Here is another snapshot of my retirement portfolio as of market close 8/3. I haven't bought or sold any funds since my last update. I hope to use this data later to better track my overall investment returns.
MyMoneyBlog
The house search continues as we try to see how much our parents' house is really worth and if we can afford to live near them. Besides Zillow.com, I also like the home valuation tool from HomeGain, where you can get a real estimate from a local real estate agent for your house. It's low pressure, they just e-mail you their estimate and ask if you are looking to buy or sell right now. We were definitely surprised by the number - Zillow was off a lot, mostly due to wrong square footage.
What I really like is that you also get a listing of actual houses that sold recently in the area, ...
As I've mentioned before, I use Yodlee, an account aggregation service, to track all my numerous accounts on a daily basis. You give them all the logins and passwords of your individual financial accounts, and it logs into all the sites for you. In the end you have a real-time view of all your balances and recent transactions, all neatly on one page.
Of course, many people are rightfully afraid that this leads to one point of access. If somehow Yodlee is hacked, they get all your information instead of just that of one bank. This is true, but I look at it a little differently because I have a lot of accounts.
If you find yourself coming back to this blog, but haven't gotten around to subscribing to my RSS Feed, I'd like to invite you to do so now! If listed, just click on the appropriate button for your feedreader:
Not listed? Click here. Thanks! I personally use Newsgator Online to keep up with blogs instead of using bookmarks. You can also find me sometimes on PFblogs.org, a personal finance blog aggregator.
Everyone who sent me their Form #2 in June for my Emigrant Direct Referral Bonus should have been paid over the weekend. If not, please e-mail me. If you're interested in moving to Emigrant Direct's 5.15% APY with no minimums, why not get up to $20?
This week's Carnival of Investing is up at 1stmillionat33. For more information on participating and the hosting schedule, please check out the main Carnival of Investing page. I'm going to line up more hosts this week, so please let me know if you're interested.
Speaking of cheap phone service, SunRocket is now offering two years of VoIP phone service for $199. That's $8.30 a month for unlimited long-distance and just about every phone feature out there! And that includes all taxes! The only catch is that it's only for the first 1,000 customers, so I'd decide quickly.
I've been using SunRocket myself for over a year now now and I'm very happy with it. Check out my SunRocket VoIP Phone Service Review for a detailed rundown of my thoughts.
If you're starting a side business, you probably don't have the budget for a secretary, office space, or all the usual business amenities. But you can still project a professional image by using these cheap and even free services to create what I call a Virtual Office:
Telephone Service
Obviously, one option is to just use your current home or cell phone. With landlines, you'll have to change your answering machine recording and also warn the other people in your household not to answer the phone with the usual "Yo wassup!". For cell phones, you may be concerned with call quality or running out of minutes.
Another solution is to sign up for a free voicemail-only phone number (206 area code) from K7.net. You can customize the ...
Emigrant Direct's rate is now up to 5.15% APY, as promised. Hurray competition!
The old account numbers do work. I just sent a deposit and debit through ING Direct, which was linked using the old account number, and it worked just fine (screenshot). I didn't mean to alarm anyone before, but I guess the 'official' way to get money in and out of Emigrant is still through their linked accounts.
