My company’s open enrollment for benefits is happening now. I get my medical, dental and long-term care insurance through my wife, but have life insurance (on both myself and her) as well as disability (Long Term) and Group Legal through my employer. Life and Group Legal are the only things that I actually have to pay for our of pocket. I was going through the open enrollment process and started thinking about the cost of this insurance and whether there might be a better way to do this.

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Finally received my $35 HSBC bonus. Took two months almost to the day from my opening the account…

I haven’t used the account much yet, still have the majority of my liquid savings at VirtualBank. I may start to move some cash here though in order to take advantage of the 4% interest rate they are offering.

The web site is ok, transfers take a little while longer than Virtualbank though. Also, I noticed that when VB removes the cash from my other accounts it generally shows up in the VB account the same day. Not so with HSBC. They hold onto the cash for 2 or 3 days…

I had been a little concerned that the interest hadn’t yet posted to my TreasuryDirect account for the I Bonds I had purchased in October. Turns out this is OK. Here’s the exchange with their customer service:

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The interest for the I Bonds I purchased in October still hasn’t posted. Anyone else experiencing this? I’m not to the point of being worried yet but don’t want to let it go too long.

HSBC has raised the interest rate on their Online Savings account to 4%. This beats the 3.55% I am currently getting at Virtualbank. I think I’ll wait a few days and see if Virtualbank bumps their rate too before I move our 0% balance transfer funds over. It does represent at extra $6 a month though which is significant.

I *still* have not received my $35 account opening bonus. (Account was opened in early September) I have a message into their bank mail system. Will report my results as soon as I have any.

Somewhat surprising… Both of the credit cards I applied for were denied… (Citi and Chase) Both were due to my bankruptcy back in 2000 and some related judgments which occurred in 1999. I find this interesting since my credit score is a healthy 749 now (and will likely rise into the 760-770’s again once we pay off the 0% card in late December/early January.) I also have a couple of inquiry’s dropping off of my report this month. My peak score was 773 back in August.

In any case it appears that even an older bankruptcy can be a scarlet letter…

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From TreasuryDirect.gov

Series I, inflation-indexed savings bonds purchased from November 2005 through April 2006 will earn a 1.00 percent fixed rate of return above inflation. The 1.00 percent fixed rate applies for the 30-year life of I bonds purchased during this six-month period.

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Combined with the inflation component of the bonds (5.7%) this yields a very respectable 6.73% return for the next six months. In May, the inflation component will be adjusted again.

I have to say I am slightly disappointed. While the overall rate of return is quite good, the drop in the fixed portion of the interest rate makes these somewhat less appealing for long-term investment purposes (which I am looking to them for). Inflation (at least the number they use to represent it) is historically much lower so the return will likely not be this high in six months. As a short-term investment though they are still a good deal, although slightly less certain than the bonds I bought in October.

I plan to stick with my plan of investing in I Bonds at the end of each month in order to generate an income stream at some point in the future. Over time I expect the fixed rate to vary so this isn’t a huge setback just digging into my greed a bit…

The new iBond and EE Series interest rates are due to be released @ 10AM.

Not sure why I am excited about this, its not going to change my laddering strategy either way. (Well if the fixed rate does fall significantly I may start considering these shorter-term) investments. I’m predicting a slight rise in the fixed component of the iBond based on various articles I’ve read around the web. The variable portion is already known for the next six months (5.72%).

I’ll post again as soon as I see the new rates.

Hosted by WealthyWeb.com … (I have not had a chance to read it yet…)