Last month was actually the third anniversary of this site. On some occasions, it seems like I’ve been blogging forever, while on other days, it feels like it was just yesterday when I began doing this as a hobby. The past year seemed to fly by pretty fast!

Well, to mark the occasion, which also appears to have coincided with our three millionth visitor to the site(!), I’d like to host a giveaway of my favorite budgeting tool: YNAB (You Need A Budget) personal budget software. I’ve mentioned this desktop software package a few times on this site and it’s no secret that I like what it has to offer. While free budgeting tools seem to be the rage these days, those of you who feel more comfortable about doing your money management in your own secure desktop environment will appreciate a tool like YNAB, which has proven to be a great alternative to the more popular Quicken and the now defunct MS Money.

YNAB Pro Download Giveaway Details

YNAB’s current version is called YNAB Pro, and it’s typically available for download at a regular price of $49.95 (you can get it for a 10% discount by using this link and applying the coupon code “digerati” when you order). However, today, I will be giving away free copies of YNAB plus a few other items:

1. A copy of YNAB Pro software (for 2 recipients). Note that YNAB Pro doesn’t run on the Mac though a future version of YNAB to be released shortly, will be. Winners will receive a free upgrade to YNAB 3 when it comes out.

2. One Lending Club t-shirt (size L) bundled with one financial book (for 3 recipients).

As a blogger, I receive a lot of books to give away. So for this opportunity, I’ll be sending out the following books: Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets, Killing Sacred Cows and 10,0001 Ways To Live Large On A Small Budget to three readers. Each book will come with a t-shirt from Lending Club, a top peer to peer lending network. For more information on both Lending Club and YNAB, you can check out this article.

How To Join Our Giveaway

Here are some (hopefully) simple instructions for participating in this giveaway:

1. If you haven’t already, subscribe to my feed here via RSS or email.

2. You’ll find a special code at the bottom of the articles that you’ll start receiving from the feed.

3. Leave me a comment below with your email address and that code, and they’ll count as 2 entries to the giveaway (you won’t see these comments published here, but I will be counting them).

4. Existing subscribers will find that code already at the bottom of each new post received through the feed, so you can just enter a comment here with that code.

5. Alternatively, you can leave a comment below (this post) that discusses your best tip to manage your budget during the holiday season. This comment will garner you 1 entry to the giveaway.

6. I’ll run the giveaway for a few days, then I’ll announce the winners and contact them personally for shipping information (U.S. residents only).

My Big Thanks

Thanks again to everyone for helping this blog make it through yet another year in the personal finance online universe . A heartfelt thanks to all you awesome readers, subscribers, visitors, commentators, fellow bloggers and advertisers for all your support! I hope that I, as well as wonderful guest writers who’ve published their work through this site, have been able to contribute something positive to your personal finance journey.

YNAB Pro Download Giveaway at The Digerati Life!

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci

Here’s a strong online savings bank offering decent savings account rates.

Stories about failing banks make front page news, eclipsing a lot of the more positive events that occur in the banking industry. During a time when the economy has been unkind to us and especially to our friends in the financial industry, it’s welcome news to hear about the success stories. So I’d like to give this update on EverBank, which is one of those institutions that has bucked the current economic trend.

Top Online Savings Bank: Why EverBank Remains Solid

EverBank is actually the first online savings bank I took an interest in. I mentioned them on my site a while back, while covering a fascinating investment topic, which was on how to hedge for inflation. During my research, I stumbled on EverBank as the one bank that offered products, particularly high interest savings accounts, that addressed some of my diversification needs (through their foreign currency products). Well, I’m happy to report that they’re actually one of the banks that has done extremely well during the past year:

EverBank recently reported positive earnings gains with a third quarter net income increase of 197% over last year’s third quarter numbers. Also, the growth this past quarter is around 37% compared to the previous quarter of this year. EverBank’s done particularly well in their mortgage banking business, showing strong mortgage asset portfolio returns.

