MaStA's Account Talk

[MaStA]

Here's to hoping today turns out as good as the futures look...

 

[JTH]

Here's to hoping today turns out as good as the futures look...

Last few says have seen trend reversals off the futures, futures up, prices close down, ect...

 

[MaStA]

It's definitely nice to be getting these type of gains with it only being early February. Unfortunately I continue to have last years huge loss in the back of my mind so really I am not gaining anything yet and I am still recouping my losses from last year.

Life does go on though.

 

[Birchtree]

I'll have all mine back by the end of the day.

 

[MaStA]

I'll have all mine back by the end of the day.

That must feel good!

Hopefully I get all of mine back plus some this year. If things keep going the way they have been that should be no problem, but good things always tend to come to an end.

 

[FAAM]

Me again. I appreciated your thoughtful reply to my message at "johnsons" message board.. wanted to caveat on that but on your board so I don't continue to fill his with off-subject (Re: Signal) topics.
1) I agree w/ you about civil-service being a good job, & I wasn't complaining at all about our pay & benefits in general... my comment was aimed toward my recall that military members have been justifiably valued and rewarded with raises generally for the last decade, and also, justifiably, I recall that their raises have typically been a half-percent to a percent higher than the fed-civian raises.
2) You mentioned a couple moral factors (abort'n & gay-stuff) to consider when voting... those are very important ones and we would likely find firm agreement on those. Yet I view those as amoung a dozen or so very-important factors (and dozens more that are also valid and important). Some of those other moral factors to consider also have grave life-&-death, social justice, USA-patriotism/well-being implications as well. On the whole, of the two political parties we have, their leaders, stances, platforms, behavior and actions/initiatives -- I weigh the Dem's as being more favorable, ethical, moral than the other party in these times. I feel hypocritical supporting one side based on a couple importantant moral issues, to the exclusion of a number of other important moral issues where I think they come up short on. For example, things like diminishing environmental stewardship/ regulation/ enforcement, or ignoring the exponential rise of CO2 in atmosphere well beyond historic levels for over 100,000 years and the human-life threats of the global warming that is occuring, or the pain/ sickness/ dying of so many who can't afford preventive- & good-health care, or the 40+ years of the siphoning of trillions of dollars of wealth in our economy from the common folk into the coffers of the uber-wealthy (not accidently so) -- these cause huge pain/suffering & death and will kill so many more if unchecked... these seem to fly in the face of "pro-life", pro-social justice, pro-ethics, and good morals (as I read the Good Book and live in the Spririt). Difficult world and choices. I believe the sayings "power and wealth tend to aggregate the same unto themselves", and "absolute power (and wealth) tend to corrupt absolutely" are generally true; and wealth seems more & more to equal "power" is the USA & world, and seems to be horribly concentrated in the hands of too few. I also think Christian theocracy wouldn't work, and it is tough to therefore know how and how-far to try to have our "democratic-republic", pluralistic and yes, largely secular society reflect the purest of christian morals/ values.
-- Respectfully, I'm sorry to have gone on long, and will rest now. Bless you and thank you.

 

[MaStA]

Me again. I appreciated your thoughtful reply to my message at "johnsons" message board.. wanted to caveat on that but on your board so I don't continue to fill his with off-subject (Re: Signal) topics.
1) I agree w/ you about civil-service being a good job, & I wasn't complaining at all about our pay & benefits in general... my comment was aimed toward my recall that military members have been justifiably valued and rewarded with raises generally for the last decade, and also, justifiably, I recall that their raises have typically been a half-percent to a percent higher than the fed-civian raises.
2) You mentioned a couple moral factors (abort'n & gay-stuff) to consider when voting... those are very important ones and we would likely find firm agreement on those. Yet I view those as amoung a dozen or so very-important factors (and dozens more that are also valid and important). Some of those other moral factors to consider also have grave life-&-death, social justice, USA-patriotism/well-being implications as well. On the whole, of the two political parties we have, their leaders, stances, platforms, behavior and actions/initiatives -- I weigh the Dem's as being more favorable, ethical, moral than the other party in these times. I feel hypocritical supporting one side based on a couple importantant moral issues, to the exclusion of a number of other important moral issues where I think they come up short on. For example, things like diminishing environmental stewardship/ regulation/ enforcement, or ignoring the exponential rise of CO2 in atmosphere well beyond historic levels for over 100,000 years and the human-life threats of the global warming that is occuring, or the pain/ sickness/ dying of so many who can't afford preventive- & good-health care, or the 40+ years of the siphoning of trillions of dollars of wealth in our economy from the common folk into the coffers of the uber-wealthy (not accidently so) -- these cause huge pain/suffering & death and will kill so many more if unchecked... these seem to fly in the face of "pro-life", pro-social justice, pro-ethics, and good morals (as I read the Good Book and live in the Spririt). Difficult world and choices. I believe the sayings "power and wealth tend to aggregate the same unto themselves", and "absolute power (and wealth) tend to corrupt absolutely" are generally true; and wealth seems more & more to equal "power" is the USA & world, and seems to be horribly concentrated in the hands of too few. I also think Christian theocracy wouldn't work, and it is tough to therefore know how and how-far to try to have our "democratic-republic", pluralistic and yes, largely secular society reflect the purest of christian morals/ values.
-- Respectfully, I'm sorry to have gone on long, and will rest now. Bless you and thank you.

