I passed the Series 7!

 my personal finance  No Responses »
Oct 222011
 

About a week or so back I took the General Securities Representative Exam which is commonly referred to as the “series 7″. The exam is required to be a registered representative of a broker-dealer in the United States. The exam consists of 6 hours and 250 questions with 70% required to pass.

I got 213 questions correct and passed with an 85%.

According to wikipedia, the average score of test-takers is around 73%, with around 66% of test-takers achieving a passing score.

I didn’t think the exam was as hard as people made it out to be. I studied on/off for about 3-4 weeks using the Kaplan materials provided by my employer. The Kaplan practice questions were extremely helpful in that they are very similar to the way questions are posed on the exam.

My biggest tip to people taking the exam is to bring soft ear plugs as there are other people in the room taking their GREs and misc other tests so there is a lot of typing noise in the background. The testing center does supply headsets but they weren’t too comfortable or effective in my experience.

The test is split into two parts and there is a mandatory half hour break in the middle. My exam started at 8 AM and I finished the first half by 9:30 AM so I bought some coffee and spent half an hour pacing back and forth. I finished the second part even quicker because I was too anxious to get my score so I didn’t go back and review any questions.

One of the best parts about the computerized exam is that you get your score instantly. You’ll also get a print out of how you scored in different topics of the exam.

 Posted by dan at 3:58 pm

ING Direct now offering checkbooks for Electric Orange accounts

 my personal finance  No Responses »
Aug 192011
 

ING Direct has announced that they are offering paper checkbooks to electric orange account holders. In the past a disadvantage of the online only account was that you couldn’t write paper checks yourself although you could have ING Direct send a paper check on your behalf (postage was free).

According to ING Direct the checks will come with some extra features:

  • Email Notifications to let you know when your checks are cashed.
  • Online Check Registry to keep track of all your checks online.
  • Enhanced Security so your checks can only be used after you activate them.

The checkbook come in packs of 50 for $5 each. This is great for those rare occasions when I might write a check in person. If I ever need to send a check I generally use the free paper check mailing option.

 

 Posted by dan at 1:25 pm

How to manage accounts at different banks.

 my personal finance  No Responses »
Aug 062011
 

Some of my friends asked me how I manage all my bank accounts when they learned about the many bank accounts I have. The system I use is rather simple and works pretty well for me. The reason I have a variety of accounts at different banks is because one bank generally fails to offer a complete all in one solution. Here are some examples:

TD Bank
Pros – Convenient hours, open 7 days a week. Free coin counting services to account holders.
Cons – Very regional bank and limited number of branches. Interest rates on deposit accounts are not competitive. Online interface is very lacking.

Bank of America
Pros – Lots of branches nationwide. Easy to find an ATM in a variety of places.
Cons – Interest rates on deposit accounts are not competitive.

ING Direct
Pros – Interest rates are competitive. Online interface is intuitive and innovative. Bill pay is very straightforward along with person to person payments.
Cons – No brick and mortar branches. Limited options in terms of depositing funds into account.

So what I do is keep enough funds in the brick and mortar accounts (TD and Bank of America) to avoid fees. I then use their accounts for cash and check deposits. I’ll then transfer the funds from those accounts over to ING Direct. By utilizing a combo of these banks I get all the advantages of a nationwide network, convenient hours and competitive interest rates. The flow chart below illustrates how the accounts are linked.

I also highly recommend using Yodlee Moneycenter to keep track of all your financial accounts.

 Posted by dan at 5:12 pm

How I built a $3,300 emergency fund $25 at a time.

 my personal finance  No Responses »
Jul 302011
 

Recently while checking my bank account balances I noticed that the balance on my savings account labeled “emergency fund” was over $3,300. This was a bit of a surprised because I had for the most part forgotten about this account.

So how did I accumulate over $3,300 in an account that I forgot about? The trick is regular deposits using automatic transfers. A little over two years ago I decided I should start putting money away for an emergency. I decided that a contribution of $25 per week was something I could easily do without putting much strain on my finances. The automated transfer part is key though.

Week after week I’d notice the $25 debit from my checking account to a savings account at another bank when reviewing my transactions but didn’t think much of it. Periodically I’d check in on my high yield savings account and notice that I’d pass milestones of $1k, $2k and now $3k.

$3.3k isn’t enough to cover a big emergency but for my current situation it’s a pretty good safety net. The transfers still occur weekly so the emergency fund is still growing but if a situation occurred that exhausted the money I figure I could still liquidate some investments.

