Discount Brokerages

Smaller brokerages are facing increased pressure to increase their revenue or sell themselves to larger competitors like TD Ameritrade, E-Trade Financial Corp., Scotttrade Inc., Fidelity Investments, and Charles Schwab Corp., which control 96% of the global discount brokerage business. - American Banker, 14 January 2009

Are you ready to move beyond your 401k and Roth IRA contributions (perhaps invested in mutual funds or tracking some index) and begin to choose individual stocks? The above are not the only options for individual investors (see Zecco or TradeKing for example); however, they form an excellent starting point.

Today’s selloff underscores one of the advantages to having available funds in a brokerage account.

Managing Credit Cards

How well do you manage your credit cards? When used properly, credit cards can provide a short-term zero interest loan to finance purchases, leave a trail that allows you to track your spending, as well as offer protection against fraud, extend a product warranty, and give you an opportunity to qualify for rebates and other rewards.

Although they are a much better choice than using a debit card, when misused credit cards incur expensive fees and can damage your ability to move ahead financially.

How Credit Card Transactions Work

On a post a while back at my personal blog, i highlighted an interesting movie i watched…Are you familiar with what happens when you swipe your card?

And on that note as well, MasterCard has just released a white paper regarding Interchange, entitled “Benefits of Open Payment Systems and the Role of Interchange” [.pdf] and available through their Interchange Portal [Visa .pdf and Interchange Portal].

(ps. not saying anything for or against Interchange Fees)