Well military pay raises may be slightly more here and there, but I am sure most civilian federal employees make much more than military members who give their all and possibly their life for this country. You all also get TSP matched contributions which I know is the military equivalent to the 20 year retirement. Only thing is, not everyone retires from the military so the retirement option won't matter for them where as even if you all don't spent 20 years in civil service you still are left with that TSP matched contribution. Either way I'm sure there are many, many more military members living below the poverty level than there are civil service employees. Disagree?

Unfortunately our views seem to be worlds apart on several things. I personally think global warming is a bit blown out of proportion. When we all die it will be our time and no matter what. We can sit here and try saving our Earth from everything possible, but in the end if an asteroid hits the Earth and blows it up it won't really matter anyways. I don't think we can control an asteroid from hitting us. I also don't feel that I should be paying more in taxes to pay for people's healthcare that do not wish to work. Many people that are unemployed do not want to work and it is too easy to sit at home collecting unemployment. Obama has increased our deficit with nothing to show for it. Look at these links

http://home.adelphi.edu/sbloch/deficits.html
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/07/28/the-truth-about-obamas-budget-deficits-in-pictures/

I am a pretty young guy still (26) so I know I can be naive at times, but this guy has done more harm than good. Some people don't see that, but hopefully one day you will. I will personally put my values and morals at the top when I determine who I vote for. I'm not saying any of the Republican candidates are amazing by any means and I wish we had more to choose from, but at this point anything has to be better than what we have now. He is still blaming Bush for everything and it has been three years or so...when is he going to step up and grow some balls and take ownership for what he is supposedly leading? Where is all of the POSITIVE change he promised? All I have seen is negative.

 

[MaStA]

It seems that the market is digging itself out of the hole from earlier this morning slowly. Maybe the announcement of Greece's Deputy Foreign Minister Resigning will help the market?

 

[bmneveu]

After some more searching it seems Scottrade has $7.00 trades which is even cheaper... :nuts:

Damn I'm cheap lol...there are some other places I haven't heard of that may be slightly cheaper, but typically the fine print adds more to the trade price than what they advertise. I just want cheap trades with no annual/hidden fees.

Here are some reviews Online Stock Trading | BrokerReview.org

Seems Scottrade is well ranked and there is a place called OptionsHouse with $3.95 trades that seem like there isn't much hidden about it. Something to do with contracts (I think that is outside of my domain).

Choices, choices...

Sorry to flood your account talk with my babbling. My account talk doesn't get much love so I have to barge into others.

I use OptionsHouse and love it. It attracted me with the cheap $/trade and a few incentives. I've been pleased with it so far, but I am fairly new to managing my own finances (less than 2 years). I mainly use it to swing trade ETFs (TNA/TZA). The only thing I noticed that was a little fishy was being down $10 a few days after opening the account -- I just assumed it was a setup fee of some sort. Other than that, I traded free for my first 50 trades and now pay $3.95/trade, nothing more. Not bad

 

[MaStA]

I use OptionsHouse and love it. It attracted me with the cheap $/trade and a few incentives. I've been pleased with it so far, but I am fairly new to managing my own finances (less than 2 years). I mainly use it to swing trade ETFs (TNA/TZA). The only thing I noticed that was a little fishy was being down $10 a few days after opening the account -- I just assumed it was a setup fee of some sort. Other than that, I traded free for my first 50 trades and now pay $3.95/trade, nothing more. Not bad

Very nice and thank you for your input. So as far as using their website, etc. it hasn't been down, slow, etc?

When you open an account now and fund it with at least $3,000 you get 100 free trades...fine print states you only get 60 days to use them and I don't do enough trading to use anywhere near that amount lol. It was the same thing with USAA..gave me 50 free trades and I didn't get long to use them.

