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Empower Personal Wealth, LLC (“EPW”) compensates Money Bliss for new leads. Money Bliss is not an investment client of Personal Capital Advisors Corporation or Empower Advisory Group, LLC.
You are looking for the best investment app to help you save money, but all of them seem too complicated. You want something that is simple, easy to use, helpful, and even better if the app is free.
Empower is an online service for tracking your finances. Before a merger, the company began in 2009, and to this day it has been growing exponentially with a user base of over two million people.
Personal Capital is now Empower.
The app works on desktop as well as mobile devices, giving users the ability to track their spending easily wherever they go.
Empower also offers a suite of tools that help you get out more information about how you are using your money so that you can make better financial decisions.
On this Empower review, we will focus on what they do well, how it works for those who use it, and where Empower could improve.
Don’t forget… here is a list of all of the budgeting apps on the market.
If you are looking for an easier way to monitor your financials and see how healthy your finances really are, then you may want to check out what Empower has to offer.
What is Empower?
Empower is an online tool for tracking your finances.
It has been called the best financial app out there, and I agree with that statement. But, I personally use it as one of the money management tools to help guide our financial decisions.
I have used Empower to track my investments for over six years now, which probably makes me a bit of an expert on this topic because I use it on a regular basis.
Overall, Empower is a financial planning and wealth management tool that users can use to manage their net worth. The product offers tools for managing investments, retirement, debt payoff, and other personal finance goals.
How does it work?
First of all, Empower is a FREE app that helps you keep track of all your accounts. It can help you to invest better and did we mention… it is free to use!
To get the most out of this app, you’ll have to link each of your financial accounts one by one so that Empower can learn how you spend money.
It takes a couple of minutes to create an account and verify your identity.
The longest step is linking accounts to the Empower app. Just make sure you do this step within 7 days to get the most out of the app.
Features of Empower
The features of Empower include the ability to visualize your overall financial picture, keep track of your investments in a dashboard, and see which companies you are invested in.
Most people associate Empower as one of the best tools to help with investing, like a stock screener and an investment calculator.
But, there are many great features available for free including:
Net Worth Planner
Retirement Planner
Fee Analyzer
Cash Flow Management
Savings Planner
Budgeting
College Savings Planner
Investment Checkup
Pros and Cons of Empower
First of all, Empower is free to use. So, you might as well test drive the system and check out if the Empower app fits what you are looking for.
Just like any of the Empower reviews will tell you, there are positives and negatives with every type of money management app available.
You just have to decide the most important features for you. As well as what you are willing to pay.
Pros of Empower:
Free portfolio management tool.
Good for new investors who want a free-to-use tool with minimal features.
Easy to use and can be accessed on multiple platforms.
Can track investments across multiple accounts.
Tracks over 23,000 securities and over 1,000 mutual funds. – check
Offers a free app for on-the-go access.
Offers in-depth analysis and investment research on stocks, bonds, and ETFs.
Cloud-based platform
Free to use!
Cons of Empower:
Sales call from staff
Wealth management service is more expensive than a traditional advisor or simply investing in index funds.
High wealth management fee
Unable to reconcile your bank statements with Empower, but since they are coming from your bank directly, they should already be in sync.
No credit health information
Budgeting Tool needs improvement
Limited transaction management and budgeting
No import option for transactions from any platform including YNAB, Quicken or Mint
Cloud-based platform
Many people report that the Empower app requires $100,000 in investment assets to be eligible. That is untrue. In fact, it works best for those who have at least $100k in some form of investments – 401k, IRA, brokerage accounts, or even cash!
Empoweris incredibly easy to use and has helpful financial planning tools.
Overall, it is one of the many great tools to help further push you to financial freedom.
Empower Pricing
While Empower is free to access personal finance tools, it does come at a small price of annoyance.
Empower is free
Empower is a free online portfolio platform that helps people save and invest their money. It offers tools to track net worth, create investment plans, compare retirement accounts, view savings goals and cash flow, and more.
This is the great part of using this app!
The downside is to make these dashboards free is they are trying to entice you to move to their wealth management services.
You do not need to invest your money with Empower to use this platform.
It is best to keep everything invested where it currently is and use their free tools to analyze and make the necessary changes.
As such, once you sign up, you will receive calls on a reoccurring basis offering you a free analysis. There is no pressure to do this. Once you have said no enough times, they will stop calling you.
For those under $1 million in investable assets, their fee is 0.89%.
As you can read in this book, there are many ways to invest yourself without paying that fee.
In fact, this is my favorite book explaining how much harder and longer you have to work by paying someone a 1% wealth management fee.
However, for a small percentage of people, this may be a more cost-effective way of receiving professional advice, as it eliminates hidden costs from this type of service.
Empower Tools
Empower is a financial management platform that provides tools to help individuals manage their personal finances. The platform offers tools for portfolio tracking, performance analysis, and retirement planning. The company also provides its users with educational resources on financial topics.
Under their free dashboard, these are the tools you can use for free.
Net Worth Calculator
This simple tool will keep track of your net worth. Very simple and always available.
Know where you stand, by downloading the free app to see your true net worth in real-time.
Understanding your personal financial statement is important.
Savings Planner
One of the most asked questions is how much I need to save for:
Retirement
Emergency Fund
To Pay Down Debt
Calculate how much to save each year with a 70% chance of reaching your retirement goals. Learn how much you are currently savings and how much you need to start saving.
Cash Flow
Cash flow is the amount of cash available for expenses at a certain time. This term used in personal finance describes the rate at which one’s income and expenses change over time.
The Cash Flow tool is easy to use because Empower automatically tracks deposits and spending. The time saver feature allows users to see their cash flow, balance sheet, net worth, asset allocation over a period of time.
Cash flow is a budgeting tool that offers limited information on spending. It provides a second check when using another program that gives you more details like Quicken or Simplfi.
Retirement Planner
This is the #1 reason I recommend Empower especially if you are looking to stay away from a financial planner.
Trying to figure out how much you need for retirement by yourself seems like picking a random number from the sky.
The retirement planner is used by millions of people to figure out how on track they are for retirement. Plus get tips on what they can do to improve their chances of success.
Budgeting
Budgeting is a method of allocating financial resources by identifying and evaluating needs, prioritizing them in order to meet goals, and monitoring the achievement of those goals.
Empower includes a budgeting section to help you set monthly spending targets and track your spending. They automatically import the information from linked accounts such as checking, savings, and credit card statements.
Using their free online financial dashboard, allows you to track your spending and investments. There are interactive charts, graphs, pie-charts, and even widgets. All to make sure your budgeting is on track.
Investment Checkup
This portfolio analysis is the process of measuring performance and risk in order to develop a strategy for capital allocation. The goal of portfolio analysis is to improve return on investment, which can be achieved by increasing return on assets, decreasing the risk of losses, or reducing the variance.
The Empower app lets you explore your entire portfolio visually. It also provides asset allocation tools and tax optimization tools to help manage a person’s financial life.
Fee Analyzer
A fee analyzer helps people to determine the annual fees they are paying in their retirement plan.
401K Analyzer also calculates how much your retirement is costing you and provides a breakdown of any hidden fees that may be present within mutual funds with which it has been linked. This Retirement Planner tool uses assumptions about account holdings and investment behavior for calculating expenses against an estimated portfolio value.
Consequently, these fees add up over time and will drastically put a drag on your portfolio and reduce your retirement savings.
Empower Dashboard is Free
Just remember, you do not need to hire an advisor to use the platform.
Empower is a free tool for individual investors.
Empower provides users with access to all of the above-mentioned advanced tools for free. In addition, they offer free financial advice through their blog and social media pages.
It allows users to track their investments and get a personalized financial plan. The service also offers apps for iOS and Android devices, which makes it easy to manage finances on the go.
Empower Wealth Management Review of Services
In addition to offering free financial tools, Empower provides wealth management services.
You get to work one-on-one with an advisor who will give you personalized advice based on your situation.
They help you to invest, save money and track your financial goals.
Their advisors start by determining your risk tolerance and goals in order to construct the best personal financial plan for you.
If you are interested in getting a better understanding of your financial situation, Empower is an excellent option. It gives users the tools to understand their investments, budgets, and cash flow all with one app.
All it requires is that you sign up for free without any obligations or commitments from them whatsoever. You do not have to agree to use their wealth management program.
Personally, I cannot comment on an Empower advisor review as I have not used this service personally.
Empower Investment Strategy
The Empower investment strategy is a simple way to invest your money for the long-term.
This means that you will be able to retire and live a comfortable life without any concern about how you will be able to live.
They employ the tactic called Smart Weighting because they invest equally across all sectors and industries, which can provide diverse returns with minimal risk. The best part of this strategy is it’s easy to use as Empower has created an interface that makes portfolio management simple for users on any device or platform.
Empower’s software is able to identify tax-loss harvesting opportunities (opportunities where the investor sells an investment after it has fallen in value and pays fewer taxes than if the sale had occurred earlier) than investing on their own.
In addition, Empower invests passively for cost efficiency which means that they don’t take any active management into account.
The best part about Empower and one of the key areas I prefer, is they include socially responsible investments as well as an investment strategy to fit any budget.