On top of this, EverBank has been looking to make acquisitions; they’ve actually just recently acquired a financial company called Tygris Commercial Finance Group Inc, which they targeted for diversification purposes. The acquisition is expected to provide more commercial exposure to EverBank, whose primary business is in retail banking. They also believe that this transaction will “have a strong impact on their earnings and will increase their capital base by around $470 million.” It’s obvious that EverBank is doing more than a few things right here: they were one of those institutions that sidestepped the subprime mortgage meltdown thereby keeping their powder dry. Now they are in a great position to grow: there’s no better time than today, to be in a position of financial strength.

This online bank is a solid company that caters to a “mass affluent” customer base; if you can afford their minimum balances (typically $1,500 per account), then they’re a great choice for your basic banking needs. They’re also known for relatively higher yields compared to their retail banking counterparts. Here are just some of their more popular savings products:

With higher yields, low expenses, excellent customer service, quality products and strong fundamentals, I consider EverBank as a top choice for savers. Here’s where to visit their site for more details and information.

Top Online Savings Bank: Why EverBank Remains Solid

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci

Investing simply means putting your money to good use with the expectation that you’ll receive a return or reward for doing so.

A lot of us don’t have much money to spare. Sometimes you may find yourself with an extra $100; maybe someone finally paid you back for a long-forgotten debt (it’s happened to me!) or your mom sent you over a cash gift for your birthday. Or chances are, it’s just an extra $100 rattling around in your bank account that could find better use somewhere else.

A few days ago, I published a guest post on where to invest extra cash and savings. Well that post inspired me to reflect on how I’d personally make use of a little extra money.

Got $100? Best Ways To Invest Small Amounts of Money

1. Set up an automatic investment program.
I started an automatic investment program at a discount broker around a couple of decades ago. If my memory serves me right, I committed to placing $50 a month in a few mutual funds that represented diversified asset classes. I figured that I could afford to spare at least $50 a month on building a portfolio, and I found the process of choosing funds, deciding my allocation and finally starting an investment program pretty fulfilling.

While I’m not totally sure how much I’ve put into my investments through the years, I do know that my net worth has grown over a hundred times since I started investing. A lot of this I’d attribute to just “automated investing and saving”. This is something you can definitely do yourself by contacting online brokers, mutual fund companies and banks, and then setting up such programs at these institutions.

2. Invest in yourself.
Here’s one more way I’d gladly spend $100: on myself. Of course, our opinions of “how to spend on oneself” can all vary greatly. You may think of investing in yourself as spending to improve your health, your looks or your well being, which are all quite important to maintain your happiness and health. But what I mean here is that I would use $100 to invest in my “money generating” potential. For instance, investing in one’s education or in trying to improve your finances through personal finance classes or seminars would be money well spent.

3. Invest in a small business.
While I started an online business pretty much by accident, I realize now that if I had actually planned to become an entrepreneur, I would have looked into which businesses had the smallest outlay while promising to yield some reasonable returns down the road. Interestingly, there are still great ideas out there that you can pursue for a mere $100. Here’s a tip: online business ideas are notoriously cheap to start.

For instance, you can try to make money blogging. The stories of many bloggers (including my own) are testaments to how this can be done. I actually spent $0 when I first started blogging. It’s been several years now and my hobby has evolved into an online business: I got a few domains, hunted for the best web host and invested in a web design. The rest is sweat equity. The good news is that it took me 1.5 years to take the leap and quit my day job, and I’ve been blogging full time now for another 1.5 years. That’s 3 years as an accidental online entrepreneur and it’s been a fun and rewarding ride.

In addition, this change also spurred a lifestyle change for me which improved my health tremendously. All these results for less than $100!

4. Pay down your bad debt.
If you are carrying any amount of bad debt — whether it be credit card debt or other installment loans, you should funnel any extra money you have towards these obligations. Paying down debt which charges you X% in interest is like “earning” X% interest on that money you apply to the debt. If you carry a credit card balance, tossing $100 at it is always a fantastic idea.

