Online investment company ShareBuilder (owned by ING Direct) is offering up 10 free investment credits to new and existing customers who set up an Automatic Investment Plan before January 31st.  This is a great way to start investing for the New Year!  Normally automatic investments are $4 per trade.

The Automatic Investment Plan allows you to set up recurring weekly, or monthly (or one-time) investments which occur on Tuesdays every week.  Why is this great?  Fractional shares!  You can pick an amount you want to invest and ShareBuilder will buy that amount of shares, even as a fraction.  It’s through this plan that I’m able to own a piece of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway.  The shares are quite expensive but I’m able to still buy a piece of it.

ShareBuilder also offers real-time trades (not part of this offer) and allows for dividend re-investing.

One of the things I particularly like about ShareBuilder is that they are part of ING Direct where I have an online savings and checking account.  When I want to fund my ShareBuilder account I can quickly transfer money over.  I can also see all of my account totals on one page.

Here’s the legal mumbo jumbo from the ShareBuilder site:

The 10 free Automatic Investment Plan credits are available 2-4 weeks after you create a Plan during the month of January 2010 with at least one security. With an Automatic Investment Plan you can invest any dollar amount on Tuesdays exclusively online, schedule investments on a weekly or monthly basis. Select from our list of over 7,000 stocks and ETFs. Investment and funding instructions can be edited up to 5:00 pm ET on the Monday before your purchase. Real-time trade commissions apply to all sales. All sales of stock are made real-time and are subject to Real-time Trade commissions.

If you have been looking to start investing then this might be a nice place to start looking.

Bonus: If you sign up as a new customer and use the code 50DOLLARS you will get a $50 bonus in your account!! (You need to open the account with $50) Expires 3/31/10

As always, do your research before investing and make sure you understand the account and make sure it is right for you before you sign up!

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10 Free Investment Credits From ShareBuilder (And $50 Signup Bonus)

I kept hearing the markets were doing well the past few weeks so I took a deep breath, crossed my fingers and logged into my 401(k) plan.  What a surprise!  My account is up over 13% so far for the year!  If this were a movie you’d see the sun pushing the clouds away and happy little birds chirping around me as the world is a great place to be.

It wasn’t like this last year.

Last year I lost about 30% in my 401(k) portfolio. Ouch!  The reality is I need my portfolio to go up 60% to get back where I started.

So what now? Nothing.  It’s a number is all.  I like that my 401(k) has gone up but it’s not something for me to be too concerned with right now.

Why am I not concerned about my 401(k)?

1. I’m investing for the long haul.  I’m not so worried about how my 401(k) does year to year.  I’m more concerned with how it does over 10, 15, 20, 35 years.  Even though my portfolio did bad last year, one year is too small a sample to be worried about.
2. My funds are diversified.  I’ve made sure to spread my investing across many investing types including large/mid/small cap stocks, growth and value stocks, foreign stocks, and cash and bonds funds.  This way when one sector does bad I have other sectors that can help balance it out.
3. I keep my portfolio balanced.  I set up my account (my company’s  401(k) plan is with Fidelity) to notify me when my allocation for any fund is off by 5%.  Then I go in and re-allocate the funds to bring it back to my target percentages.  This helps me lock the gains in and I buy low on other funds.
4. I get a company match. My company matches up to 4% on my 5% contribution.  Quick math tells me that’s an 80% return on my investment.  When my portfolio is down I remind myself that a lot of that is company match money (a little mind hack to help me sleep in down economies).

It’s nice to know how your 401(k) is doing. But don’t let it get you emotional whether it’s good or bad.  A 401(k) is long-term investing to help you in retirement.  Most of us have a lot of years before we’ll need the money.  Just make sure you are diversified and you re-allocate your portfolio when your target percentages are off.  As you get closer to retirement age you’ll also want to reconsider how you diversify.

How is your 401(k) doing this year?  How do you feel about it?

A great book I read that talks about retirement investing is the Boglehead’s Guide to Investing which can be found on Amazon.

