Yes Dave said goodbye - rather - he actually just waved one finger to us... if that's how "goodbye losers" is signaled.


Great weekend. Glad you had a good time.

First time I have posted in this thread, but have been trying to follow it and have certainly learned a lot.

I have decided that it is time to start doing more than just my company 401k stuff and am therefore looking at the online brokerages available. I think I have basically narrowed it down to Scottrade and Schwab. I like Scottrade because they have the option of an actual office fairly close to me, while Schwab's office that is also in the same area is listed that it is "Open by appointment only" which seems potentially inconvenient.

The one thing keeping me from pulling the trigger and going with Scottrade is I am not so sure about the FRIP (Flexible Reinvestment Program) that Scottrade uses. For those who might not be familiar, the FRIP pools your dividends into one sum and then buys stocks based on how you have set the pool to be allocated to investments which does not necessarily have to be buying the stock that generated the dividend. It does seem nice to have the option to use your dividends on things other than what paid you the dividend, however, the fact that you can only buy whole shares with the FRIP seems like it might be restrictive, especially in the beginning since I will be working with a relatively small account (hopefully not for too long though, right).

Any thoughts on this type of system? Or even other reasons why you chose the firm you're using vs. the others?

I really like the FRIP system, sure I have $10 in there every now and then doing nothing until the next pay date but im not too worried about that. Ive been taking my dividends and buying shares of one particular company to "even out" my cash amount so I close to the same dollar amount invested in each company. So far no complaints with scottrade and ive been using them for a few years.

Interesting question I was asked today - where would you put $2k today if you had it and had to invest in the stock market?

I was kind of taken aback by this. I had no answer.

I'm with Sharebuilder. They let you buy "fractions" of shares, if using the auto-investment tool (which buys the stock on "tuesdays"). If your a Costco member, you usually get some free $$ by signing up, plus discounts on all trades (standard trades or the auto-investment). No fees (at least not for my ROTH IRA or my Personal account). I've never needed a reason to go "into" an office at this point. That sort of banking is slowly going away.

They dont offer a "frip" system, but you CAN choose NOT to re-invest the dividends. You can also setup the Auto-Investment feature to auto buy "X" when you have "$Y" in your account. So essentially, it is the same as the FRIP, but it would also include any other deposits you made into the account.

Personally, I reinvest dividends for now. We'll see if that ever changes. Not sure yet, I've considered mixing it up. But I don't feel i earn enough div anyway to make much of a difference to start hoarding it on the side to buy another stock.

Anyway, just my 2 cents.

(I also set up a schwab account, with the minimum amount in it, just to utilize their Research tools. Which are really good).

I doubt you can go too wrong with whatever you choose. Just look at the costs involved to make purchases and such. My Auto-Investments are $2, and standard on the fly purchases are $6.

Interesting how we think about ourselves and whether or not we're doing okay or if we 'have enough'......






You need an annual income of $34,000 a year to be in the richest 1% of the world, according to World Bank economist Branko Milanovic's 2010 book The Haves and the Have-Nots. To be in the top half of the globe you need to earn just $1,225 a year. For the top 20%, it's $5,000 per year. Enter the top 10% with $12,000 a year. To be included in the top 0.1% requires an annual income of $70,000. America's poorest are some of the world's richest.

That's amazing ^^^ great to be an American. We don't know how good we have it comparatively speaking.

You realize what truly poor is -- when you travel to other countries.

We have plenty of water... people might be poor but they live in a house of some kind not out in the elements... if you're hungry - you can go somewhere and someone will feed you. If you're sick - you can get medical care regardless of whether or not you can afford it. Other countries have NONE of those luxuries.

If you want a job in this country you CAN get one... might not be the one you like or want but there are jobs. In other countries there are no jobs - of any kind.

We really are lucky to live in the USA despite all that we find to bitch about.

8% of the worlds population owns a car. Let that sink in.

BUY FORD STOCK!! There's lots of room for growth!! LOL


Joking --- but WE think everyone has a car!