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Subject: persfin-digest V4 #147
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 20:00:50 -0400 (EDT)
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persfin-digest Wednesday, April 8 1998 Volume 04 : Number 147
IN THIS ISSUE:
ADVERTISEMENT: LAN ACCESS TO MCI MAIL
Re: How Do I Purchase Strips, T-Bills, T-bonds
Re: Long distance phone service
NASDAQ stock trades
Annuities - Are They a Good Deal?
8.9 c/min LD 24 hrs/day !!
Roth IRA
Re: double charge on refinance
Re: Can I have an IRA after maximizing my 401k plan
Getting Started... I just bought a condo, I'm paying off piles of bills, etc. Besides my 401k, I have no investments. I realize I need to start somewhere, and at this point I'm going to have to start small. $50 a month is about what I can spare for investing. Any thoughts on where I should put it? My tax planner said a Roth IRA. While I agree that sounds like a great idea, I'd like to invest for the near future, say 5-10 years versus my retirement. Any thoughts?
FirstUSA Platinum card offer
Zero Coupons?
How Do I Purchase Strips, T-Bills, T-bonds
Fwd: Re: Home Equity Loan and Divorce?
Investment Management Book with Cartoons?
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Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 19:41:11 -0400 (EDT)
From: Oppenheimer Software <Connect-Sales@mcimail.com>
Subject: ADVERTISEMENT: LAN ACCESS TO MCI MAIL
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------------------------------
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 19:42:59 -0400 (EDT)
From: Rich Carreiro <rlcarr@animato.pn.com>
Subject: Re: How Do I Purchase Strips, T-Bills, T-bonds
>depression is to get about 15-20% invested in T-Bills, 30 Year Treasury
>Bonds, and "Strips." I have been trading stocks and buying in and out of
>Mutual Funds for years but have never purchased "strips" T-Bills or
>Treasury Bonds, how and where is the best place to make these purchases?
You can buy T-bills, T-notes, T-bonds, and inflation-indexed T-notes
at original issue for no commission direct from the US Govt. You can
also buy them from most brokers (paying a commission and/or a markup), but
there you are not limited to buying at original issue.
Check out http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov for more on the
Treasury Direct program.
STRIPs have to be bought from brokers.
Personally, for Treasury securities I recommend buying the things
themselves instead of going the fund route, assuming you have the
money to meet the minimum purchase requirements. You save the fund's
expense ratio and have the option to hold to maturity, something you
can't do with a fund (other than certain "Target Maturity" funds, like
those offered by American Century/Benham).
Rich Carreiro
rlcarr@animato.pn.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 19:44:30 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Lloyd Colston" <colston@viagrafix.com>
Subject: Re: Long distance phone service
I have 8.9 cents per minute on a dial-around number with no monthly
fee. See my link from http://www.viagrafix.com/colston/comm.htm
Lloyd Colston Excellence is not an accident
Pryor, OK USA social worker, writer, editor
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 19:46:50 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Jon F. Paul" <jonfpaul@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: NASDAQ stock trades
Enjoy your email newsletter. Keep up the good work.
I had an unnerving experience with the NASDAQ market yesterday. It still
makes no sense to me. Here's what happened.
I thought I had done things right. I had picked my target price to sell a
stock at ahead of time.
I had a good till cancelled (GTC) order out to sell 400 shares of RCN
(symbol RCNC) yesterday at 29. During the first hour, the stock went above
29 on several occasions.
I called my broker at Smith Barney later in the morning to confirm that the
GTC had been tripped and stock was sold. I was very surprised to hear that
it had not executed.
I said that made no sense, so my broker checked with the back office. He
was told that there were other people ahead of me. Also, so you know, the
spread was large and the bid price was under 29.
However, why would someone buy stock at 29 3/8 when stock is being offered
at 29?
The stock then dipped down after the first hour and closed at 26.
I am confident it will come back up, but I want to learn from this going
forward? Has this happened to anyone else? What would you do different in
this situation? How can you know that a GTC sale order will execute when
the stock hits the target.