These are some of my favorite $100 investment ideas. I’d love to find out how you’d spend, use or invest $100. If you’ve got some great ideas on where you’d invest small amounts of money, please feel free to share!

Best Ways To Invest Small Amounts of Money

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci

Did you love the book “I Will Teach You To Be Rich”? Even if you haven’t had a chance to read it, I’m hoping that you’ll find this post helpful.

This is a time sensitive post and you’ll know why in a second. You may have noticed the new prominent banner I have on my sidebar, advertising the first of its kind personal finance boot camp. This interesting online course is courtesy of Ramit Sethi, the top financial blogger behind the blog, I Will Teach You To Be Rich.com.

Well here’s what this is about. I’m one of several bloggers who’s helping Ramit get the word out on an interactive online personal finance course which will be offered from November 9 through December 20. You can consider it to be the natural offshoot of his New York best selling book “I Will Teach You To Be Rich”, where he covers a lot of ground on key topics such as banking, saving, budgeting, investing and earning more. Here are some particulars about the boot camp:

I Will Teach You To Be Rich Boot Camp Details

Who: Ramit Sethi will be hosting and will be guiding you to take action on your finances. He will be answering your questions over the course of the event.
What: 6-week online boot camp to help people take ACTION and manage their money. Includes coursework on credit cards, debt, automating money, picking the right accounts, investments, and day-to-day money questions.
Guest speakers: Also includes guest speakers who are tops in their respective fields (online marketing, entrepreneurship, financial services, job coaching). They’ll be speaking about entrepreneurship, earning more, finding a mentor, landing your dream job, etc.
Cost: $199 $149 only after $50 rebate
No Risk: There’s a 30 day money back guarantee associated with this program, no questions asked.

For those interested, you can only register between now and Saturday, November 7 at 12 AM PST. Also, attendance is limited and may close prior to Friday once the boot camp fills up.

Why I Think This Boot Camp Rocks

Ramit is a highly visible blogger and writer in the personal finance space. He’s highly regarded in the financial blogosphere and has written a New York Times best selling book on finance (you can check it out here). He’s a pretty energetic and passionate guy who’d like to see you achieve results. I actually find his energy (and conviction) contagious: you can see him in action in this video, where he dishes out some financial tips on how to get paid what you’re worth:

As for the boot camp, here’s one simple reason for attending it: maybe it’s not enough that we simply read about what to do through blogs, books and newsletters. If you’d like to give your finances higher priority, then why not take action and start making things happen? You can do this in the context of a guided process in a peer setting, where you’ll be in the company of some strong financial advocates.

I think that the $199 cost of the program will pay for itself many times over when you realize that by its end, you’ll have applied certain tips and put financial plans in action (finally) that you wouldn’t have done otherwise. Remember that time is money, so the sooner you implement your financial plans and take control of your money, the better off you’ll be.

Personal Finance Boot Camp Agenda and Schedule

As far as what you can expect from the boot camp, let me try to list them here. Here is the course schedule:

And if you’re curious about how a sample week will run, here is a course outline for Week 1, where you’ll be focusing on how to optimize the use of your credit cards:

• Homework Assignment: Make a list of credit cards, balances, interest rates. (This will be collected and checked off by IWT assistants.)
• Group and Forum Discussion Topics with Support Materials: Six Commandments of Credit Cards, Common Mistakes to Avoid, Credit Card Tips, Card Negotiation Scripts
• Ramit’s Tuesday Live Cast: Ramit talks about big wins with your credit cards, how to find the best deals and takes member’s questions.
• Live Guest Speaker Thursday: Andy Jolls from VideoCreditScore.com talks about easy ways to improve your credit score and answers member’s questions.
• Check Lists: Find out your credit score and check your credit report, set up your credit cards, make sure you’re handling your card effectively, develop a debt plan.

