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31 Jul
While logging on to my WaMu account I noticed (as did reader Alvin) that the WaMu savings account* is now paying 3.75% APY as of 7/31. Some pages still say 3.30%, but my account details confirm the 3.75% APY. (Login and click on “About this account”.) Or, click here and hit Apply Today, and you should see this:

Of course, if you read the news, you’ll know that Washington Mutual stock is being battered right now. Is this move a sign of desperation? If so, is this rate increase good news or bad news?
It’s All About The FDIC Limits
Well, if you have money over the FDIC insurance limits of $100,000 per titled account, I strongly suggest you stop reading right now and spread it out immediately. Your money is at risk. Here are some good options.
If you are under the limits, then your money is safe. The main things left to worry about are (1) easy access to money, (2) crediting of current interest earned, and (3) future interest rates. But hey, we already have two examples of struggling banks that give us an idea of what we might be in store for.
IndyMac Bank CD Example (FDIC takeover)
I believe that IndyMac failed on a Friday, and branches were closed that day. Over the weekend, branches were closed and the website was down. ATMs and debit cards still worked. By Monday, all the branches were open and the website was back up. Direct deposits, electronic transfers, and written checks went through uninterrupted.
All interest earned in accounts (under the limits) was still credited. Before the failure, IndyMac Bank also had some high interest rates on certificates of deposit (CDs). Upon takeover by the FDIC, an ideal scenario actually happened. For one, you had the option to withdraw your money from a CD with no early withdrawal penalty. Or, if you liked the rate, your CDs could continue to earn the same interest until maturity. This is an even better deal than if IndyMac stayed intact.
Countrywide Example (Bought by Bank of America)
Another struggling bank, this time merged with another existing bank. Currently they are still separate websites, with their own interest rates and products. Nothing really changed from the customer’s point of view. There was no downtime, or lost liquidity. You use the same checks, same debit cards, same website. CD rates and other terms remained the same. A slight bonus was that Countrywide customers could now withdraw money from Bank of America ATMs with no fees. [Merger Info]
So, Will WaMu Fail?
I have no clue. My PTI-style Toss-Up Percentage: 25% Fail, 75% No Fail. But even if it does, given it’s size, I can’t see it disappearing overnight like a small local bank might. It would have to be taken over by another (probably large) bank. In addition, there are so many moving parts that it will probably keeping run as-is for several months even if it does get taken over.
Taking all this into account, I will be sticking with Washington Mutual and happily take the increased interest rate.
* Reminder: This 3.75% rate is only available if you apply online and open a Free Checking account at the same time. If you go into a physical branch, they will deny deny deny! However, after opening you can use it at a branch just like any other savings account. More details.
31 Jul
Welcome to the traditional monthly net worth update - The July 2008 edition.
In terms of expenses, this month was a little higher than expected. We typically funnel all of our spending through our credit card (for the rewards points) and we ended up with a $2,500 bill for the month (paid in full of course) where we typically spend around $1500-$1700. I’m not quite sure where we went wrong, but looking over the statement, it seems as though we made a lot of trips to the grocery (and beer) store. Some of it may have to do with the fact that we’re entertaining more than usual this summer. Perhaps it’s due to the new house and everyone wants to come over to our house now instead of us going out to theirs. Also, higher gas prices haven’t helped.
In addition to regular spending expenses, we also had to pay the semi-annual property tax which worked out to be $1,500. Come to think of it, I should probably add property tax to my liabilities at some point.
Lets talk markets! After a large decline, the markets seem to be recovering a bit. The bright side is that financials seem to be on the come back which has helped stabilize my portfolio. Question, do you guys use technical analysis when making trades? Or do you believe that it’s voodoo magic? I personally use a combination of technical and fundamental analysis before making some trades and I’m wondering if technical analysis is a topic that you’d be interested in.
Enough rambling, here are the numbers:
Assets: $ 589,725 (-1.50%)
Liabilities: $277,566 (-3.69%)
Total Net Worth: ~$ 312,169 (+0.54%)
Started 2008 with Net Worth: $279,300
Year to Date Gain/Loss: +11.77%
Looking at the numbers, you may have noticed that my assets have decreased a little. This is mostly due to taking some of our cash savings ($10k) and putting it down on our mortgage. We are getting fairly aggressive with our mortgage pay down as we have an open mortgage and the extra HELOC space gives us more capital to invest with if we wish.
