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Thread: ING Direct ... I would like your opinions

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    Default ING Direct ... I would like your opinions

    Since I've become legit... I've always wanted to start a few saving accounts with ING Direct (one for my first home, a misc. one and a pure savings only one).

    However I'm wondering if anyone else out there has had a good/bad/neutral experience with their SAVINGS MAXIMISER?

    Also... what do you think about their Managed Funds? I wouldn't mind trying that out or should I wait until mid-year to do so?

    http://www.ingdirect.com.au/


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    Default Re: ING Direct ... I would like your opinions

    V,

    ING is great because they offer the option of sweep accounts where they will take a portion of your checking, or all of it if you want, and directly deposit it into the savings/investment account of your choice. This is particularly good if you are travelling and have to open different accounts at local banks. (Australia may be different from the US with local banks?) Pick a good safe money market or Federal Bond fund to park your savings in until you have enough to start serious investing. Your ING representative can help you with the choices and with dollar cost averaging strategies. They also offer retirement accounts. (Again, Australia may be different in the tax treatment of those issues from the US.) Basically I like ING. I use American Express because they were offering similar services in the US when I was setting things up, but I've heard good things about ING.

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    Default Re: ING Direct ... I would like your opinions

    i would like to say that putting money in a bank account for interest makes no sense for anybody but the banker. They take your money, give you 3% interest, then loan it out at up to 19%. Pretty good setup for them. After inflation and taxes, if you are not making at least 6% on your money, you are actually losing money. There are some good, relatively safe investments that i like like the Vanguard Index, which has consistently outperformed 75% of it's competition. I am considering getting into the stock market also, like 20% of my savings in companies i know will be doing well in years to come, like NEXTEL fo instance.(now is a good time to buy nextel stock, it is coming back) Also rental property is an excellent investment that outperformes ALL other investments over time. if you keep your money in money markets and bond funds it will be safe, but it will do VETY LITTLE for you. BANKS love investments like this because they make a commission of of them, and they want the money in their bank. NOBODY gets rich without taking risks with their money, so take educated risks, and smart investments will have nice returns.

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    Default Re: ING Direct ... I would like your opinions

    The major negative I see is that ING charges a 1.75% management fee on their sweep investment funds, which is majorly high for their "standard funds". It's a pretty great deal though if you use the True Blue package to actively trade individual Australian stocks and the 1.75% covers buying and selling commissions. I just bought some shares of Australia's Gold Bullion Ltd. (first stock of its kind in the world BTW) and the total buying commission (from the US) was like 3%.

    Ryan, I'd disagree with you about the attractiveness of rental property (or rental property REITs) this year. Between the huge state budget deficits guaranteeing fat property tax increases and major employer layoffs/downsizing, you need to be extremely selective as to which areas the property is located in. Granted, you can't go wrong owning and renting a Florida beach house, but i wouldn't want to be heavily into a west coast REIT right now.

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    Default Re: ING Direct ... I would like your opinions

    Thank you everyone :-)

    If anyone else wants to contribute their opinion - please do. This way we all can learn.

    I've decided that I want to open two "Savings Maximiser" accounts at the moment: A "Life Savings" one and another which will help me save up for my first home (or even investment money).


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    Default Re: ING Direct ... I would like your opinions

    melonie, reguardless of downsizing, layoffs, ect people are still going to need a place to live. and the fat raise in property taxes, you know what that means to me, some people are going to be selling their homes because many people are broke as it is and property tax increases will push them over the top. where will these people be moving ?? to apartments !! this is the PERFECT market to buy income property, you will not convince me otherwise.

    it comes down to this, people will always rent housing, no matter what, and the worse the economy gets, the less mortgages the bank will be giving out, and that means MORE renters.


    if the rents will be a little higher it will come down hard on the working class, as it always does, but they will work harder and longer to pay for housing, or they will be homeless. bad for them, but good for the landlord. real estate is and always will be the number one best investment there ever was.

    where do you think the rich are generating their cash from these days ? not the stock market, certainly not from interest from their bank, but from REAL ESTATE



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    Default Re: ING Direct ... I would like your opinions

    Well this is the first time I have posted to this site, instead of the blue.

    Just to add my two cents, I have been fairly happy with my rental properties, they have consistently done well.