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My 401(k) Investments Are Up And What I’m Doing About It

Did you get to catch ABC’s special Unbroke: What You Need To Know About Money? I heard about this via Twitter from MainStreet.com.  The special advertised it would talk about what people needed to know about their personal finances and it was interspersed with vignettes describing different aspects of money from the celebrity likes of Samuel L. Jackson, the Jonas Brothers (that got my daughter watching), Oscar the Grouch, and the E-Trade babies.

Hey, how to not be broke?  Sounds right up the alley for Free From Broke!  I was game.

So with the kids running around and the computer on my lap on the couch I took note of what the show talked about.

Here are the points I picked up from Unbroke-What You Need to Know About Money:

-No driver’s education for your finances: You learn how to drive but school doesn’t teach you anything about credit cards or your finances.

-Credit cards are a primary cause for debt: A big culprit for debt in the country is credit cards.

-Paying cash makes more sense: Cedric the Entertainer tells us that the old school way to pay for something was to use cash.  This way there’s no debt and no worries.

-People have lots of credit cards on average: Random people are asked how many credit cards they have and the answers run from about 5-9 cards.  You really only need one.

-The average American family has 10k in debt on an average of 5 cards: Wow.

-It takes 58 yrs to pay off 10k if you pay only the minimum.

-19 yrs to pay off a laptop if pay minimum for a college student: If a student starts school and buys a laptop on credit it can take them close to the time they’ll attend their 20 year re-union if they only pay the minimum requirement on their credit debt.  The laptop gets REAL expensive!

-Why people bought expensive houses – sub prime mortgages: The thought here is that some money people came up with a foolish way to extend credit to people who couldn’t pay it back.

-Seth Green shows us how to live within our means: Smaller house with a low fixed rate mortgage; own a modest car; keep your small tv; pla board games instead of getting an expensive gaming system; have adequate insurance; save money with energy efficient appliances; and have a rainy day fund.  Keep you spending tight!

-Many people are living paycheck to paycheck: You need a safety net; an emergency fund of  3-6 months expenses.

-A system to start building up an emergency fund: Start saving 1 dollar a day for four months.  Then up that to 2 dollars a day.  Now amp it up to five dollars a day.  Before you know it you’ll have $1000 saved.

-Definition of stock: A share of ownership in a company.

-Definition of bonds: A loan to a company for a set period of time with a set return.

-You have to take a long term view when investing: The stock market goes up and down but over the long term the market goes up.

-Stock indexes give a measure of how companies are doing: Dow is the top 30 companies, the S&P 500 is the 500 top companies, and the Nasdaq lists newer tech companies.

-Oscar the Grouch, the reason I watched: You need a retirement account.  When stocks go down there’s an opportunity to buy.  It’s tough to save for the future (in Oscar’s case a nice dumpster near a garbage dump) without stocks in your portfolio.  Individual stocks can fluctuate but overall markets go up.  The biggest risk is not taking a risk.

-One term you need to know to retire: 401(k) – Money goes in before taxes so it grows tax free.  Even though stocks can fluctuate wildly in the short-term, over the long-term stocks have always gone up.  You can invest up to $16,500 a year in a 401(k) plus many companies offer a company match.  Variety is crucial in your portfolio so make sure you diversify.  A 401(k) is automatic savings since it comes right out of your paycheck.  If your company offers a match it’s ridiculous not to meet the match.  For example: if company offers a 50 cent match that’s 50% return right off the bat.  These days saving for retirement is mandatory.

-Should I invest in a 529 or 401(k)? – Take care of yourself first then help your kids.

-It’s very difficult to blog about a show with your kids awake.  It’s a challenge to keep up and type while your 9 year old and 2 year old are jumping around.  At one point my son asks me what I’m doing and tries to shut my laptop.  That’s what I get for not playing with them on a Friday night.

-Samuel L Jackson gives a great take on the movie Network.  He’s a fictional financial guru who tells a TV audience that no one thought they had to follow the basic rules and now they are broke, including himself even though he’s an “expert.”  He tells everyone to get up and yell: I’m broke as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!  You want a monologue delivered?  Give it to Samuel L Jackson!  He made some good points though.  Pick yourself up and tell someone you’re broke and you’re not going to stay that way.  Get mad and do something about it.

