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What is the Best Online Investment Brokerage?

We are big fans of investing. There is nothing better than creating a passive income stream through investing and making money on your money.

Put simply, investing makes your money work for you, and there is no reason why it shouldn’t be working for you.

what is the best online investment brokerage in the USA?

You’re likely reading this article to find the best online investment brokerage because you already love to invest your money and see value in putting your money on the stock market. Maybe you have already found an investment platform online, but aren’t happy with it, or maybe you are just looking to start out.

Here are a few of the best online investment platforms in the USA:

Scottrade

Scottrade easily has the cheapest trades of the popular brokerages online. At $7/trade, if you are looking for low cost Scottrade is your best bet.

A huge bonus is also that there are no annual fees with Scottrade, and they have a nice, low initial deposit of $500.00. If you don’t have a lot of money to invest but want to get started, this brokerage is a good bet.

This firm also has a high number of mutual funds when compared to it’s competitors, so there are more choices available. If you feel you may need more support from your brokerage of choice, this one has a strong brick-and-mortar presence but also has a great online service base. All of these reasons help it become one of the best investment companies for Americans.

eToro

eToro is one of our favourite investment firms. The best feature of eToro is that you can actually look up other trader’s portfolios, see their returns and copy their portfolios with their OpenBook feature.

If you refer your friends, you can earn $100, which is a nice little bonus, and when you open a trading account (for free!) you get a $20 gift card.

If you are a new investor and aren’t sure what you are doing, they have Webinars and a very extensive FAQ section to help you along as well.

E*Trade Financial

E*TRADE Financial is another popular online investment brokerage option. They maintain low cost trades (though slightly higher than Scottrade), but when you sign up you get 60 days of FREE trading.

Like eToro, they have educational resources available to help you learn more about investing and make decisions on where you want to invest your cash.

E*TRADE does not have many branches (only about 30) but if you are looking for an online platform then you likely won’t need much of a physical presence. This brokerage also has low a initial deposit at $500.00 to get you started.

 

There are various other online brokerages that you can invest your money in, but these few have a lot of benefits including cheap (or non existent) fees, inexpensive trades, sign up bonuses and interesting features.

 

The Six Best New Vehicles That Will Fit your Budget

Are you considering buying a new car in the near future? Maybe your car is getting old and causing you issues, or maybe you need to upgrade or change direction with what type of vehicle your family needs.

Before you start looking, consider your options carefully. Don’t fall into the trap of buying too much car for your budget. This is a dangerous trap that many people fall into; they end up spending a huge chunk of their take home pay on a method of transportation just to get to work.

There are some cars out there that are relatively inexpensive, even new. Here are a list of great cars that are fun to drive and not too costly:

Ford Fiesta

cheap new cars

Image via Flickr by Dean Thorpe

The Ford Fiesta combines an affordable price tag with some of the bells and whistles of more expensive cars. Even the high performance model with the most standard features remains modestly priced, selling for just over $20,000. For gas mileage, it isn’t bad; it gets 28 miles per gallon in the city and 36 miles per gallon on the highway. The base model has the following standard features: air conditioning and a six speaker stereo system with an auxiliary jack. Upgrading into a higher trim will get you Bluetooth capability, satellite radio, and more.

Chevy Sonic

The Chevy Sonic is an example of the much improved compact cars General Motors Corp. is making now. The Sonic is available as a sedan or a hatchback, and has four different trim levels. Out of them all, the LTZ option represents the best value, since it packs in the most standard features for the least cost. You can buy a tricked out LTZ for under $20,000. Features that are standard on this model include heated front seats and an impressive sound system with satellite radio, just to name a few. It gets decent gas mileage too, with 25 miles to the gallon in the city and 35 out on the highway.

Honda FIT

Honda is a leading manufacturer of economical cars that don’t feel like economical cars. The Honda FIT is no exception. It is a zippy little car that you can cram a lot of stuff into. Under the hood, it sports a 117 horsepower 4 cylinder VTEC engine, which combined with its light weight, allows it to zoom around without any trouble. Like all Hondas, the FIT is good on gas, getting 27 miles for city driving and 33 on the highway. Honda updated the engine for the 2015 model, as well, and improved its efficiency and performance further. Read about more popular hatchbacks here.

