A few events to remember for next week:

Goldman Sachs reports earnings - March 18th, 8:30am
Goldman Sachs finished out 2007 in good shape with shares exceeding analysts predictions. However, Goldman’s true isolation from mortgage backed securities will be revealed in earnings for the next several quarters. With the bail out of Bear Stearns, I’m sure the street will be on pins and needles to see how well Goldman is fairing in this volatile market place.

Federal Open Market Committee meeting - March 18th, 9:00am .
Traders in interest rate futures have a 3/4% cut in the fed funds rate in mind and increasing evidence that the U.S. economy may be …

Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS: chart, web, Y!) is in the business of providing investment banking, and investment management services, primarily to corporations and financial institutions.

Goldman has been one of the few big investment banking and financial services firms that has actually held up well through the the fallout of the credit crisis and the housing slump. It’s low involvement in small residential mortgages and favorable short trades among the rest of the sector has worked in its favor.

The black sheep mentality compared to the rest of the sector has held the stock …

As expected, Emigrant Direct has followed suit on lowering interest rates for its online American Dream Savings Account to 4.30%.  I can’t say that I didn’t see this coming, but the dropping rates are driving me to start maneuvering money back into the stock market.

I’m starting to rethink my goal of having $50,000 in the account to generate some secure passive income.  While it’s still a good goal to have, the money I have allocated for that account may work harder elsewhere, like in high yield ETF’s.

I’ve already got the mandatory 6 months worth of expenses stored up in savings, and am now strategizing on how to put my money …

Emigrant Direct has preempted any fed rate cut Bernanke could throw at us. Within the last couple of days, Emigrant bank has cut their online savings rate to 4.55%. Still better than I can get at Bank of America, but it’s making online savings accounts look less appetizing when compared to Canadian Royalty Trusts.

Sure, the money is guaranteed at Emigrant, so it’s still a great place to stash emergency funds, but the dropping rate could offset some of the risk in investing in stocks.

Question for the day: At what percentage rate do you quit stashing free cash in the savings account and contribute it to a online …

I called my banker yesterday after I started thinking about how I was going to finance another rental property. When I call this guy my banker, he IS the bank, as in, he OWNS the bank. A good guy to know, indeed!
One of the benefits to doing business with a small town bank is that you know the bank and they know you. There is no pre-approval as long as your logic is sound and the margin is wide. If you have the cash flow to support the investment, they’ll lend you the money.
So the …

It was only a matter of time I suppose. Emigrant Direct dropped their rate to 4.65%, down from 4.75%. To be honest, it wasn’t nearly as large of a cut as I was expecting considering how much the Fed has dropped rates lately.

Emigrant Direct’s rate is still higher than the best Bank of America has offered me, so the decision on where to stash my emergency fund cash is really a no-brainer.

I decided I needed a new savings goal. I mean cash, cold hard cash.

I already contribute the allowable amount to both my wife and I’s Roth IRA, and we both get the full matching contribution to our employers retirement plans. The problem is, that money is slated to be used in 30 years or more.

Some people call this an emergency fund. I already have one of those too.

I’m looking for a non-committed cash reserve. Something that will make me a solid 4-5% return in an Emigrant Direct account, and that will provide some completely passive “luxury” money, or “Mad Money” …

I’m slowly buying in to the paperless world. I’ve converted several of my various accounts and utilities to electronic statements.

I’ve been slow to adapt to this concept, as I’ve always been a fan of paper records. I’ve got all my statements sorted out by year going back to who knows when, even for accounts that have long been closed.

However, over the past month or so, I’ve noticed that I really don’t even look at them any more. For my bank accounts, I generally review my ledger online if not every day, then every other day. If there’s a discrepancy, I …

It comes as no surprise that EmigrantDirect has lowered it’s American Dream Savings account interest rate to 4.75%. A 0.3% reduction in the APY.

It’s one of the adverse effects of Mr. Bernanke lowering the fed funds rate (of which I believe he overdid), and makes the stock market look more attractive to investors at a time where savings needs to be promoted.

Of course, you can’t have your cake and eat it too…

At 4.75%, EmigrantDirect still beats my Bank of America money market account, so it’s still the place I go to stash cash for a rainy day.

I got a statement in the mail today from Bank of America indicating I have made too many withdrawals from a money market account.

I am allowed 6 transfers out of the account, of which only three may be made by check, draft, or CheckCard. Evidently, when I set up my Emigrant Direct account, the account verification process made two individual withdrawals to remove the verification deposits from the account.

So now I will get dinged $10 for each additional withdrawal I make from the account.

The way I see it, Bank of America doesn’t pay enough interest to keep …