Financial Solutions

Look Out—It’s Holiday Bonus Time

January 2nd, 2012

If you got a bonus from your employer this holiday season, congratulations you lucky dog! Now—what to do with that $25, $100 or more burning a hole in your pocket? For most of us, it’s tempting to head down to the mall or online and start buying. And you can and should have fun with an expected windfall. The question is, how much of it should you spend on fun? Here are a few things to think about:

• How much are we talking? If your bonus is in the $20 to $50 range, you probably won’t be able to make a big dent in your debt or savings, so why not do something that will make you happy? The trick is purchasing something that aligns with your values. If art is your priority, maybe it will go toward a new brush or paints. If trav

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Tags: Bonus, Bonus Time

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Orange Savings Account – Free $50 and $25 Bonus

December 16th, 2011

ING Direct Orange savings accounts present us with a very solid and useful savings platform.  In fact I liked it so much I opened and account and have all our savings with ING Direct.  My advice is for you to do the same.

Im out of $25 bonus links for the savings account but right now ING Direct is offering a free $50 bonus to all new customers who open an Electric Orange checking account.

There are no ATM fees, no monthly fees, and no account minimums. A

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Tags: Account, Orange Savings, Orange Savings Account, Savings Account

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This and That: Interest rates, MF Global and more…

December 5th, 2011

Before we dive into today’s round-up, an update on the Bloggers for Charity initiative. The top bid is currently $400 by Straight Talk Investing’s Dr. Dale Rathgeber. Thank you Dr. Dale! If you’d like to outbid Dr. Dale, please contact me directly.

Keeping Steady: The Bank of Canada decided to keep interest rates level this week. The Bank’s statement seems to suggest that interest rates are stuck at neutral but did note that it is monitoring economic developments carefully. The Prime Rate to which variable-rate mortgages and lines of credit are tied stays at 3.0 percent.

The Mystery of MF Global’s Missing Millions: MF Global was a large brokerage firm that recently filed for bankruptcy. Clients o

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Financial advice for free or fee, what’s more expensive?

November 29th, 2011

“Jo cheez free mein milti hai uska paisa kyon de bhai?” said one person when his financial advisor asked him to pay a fee for advice, something which he has been giving free for the last 4 years. It may sound obvious that if you are getting something for free then why should one pay for it. But when it comes to financial advice, free can be very costly.

It is very common these days to hear about stories of investors losing money because of wrong financial advice. You can call it mis-buying of financial products or mis-selling or both. And while it is reasonable to expect every individual to gain enough knowledge before buying a financial product, I think a much bigger responsibility is upon the financial advisor to guide investors in selecting appropriate financial products. But

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Tags: Fee, Fee What’s

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