Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

December 24, 2008 on 7:36 am | In Economy | 5 Comments

Just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas. May your Christmas be filled with the Spirit of Christmas, family, and fun.

Thank you for spending time with us.

Looking forward to 2009 and all the possibilities that it holds.

Update 2/2/2009. It has been crazy busy around here, but I came across a site with some good solid posts on it. Give it a read, Private Banking

cd :O)
Chris Duncan

New Historic Lows

December 16, 2008 on 7:34 am | In Bank CD Rates, Economy | 5 Comments

Today the 30-year treasury bond dropped to below 3% (2.95%) for the first time in history.

The Fed is also poised to lower the target rate for Fed Funds to 0.5%. Some think they might even go lower, but I think they want to leave room for another cut if the economy doesn’t start improving.

6-month CD rates will most likely fall to the 2.00% to 2.50% range. 1-year rates will probably be between 3.00% to 3.50%. The yield curve will probably be somewhat flat on the 2-Year to 4-Year, topping out around 3.70% to 3.80%. Finally the 5-year will probably slip to 4.25% to 4.50%.

One strategy that we have helped people with is investing in low penalty CDs. You may want to consider investing some funds in 5-year CDs, but look for 90-Day Early Withdrawal Penalties. You’ll pick-up some yield over the shorter-term CDs and if rates turn around in the next year or two, it won’t be that expensive to close the CD and move it to one with a better rate.

Hopefully, I’ll have a couple of more posts before the New Year. If not, have a Merry Christmas.

Countrywide Bank has slowed down their first mortage program, but are beginning to offer a Countrywide Reverse Mortgage program. I’m not sure how thrilled I am by that.

cd :O)

It’s Refer Your Corporate Friend Day — Get Paid $150

December 5, 2008 on 8:16 am | In Bank CD Rates, Economy, Long-term CDs, Today's Best Rate | No Comments

Update: 12/09/08 — This offer is still good. But rates went down a little since last week.

We’ve seen rates continue to fall this week. But one rate has remained high, and it doesn’t have a fee. However, there are a couple of catches. First, you have to be a Financial Institution such as a bank or credit union, or you have to be a corporation. The bank doesn’t accept personal funds.

So here is the deal. The rate for 3-years is 4.50%, the rate for 4-years is 4.80%, and the rate for 5-years is 5.05%. The bank requires $100,000. It is FDIC insured. I can’t give out the name on the blog, but the bank is very healthy. They have a 5-star rating on BankRate.com.

If you refer a bank, credit union, or corporate friend to us and they open up a $100,000 CD for one of the above terms, we’ll pay you $150.00. That’s right, we’ll pay you $150.00. If for some reason, they already have a CD with this bank, but they do a future trade with us, we will pay you when the future trade is completed.

I don’t know how long the rate will be good for, but I do know it is good for today.

Our number is 800-234-4605. We can also be reached using our contact page. As you can tell from the number of blog posts of late, I’ve been very busy, but I hate to see people miss out on a great rate.

This offer is good for 12/5/08. We’ll extend it if the bank keeps the rate up.