work has occasionally stalled – but I expect things to start picking up again briskly when construction starts rolling into January.

Currently, the new home is tentatively scheduled to be completed and delivered sometime early March 2010. As such, I’ve prepared and saved up a sizable cash balance to pay towards my new home mortgage 20% down payment. With the home priced at around $622,000 (this is pretty much average for the D.C. area), I presently have set aside and reserved more than the necessary $125,000 down payment I will need for home mortgage purposes. While there have been several times that I’ve been tempted to allocate this special purpose money into various lucrative stock market investments, I managed to do the right thing and keep the funds safely segregated in their own separate bank accounts.

Funding My IRA and Opening Up A New SEP-IRA Account For Stock Investing

Most people rely on their employer’s 401(k)’s with matching contribution packages for most of their retirement planning needs. But because I am currently fully self employed with my network of online businesses and run my own legal practice from my home office, I have to depend on myself. Fortunately for solo practitioners and self employed folks like myself, the IRS provides a useful mechanism for us to still take full advantage of the tax deferred benefits of individual retirement savings accounts – namely the SEP-IRA. Because I’ve already maxed out my limited Roth IRA and Individual IRA contribution limits and desire to contribute more, I recently, I opened up a SEP IRA account with Fidelity Investments. The greatest benefit of a SEP-IRA account apart from the obvious tax deferred benefits, is that the maximum contribution limit is pretty generous – at 25% of an individual’s compensation, capped at a maximum of $49,000 for both individual tax years 2009 and 2010. Eventually, I may very well open up a few more other SEP-IRA investment accounts with other reputable online discount brokerage firms to test them all out – but for now, I’m going with Fidelity.

Relying On My Passive Online Income Streams For A Living

Unfortunately, due to several notable and rather complicated personal situations during the last few months, I’ve neglected to post on my personal finance blog and other online blogs as frequently as I would have liked to. While I’ve continued to maintain and tend to my online businesses and network of profitable websites on a regular basis, I have not really posted new articles with much regularity. But despite my lack of effort and lack of any substantial headway in the way of content creation, my online income streams continue to remain very stable (with even signs of growth). This brings me to the most powerful and compelling aspect of why I truly believe any person who is strongly self motivated ought to start blogging to make money online and not delay in tapping into the powers and limitless potential of the Internet. Because of all of the effort I had previously put into my online craft for the last 2 and a half years, I’ve built up a very substantial network of online traffic streams that remain solidly consistent despite my lack of present effort. Contrary to what most layman and blogging beginners believe, once you have built up solid search engine traffic and have earned reputational authority in the eyes of major search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo – your keyword rankings pretty much stay consistent indefinitely (and dare I say it, permanently). Once you have this search engine authority built up, it’s very difficult for new blogging and website entrants into the field to supplement your existing position. This probably explains why numerous major media companies have been trying to contact me recently to inquire about potential buyout opportunities or website acquisitions. Frankly, I have very little incentive to entertain such offers as I truly enjoy the significant incomes I generate from the sites that I own, as they require very little effort on my part – but of course, with the right offers, anything is possible I suppose.

For those of you who have always thought about wanting to start blogging online to either share your  interests with the rest of the world or just to make some money on the side or even provide your family an alternative income source during these difficult and unpredictable times – now is the time to start blogging and pursuing your web business aspirations. The more you delay, the more such opportunities will gradually slip away. Carpe diem!

Source URL: December 2009: Net Worth Report and Financial Plans For Year 2010

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Whether you’re a buy and hold investor or a savvy trader of penny stocks, I’m pretty sure commissions and fees are a few of those brokerage conditions that you pay particular attention to. If you aren’t too concerned with them, then perhaps you ought to be. After all, high fees and hidden trading costs have a nasty way of surreptitiously consuming huge chunks of your potential stock gains and profits. Nowadays, there really is no reason why any investor ought to pay full price for his or her stock investing needs. There are a broad range of heavily discounted brokerage firms to choose from, each offering its own unique online trading experience and each touting its own unique mix of low fees and hassle free conditions.

If you’re not completely new to the world of investing, I recommend checking out OptionsHouse, a fairly intriguing newish entrant to the discount broker foray. While the name OptionsHouse may be unfamiliar to those not intimately plugged into investment circles, the company is a fairly established company, associated and backed by PEAK6 Investments, one of the biggest options trading brokerage companies around. Despite the “options” moniker in its name, the firm is not an exclusive options trading firm as it provides a large wealth of resources for stock trading as well.  While options trading is its primary expertise and specialty, the company still caters to the stock and fund investors out there – touting trading rates that are some of the cheapest, if not the absolute cheapest rates in the market today. At a mere flat $2.95 for each stock and exchange traded fund (ETF) trade, you would be hard pressed to find another reputable discount broker capable of matching such low commission fees for equity transactions. In the cost arena, OptionsHouse is a standout, even amongst all of the other top recommended names in my online discount broker review list.

Like most legitimately established online broker firms, OptionsHouse is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), the non profit federal government entity tasked with protecting investors from financial harm in the event of a catastrophic brokerage failure. As such, OptionsHouse customer accounts are insured against loss and protected by SIPC insurance up to $500,000 with a variety of other protection measures in place as well. In terms of its target customer, OptionsHouse’s primary account base consists of active individual stock and options traders with some semblance of investing savviness. While OptionsHouse may also appeal to true beginners to investing, its advanced trading tools and technical analytical option analyzers may slightly intimate newbies. If you are a first time stock market investor, I’d recommend going with a more down to earth, more accessible discount brokerage firm like Scottrade, TradeKing, or even E-Trade. But if you are an active stock or options investor, Options House’s incredibly cheap stock trading commissions and low cost fees for options trades will certainly offer you immense appeal. Stock and options investors who trade frequently or execute larger than average trade sizes will have the most to gain from what this discount brokerage firm has to offer.

OptionsHouse Is An Up and Coming Award Winning Discount Brokerage Firm

While I personally don’t think one should judge or make a decision on which is the best discount broker based on the number of accolades and rewards received alone, these type of editorial recognitions do go a long way in helping investors and traders weed out the winners from the losers. Despite its fairly recent entry into the market, OptionsHouse has already earned a reasonable amount of attention from the professional reviewers – including a 4 star rating in Barron’s 2008 Best Online Broker Survey, along with a #1 ranking in the category of “Usability”. In its 2009 Online Broker Survey, Barron’s awarded OptionsHouse a 4.5 star overall, tagging the brokerage firm the “Best For Options Traders”, as well as rating it #1 in “Trade Experience”, beating out other notable brokerages like thinkorswim, optionsXpress, Etrade, and Charles Schwab. However, it will probably take a few years of such consistent performance before OptionsHouse will truly be able to unseat the current reigning champs like E-trade Financial or TradeKing – firms which have consistently ranked at the top on multiple review listings like SmartMoney’s Best Broker Survey, and Kiplinger’s annual review of the top online brokers.

Cheap $2.95 Flat Commissions Rate For Stock Trades, and Low Flexible Rates For Options

As I indicated above, OptionsHouse offers some of the lowest commission fees in the market today – adopting a primarily flat pricing model that is very popular among those account holders who want to avoid the hassles of tier based or volume influenced pricing. Currently, Options House touts a remarkably cheap $2.95 flat rate for all stock trades, regardless of the number of shares purchased, and regardless of whether the trade was executed online or with the assistance of a broker agent. I have yet to see many other legitimate brokers that can even come close in terms of pricing. The only cheap discount broker firms that can even remotely compare are perhaps the ones that offer conditional free stock trades such as Zecco. While Zecco does indeed offer an allotment of monthly stock trades for its customers free of charge, there are certain pre-qualifying conditions that must be regularly met (either the maintenance of a certain account balance or satisfaction of a certain volume of trading activity).

For option trades (the firm’s bread and butter), OptionsHouse offers its customers the flexibility to pick the rate that works best for them. Those that trade less than 10 contracts can pick the “Up to 5 for $5 rate” where their  first five option contracts are only $5. Trade over 10 contracts? You can select OptionsHouse’s low $8.50 +.15/contract rate for maximum value. You are free to change your options commission rate as your trading behavior changes to help you maximize your savings. In a comparative analysis of OptionsHouse’s option contract savings to its competitors for anywhere from 5 to 100 contracts, OptionsHouse easily beats out other top performers such as TradeKing, TradeMonster, thinkorswim, E-Trade, optionsXpress, and Fidelity Investments. Contrast that with what some of the other top name brokerages charge and you’ll understand why OptionsHouse’s prices are so remarkably cheap. For example, top brokers like TradeKing may charge just $4.95 per option trade, but they also tack on an extra $0.65 fee per options contract. Those that trade large quantities of option contracts will benefit the most from OptionsHouse’s efficient pricing structure.

When it comes to investing in stocks, ETF’s, and options – OptionsHouse is an extremely affordable brokerage choice. However, if you’re looking to trade other financial products beyond just those three such as mutual funds or bonds, you may want to be mindful of the fact that while OptionsHouse’s commission fees for stocks and options are super cheap, it’s prices for other products beyond its core base are higher. My advice is to open an account and use OptionsHouse for stock, ETF, and option trades, but go directly to the mutual fund sources for all of your other investment needs. For example, Fidelity and Vanguard are the two most popular providers of mutual funds and index funds today. If you want to invest in either a Fidelity or Vanguard labeled fund, you should open accounts with both of them directly to avoid the extra transactional fees associated with mutual fund investing.

Overview Of OptionsHouse’s Online Brokerage Account Features

Along with its extremely low cost commission fee structure for both stocks and options, OptionsHouse also offers its customers the conveniences of no maintenance fees, no minimum trade requirements, and no extra charges for broker-assisted trades (a rarity among discount brokers). Those traders and investors who trade frequently or trade large volumes of equity in one sitting will benefit strongly from OptionsHouse’s flat pricing for stocks and very competitive flexible pricing for options.

In terms of its basic account offerings, OptionHouse provides all of the usual assortment of cash and margin account types that most customers have come to expect from their online discount brokers. OptionsHouse account holders have the ability to conduct purchases and sales in transactions involving stocks, options, ETF’s, mutual funds, Roth IRA’s, Traditional IRA’s, Education IRA’s, and many more. To assist account holders, the firm provides its customers a broad range of educational resources including books, guides, webinars, calculators, simulators, and various screeners to help them take maximum control of their financial lives – and they’re not just all for options trading either. Those that want to test out OptionsHouse’s investment functions and tools but don’t wish to commit to using real funds can opt instead to take a trial run using OptionsHouse’s Virtual Trading tool, which allows an individual to execute mock transactions using what’s essentially play money. It’s a good way to get familiarized with all of the widgets and trading features that the company has to offer.

After having used my OptionsHouse investment account for some time now, I have to say that the trading platform is generally pretty intuitive and similar to what I’ve come to expect from my online brokerages. While account holders are given some limited ability to customize, such as the ability to change colors here and there, and offered the ability to tweak how various charts and graphics display information, most of the online account features are intuitively preset. The firm keeps its award winning (rated highly by online reviewers for “trade experience”) interface simple and offers an online trading platform that ought to satisfy and beat the needs of most active stock and options investors. You are of course welcome to take a video tour of the brokerage firm’s online interface for more information.

Bottom line, I would recommend OptionsHouse as a deep discount brokerage choice for stock and options trades. If you believe you will invest primarily in mutual funds on the other hand, I’d recommend opening an account with the appropriate mutual fund provider directly (example: Vanguard, Fidelity, Charles Schwab) to avoid the extra mutual fund transaction costs. Also, if you’re a relatively new investor who is still getting the hang of investing, I would recommend going with a brokerage firm that caters more to beginner investors – firms like Scottrade and TradeKing. But if you already have some background or basic experience with investing, then OptionsHouse’s incredibly low rates and transactional costs will suit you very well. At a flat $2.95 for stock trades, it’s almost impossible to beat that with any other discount online broker.