Overall though, we managed to squeak out another net worth gain however the year to date net worth gain is a little off track. Hopefully we can make up in the remainder of the year!
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30 Jul
I believe in holding a diversified, low-cost, passive investment portfolio. However, at the same time there is so much financial hype out there that I understand the natural tendency of people (especially intelligent, hard-working, competitive people) to actively manage their investments. They may think they can pick the best growth stocks like AAPL or GOOG, they may be Buffett disciples and search for durable competitive advantages, or they may be stable dividend seekers. Or maybe they just want to pick the best fund managers instead.
But what if you suck at it? By investing in low-cost index funds, you are essentially guaranteeing yourself to be somewhat above average every year. Wander off-course, and you could do great, or more likely you could crash and burn.
Many people decide mitigate this risk by doing some form of Core and Explore investing, where you keep most of your money in passive funds and gamble a bit with the rest. Since I do this myself to a (very) small degree, I’ve been toying with an idea that takes this one step further.
1. Start Out Small
Let’s say you are young and aggressive, and want your portfolio 100% stocks. Let’s say you carve out 5% of that, throw it into a cheap discount broker, and start trying some ideas out.
2. Track Your Performance Honestly

Thinking you’re doing well at stock-picking without knowing your relative performance is like running around the track alone with no stopwatch and saying “Gee, I’m fast!”. To gauge your self properly, you need to:
3. Adjust Based On Your Relative Performance
You should run a comparison with your benchmark regularly. Each year that you beat your benchmark, you can increase the percentage of your portfolio which you actively manage. If you lag behind the benchmark, you must decrease the percentage of your portfolio which you actively manage. A really crude rule might be simply to increase or decrease the active amount by 2% each year based on performance.
If you are truly horrible, you’ll be out of stock-picking completely in a few years. For most people, you’ll probably be out of it within a decade or so, having learned a valuable lesson. If you are the proper mix of skillful and lucky, then soon you’ll be controlling the entire portfolio.
Sound reasonable?
30 Jul
You’ve asked for him and now he’s back. QCash, the 37 year old retired millionaire, goes through his history of net worth updates to show us how he progressed to where he is today.
A while back, I promised FT that I would pull out my net worth totals from 2000 (the year I got married) through 2007 and see what happened that allowed my net worth to balloon and let me experiment with hyper early retirement (a la Derek Foster’s suggestion).
Unfortunately, I cannot find my files from 2000 and 2001. I experienced a computer crash a year ago September and I thought I had recovered everything and could not find the file. Locating the hard copies requires a Herculean effort at tackling the garage loft and I have not been that motivated.
2002 Net worth - $677,000
2003 Net worth - $787,000
2004 Net worth - $1,075,000
2005 Net worth - $1,468,000
2006 Net worth - $1,722,000
2007 Net worth - $1,782,000
The reason my numbers jump so rapidly is two-fold. One, I always list my real estate at the adjusted cost base on my net worth statement. So, for example, in 2003, I sold three rental properties and netted out 50K. Also, I had always listed my investment in my business at its real cost basis. So while this doesn’t fairly paint an accurate picture and shows large jumps, it is how I kept my accounts.
Also, up until our little girl was born in 2003, my wife continued to work and she always earned more than I did.
In 2004, I sold my business and the proceeds from that sale show up in 2004 and 2005 as the commercial property closed in 2004, while I did not receive all payments until 2005. Although I should probably adjust my net worth statement in 2004 to show the money owing as an account receivable, I was not assured of the cash payment until 2005, so I remained cautious.
Finally, almost all of the growth from 2005 to 2006 was from my investment portfolio. After 2004, we no longer had any debt and I was ploughing everything that was made back into my investment portfolio to gear up for my “retirement” at the end of 2006.
Is this typical? Of course not. However, purchasing real estate at a young age paid off huge for me. Living a pretty frugal lifestyle, while planning for a family and working hard on my business, allowed me to take chances. I was also lucky in finding a buyer for my business who wanted both the building and the operating company, allowing me to structure the deal to my maximum tax benefit.