I may go ahead and give OptionsHouse a try. I'm guessing to get money into the account you do an ACH transfer from your bank account. Is that correct?

That is the one nice thing about using USAA is that you can instantly move funds throughout your accounts, but I would rather save money on trading at this point. The ETF ticket TNA is looking quite tempting lol.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[MaStA]

bmneveu, I went ahead and opened an account with OptionsHouse last night. I went ahead and used the promotion to get 100 free trades even though I know I won't use them all in the amount of time they give, but that is fine. I'm just waiting on the whole ACH transfer thing to be setup so I can move money into the account. I'm still trying to learn to navigate through their system. It is definitely different from what I have used with USAA lol. Then again USAA's setup is pretty basic compared to this. I'll get the hang of it I'm sure. Thanks again for the info!

 

[bmneveu]

The user interface may seem like there's a lot going on at first, but you'll grow comfortable with it soon. Though I don't watch them often, they do offer many video lessons on how to do certain things with their tools. I wonder if there are any reference bonuses?

 

[MaStA]

The user interface may seem like there's a lot going on at first, but you'll grow comfortable with it soon. Though I don't watch them often, they do offer many video lessons on how to do certain things with their tools. I wonder if there are any reference bonuses?

Hmm...I should of looked into that before applying for an account lol. Was it you that said they use Wells Fargo for their IRA's or was that someone else? If it wasn't you may I ask who you use for your IRA's?

USAA has my Roth IRA right now which is fine if all I want to do is mutual funds, but if I want to trade stocks in it, it would be cheaper to move it somewhere else I think.

Thanks!

 

[RealMoneyIssues]

bmneveu, I went ahead and opened an account with OptionsHouse last night. I went ahead and used the promotion to get 100 free trades even though I know I won't use them all in the amount of time they give, but that is fine. I'm just waiting on the whole ACH transfer thing to be setup so I can move money into the account. I'm still trying to learn to navigate through their system. It is definitely different from what I have used with USAA lol. Then again USAA's setup is pretty basic compared to this. I'll get the hang of it I'm sure. Thanks again for the info!

Please let us know how long it took to get your money from USAA to OH. I need to move to something else, but am afraid it will take forever... thanks

 

[MaStA]

Please let us know how long it took to get your money from USAA to OH. I need to move to something else, but am afraid it will take forever... thanks

Will do. Right now I am waiting on the two small deposits to confirm the ACH connection. Once that is confirmed I will be able to actually move funds which normally only takes 2-3 business days. I will keep you all updated on how it all goes.

 

[RealMoneyIssues]

Will do. Right now I am waiting on the two small deposits to confirm the ACH connection. Once that is confirmed I will be able to actually move funds which normally only takes 2-3 business days. I will keep you all updated on how it all goes.

Oh, you're not talking about an IRA... nevermind then, sorry

 

[MaStA]

Oh, you're not talking about an IRA... nevermind then, sorry

I'm guessing you are talking about moving your IRA from USAA to another brokerage. Is that correct?

That may be something I consider as well since if I choose to trade stocks/ETF's within my Roth IRA it would be cheaper outside of USAA as well. I've never moved something from one brokerage to another so I'm not even sure how that works unfortunately...

USAA is starting to slack on their competitive edge or maybe I just didn't open my eyes to what else is out there. I love them for my checking/savings, but even their auto insurance in Michigan is outrageous compared to others. They were competitive on auto insurance when I was stationed in Oklahoma though.

 

[bmneveu]

Hmm...I should of looked into that before applying for an account lol. Was it you that said they use Wells Fargo for their IRA's or was that someone else? If it wasn't you may I ask who you use for your IRA's?

USAA has my Roth IRA right now which is fine if all I want to do is mutual funds, but if I want to trade stocks in it, it would be cheaper to move it somewhere else I think.

Thanks!

I don't know about their IRAs and I don't have any IRAs. Sorry I can't help you there

 

[MaStA]

I don't know about their IRAs and I don't have any IRAs. Sorry I can't help you there

No problem. You should open a Roth IRA for a tax free safe haven of $5,000/year. I just opened mine last year and I'm glad I did since all earnings won't be taxed when I get to take them out as an old man.

 

[Mapper]

I've never moved something from one brokerage to another so I'm not even sure how that works unfortunately...

I recently moved a trad ira, roth ira and taxable brokerage from 3 different institutions to Wells Fargo. In each instance it took about 3-5 days for the transfer. Sure it's a small hiccup but worth it if you have a compelling reason to move.