Okay so we have our IRAs at Scottrade, I have 2, (SEP and ROTH), DH has 1 (ROTH) and 401K at work.
So Thursday morning he gets up and I am in at my computer preparing for my work day in my usual sweats and T-shirt. He comes in and says, "How much trade money do I have available". I look it up and tell him....
"Buy me 200, no make it 250 shares of Wamu". I execute the trade and go about my day. Go to bed peacefully that night. DH comes stomping down the hall at 6:00 a.m. (he slept on the couch like he normally does, is right now as a matter of fact) and tells me, "It's on the news Wamu failed last night".
I told him from now on when he tells me to buy him some stock, my response will be "wamu". Of course I immediately started saying "wamu" to him the rest of the morning before he left for work. He thought it was funny the first 2 times, then started to get mad. Ha haha, I can't help but snicker even as I type this.
So anyway, that IS where we have banked for several years, but we opened an account yesterday at US Bank where my daughters bank. I stop by there anyway to deposit their checks for them (we both contract with the same hospital and they live in Reno so I pick up all our checks and take them to the bank). DH also used to do his business banking there and knows most of the women bankers, so it seemed a natural fit. They have a free checking/money market/bill paying account so it will do just fine.
It will take a while to change over everything since my Ameritrade comes out automatically and my ING accounts are connected to Wamu.
So tonight at dinner DH and I went over our spending plan to live on his salary, use mine for savings, home improvement, retirement, and our beach house rental next year (I hope!).
My work contract has been slow in paying for about the last 6 months, so it is imperative we become more disciplined with our budget.
We were doing very well until the whole NC/granddaughter thing happened, but it is going to be back to our $100.00 allowance each a month and careful spending.
I want to quit using our AMEX card at Costco, but DH is just totally hung up on the rebate, so we compromised by keeping a running total and paying weekly instead of monthly. I frequently now make more than one payment a month, but now he is on board with the idea too.
Also DH has had a separate "grocery" account, then we charge on AMEX at Costco for things that should come out of that account, but I end up paying the AMEX out of the bill paying account, so we have to figure out something for that.
Also my check is going to be 100% transferred to ING so it is not so easy to transfer into the bill paying account to cover mindless spending (AMEX again). Then when quarterly taxes are due, I will transfer the appropriate amount back into the new "bill account". Still need to open DH's new "grocery account", but I wanted to hammer out our plan first.
What to do about the Costco/Amex/grocery dilemma..... hmmm....it's late, it will come to me tomorrow.
I Just Gotta tell my Wamu story! Sorry DH!
September 28th, 2008 at 05:34 am
September 28th, 2008 at 12:28 pm 1222604887
September 28th, 2008 at 01:00 pm 1222606837
September 28th, 2008 at 02:32 pm 1222612351
September 28th, 2008 at 11:15 pm 1222643748
BUT, and here's the funny part about all this.
This weekend was the expected government bailout, which tentatively just came through this morning. Due to bailout news, WM stock literally jumped, in after-market trading, from $0.15 to $1.69! I'm serious!
However, that price may not hold for long, and if it holds by Monday morning, I recommend to get out as soon as possible! Minimize your losses while you still can!
September 28th, 2008 at 11:40 pm 1222645244
Its good that you can see the valuable takehome message in this. I had a similar situation with Fruit of the Loom, when their public stock had a similar dead cat bounce (all the way up to $2.50), and then went splat. So whenever I've been tempted with extreme bottom picking, I've thought "Fruit of the Loom". You and yours' will be "WaMu". Use it liberally.
Later on Fruit of the Loom got bought and converted to a private company by Warren Buffett. Now its doing well, but as a shareholder, I got nothing. That was another good lesson. I'm not Warren Buffett, and you and yours are not JP Morgan. Both Warren and JP have other ways to make their bets pay off.
September 28th, 2008 at 11:56 pm 1222646162
September 29th, 2008 at 02:19 am 1222654744
September 29th, 2008 at 02:21 am 1222654862
The $100.00 is our spending money for the month. I usually spend mine on yarn or lunch out with a friend or maybe some new makeup. Not sure what DH spends his on, probably eating out.