As you can see, it’s a pretty comprehensive course and so there is one thing that this boot camp will require of you: a time commitment. Since it will be running for 6 weeks, with each week dedicated to a given financial topic, you’ll need to set aside some time to tackle this. The estimated amount of time you’ll need to get the most out of this program? Around 5 to 10 hours per week.

Final Words

A lot of us have been harping about the fact that “personal finance is not being taught in high schooI”. Well if we missed the boat on finance during our school days, then perhaps a crash course may help spur us on the right track or may serve as a reality check to help validate the financial moves we’ve been making. I really think that this boot camp is pretty valuable. It’s something that I wish had been available to me when I was in my 20’s; while there’s no substitute for experience, I do think that something like this would have helped expedite my learning and would have confirmed whether I was on the right track. If I had this kind of opportunity back then, I believe that I could have avoided some missteps that ended up costing me big in my earlier years.

Not only do I expect this boot camp to be inspiring as you work with others who can serve as mentors, but it’s also a program that promises you results — if you do the work involved. It’s one that will make you accountable, which will work especially well in a group setting. There won’t be any excuses this time, right?

I Will Teach You To Be Rich Boot Camp: Improve Your Financial IQ

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci

Have you got some extra cash you’ve squirreled away, waiting to be put to good use? If you’ve got your debt paid down and your emergency fund taken care of, and you’re fortunate enough to have additional disposable income or a windfall to work with, then here are a few ideas about where to put that cash.

Savings account rates are not exactly where we want them right now. Even the best online savings accounts these days are yielding relatively lower returns; Bankrate surveys show that the best cd rates aren’t too exciting, with the average yield for a three-month CD lingering at 0.86 percent. There is an understandable fear to invest in stocks and the mattress is no longer an acceptable option (has it ever been?). How can one obtain some decent returns in this close to zero prime rate environment?

Image from ColoradoEnergyNews.com

Where To Invest Extra Cash and Savings Today

1. Invest In A Checking Account

Recently, I discovered quite by accident, a regional high yield checking account (also known as a rewards checking account) that was returning up to 4.25% APY if certain qualifications are met. For example, the bank asks that you:

• Have no more than $25,000 in the account to earn that interest rate (.95% will be paid on any amount above that limit).
• Make a minimum of 10 debit card purchases per month. ATM withdrawals do not count.
• Sign in to your online account at least once a month.
• Manage your account electronically. The bank won’t be sending out paper statements with everything done electronically.

The great aspects of this offer are that it requires no minimum balance, and offers a free ATM and debit card, FDIC insurance, $500 overdraft privilege and free online banking. If you don’t comply with the requirements, your APY drops precipitously to 0.10 %. For more details, check out CheckingFinder.com.

2. Consider The Stock Market Carefully

If you don’t feel comfortable about opening a free high yield checking account in a distant bank, there are still other options. You could look into investing in the stock market in a prudent fashion. If you haven’t done so already, consider index funds.

For instance, popular personal finance guru, Suze Orman, recommends a couple of great index funds: the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) or its mutual fund cousin, Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSMX). These highly diversified funds can represent the core of any long term investor’s portfolio. Of course, invest only what you don’t need for an emergency and be prepared to wait (patiently) for solid returns on your investments.

3. Increase Your 401K Contributions

How to become a millionaire? You can become one over time, by increasing the savings in your 401K. If you increase your savings rate by just a couple more percentage points, you may achieve your savings goals and grow your nest egg much more quickly. Check out the lessons from this CNN Money article:

Say you’re 30, make $70,000 a year and contribute 10% of your pay, which grows 3% annually. If your 401(k) investments earn 7% a year, you’d have about $1.4 million by 65. Not bad. But if you increased your savings rate by just two percentage points, to 12%, you could have a nest egg of $1.7 million. Boost it to 15% and you’d have more than $2.1 million.