Well, I have to admit that I have suffered from a mild mid-life crisis that was satisfied with the purchase of a 2004 350Z Nissan Roadster. Or as my wife describes it - my birthday, fathers’ day, xmas gifts for the next 60 years. And as I describe it - cheaper than a mistress.
I have also used a HELOC to make the purchases to convert my growth funds to income funds without taking a huge capital gains hit. So far it is working out okay. Although I hate to be in debt to anyone, it is allowing me to build the “income portfolio” I want and melt down my capital gains against the interest charged. It will be a slow, multi-year process, but it has worked so far.
I have also started to get the bug again. I had read somewhere that entrepreneurs should take a year off after a successful business venture, to recharge and make sure you don’t overheat.
I have been exploring opportunities in the green energy field. In Ontario, the govt is offering the Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program (RESOP) for generation of wind, solar or biomass energy. After looking at wind (11.9 cents/kwh) and solar (42 cents/kwh), I am leaning towards establishing a biomass generation system (11.9 cents per kwh).
If FT is so inclined to let me, I will provide a follow up to that plan in the near future.
Stay tuned for more from QCash in the near future!
Photo credit: Willvision Photography
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29 Jul
Personal Umbrella insurance is additional liability insurance, designed to pay out on top of your existing auto and homeowner’s/renter’s insurance policies. For example, you may only have $300,000 in liability coverage on your car insurance. If you are hit with a claim of $1,000,000, you would be on the hook for $700,000 yourself unless you had an adequate umbrella insurance policy. Here is a diagram explaining this from MSN Money:

In addition, an umbrella policy can also “fill in the gaps” by providing coverage for other incidents like liability for rental properties or being sued for slander or libel. Imagine working and saving for decades, only to have all of it taken away with one incident. Here are my reasons for buying an umbrella policy:
#1. Unlikely, But Actual Scenarios
These days, there are many scenarios where one might be sued for more than $100,000 or even $1,000,000. In my mind, the most likely event is to be found at fault in a car accident. Medical costs alone can exceed $100,000 per person easily. Now imagine if there were 2, 4, or even 6 people in the car. Imagine if some of them were children. Here is one example from a NY Times article on umbrella policies:
One of Mr. Cox’s clients crashed into the rear of a car on a slick highway. A woman and a child were critically injured. After two years of litigation, his client settled the lawsuit for more than $5 million. The client had $15 million in umbrella coverage. The policy paid for the settlement and all legal costs. “Without the umbrella,” Mr. Cox said, “they would have been completely wiped out.”
More recently, I read about a parent chaperone during a field trip being hit with a $700,000 verdict for negligence:
Lauren Crossan, of Randolph, N.J., had traveled to Hawaii in 2004 with Susanne Sadler, Sadler’s daughter, and another New Jersey cheerleader to perform in the halftime show of the Hula Bowl. Within hours of her arrival at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort, Crossan was seen drinking alcohol. Her body was found the next day on the hotel grounds.
An arbitrator determined last month that Sadler was partially responsible for Crossan’s death and ordered her to pay $690,000 to Crossan’s parents and her estate.
More:
#2. Have the Insurance Company Lawyers Take Your Side
Forget even getting a large jury verdict against you. If someone simply sues you for a frivolous reason, you’ll have to pay for a $400/hour lawyer to defend yourself. With an adequate umbrella policy, the money at risk will be the insurance companies instead of your own. That means the big corporate lawyers will be on your side, and your defense costs will be covered as part of the umbrella policy.
#3. It’s Cheap, and Easy To Buy
It cost us about $250 a year for $1 million in coverage for the both of us, including 2 cars and a house. That’s basically $10 per month per person. However, we did have to raise the liability limits of our auto and homeowner’s policies slightly to $500,000 each. So if you are only carrying the bare minimum required by law (not a good idea for most people), your actual additional costs may be higher.
It was really simple to get as well; we had an umbrella policy added to our existing policies with just one phone call. No long application or additional fees. But the low cost also means you may have to look out for your own interests. I guarantee that if you mention that you want whole life insurance to your local agent, they will get really excited (big commission) and get you quotes within 24 hours. They’ll even follow up if you forget. On the other hand, selling you an umbrella policy for $200 a year results in a tiny commission. All I got was a “yeah, I suppose that might be a good idea…” They’ll still sell it to you, but it won’t be heavily promoted like other products.