They identify which companies are doing good work for society and invest in them accordingly. This feature makes personal finance much more interesting and easier than ever before!
Wealth Management Tiers
Many people invest in various financial services and products, such as mutual funds or stocks. They are promised that these investments will generate a good return, but they do not always make the best choice. Wealth management services are a way to help people manage their personal investments. They may charge fees for their service, but that is not always the case.
Depending on your level of assets, will determine the amount of services you will receive.
Investment Services:
This is the most basic level to receive financial and retirement planning guidance from their team of experts.
$100K in investment assets
Unlimited advice from any of the available financial advisors
Managed ETF portfolio
Wealth Management:
This is where you can receive more personalized services and dedicated support to manage your money as you move through new financial challenges.
$200K minimum in investment assets
Two dedicated financial advisors
Access to specialists in real estate, stock options, and more
Regular reviews on your customized portfolio
Tax optimization
Private Client :
This is the most exclusive level at Empower to help you receive comprehensive financial planning. They will help build a customized investment plan to reach your lifestyle goals.
over $1 million in investment assets
Two dedicated financial advisors
Priority access to specialists
In-depth retirement and wealth planning
Wealth Management Fee Structure
Empower charges only an all-inclusive annual management fee at a fraction of the cost of traditional financial institutions. In addition, they do not charge hidden fees, trailing fees, or trade commissions.
First $1 million = .89%
First $3 million = .79%
Next $2 million = .69%
Next $5 million = .59%
Over $10 million = .49%
Overall, if you want a financial advisor or a second opinion, using Empower wealth management services may be for you.
Even if you don’t join, you can still use the tools for free, no questions asked.
My Empower Review from Experience
I have had a lot of experience using Empower in the past. They provide snapshot financial pictures of your personal situation that are very informative.
Plus it is a free tool to use, which is always a bonus.
Empower is one of my favorite online tools to see all your finances in one place.
It is eye-opening to see the overall picture. Also, tracking investments across multiple accounts can be overwhelming, but they make the process seamless and help you stay on top of things.
Personally, my favorite tools are the net worth, fee analyzer, and retirement planner.
I use Empower in conjunction with Quicken. Read my Quicken review.
My Empower dashboard is my overall financial picture whereas Quicken tracks all of my day-to-day spending and helps me remember when we purchased something for a return.
The app has a convenient interface that makes managing your personal financial situation easy, even if you’re not familiar with finance jargon or investing terminology. With this tool at hand, keeping track of where everything stands financially becomes easier than ever before!
Just to note… to get the best financial picture, you must include all of your accounts. The more time you spend in the Empower dashboard, the more helpful analysis you will get from the tool.
Empower Alternatives
In addition to Empower, there are other financial apps that can help you allocate your portfolio.
These include Betterment with Wealthfront also being a viable option for those who want the best of both worlds by tracking their investments in stocks and bonds. However, these alternatives have much higher fees than what is charged by Empower which makes it an appealing alternative if the fee does not bother you.
Also, if you are looking for budgeting capabilities you may want to look at Quicken, Mint, YNAB, or Simplifi.
At the end of the day, you have to decide what your goals are and what you are looking for.
From all of the free and paid budgeting apps, here are our top budgeting apps to check out!
This section may contain affiliate links, which helps us to continue providing relevant content and we receive a small commission at no cost to you. Please read the full disclosure below.
Personal Capital Advisors Corporation (“PCAC”) compensates Money Bliss (“Company”) for new leads. (“Company”) is not an investment client of PCAC.
Personal finance and money management software allows you to manage spending, create monthly budgets, track investments, retirement and more.
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Personal Capital is wealth management for the Internet Age. The online platform combines digital technology with highly personalized service to provide a holistic view of a unique financial picture (AKA your net worth).
Make sure to connect all of your accounts within 7 days to set up your Personal Financial dashboard.
Tiller is the only tool that automatically updates Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel with your spending, transactions, and balances each day.
Start your free trial.
Automate your financial plan with set-and-forget money tools that fit right into your daily life.
That’s why Qapital puts your goals front and center, then helps you plan your spending, saving, and investing around them.
Manage your money less in 5 minutes each week. Reach your money goals with confidence! The personal finance app gives you something to look forward to.
“The easiest, most comprehensive way to both see where your money is going and plan for future expenses.”
Your automated financial assistant and budget tracker are designed to put you back in control of your money.
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HoneyMoney increases your awareness about your money habits. Being fully aware of your money naturally changes how you spend it.
Great way to use cash flow budgeting. Plus uses “envelopes” to budget.
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Moneyspire is user-friendly personal finance and small business accounting software that brings your entire finances together in one place.
Have total control over your financial life in one click.
Is Empower right for you?
Empower is a company that offers tools for personal finance management. This app has more than one hundred different tools to help you with your finances, including monthly budgeting and investing tracking.
Empower also helps people manage their credit card debt, establish emergency funds, track retirement savings progressions, calculate their net worth, and much more!
The smartphone app integrates locations, bank accounts, and credit scores which allows users to access current information on their financial situation.
The online portal allows for comparing available investment options.
This tool allows people to plan out the future of their money as well as provides them with valuable financial information in an easy-to-read format so they can make informed decisions.
As stated before, Empower is a financial app that can help you manage your investment assets. It has many features and it’s not perfect, but it’s the best out there in terms of value for money.
You can always test drive it and see what you learn about your personal finance situation.
Now you can try it free (no credit card required!)
Know someone else that needs this, too? Then, please share!!
To the Class of 2023: Congratulations! Graduating from college is a huge milestone, and your hard work and efforts should be celebrated.
Whether you’re jumping into your first job or embarking on a post-grad trip, it can feel overwhelming to launch into adulthood.
Don’t fret — there are tools to make this transition easier. A significant step into adulthood is opening your first credit card. Perhaps you’re ahead of the game and have been a proud owner of a student card throughout your four years as an undergrad. Or you may be shopping around for your first “adult” credit card.
Either way, we firmly believe the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card should be every graduate’s first credit card. And as a graduation present, it’s currently offering a fantastic bonus of 80,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 in your first three months of account opening. But you’ll want to jump on it; apply before 9 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) on May 25 to take advantage of this elevated offer.
High sign-up bonus
It’s the truth: the current sign-up bonus is one of the highest we’ve seen on the Chase Sapphire Preferred.
For a card with a (reasonable) $95 annual fee, you’re looking at 80,000 points after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening. TPG values Ultimate Rewards points at 2 cents each, meaning that this sign-up bonus is worth a whopping $1,600.
Historically, the sign-up bonus has been 60,000 points for the same amount of spending. Simply put, there’s never been a better time to apply.
But before you get too excited, ensure you can manage the spending requirement to get the bonus. It works out to about $1,334 in monthly spending for your first three months, which you can easily hit if you’re about to spend a solid chunk on moving expenses and a professional wardrobe for your launch into adulthood. Still, make sure you don’t charge more than you can afford to pay off, no matter how good the bonus is.
Related: Not just for the established elite: TPG millennials and Gen Z staff weigh in on their experience with premier rewards credit cards
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Introduction to points and miles
If you want to learn about the world of points and miles, you’ve come to the right place. Here at TPG, we have a plethora of resources to get you started — including our beginner’s guide and our list of best first credit cards.
One of the things you’ll see in these guides is that Chase Sapphire Preferred is always at the top of the list. It’s a beginner-friendly card that will ease you into “travel hacking” or learning how to use your credit card rewards to unlock free flights or hotel stays. There are many redemption options with this card, but you’ll find the most value as a travel rewards card by using your points for travel.
To break it down in simple terms, you have two options for booking travel with this card. First, you can book through Chase’s Ultimate Rewards portal at a 25% points bonus or a rate of 1.25 cents each. For example, 10,000 points translates to $125 value in travel. You can book a variety of travel on this portal, including flights, hotels, car rentals and cruises.
Once you get comfortable booking travel through the portal, you can dip your toes into transferring your points to loyalty programs. Chase lets you move your points at a 1:1 rate to 11 airline and three hotel partners, so your 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points can equal 80,000 points in the loyalty program of your choice.
Of course, some partners are better than others, but some of our high-value favorites include Air Canada Aeroplan and World of Hyatt. With these partners, getting much more than 1.25 cents of value per point is possible. We’ve even gotten up to 4.5 cents in value with a business class ticket on Air France before, so the sky is the limit when it comes to Chase’s transfer partners.
Related: From no credit to free flights: An inside look at a 23-year-old’s credit journey
Valuable card benefits
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a popular card, especially among Gen-Z’ers, since it comes with many useful partner benefits that can help you save money and reward you at the same time.
One of the most valuable perks is a complimentary one-year membership to DoorDash DashPass (available through Dec. 31, 2024.) This membership will get you free delivery fees and reduced service fees on eligible orders of $12 or more. This subscription service usually costs $9.99 monthly, so this benefit is valuable enough to justify the card’s $95 annual fee.
You’ll also enjoy 5 points per dollar on Lyft rides (through March 2025.) Depending on how often you use Lyft, this is a fantastic way to earn bonus points on this rideshare service.
Finally, it’s worth checking the Chase Offers on your card. They’ll update every week or so.