4. Cash In On The Wind

Image from TreeHugger

If you’re willing to “gamble” just a little, and you’re comfortable about putting your money into a more concentrated stock play, then consider investing in the future based on the trends. In particular, you may have heard President Obama placing great emphasis and federal money on three areas: health, education and energy. So what about betting on “Obama” stocks? As this article suggests: His plan to spend $150 billion over 10 years on alternative energy bodes well for funds like PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy Portfolio (symbol PBW) and Market Vectors Global Alternative Energy (GEX). Again, this money must be set aside for a minimum of 5 years, unless these companies tank all of a sudden due to mismanagement. Just don’t forget about them completely; make sure you keep track of how your investments are doing. Also, if you go this route, don’t rely on these funds to pay for your short or near term financial goals, though if luck is on your side, these investments may very well pay for your kids’ college education.

Break (Out) the Piggy Bank

Having money sitting in a very low yielding account in your local bank is a total waste. If you are under 40, it’s downright “criminal”, since you can afford to take some risks. If you are over 50, some of these options are still very attractive and very safe. So smash your piggy banks and start making some much needed capital!

Where To Invest Extra Cash and Savings Today

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci

A sneak peek at YNAB 3.

There are a lot of great budgeting software products in the market, many of them free. But a lot of the free financial tools are browser based, and while there are certainly a lot of people who are mighty fine with having their information stored and transacted via the web, there are still those folks who are more comfortable with desktop tools, especially when it comes to managing their budget or net worth. If you prefer to do your money management transactions in your own personal “space”, then a desktop tool may suit you better.

The dominant product in the market right now is Quicken software, now that Microsoft Money has been retired. However, I’d like to bring up a lesser known desktop budgeting product that I’ve actually written about before called YNAB or You Need A Budget, which is a great alternative to Quicken. If you check Amazon ratings, you’ll find that YNAB smokes Quicken in the rankings and positive feedback.

Money Management Software For The Desktop: YNAB 3 Review

YNAB 3 is the newest reincarnation of You Need A Budget, and it’s much anticipated. It won’t be available till later this year, but if you order YNAB Pro (the current version) now, you’ll get a free upgrade when YNAB 3 is out.

To see how YNAB 3 looks like, check out the following screenshot: click on this link or the image below for a sneak peek.

If you want to see YNAB 3 in action, you can view these demos: here’s a video walkthrough that covers Categories and Notes. Here’s another video that shows how the “Spending Tool Tip” feature works.

You Need A Budget! YNAB 3 Features

YNAB 3 promises some great improvements, as its new features attest. Let’s have a quick run through of the changes you’ll see in this version:

1. Runs on the Mac. YNAB 3 running on the Mac should make a few budget-minded folks happy. A good number of us have been eager to try out YNAB but haven’t been able to, in the past, due to software platform restrictions.

2. Reports. It’s my opinion that all software tools (particularly financial ones) should have reporting capabilities. For those who need additional reporting beyond what YNAB 3 offers, the tool will allow you to export the data elsewhere, to work with as you wish.

3. Improved Search and Usability. The ability to undo our work or to customize fields are things we take for granted in many tools; glad to know these are now part and parcel of this version of YNAB.

4. Cash Flow Management and Asset Management. The software allows you to track both budgeted accounts vs other types of accounts (such as your mortgage, retirement accounts and car expenses), while adhering to YNAB’s core cash flow management methodology.

5. Flexibility With Accounting. There’s flexibility here with how you can account for aspects of your budget.

6. Proactive and “Smart” Budgeting. You can move your budgeted numbers seamlessly across budget categories if you prefer to do this rather than deal with negative numbers. YNAB is also “smart” enough to inform you if you’ve got errors or things out of sync between your budget and your bank account(s).

7. Better Look and Feel. Just by checking the videos above, you can see the cosmetic improvements that this version has over its predecessors.

Money Management Software For The Desktop: YNAB 3 Review

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci

Your high interest savings funds and certificates of deposit are earning you returns, but what about your free checking account?

If you’ve hardly made much from your checking account all this time, you are not alone. Lots of savers haven’t had a chance to shop around for a better yielding checking account, figuring that since their liquid accounts are usually in flux (with lots of ongoing transactions), that trying to eke out interest from these accounts isn’t a priority.