The lesson here is small regular consistent deposits will add up to a sizable amount over time. So if you’re looking to build a 10k or so emergency fund, set up automated deposits and you’ll get there in no time.

 Posted by dan at 10:39 am

I’m taking the Series 7!

 my personal finance  No Responses »
Jul 172011
 

My firm is sponsoring me for a general securities representative exam license or more commonly known as a “series 7″. It’s a license that allows agents of broker-dealers to communicate with retail investors.

The exam is 6 hours and has 250 questions. You need a score of 70% to pass. The content outline is available from FINRA which administers the test. My firm enrolled me with Kaplan Financial Education and supplied me with materials from Kaplan.

The study material recommends 90-120 hours of studying to pass. I’ve started looking at the material and I feel that it won’t be as difficult for me to study as I actually find most of what I’ve read so far interesting. As someone that has a natural interest in finance I enjoy reading the material. I feel that having a better understanding of the financial industry as a whole is not only good for you career wise but will improve your ability as a personal investor.

 Posted by dan at 9:45 am

Capital One restricts in-branch deposits to online accounts

 my personal finance  No Responses »
Jul 142011
 

Last month I opened up a Capital One Rewards Money Market account for the 1.4015% yield. Normally I would make deposits via transfer online but I found out that Capital One branches near me have very convenient hours that almost rival that of TD Bank. The hours are 7:30 AM to 6:00 PM Monday-Thursday and until 7:00 PM on Friday.

I had cash and some checks I wanted to deposit but when I filled out the deposit slip with my account number the teller found the account in the system but was unable to process the deposit. The branch manager informed me they can’t accept deposits for online accounts. I guess because the online accounts pay higher yields you’re restricted in terms of brick and mortar services. The money market account I had wasn’t available in-branch.

However there’s a easy way around this. I opened up a free checking account right there in the branch and deposited my funds into that account. I can log in online and my accounts are linked so I can transfer funds into the “online only” money market account. It’s a bit silly that customers would need to jump through this hoop but at least there’s a way.

 Posted by dan at 11:23 am

Getting the $85 Citi AAdvantage annual fee waived.

 credit cards, finance deals, my personal finance  No Responses »
Aug 192010
 

I just got off the phone with Citi and got the annual fee on my Citi AAdvantage Mastercard waived again this year. However this year was a little more difficult in that the first customer service representative I spoke to was adamant about annual fees not being waived even though I mentioned I got it waived last year. However here’s how I managed to get it waived eventually.

  • I asked to be transferred to “retentions” which is the department that has the power to cut deals to get people to stay. I heard about them offering other people miles and whatnot also. Note that you might not get transferred to retention if you simply aren’t a customer worth keeping. I do spend over $50,000 a year on this card alone so they make a little bit of money on the transaction fees even after giving me AAdvantage miles.
  • It’s important to explain to the retention specialist what you want. If you leave them to guess what you want and they might offer a deal you aren’t happy with. I told him I thought the $85 annual fee was excessive and he said they can waive the annual fee after 5 transactions which I should be able to easily do.
  • He also stated this is a one time waiver but that I should continue to call back next year and “continue to use my card for all purchases”.
  • Don’t call and bluff to try to get annual fees waived. You might not even get transferred to a retention specialist and have your card closed right there on the spot. I was also prepared to close the account if I didn’t get the fee waiver.

Also at the end of the call he offered me a more personalized card with my photo on it since I do a lot of in person purchases. I told him to send the forms anyway but I’m not quite sure if I really want this. The security feature really protects them from fraudulent purchases but it might be cool to have a card with my photo on it.

 Posted by dan at 12:38 pm

Finally got around to cutting all ties to JP Morgan Chase.

 my personal finance  2 Responses »
Jul 082010
 

After Chase closed all my credit card accounts in April I decided I would close out whatever was left of my banking relationship with them. I only had a checking account left and decided that since there was no real benefit to me keeping the account open.

Chase is clearly a company that I have a personal grudge against and will try to avoid for the rest of my life. The retail banking division of the company has severe deficiencies (mostly lending operations). I know it’s not personal but if they can wrongly label me as a high risk customer and close out all my credit accounts abruptly then it can happen again in the future.

I’ll stick to Citibank’s credit offerings where I’ve hit $17,000 in charges in a month (and paid it off) with not so much a call from fraud prevention or lending operations.

 Posted by dan at 4:07 pm
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