Subaru Impreza

The all-wheel drive Subaru Impreza not only represents a good value for your money, it’s also fun to drive. The high-performance model, the WRX, has a snappy turbo-charged engine. A manual transmission is standard, but you can opt for the continuously variable transmission (CVT) which offers an impressive 27 miles to the gallon in the city and 36 miles to the gallon on the highway. The value really comes in when you consider its impressive list of standard features. These include a four speaker stereo system, Bluetooth, a USB port, keyless entry, and an auxiliary input.

Volkswagen Golf

The Volkswagen Golf is another one that gives you a lot of car for a little money. Its base model comes with a five cylinder engine, but upgrading the higher end TDI gives you a four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine that gets an astonishing 30 miles to the gallon in the city and 42 on the highway. Due to the added boost from the turbines, this engine is extremely responsive. Its precise steering and well-balanced suspension lets you maneuver through tight spaces with ease. Look at KBB cars for sale for current price information on this car, or any other.

Kia Forte EX Sedan

This budget-friendly car goes from 0 to 60 in 8.1 seconds, it’s no joke. The Forte’s 173 horsepower 4 cylinder engine gives it power and its six speed automatic transmission shifts smoothly. It has all the safety features that you’d want as standard features: Antilock brakes and, stability control. As for gas mileage, it isn’t bad. It gets 24 miles per gallon in the city and 36 out on the highway. The EX model also includes snazzy 16 inch alloy wheels and a leather wrapped steering wheel. It makes you feel luxurious, even though you’re driving an economy car.

Whether you make $30,000 or $250,000, you can find a great car that you’ll love to drive.

 

Giving Gaming a Good Name

Stereotypes can be a terrible nuisance. People get an idea in their heads and ‘kapow!’ that’s it, stigma, discrimination and all sorts of prejudice come flying out of the box.

My friend Liz who uses a wheelchair and who looks a bit unusual since her surgery knows just how easy it is to be on the wrong side of a stereotype.

And of course there are other, equally serious stereotypes that I could mention, but that would be a distraction.

What I want to draw attention to is something a bit less heavy. In a nutshell it is that there are some stereotypes that can get in the way of using your leisure time in a manner that is both rewarding and economically responsible. ‘Low cost’ and ‘cheap’ are two words that carry very different connotations, and as we’ve discussed before, there is a terrible stereotype attached to the latter.

I’m going to use the example of 32Red online casino’s to illustrate this (you can find out more about 32Red here). 32Red is an online casino that allows people to play a range of games for real stakes and it offers real cash prizes.

For some people gambling has a bad name. And for some, online gaming gets an equally bad rap. This is certainly true for people who are addicted to gambling or who waste all of their money at casinos and online gaming sites, but like drinking, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

For my friend Liz, who keeps unusual hours sometimes, and who can struggle to get out of the house, 32Red is a lifeline. It provides a sense of escape and excitement that she’d struggle to match in other recreational settings.

The great thing about online gaming for Liz is that she’s the one who decides how much it costs (she plays for pennies) and how much time she’s going to devote to it. She’s not an addict in any way, and nor is she anything other than someone who has found a way to generate a flexible, low cost source of entertainment that feels as though it actually means something. Not long ago she won close to $300.

A lot of people would turn their noses up at the idea of online gaming. They’d see it as a kind of trailer-trash exploitation that sucks up cash and is just the thin end of a dubious moral wedge.

But that’s just one stereotypical view. Liz talks about it in a very different way. Her eyes shine when she starts to talk through her last game of poker or her hunches for the baseball season in a way that I have rarely seen since her accident.

Liz takes a lot more away from 32Red than what is measured in dollars and cents.

And if you were to take the time to talk to her about it you’d find her to be a serious-minded, intelligent woman with a full grasp of the moral, financial and psychological implications of what she is doing, and a very strong belief that she has as much right as anyone else in town to have a bit of fun.

Of course, to get to that point in the conversation, you might have had to put a few stereotypes to one side.