I Choose Scottrade

In mid-November, I started a holiday job at a bookshop (hence the protracted silence part deux!). I figured the retail experience would do double duty by: (1) recommending me for a future job in publishing; (2) paying bills & keep my living expenses from gnawing at my emergency fund. No word on how the experience will affect my future career yet, but thanks to the extra paycheck, I was able to open & fund a Scottrade account this week.

Building an investment portfolio is something that's been on my goals checklist for months (almost a year?) now...I started with funding my 401(k) and a Roth IRA, as well as purchasing some Vanguard index funds. Now, I'm hoping to use the Scottrade account for adding more risk to my "big picture" and buying actual stocks.

Signing up for an account at Scottrade was easy, as I had a friend send me a referral via email that earned each of us 3 free trades that expire within 6 months. After dropping by a local Scottrade office to fund the account with a $500 check (the minimum account opening balance), I only waited a day for my account to be credited and to begin trading! (Unfortunately, the market's just now going sour...guess I'll just have to buy & hold!)

If you'd like to take advantage of the recent downhill for stocks as well, e-mail me for a Scottrade referral. And don't forget to check out some of the basic differences between various discount brokers in this Fool.com article - not comprehensive, but still helpful!


Update (5/24/2008): Love the personal attention factor, really I do, but I don't particularly appreciate Scottrade's mid-day "check-up" calls. I'll log back on to trade when I'm good & ready goshdarnit!