And the hits just keep on coming… Earlier this week HSBC Direct announced that they’re reducing their interest rate form 2.60% APY to 2.45% APY, and I just received notification from E-Trade that they’re reducing their rate form 3.01% APY to 2.50% APY. These sorts of changes make the term “high yield online savings account” [...]
Archive for January 2009
More Online Bank Interest Rate Decreases
Written by Nickel - 12 Comments
Published on January 30th, 2009 - 12 Comments
Filed under: Banking
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Filed under: Banking
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An Emergency Fund Victory
Written by Nickel - 20 Comments
Are you getting tired of all the economic doom and gloom? Me too. So today, I thought I’d change gears and spend a little time talking about a recent financial success that we’ve experienced…
The Backstory
Back in January of 2004 we had been homeowners for about 2 years, we had three kids with another on the [...]
Published on January 30th, 2009 - 20 Comments
Filed under: Banking
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Filed under: Banking
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Beware the Going Out of Business Liquidation Sale
Written by Nickel - 12 Comments
With all the recent news about struggling and/or failing retailers, I thought that now might be a good time to talk a bit about liquidation sales. Sure, the signs in the window claim that “Nothing is Held Back” and “Everything Must Go,” but are you really be offered the deal of the century? When it [...]
Published on January 29th, 2009 - 12 Comments
Filed under: Frugality
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Filed under: Frugality
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Inside the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan: The 2009 Economic Stimulus Package
Written by Nickel - 21 Comments
I had every intention of writing up a detailed summary of the so-called “American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009” this morning, but when I took a look at the House Appropriations press release, I was overwhelmed.
According to the press release, the package contains $275 billion in economic recovery tax cuts and $550 billion in [...]
Published on January 28th, 2009 - 21 Comments
Filed under: Economy
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Filed under: Economy
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TurboTax and Quicken Giveaway Winners
Written by Nickel - 2 Comments
The TurboTax/Quicken giveaway is now over, and I’ve (randomly) selected all three winners. Here on FCN, 103 people left comments. And the winner is… Cam.
Over on Twitter, there were 48 entries, so you’re odds of winning would’ve been about double over there. And the winner is… @Maxsmomhere.
As for subscribers, I received 85 e-mail entries via [...]
Published on January 28th, 2009 - 2 Comments
Filed under: Giveaways
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Filed under: Giveaways
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Limits on Itemized Income Tax Deductions
Written by Nickel - 4 Comments
Did you know that certain itemized deductions are subject to limits if your adjusted gross income (AGI) is too high? For 2008, the AGI threshold is $159,950 (or $79,975 if you are married filing separately). If you make more than that, you’ll may have to forgo a portion of your income tax deductions. The real [...]
Commonly Overlooked Income Tax Deductions
Written by Nickel - 9 Comments
A reader named Brandon recently wrote in to encourage me to write more about commonly missed income tax deductions. As it turns out, he dug up my article from last year and wound up saving $200 on the retirement tax credit that he would’ve otherwise missed. With that in mind, I thought I’d highlight this [...]
First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit Followup
Written by Nickel - 109 Comments
As I noted on Friday, changes are afoot when it comes to the $7500 first time homebuyer tax credit. More specifically, there has been talk of converting this from a pseudo-credit that actually has to be paid back into a true credit. I just wanted to follow up on that article with a bit more [...]
Published on January 26th, 2009 - 109 Comments
Filed under: Economy, Real Estate, Taxes
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Filed under: Economy, Real Estate, Taxes
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Zecco Account Activated
Written by Nickel - 3 Comments
Inspired by the recent e-mail about our DollarSavingsDirect savings account being approved, I logged in and checked for the trial deposits from Zecco in our local checking account. Sure enough, there they were. They actually showed up the day after we opened our trading account, but I was too busy to notice. So… We’re now [...]
Published on January 25th, 2009 - 3 Comments
Filed under: Saving & Investing
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Filed under: Saving & Investing
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DollarSavingsDirect Savings Account Approved
Written by Nickel - One Comment
Saturday afternoon I received an e-mail saying that our new DollarSavingsDirect savings account has been approved. The link to our local checking account still hasn’t been established, but once that’s done we’ll be ready to roll. According to the e-mail, here’s what’s next:
Important Next Steps to Activate Your Account
Look for validation deposits
In the next few [...]
Published on January 25th, 2009 - One Comment
Filed under: Banking
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Filed under: Banking
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