In case you still need a further incentive, for a limited time during the firm’s special promo period, OptionsHouse is offering new customers a special promotional 100 free trades during the first 60 days after a new account is funded with a minimum of $3,000.

Source URL: OptionsHouse Review: Discount Broker For Stock and Options Trades

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

However, this is not yet the time to start high fiving or fist bumping each other, or be reveling in premature optimism. Rather, this is the time to start placing your financial bets in a strong, but calculated way in anticipation of an eventual economic recovery. There are still a large number of unforeseen factors and worldwide catastrophes that could easily derail the economic momentum train off its tracks. Because we now live in a global economy where all established and developing markets are interlinked and highly inter-dependent with one another, it’s crucial to recognize that there are many worldwide factors beyond our control that still have strong sway on the economic lives of those that live in the states. Certainly we can lower interest rates all we want, issue as many economic stimulus checks as the public demands, or extend unemployment benefits for as long as jobless folks need them – but if other major countries whose high expansion rates and growth we’ve been counting on to boost our own economic markets are not able to successfully salvage their situations and ensure social stability among their populace, we are likely to suffer as well. Let’s hope our federal government can continue to promote the natural worldwide growth of free markets, continue to adopt favorable tax rates, and not resort to protectionist agendas that serve only to stifle the efficient and orderly expansion of the world’s interlinked economies.

As an investor for the long term who anticipates a gradual economic recovery in the coming years, I’m particularly intrigued by the availability of powerful growth prospects overseas, especially in the so-called BRIC nations of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. A great deal of my present stock investments are focused on these developing nations as well as centered on sectors in the United States that have been especially beaten down by the 2008 and 2009 recessions such as the financials and the real estate housing stocks. While many risk averse investors continue to seek out so-called safety stocks by investing in gold, I prefer to bet on the future rather than on the short term. Flee to the safety of gold investments and buy gold bullion holdings if you must, but I’m personally placing my bets for the distant future now, rather than hiding in assets that will only offer short term security. The emerging markets, particularly China (with its ginormous billion strong population and growing appetite) will emerge from this global economic recession as the new focus of worldwide economic growth for many years to come. Whatever qualms we may have about China’s human rights track record and censorship activities are unlikely to detract from the country’s importance in our own future plans for economic prosperity. Strange and surreal as it might be to fathom – but the Communists will ultimately pull all of us out of this capitalist nightmare (who would have thunk it).

My Current Net Worth and Financial Status Update Compared To Last Month

My Financial Blogging Business Income Continues To Grow

Amidst the backdrop of Thanksgiving, I feel quite fortunate, lucky, and blessed in the income department. While the economy continues to struggle through the worst economic recession we’ve seen in decades brought on by the housing bubble and subprime mortgage crisis, my income has remained fairly steady over this period of time with just a slight bit of retrenchment. I currently generate my monthly income through a small collection of online and so-called real life sources. Only about 4 years ago I was still working a regular full time day job as an associate attorney. Not long thereafter I went through a chaotic period of my life when I jumped from one temporary legal assignment to another as an attorney for hire. There was even one brief but unforgettable period of time when I wound up as the lackey slave for a miserably oppressive female attorney who ran her solo practice like a mafia. With numerous un-fulfilling and miserable stints as a “real attorney” under my belt, about two years ago, I decided to entertain the prospect of running a solo legal practice of my own. Around the same time, I randomly and rather fortuitously stumbled upon blogging and internet marketing as a way to generate passive income online. The rest is history. Years later, I continue to work for myself, running my own small legal practice as well as running a few online based businesses on the side. While I continue to make money online by blogging and generating revenue through a variety of income producing niche sites and by earning fees through online consulting work, my hope one day is to either make everything completely self automated or sell my entire business so I can finally retire from the rat race.

Progress and Status Report Of My New Single Family Home Construction

With a recent CNN report indicating that almost 1 in 4 current homeowners are underwater, meaning that they owe more on their home mortgages than their homes are actually worth – it truly does feel like you’re potentially signing your life away when you become a new homeowner nowadays.

I recently became a first time buyer and owner of a brand new construction 4 bedroom, 4 bath single family home – and thus far, the journey from location scouting, to price negotiation, to pending construction has been a rather disconcerting experience for me. While there have been lots of great highs experienced such as the awesome feeling I felt when I walked through a beautifully constructed model home for the first time, there have been many ongoing lows as well. Lately, I’ve been plagued by a bit of buyer’s remorse, and while I don’t seriously doubt my new home purchase to a critical degree, I do wonder at times if I might have prematurely and hastily locked myself into the largest investment of my life. After all, by purchasing such a pricey home, I’m officially chaining myself to a certain geographical area and lifelong home mortgage contract for many years to come.

As I run my home business and legal practice from my home office, my living location is actually quite flexible as I don’t necessarily need to be located near public subway transportation sites for example. Thus I have occasionally pondered the prospect of living in another state or even living overseas for a short while to experience something different in my life. But now that I’ve locked myself into a new home with monthly mortgage payments to be forthcoming when the new construction home is finally delivered sometime in March 2010, it looks like I’ll be staying in the Washington D.C. suburban area for some time now.

Other persistent issues that continue to nag at me include the home’s somewhat close proximity to electrical powerlines and the home’s location away from the city center. But after having worked through these lingering doubts in my mind, I am ultimately comforted by the fact that I made a good purchase as far as real estate investments go. I purchased the home in the latter half of 2009, at a time when local and national home prices have already plummeted 20-30%, and during a time when mortgage rates are presently at historical lows and free government homebuyer tax credit incentives are abundant. Furthermore, despite what worries I may continue to have, perhaps the very most comforting aspect of owning my own home at this time is the fact that I will now have a place to call home, and can finally put an end to my formerly nomadic lifestyle of moving from rental apartment to another every few years. I will finally have a place to designate as my permanent home base, and a primary residence where no landlord or management office can tell me what I can or cannot do in my own home.

Source URL: November 2009: Net Worth, Real Estate, and Blogging Income

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

To keep this stagnating economic train running, President Barack Obama has recently signed a new bill – extending the duration and expanding the coverage of the federal housing tax credit. Previously, the economic stimulus package only provided free tax credit assistance to first time home buyers and was slated to expire in late 2009. But with economists and pundits still doubting the ability of the economy to recover without additional stimulus intervention, the federal government has now officially extended the deadline of the federal homebuyer tax credit program until April 30, 2010 for new home contracts, or until June 30, 2010 for the final closing. The home’s closing can occur by June 30, 2010 and still qualify for the free tax credit, but the contract  to buy the home must be completed by April 30, 2010 at the latest. Those looking for a further extension after early 2010 might be disappointed as current indications suggest that this extension may be the final one.

To incentivize and encourage continued homebuying activity (as much of our economy is intertwined with the housing industry – example: banks, construction related services, home equity based spending), the new federal legislation will not only extend the current program’s eligibility deadline for new home buyers, but it will also add additional tax credit incentives for qualifying existing home buyers who choose to move out of their present homes and trade up for new homes. While the whole motivation behind the federal government’s approach towards providing housing tax credit assistance is to jump start and spur on sluggish housing sales, it really remains to be seen whether this will ultimately have a sustainable long term impact on the economy. Hopefully, the government’s well meaning emergency actions today won’t drive us into irreparably dire deficits and higher tax brackets down the line. After all, it’s been said that the road to hell is often paved with good intentions.

Buy A New Home Not For The Tax Credit, But Because It’s A Good Investment

As a new first time homebuyer myself, I recently purchased a new construction home in August 2009. Despite the fact my high income precludes me from qualifying for the housing tax credit, even if I qualified for it, it’s unlikely the tax credit alone would have been the primary impetus for my home purchasing decisions. In almost all of the reputable surveys I’ve seen on the subject, including ones conducted by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), only a tiny portion of first time home buyers cited the tax credit as the primary reason behind their recent decisions to purchase a new home. I think the strongest encouragement to buy a home now comes not from the federal government’s tax credit incentive, but rather from the innately driven love of the American people to own their own homes, and the current prevalence of favorable market conditions in the way of super low mortgage rates and depressed home prices that have plummeted 25-30% from their previous year 2005/2006 highs. I know the primary reason I decided to pull the trigger now and purchase a home for the very first time was not because I wanted to take advantage of any federal housing tax credit, but due to the fact that home prices in my target neighborhood have dropped into incredible lows and now sit at once-in-a-lifetime levels of affordability. For those of you who have been contemplating the prospect of buying a new home for the very first time or even for those of you who are long time homeowners pondering the idea of swapping up for a new and improved home – now may be the time to do it. The free housing tax credit carrot that the federal government is now dangling as an incentive for qualifying individuals might be just what you needed to push you over the decisional edge.

For both the $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers and the newly expanded $6,500 tax credit for existing homeowners looking to buy a new home, there are a few restrictions in the way of income limits and what type of home may qualify. Buyers claiming the tax credit must be at least 18 years or older, and no individual or couple may receive the credit if he or she may be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s tax return. For both housing tax credits, the credit gradually phases out for individual single filers with $125,000 and $145,000 of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI). For married couples, the income range phaseout is between $225,000 and $245,000. Beyond $145,000 for single filers and $245,000 for married filing jointly couples – the tax credit is completely phased out.

How To Qualify For the $8,000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit

To be considered eligible, you must first and foremost be a first time home buyer – defined as an individual who has not owned a principal residence home in the past 3 years prior to the present purchase. This definition of “first time home buyer” also includes both partners of a married pair. There is some flexibility as to which tax return year the tax credit must be claimed. Under the new law as was the case under the old, a first time homebuyer who purchases a home in year 2009 may opt to claim the federal tax credit on either their 2008 or 2009 tax returns. Similarly, one who purchases a new home in year 2010 may opt to claim the tax credit on either their 2009 tax returns or on their 2010 tax returns.

In terms of how much money you are permitted to get back on your tax return in the way of tax credits, first time home buyers are permitted to claim up to 10% of the home’s final purchase price, up to a maximum tax credit limit of $8,000. One great feature of the first time homebuyer tax credit is that it’s a dollar for dollar reduction of tax liability and is completely refundable. What this means is that even if you don’t owe the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sufficient taxes to completely offset the housing tax credit, you can still qualify for a free tax refund check of the difference. Thus if you qualify for the full $8,000 housing tax credit and ultimately only owe the IRS $6,000 in taxes – you can still qualify for a $2,000 tax refund check.

Additionally, there are a few other limitations on who may qualify for the tax credit. The first time homebuyer may not purchase the home from a descendant such as one’s children or grandchildren, and the home may not be purchased from a lineal ancestor, such as a parent. The same restriction also applies to purchasing from one’s spousal ancestors and descendants as well. Furthermore, for home purchases made after November 6, 2009, the price of the purchased home may not exceed $800,000. Homes priced in excess of that amount are not eligible for the tax credit. Basically, the government doesn’t want rich folks to profit from this middle class based credit.

How To Qualify For The $6,500 Repeat Homebuyer Tax Credit

This is an exciting new addition to the federal homebuyer tax credit program. To be considered eligible for the $6,500 existing homeowner’s tax credit, the homeowner applicant must have owned his or her current home for at least 5 consecutive years out of the past 8 years, and must purchase a new home by April 30, 2010. The purchase of the new home can include a new construction home, but the purchasing contract must be signed by April 30, 2010, and the final closing date must be on or by June 30, 2010. The income qualification restrictions are the same as that of the first time homebuyer’s credit – for single filers, the tax credit phases out between $125,000 and $145,000 of modified adjusted gross income, and for married filing jointly couples, the income range phases out between $225,000 and $245,000.

While there is no explicit requirement that the homeowner must ever pay back the $8,000 or $6,500 housing tax credit to the federal government, the obligation to pay it back does arise if one claims the tax credit but then sells the house or condominium (or otherwise stops using the home as the principal residence) within 3 years (36 months) after the purchase.

