Is My Money Or Broker Account Safe If E-Trade Fails And Goes Bankrupt?

By MoneyBlueBook

These are uneasy times if you are an E-Trade broker customer or investor. For those who bought and currently own E-Trade stock, these are probably one of the most trying times you've ever faced as share prices have plummeted more than 90%within the last year. Triggered by Citigroup's downgrade in November 2007, many investors and account holders are fearing the worst and some have jumped ship, shifting their assets to another brokerage firm. Just yesterday share prices tanked more than 20% in yet another day of volatile trading in response to further analyst warnings that E-Trade is in dire need of an additional capital infusion to stay in business.

Shareholders are bailing - a grave concern for many current E-Trade brokerage account holders as many fear for the safety and security of their stock investment accounts. E-Trade has released numerous press releases and web based announcements to reassure customers that they have taken drastic steps to shed exposure to the dreaded mortgage backed assets that have been generating so much business losses, and that they currently have the necessary capital liquidity to stay afloat.

If you're an E-Trade account holder, you can sigh in relief as your assets are generally well protected. However, if you're an actual E-Trade stock investor - my condolences, as you may be of luck unless you could somehow successfully demonstrate that you were defrauded.

Escape From E-Trade If You Must, But Your Assets Are Secure

I used to be a long time E-Trade customer but eventually

By MoneyBlueBook

Most ordinary investors know about the general wisdom of investing in the stock market and the importance of portfolio diversification, but have you ever considered investing in gold? Admittedly, the very concept of investing in gold is strange to begin with. After all you're paying money to buy a shiny piece of metal dug from the ground that is more commonly associated with jewelry meant to adorn the body. With all the technological advancements and investment vehicles out there today like stocks, bonds, currency exchanges, and options, why would any sophisticated investor choose to include this physical asset as part of his or her investment portfolio?

The answer lies in how gold has been regarded and used throughout history. Since the beginning of time, gold has been prized as a measurement of wealth due to its rarity and unique functional qualities. From ancient China to the ancient Egyptians, to pre- modern day United States, gold has been used to stabilize and back currencies. Even our United States currency remained on the gold pegged standard until 1971 when President Nixon suspended the convertibility of U.S. dollars into gold. Since then, world currencies including the dollar have operated on a float fiat money system where currency value comes not from the underlying intrinsic value of the paper itself, but from supply and demand driven by exchange traders.

Gold Performance Vs. Stocks

Because they are from two completely different asset classes, investors value gold and stocks quite differently. As a precious material, gold has always had the ability to

By MoneyBlueBook

Comparing financial networth can be tricky since you aren't always comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges. Married individuals that combine the incomes and assets of both spouses will clearly have much higher networths and much lower expenses than single individuals.

With that in mind, here is some background information to help you know where I stand. I am currently in my late 20's, not married, currently renting, and working a contract job that pays reasonably well. I graduated from law school a few years ago and am still trying to figure out exactly what is it that I want to do professionally. I took things easy after graduate school, choosing to enjoy life and neglected the importance of saving early. I did not start tracking my finances and focus on saving until the start of 2007 last year. All of my savings and investments were initiated one year ago on January 2007. Here is the summary of my 2007 financial progression and where I stand now.

Tracking My Financial Progress Using Networth IQ

I've held off from using Networth IQ to track my financial net worth and progress due to my original dislike of the program's overly simplistic graphical chart displays. For such a popular widget among financial bloggers, you'd think the company would have come out with a nicer and more sophisticated looking display. But I've finally caved and have decided to enter in my stats and will be tracking my monthly progress from here on, starting January 2008. It'll be interesting to

By MoneyBlueBook

Happy New Year everybody! So long 2007 - it was an interesting year but I'm glad it's behind us. Let's pray the world can see more peace in 2008 and hope the financial markets will resume its bull run again. Markets are incredibly difficult if not impossible to time, but here are a few of my predictions and projections for 2008. They may or may not come to fruition, but I'd just like to put them out there to see if I am correct or not. I'm not advocating or pushing for them to necessarily happen, but I think they are likely to occur.

Here Is How I Think The Economy and Financial Markets Will Respond In 2008:

By MoneyBlueBook

Is your stock portfolio making you sad? Are you bummed out about your disappointing returns and contemplating selling your positions to stem the losses? If so, fear not, Uncle Sam has a tax system in place to help lessen the financial pain and make your situation more bearable.

If you've lost confidence in your stock positions, maybe it's time you cut your losses to take advantage of tax breaks that can help you avoid having to pay taxes on other realized gains for the year. Perhaps you owned stocks that were hit particularly hard, like Countrywide Financial or even ETrade, both with grim and uneasy future prospects. Holders of such dubious positions might want to contemplate selling their shares now to lock in their losses by the impending January 1 deadline for tax purposes.

It's Best To Push Tax Bills Into The Future And Accelerate Deductions Into The Current Year

Generally, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows you to deduct capital losses from capital gains and other income. Since we are so close to the end of 2007, it's best to postpone any further gains that could be treated as taxable income a few days more, at least until January 1. If you have loser stocks that you can sell without any regret, now is the time to do so before the start of the new year. If you can unload enough of these losing positions, you might be able to completely wipe out all of your other realized capital gains for the year. Even if

By MoneyBlueBook

Updated List Of The 10 Best Discount Brokerage Firms Below

So, you are finally sold on the idea of signing up for an investment brokerage account so you can start making money by investing in the stock market. Or, perhaps you are already an experienced trader but at times still wonder what other brokerage options are out there? These days there are a lot of options out there but it can be sort of confusing trying to find the right online broker. There are many choices available, from full service premium brokerages to deep discount online brokers. Relying on authoritative financial and investment sites for guidance and opinion reviews isn't always definitive either since they occasionally have differing opinions. The best way to choose the best and right broker to handle your investments is to do a combination - by sticking with the popular ones that have been around for some time and have been sufficiently subjected to adequate scrutiny by the investing community, as well as go with the brokerages that have consistently appeared at the top of reputable rankings and researched reviews.

Know Thyself To Better Determine Brokerage Fit

Factors to consider when choosing the right online broker include the type of investment vehicle you intend to trade (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, indexes, options), the amount of your investment, the type and amount of research material you want, customer service, website design and layout, and trading reliability. It's important to know what type of investor you intend to be. Do you plan on being an active