But just because you’ve already placed your intermediate and longer term savings elsewhere where they are earning savings account rates at par with the markets, it doesn’t mean that you can’t earn more with your short term money. These days, every little bit counts, so checking out higher yielding checking accounts for those extra returns is worth doing, in my opinion. Here’s a list of accounts to consider:

Free High Yield Checking Accounts

1. EverBank has the FreeNet Checking Account which currently yields 1.20% to 1.72% APY (but it starts off with a pretty high 2.51% rate for the first 3 months). This is a no fee account that requires a $1,500 minimum opening balance. For new accounts, the first 3 months will return 2.51% APY. After this period, the new rate will be variable based on your account balance: in particular, if your balance is under $10,000, you’ll earn 1.20% APY, and if it’s at least $50,000, your rate will be an attractive 1.72%.

2. ING Direct has the widely known Electric Orange Checking Account. This account has no fees (other than those incurred for extra services) and no minimum balance required. However, just like EverBank’s free checking account, you’ll earn a rate that is commensurate to the balance amount that you’re able to maintain. ING Direct Electric Orange Account currently yields .25% to 1.55%. Other great benefits include free online bill pay, free debit card, free ATM access, direct deposit, and the ability to make p2p payments. One more thing: this is a paperless checking account but you can send out checks through online methods.

3. HSBC Direct also has a paperless checking account called the Online Payment Account. It has an interest rate of 0.85% APY and works just like a checking account, except without the paper checks. This means that you can send out checks electronically through free online bill pay and have the ability to schedule recurring or one time payments. In addition, you’ll receive a free debit/ATM card and be able to easily link to HSBC Direct’s Online Savings Account. This account has no monthly fees and requires a minimum balance of only $1.

4. E*Trade is known for being a top broker but they’ve also got a reputable banking division. However, their Max-Rate Checking Account presently sports a rather low .30% yield, and that is if your balance is at least $5,000! Below this amount, you’ll barely earn anything. The good news though, is that they also offer free online bill pay, a free ATM debit card, and actual free checkbooks. There is a minimum initial deposit of $100 for this account and a requirement for you to maintain a $5,000 average monthly balance if you want to avoid getting charged a monthly fee. Out of all the high yield checking accounts in this list, this is the only one that is not truly free.

Best High Yield Checking Account?

In my opinion, EverBank looks like a really solid option. I like this online bank particularly because they also have a rich stable of other financial products that appeal to me, including a high yield CD, a money market account and a roster of foreign currency certificates of deposit that can be a good fit for a well diversified portfolio. These are some products I’m personally considering as potential investments (especially since we’re possibly headed for an inflationary environment). For more information on EverBank’s interesting products, check out my EverBank review.

So far, these are the accounts and banks I’ve had a chance to study. Once I get a chance to review a few more, I’ll add them here.

Free High Yield Checking Accounts

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci

ING Direct is a hugely popular online bank with some noteworthy products I’d like to review. They’re one of a few online banks I know that offer both savings vehicles and investment products (via ShareBuilder), which helps their customers consolidate accounts under one bank. You can read more about ING Direct’s online stock broker in our ShareBuilder review, but if you are looking for a place to park your liquid savings, then the following ING Direct products may be more up your alley:

ING Direct Orange Savings Account

The Orange Savings Account is considered one of the best high interest savings accounts out there with a current interest rate of 1.30% APY — still low but relatively higher than the interest offered in many larger banks. As an example, Bank of America’s Regular Savings Account has a much lower yield. Also, unlike some savings accounts, Orange Savings is a no minimum balance, no fee savings account.

Of course, deposits here are backed by FDIC insurance, and you can access your account online anytime you need to, instead of waiting on a teller downtown.

When you open an Orange Savings Account, you’re asked to link it to a checking account you already own. Making deposits is pretty straightforward: you can transfer funds to your ING Direct account via the website or by phone. Withdrawals are also easy to navigate, but be warned that it can take a few days for the money to move between accounts.