Source URL: Tax Credit For First Time Home Buyers Extension

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

As a part time personal finance blogger, book publishers and book authors frequently send me free personal finance books to read and review. After blogging about making money and a whole slew of financial topics for several years now, in this span of time I’ve probably received well over 30-50 books about money (the vast majority of them parroting and repeating the same material frankly). If I did not periodically sell them online or donate them away to friends and readers of this blog, the incredibly large pile of books would probably have winded up clogging a large corner of my house, gathering dust and taking up space.

College and graduate students in particular have the greatest to gain from not delaying in their efforts to sell off their old and used textbooks online. School textbooks are by their very nature profitable exchanges for the book authors and publishers who issue new editions every few years and force all current book owners to buy the new versions to stay current. Thus, limited in terms of value by short multi year lifespans, school text books are only as current and up to date as the next year’s release date. That is why I always strongly recommend that students sell their books quickly and convert them back to cash form as soon as the school semester or school year is over, lest they delay and wind up in ultimate possession of yesterday’s edition.

Where To Sell Your Used Books To Get the Best Price and Most Money Back

I started selling new and used books online back in 2000 when websites like eBay.com, Amazon.com, and Half.com were just gaining prominence. While I sold my fair share of unwanted books to local used bookstores, thrift stores, and even pawn shops for cash, I focused primarily on online selling due to the higher prices I could fetch over the Internet. Selling back used textbooks has always been a great way to recoup some of the expensive costs of expensive textbooks, but unfortunately, college and university bookstores these days continue to pay students the worst prices for book buybacks. In most cases, college bookstores usually only offer half or less of the original purchase price for buybacks so that they can in turn sell the used titles back to other students for huge markup profits. Today, there are many places over the Internet where you can sell your used books for much better returns – each with its own host of pros and cons.

1) eBay (Auctions) – If you’re a regular consumer looking to buy a new or used book for cheap, eBay will probably be your best bet as auction deals abound there and final sale prices are incredibly low. However, if you’re a seller of used books or textbooks, the general public perception that eBay offers super low prices definitely works against your favor. But due to eBay’s incredibly large customer base and superb ease of use, it’s an online book selling resource you simply can’t ignore. eBay is one of the very quickest, easiest, and simplest ways to sell used books online. Oftentimes if you’re listing an auction for a used book, you can simply utilize eBay’s book template setup feature, punch in the book’s ISBN number, and have an effectively designed eBay auction ready to go in just a moment’s time.

Even if you don’t always get the best prices for your books with eBay, it’s almost a solid guarantee that they will sell (albeit at eBay market determined prices). If you’re looking to sell an obscure, rare, or valuable book, or perhaps you’re looking to capture high traffic volume for an auction involving a collection of books at the same time – eBay might be your best bet due to its ability to offer up maximum public exposure. But because eBay auction consumers have been conditioned and accustomed to seek out and demand almost unreasonably low prices for their bids for some time now, you’re unlikely to make a tremendous amount of money with eBay book auctions if you’re a seller. Ebay’s continuously increasing listing fees and rising commission charges have definitely taken a serious toll on seller profit potential in recent years.

2) Craiglist.org (Classified Ads) - Craigslist is a very popular online classified ad listing website and is also truly the wild, wild west of market place transactions. The greatest appeal of Craigslist for online book sellers and buyers is that there are no commissions, advertisement listing fees, or special mandatory shipping charges required. Pretty much anything goes on Craigslist – with all transactional terms and conditions negotiated and worked out between sellers and buyers themselves. If you have used books for sale and do not wish to be constrained by the auction rules or regulated limitations of policed sites like eBay or Amazon, you might want to try out Craigslist. Prices vary wildly however – sometimes they offer prices higher than eBay listings while other times they’re lower. But in terms of saving time and effort, if you’re looking to get rid of your used textbooks or old book collections all at once in large parcels, Craigslist is ideal.

Here’s a suggestion for Craigslist sellers – if you’re looking to sell a large bundle of books at once, try putting multiple books together into a single collection and posting the listing for sale on Craigslist. If potential buyers express interest, try throwing in additional books to spicen up the pot in their favor if you’re willing to do so. This type of book selling strategy works incredibly well for smaller and lower priced books that don’t sell as well individually.

3) Book Buyback and Textbook Rental Websites - The biggest problem with utilizing do-it-yourself (DIY) type sites like eBay, Amazon, or Craigslist to personally list and sell your used books is the time and effort involved to list and market every one of the books for sale. Trying to keep shipping costs down and save money on the cost of packaging envelopes isn’t easy to do if you’re not an adept micro-tasker. One viable alternative to the do it yourself approach is to solicit the services of an online book buying website that will pay you a one time bounty for all of your available and aggregate used books in one fell swoop. Usually after you’ve provided the book buyback website the names and ISBN numbers of all of the books you have for sale, the site provides you pre-paid postage labels for you to ship the books to them via the postal service. With book buyback services, there is no need for you to manage auctions, handle customer service inquiries, or follow up regarding timely payment. Once the folks at the book buying firm have received your books and reviewed their condition, they usually issue payment directly to you in the way of a check, PayPal payment, or even a direct deposit into your checking account in some cases.

The biggest downside with these online book buyback websites is the incredibly low price they generally pay for used books and textbooks. Because they pretty much do all of the work for you, these companies generally pay only small fractions of the original retail price for these books. Rarely do their offers ever match or exceed the prices that used book sellers can fetch on their own via eBay, Amazon, or even Craigslist. While I don’t necessarily vouch or recommend any one particular site for its quality or reliability – here are a few book buyback and book rental websites I’ve come across that you might want to follow up on – Chegg.com, eCampus.com,  BookByte.com, Cash4Books.net, Barnes & Noble, TextbooksNow.com, Textbooks.com, BooksValue.com, WeBuyTextbooks.com, BooksValue, TextbooksRUs, and CollegeBooksDirect. Let me know if there are any other sites worth mentioning, worth reviewing in detail, or even worth criticizing.

4) Amazon.com Used Books and Textbooks (Recommended For Most Sellers)

Compared to all of the other online ways of selling used textbooks and old books, I prefer listing books for sale on Amazon.com because it is much more intuitive to use than other alternatives. Signing up for an Amazon seller’s account is straightforward and listing your used books for sale is easy. You will be asked to describe the condition of your book, set your desired fixed price, and denote your available shipping options. Amazon.com ultimately reimburses sellers for their shipping costs but charges a $0.99 fee plus an additional fee based on a certain percentage of the final list price. Here are a few Amazon quick links for sellers that want to get started:

• Amazon’s textbook store - Click here if you’re looking to sell a used college or graduate school textbook.
• Amazon’s used book store – If you’re selling any other used book, try this link to get started.

Over the years, I’ve enjoyed a lot more regular success and have earned more profit with Amazon than say, eBay or Craigslist. Quite possibly because Amazon.com started out as a book store and many people still see and trust Amazon primarily as an authoritative source for buying books at a reasonable price, it seems visitors to the site are more willing to pay a slightly higher price premium than at other websites. But perhaps the greatest benefit of using Amazon to sell books is the ability to take advantage of the natural flow of visitors coming to the site and looking to buy a brand new book. Because used book listings are displayed alongside the prices for new book titles, you may be able to siphon off new book seekers and convert them into buyers of used, lower priced versions. Rather than go to Amazon.com and shell out $25 for a new book, you may be able to successfully lure prospective buyers into going for your cheaper $15 used version instead.

Obscure, rare, and collectible books tend to fetch higher prices via an auction or free-for-all classified ad listing than you may be able to get by selling the title via a fixed price listing on Amazon. If you prefer to sell a whole selection of titles simultaneously as a pallet or collection, you might be better off using eBay or Craigslist. Non textbooks or expired textbook editions tend to sell much faster on eBay and Craigslist where aggressive deal seekers and bargain hunters abound. But if you’re selling either a popularly used and update-to-date school textbook, or trying to sell an otherwise recognizable bestselling title, Amazon will probably be your best bet. So long as your textbook has not been discontinued due to the release of a newer edition, you should not have any trouble selling your new condition book on Amazon somewhat close to what you paid for it. Standardized books such as school textbooks and popular bestsellers almost always perform better on Amazon.com listings than on other alternative sites.

If you’re thinking about selling used books on Amazon, here are a few important tips and pointers I’ve learned and picked up in recent years:

1. Always list your used books for sale at prices lower than your closest competitor.
2. Always track your used book listing periodically to ensure that it’s being priced at the lowest it can be.
3. If your competitors attempt to low ball their prices and undercut your title listing, instead of getting into a pointless price war, try matching prices tit for tat rather than beating them instead.
4. List your used book’s condition accurately. Even if your used textbook is really in “like new” condition, you might want to list it as “very good” instead. You don’t want future potential buyer complaints to cause your Amazon seller rating to suffer.
5. Keep your shipping prices low by utilizing free shipping boxes that you naturally come across, or buy them from deep discounters like Walmart, Target, or even your local supermarket. One great way to save a lot of money on packaging and shipping supplies is to buy them through eBay. For example, check out the following prices for eBay bubble wrap mailers, and eBay bubble envelopes.
6. Always ship utilizing the cheapest method possible – For used books and textbooks, the cheapest way to ship is usually through the postal service’s media mail option. However, with certain smaller books, it might very well be cheaper to go with First Class Mail – just ask the post office to ship using the cheapest way possible.

Regardless of which method you use to sell your used textbooks and unwanted books, selling back books (textbooks in particular) is simply a great way to recoup original purchase costs. But bear in mind, unless you are somehow a very large power seller with access to special shipping discounts and access to very cheap shipping supplies, you are unlikely to get rich or make a lot of money online through selling used books alone as a business form. Like those money making paid online surveys you always see, they may be otherwise legitimate ways of earning some extra cash back, but it’s doubtful you’ll ever become a millionaire in the process. It’s theoretically possible, but highly unlikely.

Source URL: Sell Your Used Textbooks and Old Books Online

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

If you’re searching for a list of the best online banks to deposit your savings in, then you’ve arrived at the right place. One of the most common, if not the most often asked question I get as a personal finance blogger, is which bank I would recommend to those looking to get the best interest rate of return for their money.

While some of us plow our personal savings into home mortgage payments or invest them into stocks, most of us invariably keep a certain stash into more accessible bank accounts for emergency fund purposes. Others like myself use high interest savings accounts to save up money for specific targeted purposes – in my case, I’m saving up for my future down payment for a house. So, if you’re keeping money in a bank account anyway, why not try to get the highest interest rate possible? To address this need – below, I’ve compiled a list of what I believe to be the best online banks available today – banks that offer the best deals for high interest savings and high yield savings accounts. Many of the recommended firms are also very competitive in the area of certificate of deposits (CD’s) and checking account rates as well.

Unfortunately, with interest rates at historical lows across the board given the current ongoing economic climate, the term “high yield savings account” is more of a comparative delineation than a descriptively absolute one. Just a few years ago during the glory days, one could easily rake in a hefty 5% to 6% APY rate with popular online savings accounts and high yield CD rates. But those days are long gone and today, the top online banks only offer anywhere from 2% to 3% tops. But despite the overall lower rates at the present time, the yields found at these Internet based banks still greatly exceed the nearly zero percent interest rates found at most local brick and mortar banking institutions. Think the best bank accounts are found at places like Citibank, Bank of America, Chase Bank, or  Wells Fargo? Think again. The APY rates offered by Internet based online banks almost always greatly exceed the paltry interest rate offerings of the brand name banks, while offering the same FDIC insurance limit guarantees and transactional security protections that are equal to, if not better than that offered by the big boys.

