Banking

Should I Open a CD Now Before the Next Fed Meeting?

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open a cd now

The Federal Reserve has been highly predictable for the last few years thanks to Covid and a brittle economy, but high inflation changed the game. Now knowing if you should open a CD before the next Fed meeting is a little trickier. However, this Fed hasn’t changed its stripes and predicting the Fed’s moves in the short term is still easy enough to make decisions with your money. Should I Open a CD If the Fed Is Raising Interest Rates? If you bought a 5-year CD paying 1.45% a year or two ago, that probably feels like a bad move buying a CD. Don’t feel too bad you aren’t the only ones. Professional asset managers bankrupted a favorite Silicon Valley stock by buying long-term treasuries when they were paying pennies. Like you, they took what they could get. Ideally, you want to wait until the Fed raises interest rates before buying a CD. Higher rate CDs mean more interest for you. However, you have to remember about opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is the value of what you could have been doing with your money while you were doing something else, like waiting for the Fed to raise interest rates. That …

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CIT Bank High Yield Savings

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high interest online banking cit bank

Getting high interest rates from CIT Bank is not that hard, but as always, you want to be sure it is the right choice for your finances. High Interest Rates Online Savings As with most things these days, there is a way to get a better financial deal on your money if you find an online bank without the overhead of a local bank. We’ve talked before about Marcus high-yield savings, Goldman Sach’s, entry in the high online interest account world. Like Marcus, CIT Bank is an online brand of a bigger bank. In this case, CIT Bank is a division of First Citizens Bank, a publicly traded financial institution with $100+ billion in assets. Is CIT Bank a Scam? As always, we start from the beginning. Is CIT Bank a scam or is CIT Bank legit for higher interest rates? It doesn’t take much digging to see that CIT Bank is not a scam. As mentioned above, it is part of a large U.S. Bank that is FDIC insured, the gold standard for banks in America. Just because CIT Bank is not a scam as a fly by night company doesn’t necessarily mean that CIT Bank offerings are not …

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Venmo For Teens!

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teen venmo

No, you are not dreaming. Now you can get Venmo for teens. Officially speaking, you were required to be 18 years old to use Venmo before. However, lots and lots of teens and parents got around that restriction by having the parent sign up as the official user and then handing the username and password over to their kids. This worked particularly well when paired with a bank account containing nothing but the child’s money. What Is Venmo? Venmo is another cash app similar to Zelle or any of the others that let you move funds around to friends, acquaintances, or PTO boards. Banking for Teens A lot of banks will play ball with you and your teenager when the teen turns 16. No, they can’t open a bank account all by themselves, and no, a bank that has never heard of you probably won’t open an account with your teen either. That said, a bank that you have a relationship with will likely open a bank account for your teenager, with your name on it as well. It’s not like banks and other financial institutions are being mean or short sighted, it’s just that you cannot sign contracts until …

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Reviews Wisely Scam, Legit, Is It Worth It?

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Reviews Wisely Scam, Legit, Is It Worth It? 1

Is Wisely the Ultimate Tool for Personal Finance and Investing? Managing personal finances and investments has never been easier than it is today, thanks to a plethora of budgeting and investment tools available in the market. On the other hand, the vast array of personal finance tools and finance apps out there makes for a difficult time figuring out which ones are right for you. One popular and emerging platform that has recently grabbed the attention of both beginners and experts alike is Wisely. To find out, I put Wisely through an in-depth analysis highlighting Wisely’s features, benefits, and drawbacks to help you make an informed decision. One of the best features of Wisely is that Wisely is from ADP, the country’s largest payroll provider. One of the concerns about if Wisely is a scam is that it is from ADP, the country’s latest payroll provider. After all, doesn’t your employer and its payroll company already know enough about you? What Wisely Reviews Say Some of the short Wisely reviews say it is a personal finance and investing application that promises to streamline your entire financial life. The developer’s aim is to create a product that acts as a one-stop …

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Are High Interest Checking Accounts Worth It?