I actually have an Orange Savings Account and I enjoy this benefit: statements aren’t cluttering up my file cabinet! Instead, I’m signed up for eStatements, which are paperless statements. I simply get email to let me know that my eStatement is ready to view.

One other feature I really like is the Automatic Savings Plan. With it, I can have a set amount transferred from my linked checking account to my Orange Savings Account each month. In the past, this feature’s been handy for building up a down payment for a house, saving for holiday gifts, and acting as my rainy day fund. It’s been easy to manage the automatic transfers as needed.

Electric Orange High Yield Checking Account

If I want to do my checking with ING Direct as well, I can try the Electric Orange Checking Account. Unlike my regular neighborhood checking account, this one pays interest. It pays from .25% to 1.55%, depending on your account balance.

With it, you receive a free MasterCard debit card, so you’ll be able to make purchases or withdraw money at ATMs. I could actually use a card like this and take advantage of free access at the AllPoint network — those ATMs are at Target and some grocery stores in my area.

Another useful feature of the Electric Orange Checking Account is the free online bill pay. If you centralize your bill paying routine, you could save time and the hassle of hitting half a dozen websites or the post office each month. The bank will even mail you paper checks for free.

There’s also the ability to send electric checks to an individual: it’s simply a paperless way to send someone a check. It’s a pretty convenient way to electronically transfer funds between accounts under different registrations.

One thing to note though: this is a paperless account, so don’t look for a set of paper checks to come to you in the mail. You can still set up Direct Deposit if you like. Also, you’re limited to having only one Electric Orange Account (of any particular account registration).

While there isn’t a monthly maintenance fee, you might incur other types of charges such as overnight delivery of a check, overnight delivery of a replacement card, stop payments, or foreign transactions. You should also note that instead of paying traditional overdraft fees, there’s an overdraft line of credit.

ING Direct Business Savings Account

For those of us with businesses, a Business Savings Account with ING Direct might be beneficial. Right now, the account sports an APY of 1.15%, and has no fees or service charges. Like the Orange Savings Account, you’ll need to link your Business Savings account to your existing business checking account. For added convenience, you can arrange to have up to three people gain access to the account, each with their own login PINs and customer numbers. Business users can also set up an automatic savings plan.

ING Direct Review: Electric Orange, Business Savings Accounts

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci

If you’re a regular here, you would be aware of my interest in fun interactive tools and web sites on the subject of personal finance and money management. I’ve already showcased quite a few interesting tools here.

But this time around, I thought to show you this CNN Money graphic that gauges your financial health. If you enter your age and income, it will let you know how your family finances are doing along several tracks, based on conventional financial principles and recommendations. After I answered the questions, I only got a grade of “B”. Well, let’s take a look at where I need some improvement — I’ll go through the various financial categories to discuss the results I got for each:

Click the image to try out the tool!

My Family Finances

Our Housing Payment: I’ve got to be careful here because my family spends too much on housing. So currently, we spend more than 28% of our gross income on housing related expenses and that’s a no-no. But we have a few good excuses for this: first, we live in an area where the cost of living and real estate costs are considered insane. Second, we have a 15 year fixed mortgage which will be paid off fairly soon. So the money we’re putting towards our home isn’t as bad as it seems since most of it is now going to principal. Third, we can try to do more to increase our income, which we believe we can do over time.

Our Debt Profile: Again, our debt picture looks cloudy on account of our mortgage, but only if you don’t see the big picture. However, our mortgage is the only real debt we carry and I’ve justified its existence. Good debt should be fine, right? Plus, this mortgage won’t be hanging around for too long.

Our Emergency Savings: We’ve got ample funds in high interest savings accounts and other safe, liquid investments, so we scored well here.

Our Asset Allocation: Apparently, we’re not aggressive enough. The “120 minus Your Age” rule was used to point out that we’ve been too conservative with our investment portfolio. According to this investment rule, we should have 80% of our portfolio in the stock market (120 – our average age). Eh, I’d say we should consider our risk profile here as well, and by taking that into account, we feel perfectly fine with our asset allocation at this time.

