Friday, March 28, 2014

WiseBanyan Account Opened

I opened my account at WiseBanyan.

Timeline:
3/19 (Wed) - Received invitation email, opened account
3/24 (Mon) - Money withdrawn from linked account
3/25 (Tue) - Shares in ETFs purchased
3/27 (Thu) - Received email that everything is ready

From 3/19 to 3/24, I was able to login, but there was nothing to see as my account wasn't ready. On 3/25, I was finally presented with the dashboard, but my money was supposedly in cash. It was not until 3/27 when I got the all clear email that I was able to see that my money had been invested according to my asset allocation. I was glad to see that they actually invested my money the day after withdrawing it. Kudos to WiseBanyan for not sitting on my money and earning themselves some extra interest.

All in all, it took a bit longer than I hoped/expected. There's not much to see once you login, so don't get too excited. This is MPT after all. Screenshot below (blocked out some personal information and numbers)


The screenshot also shows the ETFs that they use:
VTI, VEA, VWO, LQD, VNQ, TIP, VGIT

Let me know if you have any questions! I'll post another review at a later date once I've tried adding more money.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

WiseBanyan

WiseBanyan will be offering free investing. They invest in ETFs for you using Modern Portfolio Theory. Similar to Wealthfront and Betterment, your answers to a survey are used to gauge your risk tolerance. A variety of Vanguard and iShares ETFs are used.. They will also do automatic rebalancing.

Sounds similar to Wealthfront/Betterment, but no fees.

Here's my referral link if you would like to help me get to the front of the list!

https://wisebanyan.com/?ref=XrLQ51
Opened my account already.
Check out my report on account opening here!

Monday, March 10, 2014

Homeowner's Insurance: Cancelled Personal Property Replacement Coverage (HO-29)

I cancelled Personal Property Replacement Coverage (HO-29) on my homeowner's policy recently. WHY ?

1) Having HO-29 increased my annual premium by 25%.
2) I do not have expensive personal property.

Prior to canceling, I researched a bit online but was not able to find any analysis. There was analysis on choosing replacement coverage or actual value for a house. The consensus for that seems to be replacement coverage is better for a house, since if it burns down, you want to be able to reconstruct.

Does the same logic apply for personal property ? I'm not sure, but the coverage seems to cost a lot more.

Let's say we pay $500 a year for coverage on a $250,000 house. Now if you have some personal property worth.. $25,000, then I would expect the premium to be only $50. But it was costing $150! Not worth it to me. In addition, I don't have expensive personal property. Washer, dryer, refrigerator. Perhaps if I get better furniture.

Am I being penny wise and pound foolish?