Benefits Of Online Savings Accounts: Impressive Rates With FDIC Insurance

Because of much lower overhead costs, online banks generally pay much better rates on savings accounts, checking accounts, and CD’s. Online bank accounts are also much less likely to have minimum balance requirements than ordinary retail banks. They also offer many conveniences and advantages over accounts at traditional neighborhood banks and credit unions. So long as the customer has access to an Internet connection, online bank account transactions can be performed, balances can be checked, and funds can be transferred in and out anywhere and anytime. The ability to keep 24 hour tabs on your account funds, pull up account history data on demand, and eliminate the need to conduct transactions in cumbersome paper form are some of the clear advantages of web based banking. To compete with the traditional big name banks, a large majority of online banks have eliminated their monthly fees and account minimums, and now offer a wealth of free financial services that include free bill pay, free budgeting tools, free fund transfers, and free out of network ATM usage.

Below is comprehensive review of what I’ve found to be the top online banks for high interest checking and high yield savings accounts. Each offer, except for the first one – provides for full FDIC insurance limit protection for account holders – guaranteeing the safety and security of account funds from unexpected loss.

List Of The Best Online Bank Accounts For Savings, Checking, and CD Rates

1) Lending Club - While not an online bank in the traditional sense, Lending Club offers a comparable peer to peer lending (P2P) program that matches prospective consumer lenders with prospective borrowers, all with a variety of disclosure safeguards to ensure a generally low default rate. While the program has gone mainstream and garnered quite a bit of positive feedback from the press and new members, it’s been able to stick to the fundamental basics and continue to offer its lending account holders the ability to reap a consistent 9.60% average interest rate of return. For those seeking an impressive high yield savings account alternative to online banks, Lending Club is worth a look. If you wish to know more, please take a look at my review of Lending Club where I explore in depth how the online program works and evaluate it to see if it truly is a legitimate non-scam way to earn a higher APY rate on your savings.

2) Everbank – I highly recommend Everbank if you’re looking for a top tier online bank that offers great rates for savings accounts and checking. EverBank’s product offerings are diverse and includes features like money market accounts, CD’s, credit cards, and even currency investments options. You may not be as familiar with Ever Bank as you might be with a few of the other banking names on this short list, but they’ve been around for some time. Since the beginning, EverBank has always earned awards and praise for its banking features and online services. Money Magazine rates EverBank as one of its “Best Of Breed Online Banks”, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance ranks the firm’s Everbank FreeNet checking account very highly, and even Forbes Magazine has ranked the bank among the “Best of the Web” for numerous years.

Everbank’s most popular account feature – the highly regarded Yield Pledge Money Market Account – requires a minimum initial deposit of $1,500 and starts out at an extremely high introductory rate that overwhelming tops most high yield savings rates in the market. After a 3 month introductory period, the rate automatically adjusts to a slightly lower rate, but one that is still competitively higher than that offered by other online banks. Thereafter, there is no monthly fee so long as a balance of $5,000 is maintained. For more details and commentary, see my Everbank review.

3) Ally Bank – Formerly known as GMAC Bank, the new Ally Bank markets itself as a new age approach to online banking – one that offers transparency and a reformed way of doing business with its flexible array of unlimited sub accounts, daily interest compounding, no minimum deposits, no monthly fees, no minimum balances, and no sneaky disclaimers. I personally have deposited quite a bit of cash with Ally Bank and have found their online banking services to be very straight forward and reliably clean cut. Ally’s banking rates are very high and there are no confusing tiered interest rates to contend with. What you see is basically what you get – with the usual assortment of high yield savings accounts, money markets, and high yield CD’s. However, what’s uniquely appealing about Ally Bank is its offering of no-penalty CD deposits that allow account holders to avoid paying any fees to transfer money out prior to the CD maturity date. For more info about Ally’s banking features, please read my Ally Bank review.

4) E-trade Bank – Known more for its online brokerage arm, ETrade is what I call a one stop shopping all-in-one banking/discount brokerage firm. They offer pretty much the full package in the way of banking and brokerage services – including high interest savings accounts, checking, credit cards, mortgage services, CD’s, Roth IRAs, and investment gudiance. Best of all, Etrade does not impose any minimum balance requirements to open a new account. While E trade’s Complete Savings Account is not currently the best online bank in terms of offering the highest interest rate for deposits, it makes up for this mild shortfall by offering an extremely broad array of services from one source. Those that want the ability to instantly transfer money back and forth freely between their banking and broker accounts will find Etrade to be extremely appealing as the company seamlessly integrates the two services into one. If you want to know more, see my Etrade bank review and my Etrade broker review for my opinionated take.

5) FNBO Direct Bank – FNBO Direct is the online banking division of the First National Bank of Omaha – a bank with a great reputation that has largely escaped the credit crisis that has plagued most of the other banks in some shape or another. FNBO Direct offers competitive rates for its account holders and imposes no fees or minimum balance requirements. Fund transfers are quick and links to other bank accounts are easy to set up via a series of test trial deposits. ATM card options are available for those that wish to access their account funds from traditional live automated tellers. The bank’s high yield savings account was one the first to start offering super high rates during the heyday of Internet based banks, and continues to be one of the most popular choices for its consistently high interest rate offerings. As with all of the recommended banks on this list, FNBO offers full FDIC insurance limit coverage for account deposits. Please check out my FNBO Direct review if you wish to learn more about the online bank.

6) HSBC Direct Bank – Named as the best cyber bank and having the best online savings account by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance in years past, HSBC Direct is a top tier bank in terms of reliability and name recognition. While its interest rate yields for its no-minimum-balance high interest savings accounts have fluctuated along with all of the other online banking names out there, HSBC’s rates remain very competitive. Along with its bank account offerings, the firm also offers a convenient array of banking features such as ATM debit cards and free online bill payments. Highly regarded for its commendable customer service reputation, HSBC also provides its banking customers amazing access to its growing network of convenient bank branches and ATM’s located all over the world (with new locations being constantly added). Check out my HSBC Direct review for even more insight.

7) Capital One Direct Bank – While probably much more famous for its lineup of “What’s In Your Wallet” Capital One credit cards and its popular build-your-own credit card Card Lab feature, Capital One provides its savings account customers with pretty competitive rates through its online direct banking program. With Capital One Direct Banking, members get access to InterestPlus Savings, high yield money markets, certificate of deposits, and even business money market accounts. While there are no mandatory account minimum requirements and no sneaky service fees, a balance of $10,000 or more is required to get the highest APY rate that Capital One has to offer. Online bank transfers are always free, and linking your Capital One savings account to existing external bank accounts for quick and easy transfers is very easy to do.

8) ING Direct Bank – As the grand daddy of them all, ING Direct has been around the longest since its emergence during the early dot com era of 2000. Since then, ING Direct has solidified itself as one of the best online banks with some measure of streamlined improvements to its online interface over the years. While the firm’s bank rates have fluttered around of late, its yields are still competitive and exceed the rates offered by most neighborhood banks. Overall, ING Direct banking products are easy to open, easy to use, and ideally suited for those new to online banking. One thing that most reviewers of financial products generally agree on – is how simple and straight forward ING products are to manage. ING offers a wide array of banking and investment products with its seamless union of ING Direct savings, checking, and investing features via ING ShareBuilder. The firm’s very popular Orange Savings Account offers a competitive interest rate with no monthly fees and no account balance minimums. Its Electric Orange Checking account also enjoys similar praise and positive reviews from the online critics. Another greatly appreciated feature of the bank is also the ability to utilize ING Direct referrals to refer friends and family members, allowing them to enjoy special first time member bonuses as new account sign ups.

9) Dollar Savings Direct – As a newly acquired online bank by much larger parent Emigrant Bank, Dollar Savings Direct continues the tradition of offering great high yield savings rates for its flagship product. New savings accounts are easy to open hassle free with no account maintenance requirements, no maintenance fees, and no hidden charges. New accounts do require an initial minimum deposit of $1,000, however thereafter, there is no stated obligation that account holders must actually maintain that balance. If you are an aggressive bank rate chaser like myself and desire the safety and security of full FDIC insurance coverage for your liquid cash assets with the added benefit of high rates, you should definitely click through and check out what Dollar Savings Direct Bank has to offer. For more details, take a look at my Dollar Savings Direct review.

10) WT Direct Bank – Chances are, you’ve probably never heard of WTDirect bank before as they are a relative unknown compared to some of the bigger names above. However, as the online arm of Wilmington Trust FSB, the parent bank has been around for quite some time since the early 1990’s.  Currently, WT Direct offers a pretty attractive high yield online savings account that features a pretty top tier interest rate. Best of all, there are no minimum deposit requirements, no account maintenance fees, no limits on the number of linkages to external accounts, and all deposits earn interest regardless of balance amounts. One caveat however, is that the highest tiered interest rate for the savings accounts require balances of at least $10,000. If all other savings account alternatives above don’t suit your fancy, savings account holders with at least $10,000 to store away will find WT Direct to be a solid high yield savings option.

Searching For Other Alternative Sources Of High Interest Rates

Generally if you want the perfect mix of cash liquidity, account accessibility, and competitively high interest rate yields for your bank account funds – you ought to stock with high yield savings accounts. But if you’re willing to exchange a little bit of liquidity and lock up your monetary funds for anywhere between periods as short as a month to periods of 5 years or longer, you might be able to get a better interest rate yield via certificates of deposit. Check out my list of the best CD rates for what some of the top online banks are offering in that department.

Speaking of rates, those of you who are disappointed with the pitifully low interest rates on checking account funds might be surprised to know that there are high yield reward checking accounts out there that offer extremely high interest rates on checking balances. The rates offered are frequently the same or even better than the best online savings accounts and top level CD rates. The catch with these high interest reward checking accounts is that they often have stringent maximum balance limits and frequently require account holders to execute a certain number of debit card transactions a month to qualify. But if you’re up to the task, they may be able to provide you an impressively excellent rate of return for your money.

Source URL: Best Online Bank: Savings and Checking Accounts

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Yes, I Am Still Upbeat For The Future: Things Will Get Better In Time

Wow, what a roller coaster ride of a month in terms of the stock market. One minute the Dow is breaking past the psychological 10,000 mark and soaring to new bullish heights – the next, the entire stock market is sinking like a rock. In terms of economic volatility as a function of gains and losses, the last few weeks have definitely not been ideal for the emotionally squeamish short term traders out there. But for those that truly call themselves long term investors, I really don’t think there is anything to fear in this market but fear itself. Back in Fall 2008 and Spring 2009, there were serious questions about the ability of the American financial system to survive the ongoing subprime mortgage meltdown. The economy, on the verge of total collapse and teetering on the brink of a major economic depression, was clamoring for immediate stimulus and decisive federal government intervention.

But what a difference a year makes. There are still lingering concerns about the economic health and ability of consumers to start spending money again to stimulate the economy, and there are still trepidations about the plight of the current housing market – but I think the absolute worst case scenario has passed. We are now in a gradual economic recovery phase. To repair the American economy and restore all of the lost jobs that vanished subsequent to the credit crisis fallout will take time, but the healing will come to fruition in due time. Meanwhile for stock market investors, there are bound to be periods of extreme volatility and shocking price swings. But as I’ve championed many times before in past personal finance blog posts, if you can take a certain amount of risk now and hold on for the long haul, you are bound to come out hugely ahead when we finally emerge from this recessionary nightmare – whether that be 12 months, 2 years, or even 5 years from now. Recessions are terrible things to behold, but the great thing about them – is that they don’t last forever. The federal government, and the American people with its never ending entrepreneurial spirit will find a way. Don’t invest recklessly and take un-calculated, un-thought out risks, but I do encourage readers to be bold if they can. Place your stock market and real estate bets today in this down economy and reap what you sow today in the not too distant future.