#4. One Less Thing To Worry About
Some people believe that you may be a bigger target for lawsuits if someone finds out you have a $1 million umbrella policy. Here’s how I look at it. If I really wanted to premeditate a lawsuit against someone, I’d pick someone who is worth a lot more than $1M. More like $10 million and up. In a big metro area like mine, multi-millionaires are a dime a dozen. Even if I was frivolously sued, again the whole point is that I’m still covered. To me, this argument is like saying you shouldn’t earn more money because someone will sue you for it.
In the end, we have a $1 million umbrella insurance policy because this is exactly what insurance is for - to protect me from unlikely yet possibly catastrophic events. The likelihood is low, but so is the cost. We chose $1M somewhat arbitrarily because it covers our net worth and also what I feel is a reasonable amount of likely claims. As inflation (and especially medical costs) rises, I could see upping it to $2M since the additional cost is only about another $100/year.
Now, if you have a low or negative net worth, then perhaps there would be less incentive in getting such coverage. I certainly had no idea what umbrella insurance was in college. I would imagine lawyers are less likely to go after those with “nothing to lose”.
29 Jul
To continue on with my buying and selling stocks for beginners series, lets get into the basics of how stock margin and margin accounts work. When the application to open a discount brokerage account is initiated, there is a choice of whether to open a margin or cash account.
I typically open a margin account because, one, I understand how it works (for the most part), and second, it’s the same as a cash account except that you have the “option” of borrowing from the brokerage. The ability to borrow from the brokerage also opens the door to shorting a stock and buying/selling options if the investor chooses.
Margin accounts are identical to cash only accounts except that they have the ability to go into a negative balance. Once the account goes into the negative range, the brokerage will charge you interest at their margin rates.
Some of the more trader friendly discount brokerages, like Interactive Brokers, have margin rates below prime which makes it an ideal choice for leveraged equity investing.
The term margin represents the investors equity in the trade. When we say that 50% of the stock is marginable, that basically represents that the investor needs at least 50% equity in the trade.
Not every stock on the market is available to be purchased on margin. For equities, the trader can typically margin up to 50% of the total value of the trade providing that the stock is above $2 and is a marginable security. Securities that are less than $2 in value have a higher margin requirement.
Some of the larger, higher volume stocks on the exchange are eligible for reduced margin (30%) which means that the investor can borrow up to 70%. Here’s a list of securities eligible for reduced margin as indicated by Interactive Brokers.
For Example:
Case 1 - The Ideal Situation: After 1 year, shares rise to $12 and sold
Case 2 - The Dreaded Margin Call: After 1 year, shares drop to $8
As you can see from Case 2, there was a margin call. Margin calls occur when margin is used and the investment value falls below the margin requirement. When this happens, there is one of two things that has to happen to get the account back to acceptable levels.
Margin is simply a fancy word for leverage. However, borrowing with margin is different than using a loan or line of credit to invest with. First, the money is borrowed directly from the brokerage and second, if the investments purchased with margin decrease in value, the brokerage has the right to sell those securities without warning (margin call).
To avoid the dreaded margin call, one strategy is to borrow much less than the maximum borrowed amount permitted. That way, when the markets become volatile, there will be some buffer before the margin requirements come knocking, which will help avoid selling stocks low.
Final note, as you can see with the examples above, investing with leverage amplifies both winners and losers. Do you own due diligence before using leverage to invest.
28 Jul
I’m a little past due but it’s time to do a mid year portfolio check up. TheMoneyWriters came up with the idea of doing a portfolio update to see how we are all doing thus far. Honestly, I would be surprised to see anyone with any significant portfolio growth at this point in 2008
This account is difficult to track as most of the cash was withdrawn to increase the down payment for the house that we built. Ideally, I should liquidate the whole account, but I’m waiting for some of the securities to increase in value. Stubborn, I know.
This account consists of cash and individual securities.
If you’ve been following, I have been posting a monthly update to my leveraged investment account. With the markets, especially financials,
If you’re interested in the contents of this account, check out my latest smith manoeuvre portfolio. Since that update however, I have initiated an energy position in my portfolio.
Our RRSP accounts consist of a self directed account with a major bank, a mutual funds account with the same bank along with a self directed RRSP account for my wife. With the Canadian markets just below breaking even so far this year, our RRSP accounts have been resilient with a small return.