All of these partner offers can help you save money on your everyday purchases.
Travel and purchase protections
One more reason you’ll love the Sapphire Preferred: No other card with a $95 annual fee comes with as many travel and shopping protections. Hopefully, you never have to use any of these benefits, but these coverages will give you peace of mind and save you money if an emergency arises:
Primary car rental coverage: Covers theft and damage up to the actual cash value of the rental car on bookings of less than 31 consecutive days. Note that most credit cards only offer secondary coverage.
Trip cancellation and interruption insurance: Reimburses you up to $10,000 per person (or $20,000 per trip) for your pre-paid, nonrefundable trip expenses due to covered reasons, such as sickness, severe weather and more.
Baggage delay insurance: Reimburses you up to $100 per day (for up to five days) for baggage delays more than six hours to cover the purchase of essential items.
Trip delay reimbursement: Reimburses you up to $500 per ticket to purchase meals or lodging for trip delays of 12 hours or more (or requiring an overnight stay).
Lost luggage reimbursement: Covers loss or damage to your luggage by a common carrier (such as an airline) for up to $3,000 per passenger.
Travel and emergency assistance: Receive emergency assistance and referrals if you encounter problems while traveling.
Extended warranty protection: Extends a U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year on warranties of three years or less.
Purchase protection: Covers damage or theft on new purchases, up to $500 per claim and up to $50,000 per account.
For any of these to apply, you must pay for your purchase with your Chase Sapphire Preferred card. You can file a claim with the Benefits Administrator online through Card Benefit Services.
Related: Chase Sapphire Preferred perks
Bottom line
If you’ve just graduated, do yourself a favor and add the Chase Sapphire Preferred to your wallet. With its killer sign-up bonus, long-term earning potential and perks, you’ll love having this card along for your journey into the real world.
Official application link: Chase Sapphire Preferred with 80,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 in the first three months. Apply before 9 a.m. ET on May 25.
With so many business credit cards on the market, it can be difficult to determine which is best for your company’s needs.
Cutting through it all, the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card is one of our favorites. In the same family, the Ink Business Premier℠ Credit Card is a cash-back option launched in December 2021.
Both are solid options, but there is a clear winner for most business owners, so let’s break it down.
Comparing the Ink Business Preferred and Ink Business Premier
Let’s start with a quick overview of each card’s highlights. For more details, check out our full review of the Ink Business Preferred and the Ink Business Premier.
Ink Business Preferred
Ink Business Premier
Annual fee
$95.
$195.
Welcome offer
100,000 bonus points after you spend $15,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening.
$1,000 cash back (worth 100,000 bonus points) after you spend $10,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening.
Bonus categories
Earn 3 points per dollar spent (on the first $150,000 in combined purchases each account anniversary year) on:
Travel.
Shipping purchases.
Internet, cable and phone services.
Advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines.
Earn 1 point per dollar on all other purchases.
Earn 5% total cash back on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Earn 2.5% total cash back on every purchase of $5,000 or more.
Earn 2% cash back on all other purchases.
Redemption options
Points are worth 1.25 cents each when redeemed through the Chase travel portal, or points transfer at a 1:1 ratio to 14 travel partners.
Points are worth 1 cent each when redeemed toward cash back and various Chase Ultimate Rewards portal redemptions, such as travel or gift cards.
Card benefits
Cellphone protection ($1,000 cap per incident).
Purchase protection.
Trip cancellation/interruption insurance.
Trip delay reimbursement.
Primary car rental coverage.
Extended warranty protection.
No foreign transaction fees.
Cellphone protection ($1,000 cap per incident).
Purchase protection.
Trip cancellation/interruption insurance.
Trip delay reimbursement.
Primary car rental coverage.
Extended warranty protection.
No foreign transaction fees.
Related: Ink Business Preferred review
Welcome offer
While the welcome offers for the Ink Business Preferred and Ink Business Premier might look similar on the surface, they are actually quite different due to the difference in how you can redeem the rewards earned between the two cards.
With the Ink Business Preferred, you’ll earn 100,000 Ultimate Reward bonus points after spending $15,000 in the first three months. Points earned from the card are worth 1.25 cents apiece when redeemed through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal, or they can be transferred to any of Chase’s travel partners at a 1:1 ratio. This means the 100,000 points earned are worth a minimum of $1,250 toward travel. However, you can potentially get much more value from them by transferring to the Ultimate Rewards program’s 11 airline and three hotel partners, including United, Southwest and World of Hyatt.
The Ink Business Premier is also offering 100,000 Ultimate Reward bonus points ($1,000 cash back) after you spend $10,000 in purchases within the same three-month timeframe. The cash back is earned in the form of Ultimate Rewards points. But unlike those from the Ink Business Preferred, you cannot transfer these to the program’s airline and hotel partners. Nor can you transfer them to your Ultimate Rewards account linked to another card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card so that they become transferable (though you can transfer Ultimate Rewards points from your other card accounts into the one linked to your Ink Business Premier). Instead, these points are always worth just 1 cent apiece, whether you redeem them for cash back or things like statement credits, gift cards and travel through the Chase portal. So this welcome offer is worth $1,000 no matter how you use it.
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Related: The power of the Chase Trifecta
Winner: When comparing the two cards, the Ink Business Preferred card has the upper hand since its points are worth more when redeemed for travel. However, if you’re looking for a pure cash-back welcome offer, the Ink Business Premier is a better option since the minimum spending requirement to earn the bonus is much less.
Bonus earning categories
The Ink Business Preferred offers more bonus categories than the Ink Business Premier, so that you’ll earn 3 points per dollar spent on the first $150,000 in combined purchases per account year in the following categories:
Travel.
Shipping purchases.
Internet, cable and phone services.
Advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines.
On all other purchases, or after you spend $150,000 combined in the above bonus categories, you’ll earn 1 point per dollar spent. Since Chase Ultimate Rewards are worth 2 cents per point, based on TPG’s valuation, you’re earning a 6% return on your category bonus purchases and a 2% return on all other purchases.
The Ink Business Premier offers both interesting bonus categories and strong everyday earning. With this card, you’ll accrue:
5% total cash back on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
2.5% total cash back on every purchase of $5,000 or more.
2% cash back on every purchase.
Earning at least 2% cash back on every purchase is strong but not unique. Many other cash-back cards offer the same return, such as the Citi® Double Cash Card (see rates and fees) and Capital One Spark Cash Plus. But if you often make large purchases — those over $5,000 — then earning that extra half a per cent in cash back can save you a lot of money in the end.
Winner: If you are looking to simplify your business expenses and to just have one card for everything, the Ink Business Premier is the winner. But that’s only if you are looking to earn cash back. The Ink Business Preferred will give you more options if you prefer to earn travel rewards with your credit card purchases.
Redemption options
Even though both cards are “Chase Ink” credit cards, the redemption options are very different.
With the Ink Business Preferred, in addition to redeeming your points for cash — where 1 point is worth 1 cent — you can also use them toward travel in two different forms. You can either redeem points toward travel reservations through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal, where points are worth 1.25 cents each. Or you can transfer them to 14 travel partners (11 airlines and 3 hotels), including:
TPG estimates Chase Ultimate Rewards points to be worth 2 cents apiece when you leverage these transfer partners, thanks to the number of options they open up.
With the Ink Business Premier card, however, the points you earn are worth 1 cent each, plain and simple, and there’s no option to redeem your rewards toward travel at a higher rate. Whether you redeem them for cash back or for other options through Chase Ultimate Rewards, like gift cards or travel, you still get 1 cent per point.
Winner: The Ink Business Preferred has many more options and your points earned are worth significantly more.
Related: Maximizing Chase Ultimate Rewards
Card benefits
Both cards offer the exact same benefits when it comes to purchase and travel protection. With both cards, you’ll receive:
Purchase protection: If an eligible item is damaged or stolen within the first 120 days after purchase, you’re covered up to $10,000 per claim ($50,000 per account).
Trip cancellation/interruption insurance: If you must cancel or cut a trip short because of a covered issue (such as illness or severe weather), you’re eligible for up to $5,000 of coverage per person for prepaid, nonrefundable travel expenses, which provides great peace of mind when unexpected problems arise. Coverage is limited to $10,000 per trip.
Trip delay reimbursement: If a covered trip is delayed by a covered hazard for 12 or more hours — or long enough to require an overnight stay — you’ll be eligible for reimbursement, up to $500 per ticket in reasonable expenses. You only need to charge part of your common-carrier fare to the card to use this benefit, so you’ll be covered on award tickets if you put the taxes and fees on the card.
Primary car rental coverage: If you use either card for the entire rental cost and are traveling for business purposes, you’re covered for theft and damage in the U.S. and most countries worldwide. Remember that this doesn’t offer any liability coverage, but you are covered up to the actual cash value of the vehicle you’re renting.
Extended warranty protection: Purchases with a U.S. manufacturer’s warranty of three years or less will get coverage for an extra year. This can be extremely helpful when an item stops working shortly after its scheduled warranty ends.
Cellphone protection: If you pay your monthly cellphone bill with your card and your cellphone is stolen or damaged, you can receive up to $1,000 per claim, with a $100 deductible — for up to three claims per year.