Jon F. Paul
Progressive System Solutions, Inc.
jpaul@mba1980.hbs.edu
847-295-7179 phone and fax
see "Turbo Charge Your Job Search" at http://hbs-chicago.org/int1.html
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 19:47:46 -0400 (EDT)
From: PowellFamily <PowellFamily@tri-countynet.net>
Subject: Annuities - Are They a Good Deal?
Several older friends have told me to stay away from annuities. They
said they will never be able to get all their money out. Other sources
have said this was a good way to accumulate money tax-deferred.
I'm looking for a way to invest tax-deferred, yet be able to get to it
before retirement age without penalty. Am I dreaming or is there a way
of doing this with a good enough return to make it worth my while?
Sherri
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 19:50:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Sheth, Kalpesh" <sheth@lucent.com>
Subject: 8.9 c/min LD 24 hrs/day !!
Company called UniDial which charges 8.9 cents/min, 24 hrs. a day for
state-to state long distance. They have 18 sec. minimum, 6 sec.
increments. No minimum charge or flat fees. You don't have to change your
current carrier in order to use them. Use their 5-digit pre-dial. Two
months ago Boston Globe gave good review about them and they are
getting good business out of that. For more info,
Try http://www.viagrafix.net/colston/unidialb.htm
- -Kalpesh Sheth
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 19:50:55 -0400 (EDT)
From: Wade Watkins <saaudit.wwatkins@state.ut.us>
Subject: Roth IRA
On April 2nd Rich Carreiro <rlcarr@animato.pn.com> wrote:
(2) Because of the current state of the law, you will want to put
your conversion into a different account than the account you
make annual Roth contributions into (can be the same fund company, can
even be the same fund, just a different account). In fact, you'll
find that many funds will simply refuse to let you make contributions
to a Roth account funded by a conversion.
Rich,
I am confused as to what this means. Does this mean that if my wife and I want
to convert existing traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs during 1998, we cannot make
contributions to the new Roth IRAs during 1998 and beyond? The reason I ask is
that my wife and I each have individual IRAs, which are quite small, and I don't
know if it would be worth it to convert. Since we would not be able to add to
the converted Roth IRAs in the future, we each have two small accounts that
would not grow as quickly as each having one large account.
I hope this makes sense and anyone can help us out. Thanks,
Wade
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 19:51:54 -0400 (EDT)
From: "L. Chen" <am302@freenet.buffalo.edu>
Subject: Re: double charge on refinance
> >I browsed thru my recent refinance cost statement. Just curious what
> >the general practice is regarding the interest charge.
> >Assume that Lender-A was my old mortgage lender, and Lender-B is the
> >new one.
> >The refinance interest charge:
> >Lender-A 03/01/98-03/31/98: 31 days x $40/day = $1,240.
> >Lender-B 03/26/98-03/31/98: 6 days x $30/day = $ 180.
> >The loan from Lender-A was paid off on 03/26/98, and apparently from
> >03/26/98 to 03/31/98 I pay both Lender-A and Lender-B mortgage interest.
> >Is that a normal practice that you'll get double charge during the
> >refinance payoff period?
> >....................
>
> What you describe is a common practice but the practice is wrong. Contact
> lender A and ask for the interest back they charged you after the loan was
> paid off.
>
> If they will not give it back, take them to small claims court.
I am just curious. Doesn't this depend on the mortgage contract -- with
respect to the precise wording of the notice provision? i.e. 30 days' notice;
30 days from the 1st of the month; etc.?
Or is there a federal law regulating this aspect of refinancing -- esp. when
you are talking about refinancing from a different lender?
Chen
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 19:52:29 -0400 (EDT)
From: David Meyers <dmeyers@panix.com>
Subject: Re: Can I have an IRA after maximizing my 401k plan
>Date: Sat, 4 Apr 1998 21:10:43 -0500 (EST)
>From: Rich Carreiro <rlcarr@animato.pn.com>
>>I was trying to find out if I could open a new ROTH IRA with an annual
>>contribution of $2000 even after maximizing my 401k plan (annual
>The ability to make a contribution to an IRA (Roth or regular) is in
>no way affected by participation in a pension plan. The only thing
>that participation can affect is the deductibility of contributions
>to a regular IRA.
