by Silicon Valley Blogger on July 2, 2009
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I wrote about OptionsXpress the other day, which is a suitable online broker for active traders. Their support for options trading is their specialty, although they are careful to note that they also support stock, ETF and mutual fund investors as well.
Today, I’d like to cover another online stock broker with the term “Options” in its name: OptionsHouse. And yes, it’s another brokerage that promises to offer you a ton of features for very low cost. So what makes them stand out in the sea of discount brokers out there? And how different are they from OptionsXpress?
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by Silicon Valley Blogger on July 1, 2009
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Last time, I wrote about how we can predict inflation using a market index as an inflation indicator. For the chartists and other crystal ball readers out there, here’s something else for you: is there a way to predict when the economic downturn has ended?
Is The Economic Downturn Really Over?
Based on some simplistic observations, here’s how I can tell when things are getting better: the stock market has recovered somewhat from its lows (despite claims by some technical analysts that it’s supposed to “retest” previous lows before any meaningful recovery can resume) and the job market has either stabilized or begun to improve, with more companies looking to hire again. I’m actually getting more inquiries from headhunters about my availability for technical jobs around here in Silicon Valley (imagine that: they still have my resume!), and I’m getting more inquiries from online advertisers as well. Signs of life?
According to a certain economist, the recession is indeed now over. Do you believe it? It may be hard to catch on to the idea that we’re now supposedly out of the economic slump that was so dramatically sparked by the twin American nightmares that were the subprime mortgage mess and credit crisis. Then again, the thing about recessions, they’re in with a bang and out with a whimper (or if you prefer another analogy, they’re in like a lion, but out like a lamb).
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by Millie Kay G. on June 30, 2009
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We’ve often talked about how to get rid of debt. But this time, we’d like to cover an actionable plan comprised of simple steps you can perform to fully eliminate your debt.
While some families I know can pay off their credit cards each month, most people I know maintain mortgages, car loans, credit card and other debt. In the past, I felt like I was climbing a mountain that I’d never pay off, but I learned how to set up a debt repayment plan. The process isn’t too complicated to set up and with consistency, I found out that I could find zero balances at the end of my hike.
How To Get Out of Debt: Set Up A Debt Repayment Plan
Allow me to go through what I’ve done to set up my personal debt reduction program.
1. List your debts.
First off, I took all my latest billing statements and listed all my debts. If spreadsheets aren’t your thing, just start with the nearest sheet of blank paper and start writing down items like:
- credit cards
- auto loans
- student loans
- personal loans
- medical bills
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by Millie Kay G. on June 29, 2009
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| 4 comments
We’ve discussed credit report monitoring services here before, which help you in a couple of ways. They can keep an eye on your credit standing by monitoring your credit reports: they’ll let you know if your credit has been affected in any way or if you’ve somehow become a victim of identity theft.
Sure, the business of protecting our identities via credit monitoring and other means has offered consumers a way to be proactive. However, I thought to write about a few considerations we should all be aware of before signing up with a fraud protection service like Lifelock or Trusted ID, which are two big names in the industry.
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by Silicon Valley Blogger on June 28, 2009
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Various ways to predict inflation.
We all can’t wait to emerge out of the clutches of this economic recession. The government has done its job to jump start the economy, with many attempts to revive it through a massive stimulus package and a series of bailouts. All well and good, but then there’s the payback. Could we end up facing inflation in the near future? As the economy starts to pick up, should we expect an increase in prices too? Well, that remains to be seen, but let’s explore the possibilities here.
Predicting Inflation
Apparently, anyone can predict inflation. There have been studies that have shown that both professional economists and consumers alike have been successful at forecasting inflation, albeit through different approaches. Both arrive at pretty much the same conclusion and can be fairly accurate at sensing impending price increases.
But while experts use numbers, charts and statistics such as the unemployment rate, money supply growth, exchange rate fluctuations and various market indexes to track the economy, consumers can also detect what’s going on based on what they see at the cash register. As consumers, we can use our intuition to tell ourselves what’s in store: our weekly grocery bills and gas bills may be enough to give us an inkling of things to come.
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by Silicon Valley Blogger on June 26, 2009
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As one of California’s denizens who also has school-aged children, I was quite interested to learn about a site called Next10, through Lazy Man’s post called “Can You Fix California’s Budget”? Next10 asks you questions about how you stand on certain issues that have an impact on the California budget, and based on your responses, comes up with a new, proposed budget. Their questionnaire is aimed to determine how you’d prioritize issues for the sake of resolving the budget crisis.
The California Budget Crisis: How Do We Close The Budget Gap?
Here’s a sampling of the issues which received the most responses:
- 40.7% of respondents want to reduce spending for K-12 pupils in California. The consequence here is that spending will fall below 28% the national average. Unfortunately, schools are already hurting with many resources and programs being cut each year, and are relying more and more on volunteers and fundraising to cover gaps in services.