This month, despite the fact that the market viciously tanked and dealt out a pretty severe lashing of my stock investment portfolio, I intend to stay the course and fight against my instinctive nature urge to pull out. For now at least, any short term losses due to market price volatility remains mere paper losses – so long as I don’t sell. My small legal practice remains healthy and my persistent efforts to make money by blogging online continues to yield positive dividends. As my monthly income remains stable and I have sufficient cash savings and credit card options for emergency fund purposes, I thankfully have ample financial resources to ride out the market doldrums. I don’t see it as overly-risking or gambling my life savings away – but rather, I see it as a pure exercise of my faith and belief that in the long run, things will be okay.

My Current Net Worth and Financial Status Update Compared To Last Month

Being Greedy When Others Are Fearful: Investing For The Long Term

If you want to save money and invest wisely for the future, it’s important to learn from the best – one of them being renown Billionaire investor, Warren Buffett. The gist of my own current trading strategy and approach towards investing can be summed up in this famous 2001 Warren Buffett quote:

• “Occasional outbreaks of those two super-contagious diseases, fear and greed, will forever occur in the investment community. The timing of these epidemics is equally unpredictable, both as to duration and degree. Therefore we never try to anticipate the arrival or departure of either. We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”

My attempt to be sunny and optimistic at the present time despite the uncertainty and fear that still permeates the economy is not because I’m foolhardy or desire to get rich quickly – but rather I believe it’s during such periods of pervasive fear and pessimism that great wealth can be made. After sitting on the sidelines and hoarding my cash in high yield savings accounts and certificate of deposits for many months while the economy suffered its worse collapse in decades, I finally pulled the trigger recently and started investing again. If your gut sentiments are like mine and you also believe that the worse has passed but that the positive feelings have not yet been properly reflected in stock market prices, then now may be a good time to start investing again.

New investors and those who have been cautiously staying away from the action for some time may now want to open up an investment account with a reliable and affordable discount broker, and start evaluating potential investment opportunities. In case you’re not sure which brokerage firm to go with, here are a few recommendations. I’ve complied a list of online brokers that have consistently received accolades and praise from the financial experts and have enjoyed favorable reviews among new investors and advanced traders alike. In the list, I particularly like TradeKing, Etrade, and Scottrade.

Progress and Status Report Of My New Single Family Home Construction

As I’ve been reporting for months now, my new home is currently under construction. I visit the construction site every few days or so to walk around the lot and take photos to document the construction progress for my own personal photographic archives. After all, it’s not everyday that we get to see the construction of our own home and witness the transformation of a simple pile of dirt into a free standing structure that will one day be called home.

Currently, the concrete and rebar mixtures for the home foundation are in the process of being laid. Once the foundation has been properly poured and allowed to harden, the wooden housing structure usually goes up pretty quickly. Barring any unforeseen hindrances to construction activity by inclement weather, the house is expected to be built and delivered sometime in February 2010. For now, I’m in the active process of applying for a home mortgage loan. Because I’ve been tracking my free credit reports and my free credit score updates on a consistent basis for some time – not to mention I’ve also been taking concerted actions to keep my FICO score persistently high, I anticipate being able to ultimately qualify for a top mortgage interest rate of 4.75% APR or lower on a 30 year, 20% down home loan, give or take depending on interest rate conditions at the time of home delivery.

Continuing To Make Money Online As A Part Time Blogger

As should be pretty evident from the advertisement banners and occasional affiliate links that pepper this website, I blog to make money online and engage in Internet affiliate marketing as part of my home office business. I also earn some nice change on the side with online paid surveys and a couple of other online money making methods. While I do operate a small attorney practice as well and earn additional income through a small collection of other income sources, my blogging income is steadily becoming a larger and larger part of my total income stream. One of these days, perhaps I will transition into a full time problogger and run my collection of income producing websites as a full time job. But for now, I prefer to see it as merely an integral cog in my total overall income diversification plan. After all, in this sluggish economy and in this period of unpredictable layoffs and economic implosions, you never know when your primary breadwinner source of income will suddenly dry up. It’s best to diversify one’s financial life with a varied mixture of both active and passive income streams if possible.

Source URL: October 2009: Net Worth, Stock Loss, and New Home Update

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

If you are searching for a genuinely legitimate paid online survey, you’re at the right place. The following is a recommended list of popular online marketing firms that are offering free paid surveys and is a nice resource for people looking to make some money online from home or earn a little bit of extra cash on the side by filling out short survey questionnaires. After much research with a lot of trial and error, I’ve compiled a list of what I’ve found to be the top paid online survey programs that compensate participants with either cash or gift card rewards for completed surveys.

If you’ve already conducted an online search via Google.com or Bing.com for the best paid surveys, then you’ve probably already noticed that the vast majority (95%) of those search results invariably lead to some rather scammy looking links or to websites that try to convince you to fork over a membership fee for exclusive access to some secret list of paid surveys. It’s a sad and rather sobering sight to see, but the Internet is littered to the brim with such misleading resources and self interested clutter. Don’t buy the marketing hype or misleading online promotions that suggest that you must actually pay money to gain access to some super secret list. If a survey company starts asking you to pay an upfront charge, run away as fast as you can – lest you unwittingly succumb to the online scam. There is absolutely no reason that you ought to ever pay for such services as they can be legitimately and freely obtained online without cost.

Is It Really Possible To Make Money Online By Taking Paid Internet Surveys?

For starters and particularly for those of you easily misled or swayed by delusions of dancing dollar signs in your head, let me be very clear – the paid online survey websites listed below are not scams, gimmicks, or get rich quick schemes. No one is going to become a millionaire or earn enough money with these surveys to retire. Paid surveys can help you supplement your full time day job with some extra spending cash to pay the bills (up to anywhere from as little as $25 to as much as $200 or more per month), but that’s the extent of their financial usefulness. If you’re a stay at home mom, a full time student, a retiree, or even a working professional who wants to kill some time on a regular basis by knocking out a few quick surveys for some free money, these compensated surveys will definitely appeal to you. But those of you looking to turn online survey taking into some type of part time job are much better off working as a blogger and directing your efforts towards blogging to make money. At the very least, part time blogging has a greater potential to turn a simple hobby into a full time and sustainable online job than survey taking ever could.

However, in terms of earning a little bit of honest cash on the side, free paid survey offers are verifiably legitimate sources of income. Paid survey websites work by referring to their members survey inquiries provided by real companies. Most of the referring retailers are owners of consumer brands that you and I are probably already familiar with – brands that range from popular grocery food products and recognizable household goods, to manufacturers of popular electronic devices and automobiles. The retail companies rely on these regular survey samples to design and market their products, and are very willing to pay a small amount of money to compensate individuals for their survey taking time. Along with the usual assortment of survey inquiries based on your previous history of consumer usage and experiences, occasionally you also get lucky with a specific request to try out new and untested products. I enjoy it immensely when survey companies send out actual consumer products for me to review in person – items that include everything from experimental trial shampoos to shaving razors, to snack crackers and ear phones. After examining and trying out the products, you are expected to rate your experience on a sliding scale based on a variety of determinative factors.

The pay out rate for each online survey varies depending on the subject matter and the length of time that each is expected to take. The easy $1.00 surveys can take as little as 1-10 minutes to complete, while the more difficult but more lucrative $20 – $25 health care and fitness related paid surveys may take as long as an hour or longer. Depending on your personal demographics, you may or may not qualify for a large number of the potential paid online surveys out there – as it all depends on what the marketing companies are looking for at any given time. But if you want to fully maximize your online survey income potential, I highly recommend that you sign up and register for as many legitimate survey sites as you can. The more survey programs you have a relationship with, the more likely you will be able to maintain a steady flow of survey taking opportunities to make money from. As always, be sure to use a spare email account, lest you get overrun by survey emails (although you can always shut the survey messages down at any time by request).

Reviews Of Recommended Paid Online Survey Sites (All Are Free To Join):

1) NFO My Survey – The MySurvey Consumer Panel website is one of the very best free online survey providers out there and one that I highly recommend for aspiring paid online survey takers. Not only is their website very accessible and easy to navigate, their online surveys pay quite well. Since I joined as a panel survey taker years ago, they’ve provided me a consistent stream of paid survey opportunities on a wide array of interesting topics, including numerous fun product review solicitations that were mailed to my home for me to try out and opine on. Though the company utilizes a point system for dishing out reward incentives, the points are fully redeemable for cash checks and gift cards. The company also allows participants to earn additional money through referrals of their own.

2) Synovate – The Synovate Global Opinion Panel pays cash for completed online surveys and offers actively engaged participants the opportunity to receive a fairly steady burst of paid online survey chances on a regular basis. The Synovate survey company’s payout rate is quite competitive but dependent on the survey’s subject matter. Keep an eye out for those lucrative health care related surveys as they pay $10 and up. Synovate does provide product review opportunities as well and I’ve received my fair share of fun experimental bathroom products to review.

3) Ipsos I Say – Ipsos is a pretty big name in the marketing research world. While they focus primarily on in home product reviews and consumer product surveys, they still generally provide a reasonably balanced mix of of survey opportunities for their participating members. If you are interested in receiving freebies and getting free survey test products in the mail to review, you might want to give Ipsos a try. In regards to these in-home freebie products, you are generally free to keep the products regardless of whether you actually fill out the accompanied survey or not.

4) Survey Savvy – I really like Survey Savvy as the company is one of the best paid Internet survey sites in the market today and offers its participants a pretty lucrative referral program for their friends and family members. The company pays its members money for both personally completed surveys as well as completed surveys made by referrals. Payouts are dependent on the length of time and subject matter involved, but for friend and family referrals, you can earn $2.00 for every survey your direct referral takes and yet another $1.00 for every survey taken by their referrals. Based on the way Survey Savvy has things set up, online participants have multiple tiered opportunities to rack up income pretty quickly.

5) Global Test Market – I’ve been using Global Test Market to supplement my part time survey income for some time now. The company offers a fairly consistent number of survey taking opportunities for both American and international survey registrants looking to maintain a consistent stream of paid survey jobs. Even if you don’t qualify for a survey offer that is sent to you, you still get to accrue reward points simply by looking over it. Participants earn Global Test Market Points for completing surveys, redeemable for a variety of reward incentives. Like all of the survey companies reviewed on this list, Global Test Market is completely free and not contractually compulsory (you’re not forced to answer all surveys if you don’t want to).

6) Greenfield Online – If you are trying to find a legitimate paid online survey company that will provide you a significant number of survey gigs at a consistent pace, Greenfield Online is definitely for you. Greenfield has access to a lot of offers and provides payment in a variety of forms, including cash checks and free entries into their regularly renewed prize drawing. Here’s my little advice for registrants of Greenfield Online – stick to the cash payment only surveys and consider skipping the ones that only offer prize drawing entries. Cold hard cash beats raffle drawings any day. Sure you, might get lucky, beat the odds, and win the lottery, but your chances are slim to none that you will.

7) My Points – Want to get paid for reading spam emails? Then give MyPoints a try. The company is legitimate and at any time you want the emails to permanently stop, simply unsubscribe. MyPoints is not really a paid online survey provider per se, but they do offer survey opportunities as part of their reward earning system. The company offers a very large variety of ways to earn bonus points for future prize and merchandise redemption. If you are determined to make money online, I recommend trying out MyPoints as a resource. You can earn points by completing surveys (SurveyMail), reading e-mail advertisements (BonusMail), or even by signing up for online trial offers. If you don’t want to sign up for any unnecessary services, I recommend that you simply stick with the Survey Mail and Bonus Mail opportunities to earn reward points.

8) American Consumer Opinion Panel – The American Consumer Opinion Panel, or ACOP as it’s commonly called, is a personal favorite of mine due to the speed at which the company issues out compensation checks for completed paid surveys. Depending on the type of survey completed, ACOP participants can expect to be paid anywhere from $4 to $20 depending on the length, qualification requirements, and subject matter of the survey. If you desire to be paid more and reap anywhere between $25-$50 for each opportunity, you might want to consider signing up for ACOP sponsored online focus group reviews whenever those rare offers present themselves.