These aren’t any new personal finance topics, though it’s full of great information. There’s no new “gazelle intensity” or “debt snowball” or “latte factor” introduced in the show.  But that’s not what it was trying to do.  These are all great basic premises for someone to take care of their finances and hopefully it helps to get a few people to take a look at their financial situations.

Did you watch it?  What did you think?

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Unbroke – What You Need To Know About Money: Recap

After I wrote my piece about Madoff and his ponzi scheme I started to think:  Should the Madoff ponzi victims be bailed out by the government?

Think of how much money is being poured into investment institutions with the economic stimulus…

Is $68 billion so bad to help people who were clearly swindled? It’s a lot less than what AIG has received!

These are people who, in many cases, lost about all of their retirement savings.  If you’re young that’s one thing; you can build it back.  But I suspect far more were older looking to retire sooner than later.

And what about the retirement funds, charities, and universities that had money invested with Madoff?  Do we want to see them depleted of funds that could help so many?

But there’s a flip side to this as well.

Why should the government help out people who invested in something they didn’t understand?  Doesn’t that happen all the time?  People invest in things looking for the great return but they don’t understand why the return is even possible.

In some ways this reminds me a bit of the tech and housing bubbles.  Investors rushed to pour money in these sectors looking at the great returns expecting to always make ridiculous money.  When the market started to realize that the investments had no real grounding then the bottom fell out and many lost their shirts!

Should we feel bad for people who bought property assuming it would always rise and they could always flip it in a few years?

Caveat Emptor, as the saying goes – Let the buyer beware!

Yes, Madoff swindled everyone but isn’t this also a case where investors didn’t want to see that the emperor had no clothes?

Personally, I feel sorry for the people who lost their money.  Most people don’t understand the investments they are in (I can’t say I’m 100% knowledgeable of mine) and they thought this was a great place to invest, coming from a respected and successful Wall St investor.

I’m not sure how much could be done for them though.  I don’t think the government should bail them out.  I don’t think taxpayers should shoulder responsibility for this.  The best they can hope for is some of the money could be retrieved and returned but I suspect that would be a small amount (unless they found a huge account of Madoff’s somewhere).

According to the NY Times, the IRS is looking into giving a tax deduction for ponzi victims.  I guess this could help some people but if you had something like an IRA investment ties to a ponzi scheme there may not be a break.

Maybe there needs to be some sort of regulation to prevent this.  I couldn’t say what but regulation should be in place to protect people from fraud (not from risk).  For sure there will be greater scrutiny of investments that claim such a large steady return (I hope).

Still, the great lesson here is know what you are getting into.

What do you think?

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Should The Government Use The Stimulus To Bailout Madoff Ponzi Victims?

Times are tough out there.  The economy is at the forefront of the news every day.  Companies that were believed to be stalwarts are turning out to be broke.  Many are saying this is the worst the economy as been since the Great Depression.  Is there a silver lining to this economy?!? Yes.

8 Ways The Economic Crisis Can Be Good For You:

• Lower House Prices and Lower Mortgage Rates – If you don’t already own a home now may be a great time to buy one!  Housing prices have been dropping.  The bloated home prices of the past few years are finally reversing.  If your finances are sound and you can make the payments you might find yourself with a house bargain.  Add to that dropping mortgage rates and this might be the time to buy if you’ve been waiting but couldn’t afford it before.  If you have a variable rate mortgage it could be the right time to lock in your rate.  Mortgages are already low so you figure they have to go up eventually!

• Buying A New Car – If you have been in the market for a new car then now is a great time to buy!  The big three American car makers are hurting and are basically giving their cars away at cost just to keep their inventory moving.  To compete, foreign car makers are offering deals as well.  Most companies are offering 0% interest for qualified buyers.  That’s a free loan o buy their car.

• Sales – Just like the car manufacturers many other companies and stores are hurting and are doing whatever they can to sell their products.  Forecast are already low on consumer spending for the holidays.  This means we’re going to see some great sales coming up.  Don’t go out spending just because prices are low but if there was something you were going to get anyway this coming season may be the time to buy it.