    I agree that people always need a place to live so housing is obviously a necessity.
    I also agree that it must be a carefully considered investment as each market experiences different pressures, and is therefore unique.

    One big advantage to investment property is that you are using "other peoples money". AS a simplified example...if you buy a property with 10% down and its worth 100,000...and lets assume that the rent covers expenses (break even)...if the market increases by 3% in a year then your 10,000 is now worth 13,000. a good rate of return if you ask me.

    Before everyone jumps all over this, I know that this is equity not liquid ...and we haven't taken into consideration selling expenses like realtors etc.
    But for a longer term investment, to me real estate makes lots of sense..(or is that dollars and cents??)
    sorry couldn't resist

    p.s. or rather back on topic..we have ING as well here in Canada, and a far as a forced savings plan goes it seems to be a good way to discipline oneself...its so easy after all to overspend when we are in a cash business.

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    Default Re: ING Direct ... I would like your opinions

    I use a little ING regular savings account that regularly debits from my "local" bank - it's a great way to get cash out of sight and into a savings account. When I've wanted to transfer some back, it's always gone smoothly as well. No complaints here - it's a good holding pen until you decide what you want to do w/a more significant amount of money, since the interest rate they offer is much higher than what you would typically get from your local bank for a normal savings account.

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    Default Re:ING Direct ... I would like your opinions

    I just wanted to update my original posting...

    It has been quite some time since I originally opened up an account with ING Direct in re: their Savings Maximiser accounts.

    I too am happy with them. It is a good way to keep money "out of sight" and making it a little harder (not much but just a little) to gain access to it since I have to connect to the internet and access my account to transfer funds from the account to my normal banking account.

    It is where I have put money that I don't mind having "sitting around" such as money I have set aside to pay taxes (as well as accountant fees come tax time), for money I set aside to pay off a loan for a tax-effective investment I made in the 2002-2003 tax year, somewhere to put my donation money (I put aside 5% of my weekly total of earnings including all tips to donate to my favourite non-profit organisations) ... etc

    It isn't a good investment vehicle to increase my wealth as the returns aren't high yet the rate of interest they give you is above that of banks and they do not charge you to transfer money into/out of your nominated bank accounts... it is a good way to save money as well as a good "holding pen" (if you have $$ you want to set aside and just have interest accumulate on because you don't need to use it).

    I'm satisfied with them.


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    Default Re:ING Direct ... I would like your opinions

    One big advantage to investment property is that you are using "other peoples money". AS a simplified example...if you buy a property with 10% down and its worth 100,000...and lets assume that the rent covers expenses (break even)...if the market increases by 3% in a year then your 10,000 is now worth 13,000. a good rate of return if you ask me.
    Ryan and Canuck, the caution I recommended can also be fit to this example. Assume that Ryan's point is true, a rising percentage of homeowners are pushed over the edge by layoff, rising real estate taxes etc. and a rising number of single family homes hit the market. At the same time potential buyers are cautious because they also already are heavily in debt, are insecure about future employment etc. More product on the market and fewer buyers can translate into falling prices (just look at used cars!). But in this case it's the real estate market that falls - let's say by 10%. This has happened before, with Houston property values falling by some 30% in the early 90's.

    So here you are with $10,000 invested in a property you paid $100,000 for but whose current market value has declined to $90,000. You also continue to owe the same $90,000 balance on the original mortgage. At this point you have lost all of your $10,000 equity in the property. If a boiler explodes, if tenants trash apartments, if a codes inspector is called in etc. you'll find yourself in a position where you can't borrow additional money on the property to cover repair costs. No repairs means no (or reduced) tenants thus no (or reduced) cash flow, but mortgage payments and tax bills keep rolling in. This creates a situation of having to come up with additional cash from an independent source in order to avoid losing your original investment (or even more than your original investment if the sale of the unrepaired property won't even produce enough cash to pay off the mortgage balance). Leverage cuts both ways !

    PS those financially distressed people who have been driven into bankruptcy and forced to sell their single family house at a reduced price will indeed need to rent an apartment. But they won't be renting it from a private landlord like you. It's much more probable that they'll be renting a US government subsidized HUD apartment for 1/4th of the average area monthly rent price.

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