9) Lightspeed Consumer Panel – If volume of surveys is the most important factor to you, then definitely consider signing up with Lightspeed. The consumer survey company offers a tremendous number of paid online survey opportunities, paying out reward points for each completed survey. Reward points are fully redeemable for cash payments, gift cards, and other merchandise based prizes. For the professional survey takers out there who can speed read and crank through a large number of surveys in one sitting, Lightspeed has the potential to be quite a lucrative part time income cash cow for super active participants.

Source URL: Get Paid To Take Free Online Paid Surveys

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Back when I first started getting serious about investing during college, E-Trade was one of the very first online brokerage firms that I opened a trading account with. My inaugural entry into the world of investing occurred around the time of the dot com bubble in 1999 – when E-Trade wasn’t exactly known for its cheap commissions or discounted fees. At the time, one couldn’t really consider E-Trade a true discount broker – as back then, the firm catered more to the savvier advanced traders who were willing to pay substantially more for exclusive access to premium research and stock tracking tools. But over the years, with the rise in the popularity of Internet based discount brokers offering supremely low cost options for cheap stock trades, E-Trade’s fee commission structure has gradually fallen to where it is now today. Fortunately, despite the fall in pricing over time, the firm has not sacrificed any of its premium account features but rather has continued to grow and steadily outpace its competition in terms of building a better online product for typical do-it-yourself investors like you and I.

Today, while ETrade isn’t the cheapest discount brokerage around, it’s one of the top online investment solutions for those looking to reap the maximum product offerings available without having to fork over the rip off fees and hefty commissions levied down by most of those big name full service brokerages on Wall Street. If you’re primarily a self directed, do-it-yourself investor who wants all of the beginner and advanced trading tools from a single console without having to turn to multiple online sources for all of your financial needs – E-Trade Financial might be exactly what you need.

While there are other broker options that offer much cheaper rates, ETrade does provide its account holders a tremendous amount of value for their money. The company’s services are very ideal for those looking for a complete, one stop shopping source for all of their investing and banking needs. Other popular and recognizable discount brokers like TradeKing, Scottrade, and even Zecco offer perhaps cheaper rates for stock and option trades, but they are somewhat outmatched by E-Trade’s completeness and comprehensiveness in the account tools and resources department. Unlike many of its financial peers and rivals that focus squarely on either investment or banking services exclusively, E-Trade’s primary allure stems from its ability to offer a mass appeal of products from a singular inter linked and centrally managed financial platform. With features for both long term passive investors and active day traders alike, E-Trade touts everything from stocks, bonds, mutual funds, IPO’s, foreign currencies, foreign stocks, and exchange traded funds (ETF’s) – to its bank based products like high yield savings accounts, checking accounts, money market accounts, certificate of deposits (CD’s), and even Etrade branded credit cards.

Best Discount Broker Overall According To Online Brokerage Reviews

I’m just a regular guy who has some amateur experience with stock market investing and who also currently trades with an E-trade account. I really like E-Trade a lot, primarily for its all-in-one packages – but then again, you certainly don’t have to read my discount brokerage reviews and just take my word for it. Take a look around at what others are saying about the online broker. Even objectively speaking, ETrade is one of the most highly touted “Best of Breed” financial firms in the market today and has received numerous awards and accolades for its features and highly regarded customer service reputation. Out of numerous highly ranked brokers, and for the third straight year since 2007 and 2008 – the publishers at SmartMoney (A Wall Street Journal magazine) again picked Etrade as the overall top discount broker for year 2009. E-trade ranked high in almost every category including customer service, trading tools, research tools, banking services, and selection of mutual fund & investment products. Even Barron’s Magazine, in its 2008 online broker survey – rated Etrade in its top 10 best online brokers, awarding it 4 out of 5 stars – for categories such as trade experience, trade technology, usability, range of offerings, research amenities, portfolio analysis & reports, customer service & access, and costs.

E-Trade Pricing: Low Cost Commissions and Investment Brokerage Fees

Like I mentioned earlier, although it’s not the absolute cheapest of all of the discount brokerages, E-trade’s rate fees and commissions are pretty competitive considering all of the account features and tools the company provides to you at your disposal. Etrade’s commissions for stocks and option trades are dependent on how frequently you trade and the balance amount invested in your account. As evidenced by the pricing chart above, the standard base pricing rate is $12.99 per stock trade trade and $0.75 per options trade. Those with balances of $50,000 or more in their linked Etrade brokerage and banks accounts, or engage in more than 30 equity trades per quarter enjoy a lower commissions rate via enhanced Power E-trade promotions at $9.99 per trade. Those who trade even more frequently at 1,500 trades or more per quarter (such as by day traders of penny stocks for example) and those with substantial assets – may qualify for super cheap pricing of $6.99 per trade or lower.

All-In-One Brokerage: Etrade Complete Banking and Power Etrade Investing

Voted as “Best In Breed” by Money Magazine for its popular banking services, E-Trade is not only a big time brokerage, but also a popular provider of FDIC insurance protected savings and CD options such as the following:

• High interest Max Rate Checking Account
• High yield Complete Savings Account

While APY interest rate offerings by Etrade’s checking and savings accounts could use a boost of late, they do provide brokerage account holders additional choices beyond just leaving their un-invested cash sitting idly in their accounts. Because the Etrade bank and brokerage services are so interconnected and linked, many account holders utilize the higher APY rates offered by their Etrade online savings accounts as primary cash sweep solutions for their idle brokerage cash. This compatibility between the brokerage and banking platforms make monetary transfers between the two quick and easy via free instant transfers and affords a tremendous degree of FDIC insured flexibility for optimizing your cash investments. In terms of maintaining real life access to your Etrade banking funds, although the firm’s banking arm only offers a tiny handful of actual brick and mortar based retail locations across the United States, it does offer customers the convenience of unlimited ATM fee reimbursements and refunds from any machine, any bank, nationwide.

Premium Online Tools For All Individual Investment and Retirement Accounts

When aspiring investors sign up for an online brokerage account with Etrade, they are buying into Etrade’s Complete Investment Account program which provides what the firm calls – an integrated investment and cash management system, with its unity of investment, banking, loan, and even credit based services at once source. Those retirement minded investors out there looking for the best IRA broker might want to give an Etrade-managed account a try. The firm is a popular fit for those seeking the necessary resources to help them in achieving their long term individual retirement account planning objectives.

• Open an Etrade IRA or Roth IRA account - Retirement accounts offer excellent tax deferred benefits and tax deductions for maximum compound interest rate growth. Don’t miss out on building your financial future today.

In terms of looks and appearances, Etrade’s online website layout is not only professionally designed and intuitively simple to use, the online platform that it provides is easy to navigate and tinker with. Compared to some of the other discounted brokerages out there such as Scottrade, Etrade ranks much higher in aesthetic appeal and graphical design in my opinion. But it’s not just the surface features either as Etrade’s inner workings boast a pretty powerful array of real time trading tools and sophisticated market research material. Along with all of the stocks and bond investments available, Etrade also provides a variety of automatic investment plans, exclusive alerts to initial public offerings that other brokerages don’t offer, as well as superior access to more than 7,000 leading mutual funds, including 100’s of Morningstar top-rated funds, and every ETF sold. Among the fund choices, there are also more than a 1,000 no load, no transaction fee mutual funds to invest in. To help beginners and advanced experts alike wade through the pile of investment options available, Etrade provides plenty of online explanatory help with all types of stock screeners, customizable charts, and download-able software applications for your iPhone or Blackberry handheld devices – that you would need to pick out the winners.

If you’re an active trader, you might be able to qualify for lower trading costs, get better prices, and gain access to more advanced research tools through an Etrade program for advanced traders. E-Trade Complete Investment Accounts are automatically upgraded and qualified for an enhanced Power E-Trade Account when an account holder makes at least a minimum of 30 stock or option trades a calendar quarter. The enhanced Power Etrade tools offer frequent investors more advanced charting features and more in depth technical stock screeners for better viewing of complete marketing activity.

As for the universally dreaded account maintenance and inactivity fees that many brokerages impose, Etrade imposes none for retirement accounts such as IRA and Roths, and levies no monthly maintenance fees for new individual investment accounts for the first 12 months. Thereafter, so long as you maintain a brokerage balance of at least $2,000, maintain a linked Etrade bank and broker balance of at least $20,000, or execute at least one or more stock, option, or mutual fund trades per quarter – then you will avoid having to pay the quarterly assessed account service fee of $40. Etrade has apparently dropped the minimum balance required to avoid the quarterly assessed inactivity maintenance fee from the previous $10,000 in years past to the present, more manageable minimum balance of $2,000. As such, if you are a new investor with very little money to invest (less than $2,000 to play with), I’d recommend going with another brokerage firm like TradeKing or Scottrade. None of those two broker alternatives impose any maintenance or inactivity fees whatsoever. While Etrade’s account features and premium resources are much better than that provided by most other heavily discounted brokers, the fees and account maintenance terms and conditions of Etrade are much better paired up with those self directed investors who attend to trade more regularly or have more than minimal assets.

Source URL: ETrade Online Broker: Discount Brokerage Account Review

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

One of the most introductory ways to plan for the effects of income taxes is to recognize how the various marginal rates are applied to the corresponding tax brackets. Because the United States does not yet currently engage in a flat tax system, our taxable incomes are broken down into different taxation ranges with specific taxation percentages assessed depending on where they fall along the tax bracket spectrum. Although our 2010 tax returns won’t be filed until April 15, 2011, for planning purposes, it’s always good to find out the new changes to the tax code as early as possible. Let’s examine some of the upcoming tax rate changes that are being projected for 2010 and compare them to the previous year’s 2009 tax brackets.

Projections Of New IRS Tax Rates Have Historically Been Extremely Accurate

Year after year, even before the official IRS income tax brackets are released, a select number of tax experts have gotten together and crunched a determinative number of officially released statistics by governmental agencies – to project and extrapolate the upcoming year’s tax brackets. Year after year, the tax rate predictions released by these groups have yielded results in advance with near 100% accuracy. Such an income tax bracket projection ahead of time is possible because many of the major tax code numbers are pegged to officially released inflation statistics – including the standard deduction, the personal exemption, the actual income ranges of the tax brackets, and contributions limits for the investment retirement accounts (both the Traditional and Roth IRA account).

One of these tax prognosticating groups is the Tax Foundation, a Washington D.C. think tank which collects data and publishes research studies on federal and state tax policies. The other notable group operates under the auspices of the Wall Street Journal and is comprised of a merry band of private tax professionals and economists – namely William E. Massey, a senior tax analyst from the Tax and Accounting arm of Thomson Reuters; George Jones, a senior federal tax analyst from CCH; and James C. Young, an accounting professor from Northern Illinois University. For numerous years now, both the Tax Foundation and the Wall Street Journal group have consistently released to the public very accurate, albeit unofficial, early bird peaks at the following year’s projected income tax brackets based on available financial data – well in advance of the official IRS releases. If you’re eager to get a head start on tax year 2010, read on.

IRS Tax Rate Schedule Updates For Tax Year 2010

This year, citing a very sluggish economy and extraordinarily low inflation rates for 2009 to which upcoming 2010 tax rates shall be pegged to, the Tax Foundation and associated experts are predicting very little year to year change for the 2010 federal tax brackets. If there’s anything good that came out of this global economic recession that has been plaguing us for the entirety of 2009 – it’s that the combination of low gas prices, depressed consumer spending, and high jobless numbers with so many people filing for unemployment – have enabled inflation rates to stay quite low during the span of 2009 – at a mere 0.19%. Just compare that to the incredibly high inflation rate of 4.26% during the previous year of 2008 when gas prices were skyrocketing, and it’s clear the recent sudden and precipitous drop in inflation has been extremely unprecedented.

