Higher Interest Savings Accounts

As with most banks, they lure you in with easy to set up savings accounts, and free checking accounts. Most people seem to like it because it’s easy, comfortable, fast and secure. Most people would be surprised when they realize how much higher of an interest rate they can get by going to another bank, perhaps an online bank.

There’s two ways of having more money

I’ve learned that there’s two ways of having more money, by earning it and by saving it.

Cutting down on unnecessary expenses, using coupons, buying things when there’s a special, a discount, a rebate, day after christmas sales. While these things don’t necessarily put more money into your pocket, they allow you to keep more money in your pocket. So in effect, these things directly lead to having more money at the end of the day.

You can always economize. Everything from fixing that leaky faucet, to changing your light bulbs to more efficient ones, to even picking up pennies you find on the floor, the possibilities are endless.

ICBC climb 15% on debut

Shares in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have risen 14.6% on its Hong Kong debut, following the world's biggest flotation.

The share price closed at 3.52 Hong Kong dollars ($0.45; 23.9p) on Friday from its start price of HK$3.07.

The bank, China's largest lender, raised as much as $21.9bn from its dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

China's surging economy, which is set to grow by more than 10% this year, has created strong demand for bank shares.

Shares were at one stage 18% above thier opening value.

Four of China's banks have floated since last year, however, there are fears that banks have been overvalued, with questions raised over levels of bad debt.

I dont understand with Chinese monthers.

When they don't get their way, they go berserk and expect teh world to accomodate them. Sorry fools, your daughters do not belong to you! And you are not so beautiful anymore, so much that you wonder why people are not as agreeable to your rubbish as they were in your prime. And you can't beat or scream at your children to make them bow to your wishes. Likewise, they should be responsble for the folly of their actions! Simple logic, is it not. A mother's love I cannot understand, but could it be an excuse for a mother's pride? Are we just trophies of our parents? When you look in mirror, do you know who you are? Or does the mirror tell you who you are.

Paycheck Calculator

I was just browsing around and came across a site with a list of paycheck calculators. Pretty useful for a few different reasons, including budgeting your funds.

Check it out: http://www.payroll-taxes.com/calculators.htm

I was drunk the whole week

I was drunk the whole week. That's about it.

Just kidding.

It was my wonderful girlfriend's birthday on saturday I was busy with planning, school work and misc other stuff the whole week. After everything, my net worth went down a bit, but hey, it's worth it. I saved money where I could, but it's her special day. That's also the difference between being frugal and cheap. People dislike cheap people, not frugal people. Cheap people are the ones that won't give a friend a lift without demanding gas money or whatnot from them. Frugal people are the kind that pack their own lunches instead of buying food at work/school/etc. Frugal people dont' mind spending money on the people they care about. I'm frugal, not cheap. That's about it, I'll get back to my irregular schedule of posting at odd hours (but more often!) folks.

Cingular to offer music to cell phone subscribers

Cingular Wireless plans to team-up with XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc (XMSR.O) and Web music subscription services Napster Inc., and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO.O), to let its customers play songs on their cell phones, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The move by Cingular, jointly owned by AT&T Inc (T.N) and BellSouth Corp (BLS.N), follows the launch of a virtual wireless music store by rival Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N) last year, and Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications (VZ.N) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L), early this year.

Wireless providers have been gearing up to deliver everything from videos to music on cell phones, aiming to profit from growing demand for portable digital music players like Apple Computer Inc.'s (AAPL.O) iPod.

Cingular will let consumers transfer music from their computer to their phone from services such as Yahoo and Napster as well as Web based music channels from satellite radio firm XM, people familiar with the matter said.

Yahoo's music service is called Music Unlimited. Dimensional Associates Inc runs eMusic. Cingular, the largest U.S. wireless service, did not comment apart from saying that it planned to make an announcement on Thursday.

Sprint and Verizon Wireless let customers download songs over the air while they are on the go and also let them transfer songs from their computer to their phone.

Because Cingular is coming to the market later than its rivals, analysts said it made sense for them to ally with subscription services to give consumers a wider choice.

"It would be a different approach to what Sprint and Verizon are doing, which is welcome because as the third one to enter the market they need to show differentiation," said Ovum analyst Roger Entner.

Some analysts had expected Cingular to sell a new music phone that Apple is widely anticipated to launch next year. Cingular started selling last year a phone compatible with Apple's iTunes music store, but the device was overshadowed by the launch of another Apple product

But Cingular's adoption of rival music services pits it against Apple's iTunes and could complicate any new partnership between the two. As a result, Apple might first seek to sell its music phone in Europe rather than the United States, Entner said.

"Now (Cingular is) betting on a partnership with Napster, Yahoo and others that are much more dependent on it," said Entner. "It doesn't close the door (to Apple) but it strengthens Cingular's negotiating position."

An Apple representative declined comment.

Cingular representative Mark Siegel said Cingular's relationship with Apple "is a strong and important one."

Sprint said its customers have bought 8 million songs since it launched its music store around this time last year.

Microsoft strong profit

Microsoft Corp said on Thursday first-quarter net profit (for the July-June financial year), operating income and revenue increased 11 percent from a year ago, boosted partly by surging demand for its Xbox 360 game device.

The double-digit results beat market expectations and came at the high end of company forecasts.

"It was a very good start to what we are expecting to be an excellent year," Microsoft chief financial officer Chris Liddell said during a conference call with financial analysts. "We continue to expect full-year double-digit revenue growth in 2007."

Demand for Microsoft server and tools software was "particularly strong" and the company's coffers benefited from the increasing popularity of the Xbox 360 video gaming console and related products, Liddell said.

The Redmond, Washington-based software colossus reported net profit for the first three months of its business year of US$3.48 billion, or US$0.35 per share.

Operating income for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was US$4.47 billion and revenue totaled US$10.81 billion.

Net income for the same period last year was US$3.14 billion, or US$0.29 per share.

Wall Street analysts had forecast Microsoft's quarterly profit would be US$0.31 per share on revenue of US$10.75 billion.

Revenue in the Entertainment and Devices Division soared 70 percent, driven by demand for Xbox 360 consoles, software, peripherals and Xbox Live.

Microsoft has sold 6 million Xbox Live systems since the console was released a year ago and Liddell predicted the number would jump to 10 million by the end of the year-end holiday shopping season.

The company expected Xbox division sales to soar 33 percent in the coming financial year.

Microsoft was also seeing online advertising revenue increase quarterly and was on course to reclaim all the ground it lost after shifting to a new ad platform last year, according to Liddell.

Microsoft reduced its earnings expectations for the fiscal second quarter ending Dec. 31 by US$1.5 billion to reflect a likely drop in revenue due to the delayed release of its new Vista operating system, which is due out in January.

Liddell raised the company's revenue expectations for the fiscal year from US$50 billion to US$50.9 billion, however, based on strong Xbox sales and the planned new releases of Windows and Office.