Winner: Tie, as both cards offer the exact same benefits.
Which card should you get?
Like many other questions asked — it depends. If you don’t have a premium Chase Ultimate Rewards card that allows you to redeem points toward travel, then the Ink Business Preferred card is a great choice. Your points are potentially worth significantly more and open up many travel redemption options.
Also, if you have high monthly expenses in the card’s bonus earning categories, then the Ink Business Preferred can also help maximize your points earned.
But, if your spending categories are much more varied (or don’t include those increased bonus categories) and you prefer to earn cash back, you’ll be better off with the Ink Business Premier card. Earning a minimum of 2% cash back on every purchase is solid. And if you often make purchases of over $5,000, earning an uncapped 2.5% back is a great deal.
Yes, the Ink Business Premier card costs an extra $100 a year, but if you have heavy business spending, that difference can be nominal compared to the extra rewards earned.
Aside from how you earn and redeem points, the cards are extremely comparable, with both offering excellent travel and protection benefits.
Ultimately, the real question is: Do you want to earn travel rewards or cash back? If you are able to simply answer that question, then the card of choice is quite obvious.
Bottom line
For a mid-tier credit card, both are strong choices for business credit cards, in their own way. The two cards offer great ways to earn points or cash back, while also offering benefits that will help protect you in a time of need. And for a relatively low annual fee, you’ll never have to worry about statement credits or extra perks to help “offset” the fee.
Also, if you already have the Ink Business Preferred card, that doesn’t prevent you from applying for the Ink Business Premier. Combining the benefits of both can truly allow your business to earn a plethora of points and cash back, giving you more money and points in your pocket so you can take a step away from work at some point and truly enjoy a vacation.
The Oregon-based credit union First Tech has a small suite of credit cards that includes the Choice Rewards World Mastercard. A rarity among cards, the Choice Rewards card boasts “triple zero” perks: a $0 annual fee, $0 balance transfer fee and a 0% annual percentage rate period. However, because a credit union issues the Choice Rewards card, potential cardholders must meet specific eligibility requirements to get the Choice Rewards card.
If you already belong to the First Tech credit union and could use some breathing room on interest, getting the Choice Rewards card feels like an easy, sensible choice. Everyone else will need to decide if the effort required to join the credit union is worth the benefits of the Choice Rewards card.
Here are five things to know about the First Tech Choice Rewards World Mastercard.
1. Membership is required
Only First Tech Credit Union members are eligible to apply for the Choice Rewards credit card. Nevertheless, there are many points of entry into this credit union. You can become a member if:
A family or household member is already a First Tech member.
You or a family member work for one of First Tech’s partners. The list is quite extensive and represents a range of industries.
You work for the state of Oregon.
You work or live in Lane County, Oregon.
You belong to California’s Computer History Museum, which costs as little as $15 a year.
You belong to the Financial Fitness Association. Membership costs $8 a year.
The ability to gain First Tech membership by joining the Financial Fitness Association will be especially useful for those who live outside of Oregon, where the First Tech Credit Union is headquartered. Credit union members must typically live or work near one of the union’s branches. Still, by joining the Financial Fitness Association, you can bypass that requirement for a few bucks a year.
2. It’s light on fees
One of the highlights of the Choice Rewards card is the absence of fees common in other credit cards. In addition to its $0 annual fee, the card also does away with:
The Choice Rewards card does charge up to a $25 fee for late and returned payments, but other cards usually charge as much as $40.
🤓Nerdy Tip
When you open a First Tech Rewards Checking or Savings account, you’ll get a $10 streaming subscription rebate and an extra 0.5% cash back on monthly credit card spending. Earnings from the additional 0.5% are capped at $15.
3. 0% APR period is ideal for balance transfers
As noted above, the Choice Rewards card doesn’t assess a fee on balance transfers. Most other cards charge between 3%-5% percent of the balance transfer amount, which could mean hundreds of dollars in fees.
You’ll save money on balance transfers to the Choice Rewards card thanks to its 0% APR period. If you complete the balance transfer within 90 days of account opening, you won’t pay interest on that debt for 12 billing cycles. A year of no interest charges can certainly accelerate the debt payoff process.
Be aware that you may lose the 0% APR promotion if you make a late payment before the 12 billing cycles have passed. In addition, your interest rate would increase to the current balance transfer APR of 13%-18% (as of May 2023).
Cardholders can transfer any type of loan to the Choice Rewards credit card; however, loans moved from existing First Tech Credit Union accounts do not qualify for the 0% APR period.
🤓Nerdy Tip
The Choice Rewards credit card has a minimum credit limit of $10,000 and a maximum of $35,000.
4. It earns double points in popular spending categories
The Choice Rewards card earns 2 points per $1 spent on several everyday categories:
Electronics.
Grocery stores.
Household goods.
Medical expenses.
Telecommunications.
All other spending earns 1 point per $1 spent. There’s no cap on the points you can earn, and points never expire.
Points are worth 1 cent each when redeemed for cash, so 1,000 points equal $10 in cash back. In addition to cash back, rewards points may be redeemed for travel, merchandise, gift cards and experiences. Minimum redemption amounts vary depending on the redemption type; cardholders must have at least 2,500 points to redeem for cash.
🤓Nerdy Tip
The Choice Rewards Mastercard has a robust list of categories that qualify for bonus points, but read the fine print so you’re familiar with what earns double points and what doesn’t. For example, food delivery services won’t count as dining and warehouse clubs like Costco aren’t classified as grocery stores.
5. It has a sweet sign-up bonus
New Choice Rewards cardholders will earn 20,000 points by spending at least $3,000 within the first 60 days of account opening. That’s equal to $200. That bonus is competitive with those offered by top-shelf credit cards such as Citi Custom Cash℠ Card and Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card. However, the spending threshold to earn the bonus on the Choice Rewards card is a bit higher than other cards, which can be as low as $500.
Michelle’s quick note: Today, I have a great blog post on how to save money for a large deposit from Rachael, who is a long-time reader of Making Sense of Cents. Rachael purchased her first investment property at the age of 20 by saving for a deposit and found many great ways to save for the 20% deposit. Below is her blog post. Enjoy!
I bought my first investment property with a 20% deposit when I was 20 years old (admittedly I was 2 weeks shy of turning 21!). I accomplished saving for a deposit with my own money, my parents never gave me a cent. So how did I do it?
1. The first thing I did was start applying for jobs as soon as I turned old enough to get a job. I started working when I was 15 as a checkout chick at Woolworths. Not very glamorous, a bit boring and repetitive but I was earning money! I worked about 10 hours a week during my last 2 years of high school, and worked around 20 hours per week during the school holidays. I worked at Woolworths for 3 and a half years and saved a good chunk of the money I earned.
Related:
2. When I worked during high school the only time I would ever say no to a shift is if I was sick or had an exam the next day. It didn’t matter if I didn’t want to go to work (does anyone ever actually want to go to work?) I hated that job but I wanted a property so I went to work.
Sometimes I’d get home from school, get changed into my work uniform then go straight to work until 9:30 then come home and study until midnight to get homework and assignments done, then go to school the next day. I know some people don’t agree with kids working while studying but it was really helpful for time management as it didn’t leave me with any time to procrastinate!
3. The main contributor to earning enough money for the deposit was opening an Etsy shopI’d been designing printables to help keep me organized for a while and decided to start an Etsy shop to save up some money for a trip to the USA (I live in Australia). I ended up making enough money to cover most of the cost of the holiday. The intention when I got back from vacation was to close up shop and focus on my university studies. But I came back to tons of messages from people asking when my shop would be reopening because they wanted to buy my printables. I thought I may as well leave the shop open and make some extra money to supplement the income I was earning as a checkout chick (which was not much!)
About 6 months later my sales kept growing even though I wasn’t creating many new printables – I was earning more than I was scanning groceries (and having a lot more fun!) so I decided to turn my Etsy shop into a business. It also made me realise that I’ll never earn an above-average or life changing money working for someone else.
When I started my 3rd year of my university course, I got a job in my field. For 3 months I worked 10 hours a week scanning groceries, 25 hours a week at my day job, juggled my 2 Etsy shops, a blog, and maintained a high GPA at my university studies. I say this not to brag, but to point out that the money wasn’t just handed to me on a silver platter – if you want something you have to work for it. Needless to say I was burnt out. I quit being a checkout chick (that was a wonderful day!) and sought other ways to save the money I was no longer making from working those 10 hours a week. If you’re looking for ways to make extra money, Michelle has dozens of posts with side hustle ideas.
My biggest advice when it comes to saving money is not to increase your standard of living when you start earning a higher wage.
Aside from starting an online business, I saved money in numerous other ways:
4. I don’t have a car. When I did the math it was cheaper for me to pay higher rent and live closer to the city and use public transport (plus it’s more convenient). I share an apartment with my sister which also helped me save money as bills are split in 2, and it’s cheaper to rent an apartment with someone than it is to live by yourself
5. I buy stuff when it’s on sale & stock up. Yep, I’m one of those crazy people that buys 30 rolls of toilet paper when they’re on sale. When a sale does come around, I’m organized and have a list of everything I need to buy – the key is that you only buy what you need not just stuff that you want.