As a result of low inflation, for the most part the 2010 tax bracket ranges will likely stay relatively unchanged. As noted by the tax pundits, for the very first time since the IRS started to index the official federal income tax rates to inflation during the mid 1980’s, taxpayers will get virtually no significant benefit from inflation in 2010. As such – year 2010 tax brackets, standard deductions, personal exemptions, and even retirement account contribution limits will see very little (if any) alterations from prior year numbers.

I will update the table below to reflect the official IRS tax rates for 2010 if decidedly different numbers are ultimately released by the IRS. However, with tax bracket projections by the experts having enjoyed a near perfect accuracy rate for quite a few years now, I don’t have any reason to doubt that the displayed figures below will ultimately wind up as official.

Federal Income Tax Brackets For 2010 – Based On Taxable Income Ranges

Beyond some slight numerical shuffling of the taxable income ranges, there will not be too many significant tax changes from 2009 into 2010. Here is a breakdown of the projected changes (if any) for 2010 as they compare to the prior year:

• Personal Exemption: No change. For the very first time, the standard exemption for 2010 will not be going up and will stay unchanged at $3,650, the same as it was in 2009.
• Standard Deduction: No change, except for Head Of Household filers. The standard deduction for married couples filing jointly will remain unchanged at $11,400. For those filing as single, the standard deduction will remain at $5,700 as well. However, Head of Household filers will see a slight increase by $50 – from $8,350 (year 2009) to $8,400 (year 2010).
• Overall Tax Bracket Thresholds: Will increase across the board for all tax filing statuses, albeit at a significantly lower amount compared to past tax year increases.
• Annual Gift Tax Exclusion Amount: No change. For tax year 2010, the current gift tax exclusion limit of $13,000 will stay the same. Often overlooked by most taxpayers, the gift tax stipulates that gift givers must pay a special tax on gift amounts that exceed a certain amount per year.
• Traditional and Roth IRA Contribution Limits: No change. Despite the fact that IRA and Roth IRA contribution limits did not rise in 2009 in response to strong inflationary pressures in 2009, there will still be no corresponding change in the maximum contribution limits to individual retirement accounts for 2010. The standard IRA contribution limit for 2010 will remain unchanged at $5,000. The catch up contribution limit for those 50 or older will remain at $6,000 as well.

Source URL: 2010 Federal Income Tax Brackets (IRS Tax Rates)

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Despite the fact that historically, the month of September has traditionally been a down month for stock market investors – after months of sitting on the sidelines and hoarding online savings account cash, I’ve finally pulled the trigger and re-entered the market en masse. Rather than take the often advised path of investing in small bite size chunks through dollar cost averaging, I decided to plow all of my investment cash into long term equity positions simultaneously. I don’t plan to pull out of my newly invested positions anytime soon and am very determined to stay the course for the very long haul – in excess of 5 years or longer. Despite the recent run up in the market, stock market prices are still at historical once-in-a-lifetime lows – and I have every intention to double or triple my investments in the next 5 years. The irrational fear and gloom of pending economic depression that gripped the whole world back in spring 2009 has mercifully passed and it now appears the beaten down economy is finally back on the track towards recovery.

Of course, this is not to say that we are anywhere close to experiencing a traditional bull market anytime soon that’s punctuated by rising employment numbers and increased consumer spending, but at the very least, the specter of a crippled financial system kamikaz-ing into an irreversible death spiral has disappeared – and replaced by faint glimmers of hope. Who knows if President Barack Obama’s second economic stimulus package truly worked or whether any of the resuscitative measures implemented by Congress such as the increased FDIC insurance limits, the Cash For Clunkers Bill, the $8,000 Federal Housing Tax Credit for first time home buyers, or even the appointment of new Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner really did much to jolt the economy back to life in a sustained way. But at the very least, these measures have at least reassured formerly scared to death and shell shocked investors like myself that the federal government is finally ready, willing, and able to do whatever it takes to get this economic ship steaming full speed once again. That seemingly firm commitment, as evidenced by the number of quick and decisive emergency measures the federal government has thus taken – is enough to assuage my once irrational fears, and encourage me to think about a more optimistic future once again.

While I do not know where we will all be economically 12 months from now, I’m starting to have more faith that things will be okay in the coming years. With the possibility of a disastrous economic Armageddon finally out of the way, I’m willing to finally start placing long term economic bets for the future, and allow the normal economic tensions of fear and greed to put the market back to normal equilibrium once again. True economic recovery may be months or even years away, but as savvy investors like Warren Buffett will agree – it’s during the worst of times that enormous amounts of wealth are created by those willing to take on a measure of calculated risk. For the next few weeks and months, I intend to take advantage of every dip in the market to invest more. As I continue to make money blogging and generate income through my small legal practice, I intend to plow all upcoming profits into this market while prices are still attractive. Price dips from here on are all potential buying opportunities in my investment opinion.

Do you agree or disagree that the economic recession is nearing the end? Remember, the stock market is a forward looking entity, and has historically attempted to project what economic reality is to come an average of 6 months in advance. Optimism in terms of increased consumer spending and job growth numbers won’t likely be experienced by ordinary American consumers until the second half of 2010. Personally, I think the very sign that mergers and acquisitions are finally creeping back into the marketplace again is an extremely and exceedingly bullish sign that overwhelmingly overrides any of the current negative lagging indicators like low employment rates or even struggling consumer sentiment statistics.

My Current Net Worth and Financial Status Update Compared To Last Month

Picking Out Final Options To My New Construction Single Family House

As I mentioned in previous networth updates, I’m in the process of finalizing the purchase of my very first home – a 2,300 square feet, 4 bedroom, 4.5 bath, single family new construction house. After weeks of persistent meetings with my real estate agent and the home builder, I’ve finally completed the process of choosing and pricing all of my optional upgrades. After much thought, I decided to ditch the cheaper carpet route and go with all hardwood floors – even in the bedrooms. Despite the fact that hardwood costs substantially more in the way of optional upgrades, I think the cleanliness and maintenance conveniences of hardwood floors greatly outweigh the dirt and dust accumulation headaches of carpet floors.

With all optional upgrades including finished basement costs, upgraded hardwood flooring, a hardwired security system, and stainless steel appliances tossed in, the total price of the home will be around $620,000. I’m sure some of you who live in the Midwest or the South will be shocked at how much a mere 2,300 sq ft (excluding finished basement) home costs, but remember, I live in the state of Maryland – deemed by CNN Money to be the current wealthiest state in the United States, with high state wide income rates and high home prices to match. Pricey real estate in the general Washington DC, Virgina, and Maryland region is just a way of life for us. The ever present availability of federal government jobs here and the presence of highly ranked schools in my state make this area pretty desirable for singles and families alike.

In terms of good news in the real estate networth department, I’m pleased to note that my future home has already gained in home equity value, even though the home foundation has yet to be laid. Most recently, due to surging demand for up scale single family homes in my future neighborhood, the home builder who will be constructing my future house has decided to increase the base selling price for my home model by $9,000. At least in my future neighborhood (a pretty upscale D.C. suburb area of Maryland), the home resellers and new home builders are feeling extremely bullish about future housing demand.

With fingers crossed, I hope this is a portent of greater things to come in terms of future home appreciation. As I noted many times in past blog posts, I’m forever thankful that I was not unwittingly snagged by the housing craze of the last few years. By purchasing a home in 2009 after national home prices have collapsed by more than a third or even a half in certain regions, I’m in a much better position than many to experience the upside of home value appreciation. My prediction is that home prices will steadily rise from here on – certainly not at the crazy and outrageous pace that we all flabbergastically witnessed following the 2000 dot com crash, but I think home prices overall will very slowly but steadily trend upwards from here on as trepidatious home buyers return. The demand for housing never really abated, but the drastic plunge in home prices in recent years did scare away many prospective buyers, and force wannabe home buyers like myself to hold off until now. Remember, when prices are falling, consumers frequently ask themselves, “why buy now when I can buy later for less” as I myself did until very recently. But when buyers finally realize that there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel and that overall home pricing declines have significantly decelerated and are on the verge of  stabilizing, they will invariably return.

Paying Estimated Taxes For Self Employment, and Factoring In My New Home Deposit Into Real Estate Net Worth

This month, as I do every 3 months, I paid out a large chunk of my business profits in the way of quarterly assessed tax payments that likely deflated this month’s improvement in financial networth. Because my monthly revenue from my blogging business, legal practice, and other small business ventures are fairly significant, I pay out a tremendous amount of money every three months in the way of mandatory federal and state income taxes. Obviously, I’m hoping President Obama will be keen on keeping universal federal tax brackets low as he ought to, but with his apparent crusade to crack down on high income earners and push through his health care social agenda, I’m bracing for the worst in terms of future tax rate increases.

In terms of real estate networth, because I also paid out a $25,000 new home construction lot deposit this month that will be payable towards my future mortgage down payment, I intend to treat this $25,000 figure as home equity for now (as reflected in the table above). Eventually when my mortgage loan application goes through and I get a more finalized home valuation number, I’ll include the home value and mortgage numbers into my net worth calculations.

Back In the Stock Market Again As A Bull Market Investor After A Year Long Hiatus

After being away from the market due to excessive fear of the unknown, I’m finally back. This month, I plunged the vast bulk of my cash savings into aggressive stock market positions, primarily investing my money into popular exchange traded funds (ETF) with great future upside like the Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF) and the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index (EEM) among others. Both are admittedly rather risky and considered to be more volatile positions, but like I mentioned earlier, I’m now in it for the long haul. Even if the market drops or dips 5-10% lower, I intend to hold on for the ride down and hold my breath for the swing back up again. I never feared normal stock market price fluctuations. It’s always been the catastrophic 30-75% price drops that scared the bejesus out of me -  the type of market plunges we witnessed from September 2008 of last year to March 2009. But with financial markets back on the mend and with irrational panic and economic hyperventilation among the masses finally in check, the risk of future major bank failures or collapses of major financial institutions to trigger another massive and prolonged sell off seem less likely now. Of course, anything can always happen from hereon, but the probability of such a return to the brink of disaster has drastically diminished.

Those on the sidelines may want to now consider opening up an online broker account for cheap stock trades and start investing again, or for the first time. If you haven’t opened a Roth IRA brokerage account, now may be the best time to do so. I know it seems like a cliche thing to say, but prices really are quite low at the present time, particularly for long term investors willing to buy and hold for 12 months or longer.

Source URL: September 2009: Net Worth Update and Stock Market Investing

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Dismay and concern immediately set in as I bemoaned the shear number of times I had used the compromised computer during the span of the last few days to check my Yahoo, Gmail, and business email accounts, and used the workstation to log into my confidential online bank and brokerage accounts. Who knows the number of confidential user login names and passwords I had unwittingly submitted using my infected computer that could very well now be in the hands of unknown criminals and evil-doers.

For those never infected by a computer worm, Trojan virus, or spyware download before and aren’t familiar with the telltale signs, you know your computer’s been infected when – strange things start happening when you’re simply doing routine work, files you originally had suddenly start disappearing, the operating system starts acting slow, or unfamiliar applications start installing themselves or strange alert messages start appearing on your screen. As a big fan and frequent user of music and movie P2P file sharing programs like LimeWire and Bit Torrent, I came to the conclusion that one of the files I had downloaded in recent days must have been infected and must’ve somehow bypassed my firewall filters and punched through my existing spyware programs and installed itself onto my computer as a parasite. While I had Trend Micro installed on my computer for some time now, I realized that I had neglected to renew my subscription and had not updated my virus definitions for some time, which may have been a contributory factor as to how the virus/spyware managed to infiltrate my computer’s defenses.

Scan Your Computer Regularly With Free Anti Spyware and Virus Software

When reality finally set in that my computer had been hacked, the first thing I did was grab my spare laptop computer (presumably clean and spyware-free), and log into all of my various email, bank, and brokerage accounts to change the passwords. Fortunately, none of my important online accounts appeared to be compromised, and no strange identity theft activities had taken place without my authorization – at least according to MyFICO ScoreWatch, the program I use to monitor and track changes to my personal credit reports. Next, I went about the task of figuring out which of the free anti virus and anti spyware software packages out there would do the best job of cleaning up the infection and ensure that such an occurrence would never happen again.