The contents of our RRSP accounts are all over the place. A large portion are individual stock picks and a smaller portion are globally indexed via mutual funds. Moving forward, I will be looking to increase our indexed allocation.
Here are the details:
It seems that the big declines in the Canadian and U.S markets have resulted in a small loss in my portfolio thus far in 2008. How has your portfolio been performing this year?
Here are some investment portfolio numbers for the rest of TheMoneyWriters:
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28 Jul
Money magazine has an article this month about how many married folks don’t know the details about their spouse’s finances. In one study, half of the pairs questioned came up with completely different answers when asked to estimate their family’s income and net worth. Are you and your partner similar? A quiz was included that is designed for each partner to take separately. Here are the quiz questions, as well as the answers that my wife and I gave.
How much money did your spouse make last year, including salary, bonuses, commissions, and freelance pay?
Me: I did the taxes, so I got this one correct.
Her: She was about 20% below my actual gross income last year. She reads this blog, so she know the after-tax and after-spending results, but I guess she underestimated how much in taxes we get hit with. Also, I have variable side-income which is not easy to track.
What’s the last big purchase (more than $100) your spouse made, and how much did it cost?
This is a tricky question. Is this a purchase meant solely for ourselves? Although it’s not like we never spend money, we both had a hard time remembering the last time we bought a $100+ item for ourselves, like a purse or a gadget.
Me: I remembered that she bought a plane ticket for work-related opportunity for $300 yesterday.
Her: She noted that I gave a $100 gift for a friend’s wedding (from the both of us) last week.
How much does your spouse owe, counting credit card balances, car loans and another other debt, aside from your mortgage?
Me: Nothing (correct).
Her: Nothing (effectively correct, if you ignore making money with 0% balance transfers).
What is the current value of your spouse’s 401(k) or other principal retirement account?
Me: About $15,000. This is actually incorrect - it is more like $25,000. I forgot that she had been working at this job for two years already. Oops! This is kind of sad, considering I actually check and record the balance every month in a spreadsheet for our net worth updates.
Her: $15,000. My Solo 401k is actually around $23,000. She admits that this was a wild guess.
If your spouse passes away, how much will you collect in life insurance (counting both workplace and individual policies)?
Me & Her:: We both currently have ~$300,000 each in mostly-subsidized life insurance through work. We have been discussing life insurance in general recently and were looking into getting individual term life insurance policies, although we’ve been “looking” for months now.
Overall self-grade as a couple: B. We weren’t completely clueless, but there is a lot of room for improvement. I think there is a good chance that a lot of people who read this blog have significant others who are not quite as interested in finances as they are. So why not give them this quiz and see how they do? It definitely helped us get closer to being on the same page.
25 Jul
It seems that one small silver lining of these ongoing bank troubles is that well, banks need more money in order to keep afloat. This means they are more willing to pay us more $$$ for the privilege of holding onto ours.
Even the big banks are starting to play along. Thanks to Brian and John for their respective updates.
Big Banks
If you have a decent balance and are willing to lock up your month for a while, below are some nice rates with terms of a year or less. Interest rates might be going back up soon to combat inflation, so locking in a CD longer than that might not be the best idea.
Online Banks
The online bank arena remains the place to be if you want high yields and minimal restrictions, including the ability to withdraw money at any time. All are still FDIC insured.
25 Jul
A quick reminder that today @ 5pm EST is the deadline to enter in The Answer - book giveaway.
The Restaurant Blogger writes about some memorable customers, good and bad!
Generation X Finance writes about Top 12 Money Mistakes Most People Make.
Canadian Dream explains why government bailouts don’t work.
Lazy Man and Money has a great article that explains How to Save on Gas (35 Tips Inside). Here are some of my tips on how to save gas.
Canadian Capitalist asks (and answers) how large is the Canadian bond market?
The Digerati Life shows us that Stock Market Diversification Works! The Proof.
The Sun’s Financial Diary has a short video clip that gives us A Taste of China.
Brip Blap tells us that work-life balance is a false choice.
Money Smart Life has a primer on exchange traded funds.
My Dollar Plan gives us 4 Things to Consider When Picking the Right Investments.
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