• Low Credit Card Rates – Lower credit card rates doesn’t mean you should go on a spending spree!  But if you are carrying debt ad making your payments you may be able to negotiate a lower rate with your credit card company.  If your rate is already low you still might be able to find a card offering 0% to transfer your balance to.  Remember, the point is to shrink your debt not increase it!

• Change Bad Spending Habits – What does it take to break out of the cycle of spending and debt?!?  If this bad economy doesn’t convince you that carrying a lot of debt is bad then what will?  Cash is king in any economy but wen you have a cushion for yourself then bad economies are less stressful.  Let what you see in the news be an eye opener for you if your spending habits aren’t so great.  Make a commitment to put yourself in charge of your finances!

• Cut the Corporate Fat – Only the strong will survive in this economy (well, except for those that get bailed out).  The companies that come through this will end up with a stronger presence in their industries.  Also, as inefficient companies close up shop they leave open room for newer, smaller companies to take up the market void left over.

• Cheap Gas – I just filled up the tank on our mini van and it cost us $35.  That would have given us a half tank earlier in the Summer.  Man does it feel good to not pay so much for gas!  One way to take advantage of this is take what the gas would have cost you in the summer and put the difference in what you pay now into a savings account every time you fill up.  Home fuel costs will also be lower this Winter than last Winter.

• Stocks Are Cheaper – Prices have dropped to where if you invested at the turn of the century you might just have the same amount now; basically a zero return.  Not so good if you’ve lost a lot in stocks but if your starting out investing you could be getting stocks and funds near the bottom when prices are low.  You still need to do your research to find good funds and companies.  If you’re dollar cost averaging your investments you’re getting more stock for your dollar these days.

It’s scary to hear economic news these days.  But if your finances are in good shape then now can be a good time for you!  If your finances aren’t then get working on it now!

What do you think?  What other ways could this bad economy be good for you?

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8 Ways The Economic Crisis Can Be Good For You

What Is The Dow Jones Industrial Average?

We’ve hear a lot about the Dow in the news. It goes up and folks are happy.  It goes down and folks panic.  But what is this mystical Dow that everyone is talking about?

The Dow actually stand for Dow Jones Industrial Average.  It’s made up of the 30 largest and most widely held public companies.  The average is a scaled average which is price weighted to account for stock splits.  Although it only accounts for 30 companies, the Dow has historically been in line with the larger US market.  For this reason it tends to be the most common indicator of the market in general.

The Dow was first published in 1896 and consisted of 12 companies:

• American Cotton Oil Company
• American Sugar Company
• American Tobacco Company
• Chicago Gas Company
• Distilling and Cattle Feeding Company
• General Electric
• Laclede Gas Light Company
• National Lead Company
• North American Company
• Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Rail company
• US Leather Company
• Unites States Rubber Company

Today’s Dow looks very different:

Update – On June 8, 2009 GM and Citigroup were replaced by The Travelers Companies and Cisco Systems.

When it started the Dow averaged 40.94.  It’s recent high was 14,164.53 on October 9, 2007.

Why is it so important?

Since the Dow represents 30 of the largest US companies, changes in the stock prices of the Dow can be seen to represent the general health of US companies.  Higher averages mean growth and profits while lower averages represent contraction and losses.

Do you follow Dow prices?  Do you think it’s an accurate economic indicator?

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What Is The Dow?

I logged into my 401(k) plan.  Ouch! It’s been taking a beating all year.  In fact I mentioned that my 401(k) was hurting back in December when Hank over at MiB Smarter Money gave me a nice analysis of my portfolio.  Now, I understand that I’m in this for the long haul as far as the investments are concerned.  After all this is for my retirement which is still a ways off.  There’s plenty of time for the investments to recover and do well.  I’m not going to pull my money out because the market isn’t great.  The only reason my contributions were lowered is because we’re a one-income family right now (I only lowered my contributions down to the company match).

So I accept that my 401(k) isn’t so hot. Now what?  Well, I’ve been reading The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing (which I won from The Digerati Life).  I’m not done with the book (which, by the way, is a great how-to investing read) but I have read how important it is to have a good asset allocation and to re-balance your portfolio from time to time.