6. I bring my own lunch. I see so many of my work colleagues wasting their money on donuts, coffee and buying lunch every day. Then they whinge and seem confused that they don’t have any money by the end of the month when they’re screaming out for payday. One of the reasons I work as much as I do is because I never want to live paycheck to paycheck
7. When I was saving up I put most of my money into a term deposit. Not only did this prevent me from spending it, it also earned a higher interest rate than an everyday savings account. When the term deposit expired and I still didn’t have enough for the deposit, I went to my bank every couple of months and opened a new savings account so I could get their 3 month introductory bonus interest rate (by the 3rd time of doing it the bank knew me by name and just reset the interest rate rather than making me open a new account!)
8. I track where all of my money is spent using my budget binder printables – no joke, every single dollar gets accounted for. I do the same with my business income and expenses using these spreadsheets.
9. I set a maximum amount I would pay per piece of clothing and stuck to it (still stick to it!) no matter what ($20 for shirts, $40 for a pair of shorts in case you were wondering – keeping in mind that clothes are more expensive here in Australia). If I find a piece of clothing that I like I also buy it in multiples when it’s on sale. I have an ‘around the house’ wardrobe which consists of cheap clothes I wouldn’t wear in public but are perfect for blogging!
10. I utilise credit cards. A lot of people have a misconception that credit cards are bad but they’re not if you use them to correctly i.e. not to buy stuff you couldn’t otherwise afford. Not only do I not have to carry cash but when I makes purchases on my credit card I accumulate points that can be converted to cash.
Plus most credit cards will give you a signup bonus (such as cash or frequent flyer points) – just make sure you check that the bonus is more than the annual fee. You can always cancel the card before the end of the year then sign up for a new card the next year to get a new signup bonus.
By purchasing on credit card, you can keep money in your savings account for longer meaning YOUearn interest on your money, not your bank. I use my budget plannerto keep track of when money needs to be transferred so I’m not hit with a late fee.
Related: How To Take A 10 Day Trip To Hawaii For $22.40
11. I’m on the lowest phone plan with the smallest amount of data and I still never reach the limit because I utilise free wifi. I always make sure my phone is set to wifi when at home, and if I need directions somewhere I’ll look it up and take screenshots before I go so it doesn’t use up data.
12. I try and travel during off-peak season. And if I do travel during peak season I travel with others so the cost of accommodation and airport transfers can be split.
13. Comparison shopping research. I always compare the cost of basically everything before purchasing. Each week I go through the grocery catalogues and see which shops have the same item for the cheapest price. If I’m buying electronics I make sure I take advantage of price matching.
14. Before I buy anything I ask myself: ‘do I really NEED this?’ We all have that one thing that we can’t resist. For me, it’s stationery. I’m a massive stationery addict and the number of times I’ve had to tell myself no when I see a cute notebook or another pen sucks, but if I don’t actually need it then I don’t need to buy it.
15. I use ATM’s that don’t charge me transaction fees. Make sure you check with your bank if there are any banks they partner with i.e. won’t charge you fees, or at least look at which ATM’s charge the lowest fees if you withdraw money and aren’t a customer with that bank.
16.I never buy stuff from convenience stores – they charge double the price for a chocolate bar, a bottle of water etc. as the supermarket. I was with a work collage at lunch and she spend 4x the cost on 2 items that she could’ve got for way cheap if she walked 100m up the road to the supermarket. She didn’t even bat an eyelid and all I could think was you just spend a third of your hourly wage on stuff that’s going to be consumed in 5 minutes!
17. I’ve never ordered dessert at a restaurant. Ever. Why pay $12 for a bowl of ice cream when I can buy 3 tubs for the same price?!
18.I never buy scatchies, lottery tickets or participate in sweepstakes at work. I believe you’ve got to make your own luck!
19.When I catch up with friends I do so over lunch or afternoon tea rather than dinner as meals are usually cheaper.
20. I walk around my neighbourhood rather than paying for an expensive gym membership.
Related: The Busy Person’s Guide On How To Be Healthy
The 20% deposit on my first investment property
All in all it took me about 5 years to save the deposit. I’m not going to sugar coat it. It was hard. Really hard. ‘Training’ myself to say no, to really ask myself if I actually need something as opposed to just wanting it was not fun.
And just because I have the property now, doesn’t mean I’m going to suddenly stop being ruthless about saving money. My mentality is now ‘I could buy this for $100, or I could put that towards an extra mortgage repayment.’ I tracked my savings and spending (no joke, I account for where every dollar goes) using my budget binder printables(which I still use to track my spending).
Related: Home Buying Tips You Need To Know Before You Buy
As for whether I’d buy a property at 20 again, I’ll admit there have been times when I’ve regretted my decision. I could’ve done a LOT of travelling with the money I’ve poured into my mortgage (as well as all the other ongoing costs such as property management fees, body corporate, maintenance etc.).
I’ll admit I do get jealous of my carefree 20-something friends’ holiday photos, and that they have no qualms about dropping a couple of hundred dollars on a concert ticket. I also wouldn’t have to awkwardly ask friends to pick me up if we go out since I can’t afford a car (I do pay them money for fuel!) If interest rates weren’t at historically low rates at the time, then I also probably wouldn’t have been able to purchase the property.
But whenever I feel ‘depressed’ looking at how much money I’ve poured into the mortgage and how much interest is added to the balance each month, I remind myself that I’m on track to paying off my mortgage by the time I turn 30 and I feel a whole lot better! ☺
What have you done so that you can save a large amount of money such as saving for a deposit?
If you’re a small- business owner who likes to fly Southwest, you can use the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card to earn plenty of Rapid Rewards points for your spending. This card also offers numerous perks and benefits, such as credit towards elite status, a fee credit for expedited airport security, upgraded boardings, and free inflight WiFi.
If you fly Southwest regularly, these benefits can easily be worth this card’s pricey annual fee. But if you’re only an occasional Southwest flyer, choose a less expensive card.
What Is the Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit Card?
The Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit Card comes to small-business owners through Southwest’s banking partner, Chase.
It offers new applicants 80,000 points in Southwest’s Rapid Rewards frequent flyer program after spending $5,000 within three months of account opening. These points count toward the 135,000 points that you need to earn to receive the Companion Pass, which allows you to add a designated companion to an unlimited number of flights, with no airfare (just government taxes).
You also earn 4x points per dollar spent on Southwest purchases and 3x points per dollar spent on Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental partner purchases. You earn 2x points per dollar spent on social media and search engine advertising, internet, cable, and phone services, as well as on local transit and commuting, including rideshare services. And you earn one point per dollar spent on all other purchases. There’s no limit to how many points you can earn.
This card also features numerous benefits including four upgraded boardings per year when available, and up to 365 InFlight WiFi credits per year. This can allow you and your staff to be more productive by boarding and deplaning earlier, while staying connected during your flights.
This card also offers you a statement credit of up to $100 every four years as reimbursement for the application fee for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck® or NEXUS when you use your card. These programs save you valuable time by allowing you to speed through security at the airport.
And if you’re shooting for elite status on Southwest, this card also offers you 1,500 tier qualifying points toward A-List status for every $10,000 spent, and there’s no limit on the amount of TQPs you can earn. This card also gives you 9,000 bonus points each year on your account anniversary, worth about $135 in airfare.
There’s a $199 annual fee for this card, and no foreign transaction fees.
What Sets the Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit Card Apart?
This is a premium travel rewards card for small business travelers, and it’s heavy on the perks and benefits. Here are the ones that really stand out:
Big sign-up bonus. This card’s offer to new applicants of 80,000 points, the most of any of the Southwest Rapid Rewards business or personal cards. It will get you over two-thirds of the way to earning the extremely valuable Companion Pass.
Large bonuses for Southwest purchases. Many airline credit cards offer you just 2x or 3x miles for airline ticket purchase, but this card ups the ante to 4x. Considering Southwest Rapid Rewards points are worth about 1.5 cents each, this is like getting a 6% rebate on your tickets.
Nearly unlimited free WiFi. This card will credit you for inflight WiFi purchases charged to your card, up to 365 times per year. Unless you fly literally every day, you can share this benefit with friends, family, and staff.
Generous anniversary gift. Who doesn’t like receiving a gift on their anniversary? With this card, you’ll automatically receive 9,000 bonus points each year on your account anniversary, worth about $135 in airfare.
Key Features of the Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit Card
This card has a strong sign-up bonus, lots of bonus categories for spending, and plenty of benefits when flying Southwest.
Sign-Up Bonus
Earn 80,000 points after you spend $5,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening.
This is the biggest sign-up bonus of any of the Southwest Rapid Rewards business or personal cards. It gets you over two-thirds of the way to earning the extremely valuable Companion Pass.
Earning Rewards
Like many travel rewards cards, this card has a multi-tier earning structure. You earn:
4x points per dollar spent on Southwest Airlines® purchases.
3x points per dollar spent on Rapid Rewards hotel and car rental partner purchases.
2x points per dollar spent on social media and search engine advertising, internet, cable, and phone services, plus 2x points per dollar spent on local transit and commuting, including rideshare services.