- 52.5% want to reduce Medi-Cal eligibility for undocumented and new immigrants and are open to eliminating some health care programs for low income people.
- 40.8% want big reductions in human services programs (is this what is called welfare?). This will of course, affect the aged, disabled and poor children and families.
- 50% (including Lazy Man, by his own admission) are willing to release less dangerous inmates and those who end up violating parole.
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55.4% want to keep unemployment and training benefits as they are.
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48.3% want income taxes to be raised for the wealthy. There’s a recommendation here for reinstating higher tax brackets for those earning $300,000 a year and above.
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53.3% want to increase the corporation tax rate. With taxes growing more slowly than corporate profits, increasing taxes in this case makes sense to me.
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42.8% are for limiting tax breaks.
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by Silicon Valley Blogger on June 25, 2009
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Try these money saving tips, rules and formulas to motivate yourself into saving more!
Image from ScionDriver.
I recently caught an ABC News video which featured a fellow whom I’ve seen actively participating in the financial blogosphere. Rob Bennett is a personal finance enthusiast and writer who was interviewed by ABC News’ Money Matters. Here’s a clip of the show.
I like Rob’s fresh views and tips on the subject of saving, some of which I’m sure I’ve been subconsciously employing myself. These Unconventional Money Saving Tips are powerful strategies that can help you change how you think about saving:
Unconventional Money Saving Tips From An Expert Money Saver
While there are 10 such tips that Rob has expounded upon on his site called Passion Saving, I’ve chosen to highlight those that were mentioned in the video:
1. Set a savings goal of a $100,000 and focus on getting over this “hump”.
I like the idea of visualizing your goals and creating savings milestones for yourself using hard numbers. The idea here is to have a target that you can see yourself achieving. Your target doesn’t have to be $100,000; if this number seems too gargantuan, try a lower number — a nice round one like $10,000. The important thing is to get started. Also, the more you save and get over the “hump”, the easier it should get.
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by Silicon Valley Blogger on June 24, 2009
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I had the pleasure of being a guest at Mr. Credit Card’s radio show today. Mr. Credit Card runs the Ask Mr. Credit Card site and is someone I’ve been interacting with online for a long time now. So I’m glad I’ve finally gotten the chance to actually speak with him!
My Interview With Mr. Credit Card On Personal Finance and Silicon Valley
The show is lengthy — just a little over an hour — so I couldn’t believe Mr. CC and I had enough steam to keep talking like that. I ended up spilling the beans on some interesting topics, but I hope not enough to raise the eyebrows of friends of mine who may decide to listen to this dialogue. 
The basic topics covered in the interview were on personal finance and Silicon Valley and a lot of stuff I discuss in this blog. But there were also lots of personal things and details that I shared with Mr. CC that I don’t really delve into on this blog because otherwise, it would end up with me rambling forever and producing even longer posts than I already do, and well…you’d get bored.
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by Silicon Valley Blogger on June 23, 2009
| 5 comments
A few days ago, I discussed how my credit card account got closed when Advanta decided to pull the plug on their credit card division. The irony here is that the Advanta card was once considered one of the best credit cards for the buck, as per Forbes. So naturally, like one of the million customers who were abandoned up the creek at short notice, I thought about what kind of steps to take next. If you were caught in this situation, you probably scrambled as I did to straighten out the things that were affected by this predicament.
Where did this leave me? Bottom line: I needed a new credit card fast! While busy working to remedy our situation, I thought to review a few things learned from this experience as an Advanta credit card holder in this unique position:
Need A New Credit Card Fast? Thoughts On Replacing An Expired Card
- Don’t forget to redeem your rewards!
If you’ve got a rewards credit card of some sort, try not to accumulate (hoard) your rewards and points for long periods in case your credit card program ends up on the chopping block. These days, the credit card industry is in so much flux that I’d prefer not to sit on my unclaimed rewards for too long. Who knows for how long your points will be honored? In Advanta’s case, they cut me a rewards check. For this reason, cash back credit cards may be less problematic than those that offer you points that could expire.
- Take note of transactions that are affected by your defunct or expired card.
The biggest pain in the rear we’ve had to deal with in this situation was having to find a replacement card for all the automatic bill payments that were set up using our Advanta card. You can imagine how big an inconvenience this is, particularly for those businesses that are transaction heavy. To keep things running smoothly, stay on top of your card usage and automatic payment schedules to avoid disruptions of your operations.
- Keep a spare credit card.
There are many people who’ve sworn off card debt, who’ve progressed to the point of banishing credit cards from their homes. But I find that the use of credit cards have made life so much easier for me (I’m never one to carry debt). And as someone who’s become partially dependent on cards to “make things work” both for my business and my household, I’ve realized that there’s a reason to own multiple credit cards: having a spare one allows me to keep functioning when one of my credit cards goes AWOL. As I’ve mentioned, I use cards to facilitate the financial transactions and operations I’m involved with everyday.
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