Our Company Stock: The tool suggests that we keep our company stock ownership to 10% at most. We’re way below that.

Our Life Insurance: The rule here is to have enough life insurance to replace at least 5 years of your salary (or up to 10 years if you’ve got dependents). If you have no dependents, life insurance is optional. We also scored well here.

Our Retirement Savings: The tool complained that we should beef up our retirement savings a bit more. A couple of things about this: perhaps we don’t plan to retire in the traditional sense — I see ourselves continuing to work on things (perhaps on income generating projects) that we enjoy, well into our golden years. The worst case scenario? Sell the house and move somewhere cheaper!

So how about you, care to try this out and tell us your score?

For more personal finance, do check out my suggested readings below!

Personal Financial Articles

• Free Money Finance: What Made You Care About Money?
• Wise Bread: 15 Ways To Manage Risk In Your Financial Life
• Len Penzo: A Layman’s Guide to Mortgage Application Junk Fees
• One Money Design: Values and Personal Finance: Letting Values Determine Goals
• Lazy Man and Money: Amazon Friday Sale – Health Edition
• Pinoy Smart Life: Tracking My Daily Expenses
• Bad Money Advice: Why Go to College?
• Dividend Tree: Clarcor and ConAgra can Sustain Dividends
• Cash Money Life: Top 10 Consumer Complaints And How to Protect Yourself
• Darwin’s Finance: Why Verizon FIOS is WAY more Expensive than you Think
• Brip Blap: Leaving The NorthEast, A Retrospective
• Intelligent Speculator: Apple-AAPL-A Stock To Buy?

Recent Carnivals

• Carnival of Personal Finance: I am thankful to Studenomics for selecting my post on fast cash loans as an Editor’s Pick! It’s been a while since I’ve received such a special mention, so I’m pretty happy.
• Money Hacks Carnival
• Carnival of Financial Planning

Family Finances: How Is Your Financial Status?

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci

Make the best move for your retirement plan: why you should rollover to an IRA right away.

I felt a little guilty when I realized I still had to get moving on consolidating my various 401K accounts into a rollover IRA. You see, I was once a former independent technical consultant (one of those “traveling” or “freelance” engineers during the dot com years who had jumped from one employer to another), who had chased numerous short term projects with the help of various headhunting agencies when the job market was hot. I had not only left a trail of legacy code in my wake, but also amassed a collection of minuscule 401K accounts tied to a variety of plans and invested in a variety of funds, discount brokers and institutions. Each account is far from significant, but taken together — well, they represent the bulk of my retirement funds!

I had been meaning to roll over these funds at some point (I’ve only been partially successful). But life has taken over, causing this task to slip in priority. Well I just caught this video which has now lit a fire under me: I’m going to have to get serious about this! Watch this and you’ll see what I mean:

Click this link or the image below to watch the video.

The expert here echoes what I’ve already known for a while but have not really taken as seriously as I should: that once you’ve left an employer, it’s never a good idea to keep your money in their 401K plan. Once you leave a company, you are faced with several options on how to deal with the money you’re keeping in your employer-sponsored retirement plan:

• Keep your money where it is (this is what happens by default).
• Move it to your new employer’s retirement plan.
• Roll it over to an IRA.

Of course, you can simply take the money out to do what you want with it but this is obviously a very bad idea.

The best move you can make? I agree with the advisers here who say that you should move your money into a rollover IRA as soon as you can. This way, you will have full control and access to your money without issues. It’s a hassle to do the paperwork perhaps, but it’s much more convenient when you’ve got full freedom to deal with your retirement money however you’d like. I’d like this post to be a reminder for all of us with stray 401Ks to do that rollover asap. Now all I have to do is practice what I preach.

Saving For Retirement? Best Move For Your Retirement Plan

YNAB Pro Giveaway Code: fibonacci