Beware, though -- there is an income limit -- you cannot contribute
to a Roth IRA if your income is over around $100k (single) and
$160k (married). (There is a phaseout.) I'm not aware of any such
limit on non-deductible, regular IRAs.
- --D
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 19:53:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Robert Loeser" <Robert_Loeser@medec.com>
Subject: Getting Started... I just bought a condo, I'm paying off piles of bills, etc. Besides my 401k, I have no investments. I realize I need to start somewhere, and at this point I'm going to have to start small. $50 a month is about what I can spare for investing. Any thoughts on where I should put it? My tax planner said a Roth IRA. While I agree that sounds like a great idea, I'd like to invest for the near future, say 5-10 years versus my retirement. Any thoughts?
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 19:53:40 -0400 (EDT)
From: Saurin Shah <shahs@sanchez.com>
Subject: FirstUSA Platinum card offer
Hello,
I've received one of those standard Platinum credit card offers from
FirstUSA bank with the exception that it has a Statement Savers (SS)
discount feature. This feature gives automatic discounts from over 2,500
local and national merchants enrolled in the SS program. The offer
claims that you can save up to 30%. Has anyone used this card or have
any experience with the SS program? Does this mean that I can get
discounts over the regular store sales?
Any suggestions
Saurin Shah
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 19:54:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: marjorie.abrams@santafe.cc.fl.us
Subject: Zero Coupons?
I would like some advice about buying zero coupon
bonds or strips. Is this an okay time to do that
or should I await a rise in the interest rates? Should
I ladder the dates eg...8 years, 9years, 10years?
I have a diversified porfolio of 100% in equities. I am
two years from retirement and I want to do asset
allocation that protects some portion of my holdings.
Thanks for your good advice. Marjorie
<marjorie.abrams@santafe.cc.fl.us>
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 19:54:34 -0400 (EDT)
From: marjorie.abrams@santafe.cc.fl.us
Subject: How Do I Purchase Strips, T-Bills, T-bonds
Jerry asked about purchasing zero coupons or strips.
I have asked similar questions. About mutual funds,
I am reading a book recommended here "How to Bullet
Proof Your Financial Future". In it the author
advises against mutual funds for treasuries and says
to purchase them either through Treasury Direct or
a broker. His reasoning is that in down markets,
fund managers will sell these instruments to profit
and thus lessen the reason you want them in the first place.
Hope we get more info on how and when to buy.
Marjorie
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 19:58:04 -0400 (EDT)
From: G-MD.@ix.netcom.com
Subject: Fwd: Re: Home Equity Loan and Divorce?
TJ:
Thank you so much for responding to my request. I totally agree with you.
I am having to argue with my lawyer. He is telling me since my "ex"
doesn't have enough equity they cannot make him transfer this loan since
there is not enough equity to transfer the monies. I told him this is not
my problem.
I guess my question is: he can just get another type of loan to pay this
off--correct? If so, what financial institution would loan him $$ to pay
off a home equity line of credit?
Thanks again,
Jill
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 19:59:20 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Mangiero, Susan" <MangieroS@sacredheart.edu>
Subject: Investment Management Book with Cartoons?
I am doing some research for a book on investment management (another
one? yea). Anyhow, I've been told to keep the book very simple, even
consider using cartoons. I was just wondering if this could backfire and
be offensive to some people (i.e. insult their intelligence). On the
other hand, I'd like to really help people to understand about certain
fundamentals. I welcome your feedback. Also, are there any "must know"
items you recommend for a neophyte investor? Thanks.
Dr. Susan M. Mangiero, CFA
Economics and Finance Department
College of Business
Sacred Heart University
5151 Park Avenue
Fairfield, CT 06432
(203) 396-6580 (phone)
(203) 396-6543 (fax)
mangieros@sacredheart.edu
------------------------------
End of persfin-digest V4 #147
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