1x point per dollar spent on everyday purchases.
Redeeming Rewards
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards is about the simplest frequent flier program around. Points are worth about 1.4 cents each towards any airfare offered. For example, a flight that costs $188 can also be purchased for 13.363 points.
Southwest also has no change or cancellation fees for award tickets, so when you redeem your points, you are receiving a fully refundable ticket.
Important Fees
This card has a $199 annual fee, but there’s no foreign transaction fee.
Credit Required
This card requires excellent credit.
Advantages
This card offers several key advantages over its competitors. Notable perks include a very attractive sign-up bonus, an anniversary points bonus, and free inflight WiFi up to 365 times per year
80,000 point sign-up bonus. This is a very competitive new account bonus, and it’s bigger than the bonuses offered by other Southwest consumer and small business cards. But what makes this extremely valuable is that the points qualify towards the 135,000 needed to earn a Companion Pass.
Free WiFi. You get 365 credits towards inflight WiFi purchases, which are normally $8 each.
Upgraded boardings. You receive four upgraded boardings, which normally start at $30 each and can be more.
Anniversary bonus. The cost of this card’s annual fee is largely offset by receiving about $135 in travel rewards.
Global Entry or TSA PreCheck fee credit. Many cards offer this feature, but it’s still valuable as you can use it for yourself, friends, family or colleagues.
Cardmember benefits. This card offers numerous travel insurance and purchase protection benefits. This includes baggage delay and lost luggage insurance and it comes at a time when several card issuers have eliminated most of these benefits that were once considered standard.
Disadvantages
This card has few downsides, but do watch out for the high annual fee and limited perks relative to that fee.
Expensive annual fee. $199 is a large annual fee, and it will only be worth paying if you can realize significant benefits from this card.
No impressive perks. When a card has an annual fee this large, you tend to expect something that makes you say “Wow!” This could be airport lounge access, or a big credit towards a purchase with a partner. There’s nothing that exciting with this card. There are some DoorDash perks, but nothing to write home about.
How the Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit Card Stacks Up
One of this card’s closest competitors is the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business Card from American Express. Let’s see how they match up on key terms:
Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business
Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business Card
Annual Fee
$199
$250
Sign-Up Bonus
80,000 points
60,000 miles
Rewards Rate
1x-4x
1x-3x
0% Intro APR
None
None
Foreign Transaction Fee
None
None
Credit Needed
Excellent
Excellent
Final Word
If you’re a small-business owner, and you’re going all-in on Southwest, then the Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit Card is a great card to have. You’ll start off with a very large sign-up bonus, then have the chance to earn plenty of points from your spending. And if you can utilize the perks like upgraded boarding, free TSA PreCheck or Global Entry and free WiFi, then you’re not going to have a problem justifying this card’s $199 annual fee.
If you just use Southwest a few times a year, and you don’t find these benefits to be valuable, then perhaps this isn’t the right card for you. However, the extremely attractive sign-up bonus — worth about $1,100 in free airfare — may convince you to at least try the card for a year and see how it suits you.
The Verdict
Our rating
Southwest Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card
The Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit Card is the number one choice for small-business owners who are regular Southwest customers. It offers numerous ways to earn bonus points as well as plenty of valuable benefits. Bottom line: You should strongly consider it if Southwest is your company’s preferred airline.
Editorial Note:
The editorial content on this page is not provided by any bank, credit card issuer, airline, or hotel chain, and has not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the bank, credit card issuer, airline, or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
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Jason has been writing about personal finance, travel, and other topics on blogs across the Internet. When he is not writing, he has a career in information technology and is also a commercially rated pilot. Jason lives in Colorado with his wife and young daughter where he enjoys parenting, cycling, and other extreme sports.
Whether you’re new to the state or a longtime resident, Michigan has plenty to offer. There’s also a wide range of financial institutions, from national banks with multiple branches to the small, independent bank that focuses on building community.
If you’re in the market for a new bank account, the options can be overwhelming. Here are some of the best banks in Michigan to help you find a bank that meets all your banking needs.
12 Best Banks in Michigan
Ready to start comparing banks? The below list includes some of the best banks in Michigan that offer checking accounts, savings accounts, and lending products.
1. Chase
With more than 4,700 branches and 15,000+ ATMs nationwide, Chase Bank is a great Michigan bank for those who frequently travel. Although the rates on savings accounts are low, Chase Bank has some impressive checking account options.
For many Michigan customers, Chase Total Checking will be the best deal. There’s a $12 service fee with that account, but it can be waived by either keeping a $1,500 balance, having $500 in direct deposit activity each month, or connecting a Chase savings account and maintaining at least $5,000 in combined balances.
Fees:
$12 monthly service fee (can be waived)
$34 overdraft fee
Balance requirements:
No minimum deposit to open
No minimum balance requirements ($1,500 to waive service fee)
ATMs:
Fee-free at 15,000+ Chase bank ATMs nationwide
$3-$5 fee for each out-of-network ATM transaction
Interest on balance:
.01% APY on savings accounts
Up to 3.75% APY on CDs
Additional perks:
$300 bonus for new checking account
Autosave feature helps you quickly build savings
2. Fifth Third Bank
Regional banks are often a great compromise between a large, corporate bank and a small, local bank. Fifth Third Bank is a regional bank with branches in Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
You’ll get access to cash while traveling in those areas, as well as expanded access through Fifth Third’s partner ATM network, which has more than 40,000 ATMs nationwide.
Fees:
No monthly service fee
$37 overdraft fee
Balance requirements:
No minimum deposit to open
No minimum balance requirements
ATMs:
Fee-free at 2,100+ Fifth Third Bank ATMs
Fee-free at 40,000+ partner ATMs nationwide
$3 for each out-of-network ATM transaction
Interest on balance:
.01% APY on savings accounts
Up to 4.75% APY on CDs
Additional perks:
Extra business day to resolve overdrafts
Early Pay gives you access to direct deposit two days early
3. Chime
Chime is an online bank with a full suite of banking services, including an online savings account that earns 2.00% APY. You’ll need direct deposit to qualify for Chime’s biggest benefits, including early access to your paycheck and SpotMe, a feature that covers you for up to $200 of overdrafts.
There are no monthly maintenance fees, and you can also withdraw money at more than 60,000 ATMs nationwide.
Fees:
No monthly fees
No overdraft fees
Balance requirements:
No minimum deposit to open
No minimum balance required
ATMs:
Fee-free at 60,000+ MoneyPass, Allpoint, and Visa Plus Alliance ATMs
$2.50 out-of-network ATM transaction fee
Interest on balance:
2.00% APY on savings
Additional perks:
SpotMe covers up to $200 in overdrafts
Access paycheck up to two days early
4. GO2bank
GO2bank is another online banking option with perks designed to compete with traditional banks. As long as you have at least one payroll or government benefits direct deposit monthly, the $5 monthly fee will be waived. You’ll have fee-free access to cash through Allpoint ATMs nationwide, as well as the ability to deposit cash at more than 90,000 retailers across the country.
Fees:
$5 monthly fee (waived with requirements)
$15 overdraft fee after 24 hours in negative balance
Balance requirements:
No minimum deposit to open
No minimum balance requirement
ATMs:
Fee-free at 53,000+ Allpoint ATMs nationwide
$3 for each out-of-network ATM withdrawal
Interest on balance:
4.50% APY on savings account
Additional perks:
5. Citizens Bank
Although it’s based in Providence, Rhode Island, Citizens Bank has branches in Michigan, as well as Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington, DC.
Checking accounts come with a $9.99 monthly fee, but you can avoid it with at least one deposit a month.
Fees:
$9.99 monthly service fee (waived with requirements)
$35 overdraft fee
Balance requirements:
No minimum deposit to open
No minimum balance required
ATMs:
Fee-free at 3,200+ Citizens ATMs
$3 for each out-of-network ATM transaction
Interest on balance:
.01% APY on savings accounts
Up to 2.75% APY on CDs
Up to 2.75% APY on money market account
Additional perks:
Citizens Paid Early gives you access to direct deposit two days early
Citizens Peace of Mind helps you avoid overdraft fees
6. Huntington National Bank
Another regional bank with branches in Michigan is Huntington National Bank. You’ll get fee-free ATM access at Huntington ATMs, which are located throughout Michigan, as well as in Ohio, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Customers who have recurring direct deposits coming in will qualify for perks like Standby Cash, which issues a line of credit as you need it. You’ll pay no interest on that loan as long it’s repaid in three months. After three months, the rate is only 1%.
Fees:
No monthly fees
$15 overdraft fee (waived up to $50)
Balance requirements:
No minimum deposit to open
No minimum balance required
ATMs:
Fee-free at more than 1,700 ATMs
$3.50 for each out-of-network ATM transaction
Interest on balance:
Up to .06% APY on savings accounts
Up to 5.13% APY on CDs
Up to 4.18% APY on money market account
Additional perks:
Standby Cash issues a no-interest loan as you need it
Early Pay gives you access to direct deposit up to two days early
7. Consumers Credit Union
If you live, work, or attend post-secondary school in the lower peninsula area of Michigan, Consumers Credit Union has plenty to offer. There are 26 offices in the area, as well as fee-free ATM access through the nationwide Co-Op Network. Consumers Credit Union has competitive rates on CDs, as well as great home and auto loan options.
