Orange50 ShareBuilder Promotion Follow-up

Despite my assumption that nobody took action on this nice little promotion from ING's ShareBuilder, I'm going to clear up some possible confusion regarding the promotion. After signing up and depositing my $50, I received an email from ShareBuilder saying

To receive your $50 Account Bonus, all you need to do is purchase a stock or ETF in either your Automatic Investment Plan or through a real-time trade by 11/25/2009. If you have not set up your investment plan or real-time trade yet, get started today.

I was a bit miffed because I had read the small print back to front and it mentioned nothing about purchasing securities to get the bonus. I emailed Customer Service and got this very quick, pleasing response:

Hi Michael,
I would be happy to clear up the confusion about your promotion. You will receive the $50 promotion 4-6 weeks after making your first deposit of at least $50. The deposit must be posted to your account before 10/1/09. You must enter the promotion code when opening your account.

Typically, most ShareBuilder promotions require a trade. The ORANGE50 promotion was a special one time offer.

So there you have it, folks. Confirmation. There's still time left to get a guaranteed 100% return on your cash (actually slightly more given the massive 0.03% return the ShareBuilder money market fund is currently sporting!)

Consumer Credit Counseling Service to Offer Free Debt Counseling

The Consumer Credit Counseling Service ( CCCS ) is a non-profit founded in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Starting today, September 22, the CCCS will offer free . . . more

$50 Signup Bonus at ShareBuilder

ShareBuilder, the online brokerage arm of ING, is offering a $50 bonus to match a new account funded by at least $50. The only restriction appears to be time - the bonus will post after 4-6 weeks and cannot be withdrawn for 90 days.

I just opened up an account. I haven't used ShareBuilder yet so I cannot speak to it as a discount broker, but I do use ING Direct and love it. From my limited research it seems that ShareBuilder offers a competitive commission for purchases ($4 for orders placed on Tuesdays) although sales command a fairly high $9.95 rate. They appear to offer a wide array of ETFs, mutual funds, etc.

At any rate this bonus is a no-brainer. Take advantage!

Musical Mashup: Jaydiohead

Jaydiohead is a mashup of Jay-Z's vocals mixed with Radiohead's music by producer and DJ Max Tannone (aka Minty Fresh Beats). I'm a big fan of incongruous collaborations, mixes, etc. (Plant & Krauss; Cornell & Timbaland; Jay-Z & Linkin Park to name a few). One of the premiere players in the game's lyrics laced over Radiohead's moody, atmospheric tunes - it is brilliant. Download the album for free here and the Encore album here. Check out Tannone's Facebook page.

Out and about with the visiting Xanadu last night we heard "No Karma" come on at Flattop Johnny's, presumably off the bartender's iPod. "Is this Jay-Z mixed with Karma Police?" Indeed it was ("No Hook" & "Karma Police" - all the tracks are so cleverly named). I immediately seeked it out on the internets when I got home and discovered that the rest of the tracks by Minty Fresh Beats are just as awesome (esp. "Song and Cry").

You need to check this out.

Treatful

Because I know how you like it: Barnstar covering the Traveling Wilburys' "Handle With Care," downloadable at Mark Erelli's website. Barnstar is the "fake" band of Zack Hickman's with varying members, recently including the Old Train himself (Taylor Armerding), Charlie Rose, and Mark Erelli. This clip is from Barnstar's show in March at the illustrious Cantab Lounge. Of course I was in attendance, along with a couple other bluegrass fans.

I swear I can hear Amanda laughing when Hickman first croons on this track.

If you're feeling just slightly sketchy you can rip all the past songs of the month from Erelli's parent directory. They were free before so there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this, right? (I plan on buying a couple CDs, Mark, I swear!) A lot of great tunes in there, including some from past Covers Nights at Club Passim.

Free Tunes!

I'm not the biggest Coldplay fan in the world - I think they have some good tunes although a lot of them start to sound like the same song after a while - but they've done a very cool thing in offering a free album (presumably recorded from one or several concerts) as a thanks to their fans.

Go here to download.

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Seems to be a lot of this going around: check out Jake Armerding's free release "Songs in Stained Glass" here.

And do yourself a favor and pick up his nearly co-released, secular album "Her" here.

Orman in '09: Free eBook Download

Click here to download Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan (pdf) for free until January 15th. I breezed through the applicable sections in this in a short time. Financial guru Orman has a nice, concise history of how this whole economic poopfest started, and provides a lot of solid advice from general strategies to specific scenarios and plans (e.g. "I owe credit card debt and I want to tap my 401(k) to reduce it. What should I do?").

Something in there for everyone. Download it and check it out. It's free, after all, and that's about all I can afford these days!