This made me wonder what my portfolio looked like.  I set up how I wanted my assets allocated when I started contributing and I’ve made a few adjustments from time to time.  But reading the Boglehead book made me re-think what my allocations should be.  Also, I haven’t re-balanced the portfolio in the longest time.  I’ve changed my future contributions but rarely what was already in there.

So today I changed that.  Looking at my portfolio I realized I had funds that I was no longer contributing to but still had large balances.  I also saw that based on suggested portfolios in the book and my age that I should probably have a higher percentage of bonds in my investments.  Other funds that I was contributing a higher % to really took up a very small % in my portfolio since I haven’t been re-balancing.

First, I changed where my future contributions will be going.  This is money that comes out of my check as well as the company match.  Next, I moved investments already in my portfolio to match my new asset allocation.  Both processes were pretty easy on the Fidelity site (the company that manages the 401k).  Remember, changing your future contributions isn’t the same as re-balancing your portfolio.  You have to look at both if you want it truly balanced to the investments of your choice.

Here’s what the allocation is now:

Stocks

Large Cap

• Fidelity Contrafund 18%
• Vanguard Institutional Index Fund Institutional Shares 22%

Mid Cap

• Artisan Mid Cap Inv CL 10%

Small Cap

• Fidelity Small Cap Stock Fund 10%

International

• American Funds New Perspective Fund Class R5 5%
• Fidelity Diversified International Fund 5%

Bond/Managed Income

• PIMCO Total Return Inst CL 30%

Before I started changing anything I made sure that there would be no fees for changing investments.  Some funds charge a fee if you sell them before a certain time frame.

I also set up my account to send me an email if any of my percentages exceed 5% of what I set.  This gives me a reminder to check if I want to re-balance the funds that changed.

I’m not expecting my portfolio to all of a sudden jump into the black but it will be interesting to look and see where it’s at year-end.  Again, these funds are for the long haul as I won’t use them until I retire.  That said, I still need to adjust my contributions and allocations as time goes on.

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I Re-Allocated And Re-Balanced My 401(k) Portfolio

Today’s quote is quite inspiring:

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

Benjamin Franklin

Being in the know can get you ahead.  Education doesn’t have to be in school or towards a degree to pay off for you.  It can be doing research on ways to save on a hotel, or finding the best online savings, or figuring out what funds to put your 401(k) money into.  The more informed you are the better off you will be.  Do your homework as part of a big decision.

At least that’s how I take it.

What do you think?

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Friday Franklin Money Quote August 22, 2008

Are you just starting off building up your savings? I’ve mentioned before that a great way to save is by putting money in a high yield savings account such as ING Direct.  A way to make a little more interest is to open a Certificate of Deposit, or CD for short.

What is a CD? Here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia:

A certificate of deposit or CD is a time deposit, a financial product commonly offered to consumers by banks, thrift institutions, and credit unions.

CDs are similar to savings accounts in that they are insured and thus virtually risk-free; they are “money in the bank” (CDs are insured by the FDIC for banks or by the NCUA for credit unions). They are different from savings accounts in that the CD has a specific, fixed term (often three months, six months, or one to five years), and, usually, a fixed interest rate. It is intended that the CD be held until maturity, at which time the money may be withdrawn together with the accrued interest.

So if you are investing/buying a  CD you want to make sure you don’t need that money for the length of it’s term (otherwise you will have to pay a penalty to cash it in).

Here’s a great way a beginning saver can get started with CD’s:

• Figure out a monthly amount of money you know you won’t need for 12 months.  Don’t be scared now.  It can be a small amount like $10 (One great thing about IND Direct is you can open a CD with any amount).  In fact, for our example I’m going to use $10 and ING as a bank.

• Log into your ING account and go to their products page.  Click on CD’s and proceed to open up a $10 CD for a 12-month term.  (If you can afford more by all means do so.  Remember this is money you won’t touch for a year.)

• Now every month do the same thing for a total of 12 months.