Fees:
No monthly maintenance fee
$35 overdraft fee
Balance requirements:
No minimum deposit to open
ATMs:
Fee-free at Consumers Credit Union ATMs
Fee-free at 30,000+ Co-Op ATMs nationwide
$3 out-of-network ATM fee
Interest on balance:
Up to .25% APY on savings account
Up to 4.50% on CDs
Up to .50% on money market account
Additional perks:
Competitive rates on home and auto loans
Purchase discounts when using Consumers Credit Union debit card
8. Ally Bank
Online banking can help save you money, as long as you don’t need a local branch. Ally Bank gives you everything you need to manage your money through its website and mobile banking app.
As with many online banks, you’ll get competitive interest rates on deposit and savings accounts, including 0.25% APY on your checking account balance. Ally offers cash access through more than 53,000 Allpoint ATMs nationwide, as well as up to $10 in out-of-network ATM fee reimbursements each statement period.
Fees:
No monthly fees
No overdraft fees
Balance requirements:
No minimum deposit to open
No minimum balance required
ATMs:
Fee-free at 53,000+ Allpoint ATMs nationwide
Up to $10 in out-of-network ATM fee reimbursements monthly
Interest on balance:
.25% APY on checking accounts
3.85% APY on savings accounts
Up to 4.80% APY on CDs
4.15% APY on money market account
Additional perks:
Robo Portfolios help you invest
Spending Buckets help you budget
9. Flagstar Bank
Although it’s headquartered in Hicksville, New York, Flagstar Bank has a regional headquarters in Troy, Michigan. One of the best things about Flagstar checking accounts is the 0.25% interest rates you’re offered on home and personal loans when your payment comes from your checking account.
Although Flagstar does have a high-yield savings account that offers 2.50% APY, there’s a $35 monthly service fee for balances under $50,000.
Fees:
No monthly maintenance fee
$36 overdraft fee
Balance requirements:
$50 minimum deposit to open
No minimum balance required
ATMs:
Fee-free at Flagstar ATMs
Fee-free at 56,000+ Presto! and Allpoint ATMs
$2.50 for each out-of-network ATM withdrawal
Interest on balance:
Up to 2.50% APY on savings account
4.25% on CDs
Additional perks:
Discounts on loans when payments made from your Flagstar checking account
Robust business checking account options
10. Old National Bank
Based in Chicago, Illinois, and Evansville, Indiana, Old National Bank has branches in Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kentucky, and Illinois. Currently, you can earn a $300 bonus for a new checking account when you receive at least two direct deposits totaling at least $3,000 and enroll in online or mobile banking.
Old National’s free checking account requires at least $500 in direct deposit activity monthly. You’ll also have to maintain a minimum balance of at least $750 or maintain a $1,500 combined balance in all your Old National accounts. If you’re active-duty military, you can qualify for a free checking account without meeting any requirements.
Fees:
$6.95 monthly service fee (waived with requirements)
$36 overdraft fee (waived up to $25)
Balance requirements:
$50 minimum deposit to open
No minimum balance required ($1,500 to waive monthly fees)
ATMs:
Fee-free at Old National ATMs
Fee-free at 53,000+ Allpoint ATMs nationwide
$3 out-of-network ATM fee
Interest on balance:
Up to 4.85% on CDs
Up to 5.00% on money market account
Additional perks:
$300 bonus for new checking account
View all accounts, including those with other banks, in one dashboard
11. Diversified Members Credit Union
Diversified Members Credit Union has expanded over the years and now serves 25,000 members, with branches in Novi, Clawson, and Detroit. You’ll also get online and mobile banking options, as well as access to branches and ATMs through the Co-Op network.
Although DMCU’s checking accounts come with a $10 fee, you can avoid those monthly maintenance fees by enrolling in e-statements and online banking, as well as having at least 15 debit card transactions post each statement period.
Fees:
$10 monthly fee (waived with requirements)
$30 overdraft fee
Balance requirements:
$25 minimum opening deposit
No minimum balance required
ATMs:
Fee-free at DMCU ATMs
Fee-free at 30,000 ATMs nationwide
$2 out-of-network ATM transaction fee
Interest on balance:
.05% APY on checking
Up to .35% APY on savings
Up to 1.15% APY on money markets
Additional perks:
Robust business checking account options
Competitive rates on auto and recreational vehicle loans
12. Comerica
Although it was founded in Detroit in 1849, Comerica is now headquartered in Dallas. But it still has branches in Michigan, as well as Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas.
Comerica’s basic checking package comes with a $13 monthly fee that can be waived by keeping a $1,000 balance or having at least one $250 electronic deposit each month. Full-time students up to age 26 and military members can also request to have the fee waived.
Fees:
$13 monthly fee (waived with requirements)
$34 overdraft fee
Balance requirements:
$50 minimum opening deposit
No minimum balance required ($1,000 to waive service fee)
ATMs:
Fee-free at Comerica ATMs
$2.50 out-of-network ATM transaction fee
Interest on balance:
.01% APY on savings
Up to 5.00% APY on CDs
Up to 4.25% APY on money market account
Additional perks:
Earn up to $500 for referrals
Discounts on home equity lines of credit
Choosing the Best Bank in Michigan
When you’re in the market for a new checking or savings account, it’s important to recognize what’s most important to you. It likely will differ from what someone else finds important. Here are some features to consider when you’re comparing national, regional, and local Michigan banks.
Mobile Banking Features
These days, almost every bank offers mobile banking as a core feature. The best banks let you manage almost everything through either the app or an online web portal. Look for features that will eliminate your reliance on local branches and ATMs, including mobile check deposit and the ability to easily transfer money from your checking account to your online savings account.
That doesn’t mean you can’t choose a bank with branches in Michigan, though. You may like the features that come with a traditional bank account, including the ability to visit a local branch for in-person customer service. If a bank offers easy access to branches and ATMs, mobile banking will still give you the convenience of being able to manage your account when you can’t get to a bank.
Minimum Deposits and Balances
When searching for the best banks, you’ll notice that some come with requirements. Banks and credit unions may charge monthly service fees to access your account, and it can be tempting to go with a bank that advertises free checking. In doing that, though, it’s important to pay attention to the requirements that go with that account.
If you’re on a budget, the best checking accounts have very few fees while also refraining from requiring a minimum daily balance. That means you don’t have to stress about keeping a certain amount in your account. When looking at a bank or credit union, also look for the requirements to open the account. Some banks require a minimum deposit to get started.
Interest Rates
Saving money on fees isn’t the only priority when looking for a bank account. Your balance should earn interest, and the higher the annual percentage yield, the better.
It’s not unusual for a savings account and CD to earn interest, but there are also high-yield checking account options. An interest checking account will probably be a better fit for you if you routinely hold a high balance in your checking account. You can also find high interest rates on savings and CDs with online banks that might offset any out-of-network ATM fees you occasionally pay to access cash.
Michigan Bank Promotions
Whether you’re searching for a community bank or holding out for a great deal with a national bank, always look into any bank promotions currently going on. Typically, bank promos require that you maintain the account for at least a couple of months, as well as complete a fixed number of activities, such as electronic deposits or maintaining a minimum balance.
In some cases, promotions will be for specific product types, such as a business checking account. If you’re in the market for a new business bank account, you may get a better deal by going with a different bank than you use for your personal checking account.
ATM Access
Online banks, local banks, and credit unions will often increase their interest rates on savings and CDs to compete with bigger financial institutions, but there’s a downside. You might not get the cash access you’d find with a national bank. You may find a full selection of ATMs near your house, but when you travel, you’ll have to pay an out-of-network ATM fee to get cash from your bank accounts.
In recent years, though, online banking and credit unions have made this easier. Your credit union may be a part of a national co-op network that expands access to both branches and ATMs nationwide.
Online banks will partner with national ATM networks like AllPoint and MoneyPass to offer account holders cash. If you ever need to deposit cash, your online bank might let you take your debit card to one of many partner locations to add the funds to your app, although this usually comes with a fee.
In some cases, a small or online bank will offer ATM fee reimbursements. These may be limited to a small dollar amount per statement period. This could include a few banks who don’t offer fee-free ATM withdrawals among your options.
Our Methodology
Finding the right bank can be tough, so we took personal preferences into account. Here are some of the features we used to determine the best banks and credit unions in Michigan:
Variety of financial products: Checking and savings are typically the first features you look for in a bank, but there are other things to consider. We focused on banks that offer other accounts, such as money markets and certificates of deposits.
Local vs. online: Preferences can vary, so we chose a variety of account types, including small banks, credit unions, corporate banks with branches in Michigan, and online-only banks.
Interest rates: We noted the interest rates offered by each bank. If you’re hoping to save money, it’s important to get the best rates possible. We tried to include banks that offer an APY that’s above the national average.
Bank requirements: There are often minimums associated with an account, especially if you won’t pay monthly fees. We took a look at those requirements and disclosed them to make it easier for you to quickly identify what you’ll need. Those include the amount you’ll need to deposit to open the account and the minimum balance you’ll need to retain each day.
