Here’s a typical scenario: a raging inferno gutted your bedroom. Sure you were smart enough to have taken out an insurance policy against fire damage, but didn’t tell the insurance company about that money you had under the mattress! Now all that is left are badly charred dollar bills! You went to the nearest bank, [...]
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I bank with a credit union which is outside my state. There aren’t too many credit union ATMs around where I can withdraw cash without fees. Cash back from debit card payments are an option. But I’m wary of debit cards for the following reasons: You are not protected against fraudulent purchases the same way [...]
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If you are with one of the big banks, chances are you are getting a lot less than 1.50%. As of this post, this is the yield for a 1 year CD with the top four banks: What if I said you can get 1.50% APY with just $100 minimum AND free ATM access to [...]
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Did you know you can unlock your phone for free? If you’ve been with your carrier for more than 6 months, all you need to do is ask! (not sure about iPhone or Android, but certainly worked for Blackberry and Nokia). I was planning on a trip outside the country and and wanted to unlock [...]
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Paypal has two modes of payment – a one-time payment and a subscription or pre-approved payment. Sneaky merchants might charge you for a subscription when you might be under the impression this is a one-time payment. They can keep charging you till you cancel. How to find out if you are in fact a victim [...]
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So you’ve been thinking of switching your online broker. But how does this work? What happens to the stocks you hold? Do you have to sell and re-purchase them? Are there fees involved? Taxes? How to transfer stocks from one broker to another? If you’ve never switched a broker before, fear not. It isn’t that [...]
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I check up on my credit scores regularly and I don’t pay a dime. No I’m not shilling for sites that have the word ‘free’ in the website address but need you to fork over your credit card to show you your credit score! Here’s how I do it: To get my TransUnion score, I [...]
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Yes I actually did cancel DirectTV before the end of my contract without paying a fee and without even asking (at least not directly)! Now this is not a post about canceling without ETFs, but more about saving money. I was looking at ways to rein-in spending and my focus was on expenses that are [...]
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I recently consolidated all my assets from various brokers to WellsTrade. I actually had 5 different brokers! Since trading in ETFs is a part of my investing strategy, I needed to pay close attention to trading costs. Each $7 I pay in trading commission could potentially mean $24 in 15 years! After researching various brokers, [...]
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On thursday by 2.48 pm, Dow had dropped 998 points, its largest intraday drop in history! No one knows what caused it. Was it a computer glitch? Human error? Goldman Sachs? While they are still figuring out who is to blame, the investors got spooked. The Dow recovered briefly but the next day witnessed a [...]
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