While in general, the very best online security programs such as Norton, McAfee, and TrendMicro usually require members to pay a subscription fee to gain access to their virus and spyware prevention products, there are quite a few comparably high quality alternatives out there that are available for free. Because each of the following tools utilize its own different and unique detection algorithm to scan for viruses and spywares, I recommend downloading a combination of two or three to get the maximum benefit. After spending a day or so of downloading and trying out most of the best programs, here are my recommended selections that I felt did the best job of completely ridding my computer of  pesky spyware bugs and viruses:

Best Free Anti Virus Scanning Software

1. AVG Anti Virus Free Edition: Strangely and rather interestingly, I’ve noticed that the free AVG virus/spyware algorithm frequently provides for a more thorough scan than that offered by paid software programs like Trend Micro. Go figure. AVG AntiVirus catches quite a few viruses that the others miss.
2. Avast! Home Edition: Highly recommended. Avast! Home Edition is not only light on system resources, but it also provides excellent real time scans for free.
3. Avira Anti Vir Personal: Great free application that automatically scans for and removes both viruses and spywares that lurk on your computer.

Best Free Spyware Detection and Removal Software

1. AVG Anti Spyware Free Edition: Scans for both viruses and your run of the mill malwares. Easy to use and does a very nice job of keeping your computer clean.
2. SUPER Anti Spyware: The aptly named SuperAntiSpyware program is truly super and highly recommended. The free edition is 100% free and will detect and remove thousands of spyware, adware, malware, trojans, key loggers, dialers, hi-jackers, and worms. The only downside is that the free version does not provide real time blocking or scheduled scans.
3. MalwareBytes AntiMalware: I recommend running both MalwareBytes along with Super Anti Spyware. Each is likely to pick up spyware not readily detected by the other due to differences in their detection algorithms.
4. AdAware Free: AdAware by Lavasoft is one of the oldest free anti-spyware programs available on the Internet and much of it remains the same. For no cost, the program offers a pretty decent, albeit stripped down, manual spyware detection option for your computer.

Free Online Virus Scanners

The following services offer premium virus scanning from popular brands via online interfaces. They’re all very easy to use and generally offer high detection rates. The major downside is that some require you to pay a membership fee to initiate a virus removal after one’s been detected. But nevertheless, it’s still a good idea to run a full computer scan on occasion using each of the following services to ensure a clean computer.

1. Panda Security Free AntiVirus Online
   
2. Kaspersky Lab Free Virus Scan
3. Trend Micro HouseCall
4. Eset Online Anti Virus Scanner
5. BitDefender Online Scanner
6. Symantec Security Scan
7. McAfee FreeScan
8. CA Online Threat Scanner

If you want maximum protection, I recommend using Norton or Trend Micro, along with at least one or two of the free anti virus and anti spyware programs listed above. When it comes to your precious computer files like personal photos, important Word documents, and applications you have saved in your hard drive, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

• Trend Micro Promo Offer: Trend Micro’s currently offering a limited time 10% discount on its virus and spyware program with Trend Micro promotion code: “trendpro”
• Norton Anti Virus Offer: Norton by Symantec is also currently touting special promotional savings deals for new customers.

Source URL: Best Free Anti Virus Software and Anti Spyware Program

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Anyone who has ever invested in the stock market before knows that one of the biggest potential drains on one’s rate of return is the amount of money spent on expensive commissions and trading fees, paid out to brokerage firms. Regardless of whether one only performs equity, option, or bond trades a few times a year – or engages in heavy duty non stop day trading – broker fees have a nasty and rather surreptitious way of chipping into one’s investment profits over time.

Back in the day when I opened my Roth IRA account and started investing for the very first time, brokerage commissions for equity trades were in the $20-30 range. That was how much I paid in the way of transaction fees for a single stock transaction back then – for an account that barely broke $500 at the time. These days, with the emergence of deep discount online brokerages like TradeKing and Zecco – for the same amount of money, one can now buy, sell, and transact securities two to three times over.

Of course, while many of these emerging top online brokers are able to offer their customers extremely low fees and discounted charges for investment transactions, bear in mind that they can do so because they offer their account holders substantially less in the way of investment tools, premium research material, and customer service support. While  not always the case, you generally get what you pay for. Premium high end brokerage firms such as Fidelity Investments, Charles Schwab, Bank of America, and even Wells Trade charge more for the brokerage services they provide, but in exchange they offer their customers more attention, provide them more expert investment advice, and back up their services with reputations that have been honed for a greater period of time. But even with that said, if you are a beginner to investing and are primarily interested in the major index funds, or if you are an experienced investor who doesn’t need the extra hand holding that more expensive full service brokerages provide – then going with the cheapest discount stock brokerage may still be the best option for you.

Personally, I own and retain accounts with most of the major big name brokerages (a few opened just for experimentation purposes). For my fund investments, I invest primarily in established mutual funds run by top fund brokerages like Fidelity, Vanguard, T.Rowe Price, and Charles Schwab. However, at the same time, I also balance my fund-heavy portfolio out with a number of individual stocks, and exchange traded funds (ETF’s) that trade like ordinary stocks. Savvy investors who want to maximize their investment returns may want to do the same – utilize popular mutual fund brokerages like Fidelity and Vanguard for no load, no transaction fee (NTF) mutual fund investments – but take advantage of discount online brokerages that offer cheap stock trading rates for individual stock and ETF purchases.

List Of The Top Value Discount Brokers With The Lowest Commission Costs

While going with a cheap stock broker that offers basement prices for equity trades may seem like the natural way to go for the cost conscious investor, I would advise readers to not overlook the importance of value. Sometimes, paying a tiny bit more might be worth it if what you’re getting in return in the way of a better trading experience outweighs the cost. After pouring through a large number of excellent online brokers and researching their commission structures and fee tables, here are the results of my findings. For comparison purposes, I’ve also included the cost per stock trade numbers in parentheses below.

1) Zecco ($0.00 per trade): Zecco customers enjoy a special recurring offer of 10 free stock trades every month so long as they maintain a $25,000 minimum balance or make at least 25 trades each month. However, even if an account  is unable to satisfy the requirements to get the free trades, the regular Zecco commission rate is only $4.50 per trade – still an extremely good deal for even the most price sensitive of investors. For no load mutual funds, Zecco charges $10.00 per trade. With its tandem promotion of free online stock trades and regular low cost commissions, Zecco will likely appeal to active traders the most. While the gimmicky brokerage firm does not offer the best all around package in the way of investment research features or advanced trading tools for its account holders, those who are willing to perform the bulk of their stock and mutual fund research elsewhere should be able to easily overlook this nominal downside – in favor of Zecco’s super cheap rates.

2) OptionsHouse ($2.95 per trade): Charging only a mere flat rate of $2.95 per stock trade, and a flat rate of $9.95 for option contracts, OptionsHouse is one of the most affordable discount online brokerages in the market today. With OptionsHouse, there are no monthly minimum balance requirements and no maintenance fees to contend with. Ranked #1 with an award of 4.7 stars by Barron’s in its 2009 Online Broker Survey as the best choice for options traders, the brokerage firm’s offerings are not limited to just options. Despite its name, with OptionsHouse, you can trade stocks, ETF’s, no-load networked mutual funds, options, spreads, and invest in most of the usual host of financial products you’d expect from any other major discount brokerage firm – but without the high commission cost. Currently, OptionsHouse is running a host of exclusive online promotions, such as offering a free $100 bonus rebate when you switch to OptionsHouse from your current broker, as well as extra $50 OptionsHouse referral bonuses for when you Refer-A-Friend to the firm.

3) TradeKing ($4.95 per trade): Bottom line, Tradeking is one of the best discount brokerage firms out there, and one of my personal favorites. Whether online or broker assisted, trades via the popular brokerage firm are incredibly affordable at a mere $4.95 per equity trade for both market and limit transactions. With TradeKing, there are no minimum balance requirements and no account maintenance fees. The very highly ranked company has won numerous accolades and high praises from major publications like Barron’s, SmartMoney, and Kiplinger’s for its award winning account features – something that should offer great appeal to both beginners and experienced investors alike. But perhaps TradeKing’s most commendable feature is its highly touted and highly regarded customer service reputation. Whether you desire extensive customer service support via a live representative or need technical support via phone or email, TradeKing is there to deliver the support you seek. Currently, the firm is offering a bonus deal of $150 for new account transfers and $50 for each new account referral. For a more detailed overview of my personal experience with the firm, please see my TradeKing review.

4) Scottrade ($7.00 per trade): Scottrade is probably a pretty well established and recognizable brand name to most American consumers, as the firm advertises heavily on mainstream media networks like CNBC, CNN, and elsewhere online. In terms of fees, Scottrade really shines – charging only $7.00 per online trade with no account maintenance or inactivity fees, and low balance requirements. While phone and broker assisted trades do cost more, they can be easily avoided by simply sticking with online trades exclusively (as everyone ought to anyway in this day and age of Internet based brokerages). For mutual fund investors, Scottrade offers a broad selection of  NTF funds that are completely devoid of fees, as well as a broad selection of out of network funds at a price. But for the majority of retail investors, Scottrade’s greatest appeal will likely be the large number of physical branch offices that the company maintains and operates. While most online broker investors will undoubtedly conduct the majority of their investment transactions via the Internet, Scottrade’s incredibly large network of branch offices nationwide is there when you need to tap into it. Check out my Scottrade review for my personal analysis of the popular discount broker’s pros and cons.

5) TradeMonster ($7.50 per trade): As a subsidiary of options trading brokerage firm, OptionMonster – TradeMonster is a relative newcomer to the discount brokerage scene. Despite its relative newish stature, the company’s reputation has already been rapidly lauded and reviewed by financial publications such as Barron’s, recently awarding the brokerage firm 4 stars for review categories such as trade experience, usability, research amenities, and portfolio analysis reports. Offering a pretty impressive online trading interface for its account customers, TradeMonster’s pricing structure is also quite competitive – at just $7.50 per trade up to 5,000 shares, and a mere $0.50 per options contract. For mutual funds, the company charges $15.00 per purchase and nothing for sales. Trade Monster also offers all of the usual investment products and possibilities, including stocks, options, ETF’s, mutual funds, bonds, traditional IRA’s, and Roth IRA’s. Although new, this low cost brokerage is worth a hard look.

6) E*Trade Financial ($9.99 per trade): E-Trade has been around since the advent of discount online brokerages. In the early days, the company was one of the first to offer an integrated all in one power trading and Etrade banking service for online investors, and one of the first to offer continuously streaming quotes and regularly updated news reports for its customers. Since then, the popular online broker’s services and features for account holders have only continued to expand. While ETrade is by no means the cheapest brokerage option in the market, the firm brings forth a tremendous amount of value. The company has won an impressive number of accolades over the years, including the very coveted number #1 ranking for the best overall online discount brokerage firm according to the 2009 SmartMoney best broker survey. In the editorial review, E-Trade received extremely high marks for almost all facets of the firm’s offerings, snagging extra praise for its top notch customer service, excellent banking features, and highly regarded research tools. If you want the very best in the way of financial research material and investment calculation tools, you really can’t go wrong with E-trade. In terms of fees and charges, Etrade’s offerings are decently competitive – charging just $9.99 per equity trade for those who make at least 30 trades a month or maintain $50,000 in account assets, and charging the standard rate of $12.99 per trade otherwise. Currently, ETrade is also offering a limited time bonus offer of 100 commission-free stock and option trades for new accounts.

Source URL: Best Online Discount Brokers For Cheap Stock Trades

Copyright Protected © 2009 Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. All Rights Reserved.