Reader Kim asked, referring to my post Which Vanguard Money Market Fund? in April, “In light of the current sub-prime meltdown, some people are questioning whether they should move out of Vanguard Prime MMF into something safer, like Vanguard Treasury MMF. Your blog helps calculate return under different scenarios but leaves off the risk aspect. […]
Credit Card Dispute Against Priceline
This is an update to my credit card dispute against Priceline. When I went on vacation a few months ago, Priceline gave me a bad hotel. I’m usually not very picky. But this time it was bad enough for me to file a dispute with my credit card company against Priceline. It was the only […]
APR or APY, It Doesn’t Matter
It’s very strange. I see a lot of people reaching my blog when they search for information on converting APR to APY or vice-versa. They end up on my post last year Interest Rate: APY and APR which mentioned two Excel formula: EFFECT which converts APR to APY, and NOMINAL which converts APY to APR. […]
Canceled Oldest Credit Card
I did the unthinkable. I canceled my oldest credit card. The conventional wisdom says this is a no-no. But I did it anyway because I’m a firm believer in simplifying finances. I want to keep my financial life simple. Doesn’t it hurt my credit score? Maybe. The argument against closing the oldest credit card account […]
Online Savings Accounts and Their Backers
I mentioned in my previous post What Happens When a Bank Goes Out of Business that I favor larger international or national banks over smaller no-name banks based on the theory that larger banks have larger budget and more sophisticated systems for security. I decided to take a look at the popular high yield online […]
What Happens When a Bank Goes Out of Business
Last week I wondered in a comment to a post on The Simple Dollar about what the FDIC insurance claims process is really like when a bank fails. If a bank fails, do you get paid right away, or do you have to wait until everything is sorted out? For how long? How do you […]
A Baby Step for Simplifying My Finances
I closed my ING and HSBC online savings accounts at the end of 2006. Why? Because I want to simplify my finances, which is one of my goals for 2007. I want to simplify my finances so that I get to focus on the bigger picture rather than being bogged down by the nitty gritty […]
Interest Rate: APY and APR
When the bank pays you interest on a savings account, it quotes the interest rate in APY — Annual Percentage Yield. When the bank charges you interest on a loan (car loan, credit card, mortgage, etc.), it quotes the interest in APR — Annual Percentage Rate. So, if you have a savings account that the […]