Friday, October 10, 2008

$50 Bonus from ShareBuilder

Do you trust your government to give you a sufficient retirement income for all the hard work you’ve done for the country? Neither I am. You need to take care of your retirement age personally as much as you can. I would not want to count on my kids, when I am old. I want to be financially independent up to the very moment to leave this world. It is easier building a safety retirement fund if you start your savings early in your life. I know, that you do not think in your 20s that you ever get to the old ages, and you have plenty options to burn your money for leisure and pleasure. But think about later just for the moment. It is maybe sad or unfair, but youth will not last forever.

There are multiple ways for the smart investments in the future, and it is good to diversify your efforts. I know, in the current economy status, it is hard to think about investments without disgust. But, somebody is making money even on the down market. Don’t jump in this train without precise investigation. If you do not trust your own personal opinion and insufficient experience, use the full-services broker to get professional advises. However, if yours initial investments funds are not substantial, and the thought of paying premium prices from brokerage advises does not look attractive, you can always use discount online brokers, who do not limit your initial investment funds, and who charges very little for every transaction.

I am using Scottrade for my modest account with their cost of transaction just $7. However, today top Google Searches brought on the surface another broker sharebuilder, looking even more attractive with their $4 transaction fees. I was checking this site couple of years ago, and I did not go for it as I did not find the solid financial backup for financial funds there. However, when company was acquired by the ING Direct unit of Netherlands-based ING Group (NYSE: ING) last November, it got the necessary credibility and assurance. I am personally using ING Direct for savings purposes, and I never had any problems with them.


Note, that Sharebuilder has numbers of features to protect your money. Many people are wary when it comes to using a credit card online, with all the rumors and threats on the credit card scams and frauds. Sharebuilder does not use a credit card for the funds transactions. Your account there is simply connected to your checking account, and it is easy for you transferring your funds back and forth whenever needed. There is a special validation at place to verify that you are the one making funds transactions.


Paying $4 transaction fee, you can afford buying stock in very small amounts, making your investment tactics very flexible. Sharebuilder lets you invest $10 at a time if you really want to. If you are a novice investor and do not feel comfortable choosing your own stocks, you can invest in common funds instead. With mutual funds, a fund manager chooses the stocks for you and, as an added bonus, you do not to pay any maintenance fees. You can settle upon from growth stock funds, bond funds, foreign funds, and other types of investment. You can trade manually, whenever you feel like that, or you can establish the automatic flexible investment schedule.

One more thing I really like in this option as you can keep money for investing in the account with no minimum balance requirements and you get a nice interest rate that is significantly higher than your bank offers.

It is almost end of the article, and I still did not mention what I meant by the attractive title, announcing $50 free bonus option. Sharebuilder is offering a $50 signup bonus. To qualify for this bonus, simply enter “CASH50” or “BONUS50” when prompted for your promo code and then make a trade before the end of November 2008. Within 4-6 weeks, they’ll deposit $50 in your account.

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