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high interest checking account

There are a lot of high-interest checking accounts out there these days, but is a high-interest checking account worth it? The answer depends not only on how you use your checking account, but also the details of each account. As is so often the case with personal finance, the devil is in the fine print details. Be sure to understand all of the fine print before rushing off to transfer your checking accounts. Check out my Acorns review. High-Interest Checking Account Qualifications The first thing you want to look at is how to qualify for a high interest checking account. At most banks, getting the highest interest rate on your checking account requires you to make a minimum number of debit card transactions. That is because the bank earns money on each one of those transactions. In a way, with every debit card purchase you make, you earn the money the bank uses to pay you the higher interest. You also are usually required to get a direct deposit into the checking account each month. For many people, the only direct deposit they could get on a monthly basis is their paycheck. The idea is that by requiring a direct …

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Free ATM Fees

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atm fees charges

If you are still paying ATM fees, it’s time to find a new bank. Too many customers have gotten used to paying ATM fees, but there is no reason for it. Good banks, credit unions, and financial institutions all have multiple options to use ATMs for free, including, in some cases, refunding ATM charges. Keep in mind this all applies to checking accounts or checking-linked accounts. Savings accounts and money market accounts have different rules and restrictions. After all, savings accounts are not designed for frequent fund access, that’s why they pay you higher interest rates. Check out my Digit reviews. High ATM Fees It used to always surprise me as a financial advisor in the Denver area how many people would proudly tell me about all of the hoops they jumped through to get a credit card with zero interest for six months, or how to get a fraction of a percentage higher interest rate on their savings account, only to later learn that they were shelling out for much worse charges like ATM fees. Sure, six months of free interest on a hefty credit card balance is probably worth more than $5 or $10, but getting that extra …

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Help Your Child Build Credit with This One Trick

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Help Your Child Build Credit with This One Trick 2

Building credit is an important task for financially savvy adults. Unfortunately for most people when they turn 18, they start out with zero credit. Even worse, it can take years to build up good credit. Fortunately, you can help your child build credit with this one trick. Why Start Building Credit Early Although most of your credit score comes from other factors like how good your payment history is, one important factor in your credit is how old your credit history is. This age of credit factor starts when information starts getting put on your credit report. So, all other things being equal, an 18-year-old who signed up for their first credit card or loan last month will have much lower credit than an 18-year-old with the exact same credit card or loan, but with an account that is two or three years old. How To Build Credit for Your Child Getting a loan for a 13-year-old is probably irresponsible. However, there is a trick to build your child’s credit fast and easy. Add your child as an “authorized user” on one of your credit cards. The older the account, the better. Then, be 100% sure to make payments every …

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Interest Rates, Mortgages, HELOCs, Credit Cards, and the Fed

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Originally published 12/17/2008, this post is being kept for its historical value, as the economy was still reeling from the housing market collapse and subsequent market swoon. For fun (and education), pull out your favorite charting tool and set the dates to either side of this date. This rate cut will mark the bottoming of the stock market (by March of 2009). Days like yesterday and today are why I write the Finance Gourmet.  For those of you who didn’t see it, the Federal Reserve, or Fed cut interest rates to between 0% and 0.25%.  All day today, the media has been droning on about what it means for consumers, homeowners, and the economy.  Unfortunately, they are in such a hurry to do so, that they skip over all the details.  So, here it is, what the Fed’s rate cut means to you. What To Do Now That Interest Rates Have Been Cut After reading the above, you should be aware that there are no quick and easy, or automatic solutions coming based on this rate cut.  Frankly, that isn’t really what it is supposed to do.  But, that doesn’t mean there is nothing you can do. First, don’t count …

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What Is ACH?

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ach between banks

ACH stands for Automated Clearing House (ACH). It is governed by NACHA which issues rules and standards. If you can’t comply with Nacha, you can’t be part of the ACH network. What Is ACH Used For? ACH is a way to make payments to bank accounts regardless of which banks are involved. Many companies use ACH to deposit employee paychecks on a regular basis. Most people know this as direct deposit. Direct deposit, whether recurring, or one-time takes place via the ACH network. Consumers also use ACH to automatically pay bills or payments. In this case, the ACH takes money from the person’s account and deposits it in the company’s account. Although the viewpoint has changed, this is the same form of transaction. Using ACH this way is often known as automatic payment. Can ACH Be Used for One-Time Payments ACH can be used for one-time transactions. Many of these transactions originate on the internet. These transactions are referred to as WEB entries. Consumers may log in to financial institutions or bank accounts and make one-time payments or transfers. Examples include, paying some or all of the balance of a credit card account, making a mortgage payment manually, or even …

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