• At the end of a year you will have 12 CDs worth more than $120 (imagine if you put more in each month?).  If you can, re-invest the CDs as they mature.  See if you can add to the amounts, again even if it’s only a few dollars.

“What have we done?  Anyone can buy CDs!”, you may ask?  Remember this is for a beginner who is starting to build up their savings.  Here is what the beginning saver has accomplished:

• This builds up a habit of saving.  By putting the money in a CD we’re limiting the ability to take the money out (without a penalty at least).  Once this habit is in place a beginning saver may have the discipline to expand their savings.
• It creates a great sense of self-esteem for the saver.  You get to see your CDs growing every month.  How great is it to see a year’s worth of savings?  Once a person realizes that saving is an achievable goal they will be more likely to continue!
• You’re earning interest.  Not only have you saved but you’re savings are growing too!

Savings aren’t usually built overnight.  But by saving bit by bit you will see your savings blossom over time!

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A CD Ladder Plan For Beginning Savers

School is out for the summer! My daughter is done,  my wife has a day or so left, and my son completed his first year of day care.  I, on the other hand, still have to wake up and go to work.  I look forward to phone conversations that go some thing like this:

Wife: Hi, how’s work today?

Me: Ok, a little busy but no big deal.  Sounds like you’re on the cell.  What’re you up to?

Wife: We’re at the beach!

Me: (grumbling) lovely.

At least we have the NYS Empire Passport so we don’t have to pay for parking at the beach.

Speaking of summer (you like that segue way?) there’s still a little time left to enter the Summer Savings Series $100 Amazon gift card giveaway.  You have until 11:59 am Monday June 30th to enter.

Don’t think you have a chance at winning?  Of course you do! But you have to enter.  In fact this past week I won a copy of The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing over at The Digerati Life.  I hope I can put the book to good use!  Know how I won?  I left a comment!

Now to the carnivals I was in this week:

The 158th Carnival of Personal Finance – Vampire Slaying edition was hosted by Finance Freelance Life.  This included my article Murphy’s Law of the Workplace.

The 65th Carnival of Money Stories was held at The Dividend Guy.  Our Disney World Vacation was included.

The Festival of Frugality #131 – Summer Savings Edition was hosted by Broke Grad Student which included Running – Frugal or Not.

The Money Hacks Carnival #18 – The History of Money was hosted by fellow Money Life Network member My Investing Blog.  Customer Service Done Right 1800 Contact.com was included.

Now to some favorites I found in my Google Reader:

Introduction to the Stock Market at Moolanomy.  A good intro to what stocks and the stock market is.

But I Just Don’t Feel Like It…Four Strategies to Fight the Takeout Urge at I’ve Paid for This Twice Already.  We’ve been doing the whole takeout thing too much lately.  It doesn’t help us that our kitchen is being remodeled.

The Hidden Costs of Renting a Car at Five Cent Nickel.  We rented a car in Miami a couple of years ago and got stuck paying for an extra day because we didn’t return the car by the cutoff.

Ceiling Fan Hacks: Save Big on Energy Use at The Simple Dollar.  I didn’t even know that the direction the fan turned made a difference!

Is Blogging Passive Income? at Finance Freelance Life.  Umm…no, it’s not.

A Post in Which the Author Opines On the Possibility of Managing One’s Time Successfully With Two Children Under the Age of Three at Brip Blap.  If you think the title is verbose wait until you read the article!

And some great ones from the Money Life Network:

Bible Money Matters – Saving at the Movies This Summer

Prime Time Money – Save Money and Get Fit With These Summertime Activities and Programs

Milk Your Money – Save on Mandatory Fun Trips

My Investing Blog – Don’t Drive Ten Miles Out of Your Way to Save on Gas

Remodeling This Life – Love and Live Happy

Sense To Save – Just Turn Off The Car Please

Wait…who was that?  That’s right!  The Money Life Network is pleased to announce the addition of Remodeling This Life and Sense to Save as  members.  We know Emily and Kacie’s perspectives will add value to our group.  Stop by their blogs and subscribe to their feeds to get up to date on their writing!  Welcome to the group!

Until next time – Read, Learn, and Enjoy!

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Festive Link Love Carnivality #15