Category: 401k and Personal Finance

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401k and Personal Finance

SogoTrade

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(Update 07Sept09) I found a minor problem with Sogotrade. I had this happened to me twice. Basically I changed my mind for existing limited sell order, so I clicked “cancel”. But Sogo works so fast and diligently, partial of my order has already been executed. So basically later on when I want to sell the stock, I need to pay another transaction fee.

SogoTrade pic

(Original) Opened SogoTrade account couple weeks ago because I got a bit tired of Scottrade $7 per trade fee, and the “friendly” reminder email about my trading pattern. The accounting opening preocess is a bit long, although most things are done online (except the VOID check and an eletronic transfer form to send in). Here are the main steps:

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401k and Personal Finance Shanghai Composite

Investing in China: I

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I have talked about investing in China many times in this blog. Recently a good friend of my wife asked this question: how to protect her parents retirement (life style) now that they are near retirement?

I think this is a very good question, also a very common one. Recently I read Charlie Munger’s book Poor Charile’s Almanac, and he said three stocks are enought (diversified) if they are good stocks and the person trully understands it. I agree.

So, let me apply this three stocks approach and run a hypertheoritical portfolio for my wife’s friend (‘s parents 🙂

The first stock comes to mind is 601628.SS, China Life Insurance (NYSE: LFC; HKSE: 2628.HK). I talked China Life couple times, during its Shanghai IPO (secondary offering to be precise), and “Got Yuan” post. I believe China Life is uniquely positioned to take advantage of weakened competitors (China Ping’An and AIG China subsidiary), and this down market.

China Life Insurance logo

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401k and Personal Finance video

New Credit Card Rules by NY Times

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Via YouTube.

It seems the card companies are not happy. Today I saw a big drop of stocks of American Express (NYSE: AXP), Capital One (NYSE: COF). Are the golden days of credit card industry over? We shall see.

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401k and Personal Finance

Leaving the Citi

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I mean the Citi Bank checking account. A few years ago I opened Citi Checking account online, mainly to take advantage of a $150 offer (if I do direct deposit) or keep balance at certain level (which is $1,500). A few months ago, I switched job, and in the process did not set up the direct deposit for Citi. Citi did not access the monthly charge initially until May 7, they put up $9.50 monthly service charge. Since I no longer need the account, and there is no Citi bank branch here in St. Louis, I went ahead, called the custmer representative (who is in India), and closed the account.

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401k and Personal Finance video

Is 401k a scam?

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As millions of American workers saw their 401k became 201k since last year, this 401k thing suddenly becomes a hot topic. CBS 60 minutes did an excellent report on this topic.

Watch CBS Videos Online

My thoughts

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401k and Personal Finance Business

My view on Credit Cards: from both sides

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(Update 23Apr09) It seems Obama administration is going to make credit card more consumer friendly (marketWatch). So are they going to socialize the credit card: I mean, you and me (i.e., honest guys) pay the credit cards on time each month, will bail out the deadbeats, after we bailed out the Wall Street ??? We know the credit card companies (the wall street) are not charities. This thing looks more like dumber and dumber.

(Original) Yesterday I mentioned credit card when talking about recurring revenue. Credit card is the live blood of our consumer society. Like commerical paper for business, we (consumers) use (more precisely borrow from) credit card for our daily purchases. At the end of each billing period, we either pay off the whole balance or pay the minimum payment (not recommended from personal finance perspective, but so many people do this nowadays. The customers who carry balance (and pay >10% interest) also contribute the profit of credit card companies. But it appears now credit card companies started to upset their best customrers, amid the credit crisis.

Business
American Express (NYSE: AXP) and Citibank (NYSE: C) pay customer to go away

JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) charged monthly fee to customers, then gave refund under pressure from NY AG Cuomo (CNN Money story).

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401k and Personal Finance

Q1 2009 Results: 401k and Rollover IRA

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They are all in stock funds.

Old 401k (Hewitt): down 11.8%
Rollover IRA (Vanguard): down 11.78%
New 401k (Vanguard): up 133.97% (this is due to new contribution, I started new 401k in Nov 08, so there is an easy comparison here)

Noticed my portfolio balance in Vanguard is about even compared to the end of 2007, when I started the Rollover IRA. Consider this is after I made signigicant new 401k contribution since Nov 2008. So much for long term investing concept. I need to rethink how to better managing my retirement account.

S&P is down about 11.7% in this quarter.

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401k and Personal Finance

My 401k strategy

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New 401k in Vanguard
Two weeks into working for new employer, today I am able to make my 401k selections from Vanguard. Sweet! It only took me a few minutes to make my choices:

(30%) S&P 500 index fund (VFINX)
(30%) Winsor II (VWNFX)
(40%) International value (VTRIX)

If there is one thing I learned from the recent market drop, that is: DO NOT chase the short term gains, pursue the long term gains instead. Along these lines, I pass over all the sexy names such as Dodge Cox (which lost quite a bit because of Fannie/AIG), Goldman. I am stay with good old Vanguard.

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401k and Personal Finance

American income and spending growth, saving rate

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Happened to see this from CBS evening news today. The story is titled “Credit Crunch Takes New Face”, and it talks about the credit card crunch for average consumer.

“The average American has nine credit cards and owes more than $16,000, not including mortgages…This decade, real wages went up 4 percent while credit card debt jumped more than 75 percent.”

Savings rate
I also saw this from NBR at PBS, regarding the savings rate:
US: 1%
France and Germany: around 12-13%
Japan: 20%
China: 24%

Gas price
Happened to see the regular unlead gas is $2.29 per gallon at Shell station today. Time to get SUV again?

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401k and Personal Finance Investing

What to DO and NOT_TO_DO in this market?

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NOT TO DO list first
1) Watch CNBC and other financial news and got confused, and worse got panic. Same goes to checking your brokerage acct or 401k acct every day;

2) Try to be the hero: pick up “cheap” financials, commodities, technology stocks simply because you think they are “cheap” compared to 2 weeks ago (without any own research);

3) Sold all the stock fund postions in 401k, and put it to cash. The chance is you will not be able to buy them back at the bottom;

4) Put the Greenbacks under your mattress 🙂

Things to do
1) Have some emergency cash and credit line (credit card and HELOC if possible);

2) Do the homework: reading words of Buffett and Munger (my list here). Find some quality name we can understand (or model using Munger’s word). I am thinking AMZN, RIMM now, not buying just watching. When the dust settles, and I have some free money, I will buy them at bargain price;

3) Continue to contribute to 401k, IRA: depends on your risk tolerance, put it in bond or stock funds you have trust in management.