Other fees: You won’t just face service fees with a new account. If your checking goes into the negative, you’ll likely have to pay an overdraft fee. Some banks have a minimal out-of-network ATM transaction fee that’s in addition to any fees charged by the third-party bank. Check a bank’s fee schedule before signing on to make sure you know exactly what fees you’ll face.
Finding a new bank can be challenging. The good news is, once you’ve found the right fit, you probably won’t have to switch for a while. It’s important to take your time and compare as many banks as possible to make sure you’re getting the best deal.
My monthly Extraordinary Lives series is something that I’m really enjoying doing. First up was JP Livingston, who retired with a net worth over $2,000,000 at the age of 28. Today’s interview is with Tanja Hester, who retired at the end of 2017 at the age of 38.
You probably know her from the amazing blog Our Next Life. Our Next Life is one of my favorite blogs, so I’m glad Tanja said yes to this interview!
In this interview, you’ll learn:
How she managed to retire so early;
How she still lives comfortably in one of the most beautiful places in the world;
Her advice for retiring early no matter what your career choice is;
How she decided how much she needed to retire on;
The sacrifices she has had to make;
And more! This interview is packed full of valuable information!
I asked you, my readers, what questions I should ask her, so below are your questions (and some of mine) about Tanja’s story and how she has accomplished so much. Make sure you’re following me on Facebook so you have the opportunity to submit your own questions for the next interview.
Related content:
1. Tell me your story. How are you managing to retire so early?
Hi Michelle! Thanks so much for having me. 🙂 We feel like we’re now living a magical life as early retirees, but there’s no magic to how we got here. We spent a lot less than we earned for a bunch of years in a row, made easier and faster by above average salaries (both earned six figures in our last several years of work), and we tried to make some other smart decisions along the way. But we didn’t strike it rich with Bitcoin or build a unicorn startup or get an inheritance or anything else. We just stayed focused on our goal and ground away at it, bit by bit.
More specifically, we focused on three big things:
1. Buying less house than we could afford. The banks would have happily lent us three times as much as we paid for our house in Tahoe, but we stuck to our guns and set our own budget. We lucked out by being able to buy at almost the bottom of the market in 2011, but even though we could have bought more house then for a pretty good price, we kept our budget modest, and that allowed us to pay off our mortgage in just over five years, which then let us save more in our last year of work as well as go into early retirement with no mortgage, which means our basic cost of living is minimal.
2. Paying ourselves first and automating that. We set our paychecks up so that a big chunk went straight into savings without us ever seeing that money, and had another big portion set to go into our investments automatically with each paycheck. We kept only a small portion of our total income in our checking account, and so felt like that was all we had to spend. But more importantly, saving wasn’t a choice we had to make, which would have relied on willpower we don’t always possess. It just happened without us doing anything. For those who aren’t natural savers (like us!), I can’t recommend enough taking the decision out of it and automating your savings.
3. Not inflating our lifestyle. For the last decade of our careers, we banked every bonus and every raise. So at the start of each year, we’d increase our automatic investments by at least as much as our paychecks increased, meaning we never felt like we got a raise, and we didn’t start spending more. When you add the compounding effect of all those raises we banked, it adds up to quite a big number! But for us, because we did it gradually that way and just kept the amount we had to spend steady, it never felt like a sacrifice to save at a really high rate.
2. When did you begin saving for early retirement?
While we’d been saving for years for a string of financial goals – paying off my consumer debt, buying our first place in LA, buying our forever home in Tahoe and saving a bit for traditional retirement – we started saving for early retirement in a focused way about six years ago. And then we got super focused four years ago.
I still can’t believe how much we saved in that time, but it’s amazing what’s possible when you get really clear on your “why” and align all your decisions around it. (And again, having a higher income for sure helped. You can’t save more than you earn, so the more you can earn, the faster you can save.)
3. Was early retirement always something you were striving for? What made you want to retire early?
Mark and I always had a sense that we didn’t want to work “forever,” but we didn’t know what that meant. We had very demanding, high-stress careers where we could never truly be offline. We loved much about the work and loved our clients and colleagues, but it definitely took a big toll on our physical and mental health. And that’s how we knew that we weren’t willing to do that kind of work forever.
We talked about transitioning to different, lower-paid careers, but once we realized that we could work hard for just a few more years and then never need to work again, it was an easy choice to keep going.
Related: What Is Financial Independence, Retire Early? Answers To FAQs About FIRE
4. Would you say that you live comfortably? I ask this because many people assume that early retirees eat a lot of rice and beans!
I mean, I do love rice and beans. 😉 But we only eat rice and beans a few times a month. I would definitely say we live super comfortably! We own a single family home in a crazy beautiful part of the world, we spend money on fresh, healthy, mostly organic food, we ski multiple times a week and we take several international trips per year.
There’s a lot we don’t spend on, of course, and we do have one freakishly frugal habit that shocks a lot of people – keeping our house at a chilly 55 degrees F in the winter – but we think our life is pretty darn luxurious. But we keep it reasonable by ruthlessly cutting out the mindless spending that doesn’t add real value to our lives and focusing our spending only on the things we love to do.
5. What career did you have before you retired? Did that career help you to retire earlier?
We both worked as political and social cause consultants for a long time – 16 years for me and nearly 20 for Mark. We loved doing meaningful work with smart, talented people, but the pace of it was really hard to sustain. We had to travel a ton and be reachable at all times, and that stress was something we carried around with us at all times. But, the upside of high-pressure jobs like that is that they often pay well. So yes, absolutely – having those careers 100% enabled us to retire early!
6. What advice do you have for the average person that doesn’t make six figures a year who wants to retire early? What do you have to say to those who may think that they can never earn as much as you can – can they still retire early too?
While earning more certainly helps speed things along, there’s nothing about the core principle of financial independence – spend less than you earn and save the difference – that requires an especially high income or a job in tech or any other particular factor. (We both went to state schools for college and majored in English and communications, if you’re curious.) If you can afford to save even a little bit of money each month, you can do this, you just might be on a slightly longer timeline. If you make saving for early retirement a priority, you’ll be amazed that it does not take 40 years to save, as many financial experts would have you believe.
My best advice is to be diligent about tracking your spending. Know where every dollar is going, and then then ask yourself which of those dollars brought you real, lasting happiness, not just a momentarily thrill, and which ones didn’t. Then, as much as you can, cut out the spending that doesn’t make you happy. You don’t even have to do it all at one time, but once you start seeing your spending that way – mindless spending that doesn’t add value and mindful spending that makes you happier – it becomes a whole lot easier to save money.
And then don’t just think about the saving side of the equation. Think about the earning side, too. Side hustles are all the rage, and I side hustled for the first 12 years of my career, working a few odd jobs and then teaching yoga and spinning for 10 years. Those jobs definitely helped me earn and save more in my early career years, but eventually having extra commitments held me back in my “real career.” And at that point, I ditched my side hustle and committed myself fully to my main job, working as long and traveling as much as that required. I know that having that real commitment to work paid off in the form of promotions and bonuses, and that wouldn’t have been possible if I’d kept my side hustle.
7. Will you still earn an income in retirement?
Our retirement is funded primarily by selling shares of stock and bond index funds that we bought throughout our savings phase, as well as by collecting rent on the one rental property we have. We created our “magic number” that we needed to save by figuring out what we’d need to have if we never earned another penny, and that’s what we saved. But now that we’re retired, we also realize that of course we’ll still earn money in some form. Retiring early takes a bit of a hustle mindset, and you don’t just stop being a person who hustles when you leave your career.
The good thing is that we can now put that hustle to use toward community service instead of paid work, and if we do take on paid work, we can be super picky and do only work that sounds super fun, that we’d happily do for free. And that extra money we earn can go toward more charitable giving, toward an extra trip overseas, or maybe toward a home project like a kitchen remodel. In the spirit of full transparency, Mark and I are both working a little bit this year, though in total it will only be about 10-20 percent of our time. We didn’t plan to work, but Mark got an offer he couldn’t refuse to work on a passion project, and I got an offer to fulfill a lifetime dream, so we both had an easy time saying yes.
8. How did you decide on how much you needed to retire on?
The starting point for calculating any early retirement number (or traditional retirement number, for that matter) has to be knowing what you spend in a year. Most online retirement calculators base your target number off what you earn, and that’s bananas if you don’t spend everything you make. When we started our planning, the rule of 25X (25 times your annual spending, the inverse of the 4% safe withdrawal rule) wasn’t as widely talked about, and it wouldn’t have worked for us anyway because we wanted to build a two-phase early retirement plan that would let us leave our traditional retirement savings alone (many early retirees convert 401(k) and IRA funds to be able to access them early without penalty, but we don’t want to do this), so that we’d have a big cushion for our later years, especially given all the uncertainty right now around health care, and the high costs even for those on Medicare.
We probably overcomplicated our calculations a bit because we’re both spreadsheet nerds, but the short version is that we calculated that our 401(k)s already had enough in them to support our “phase 2” (basically our traditional retirement, from age 59 ½ onward, after we can access our 401(k) money without having to jump through any hoops), and so we focused on saving an amount in unrestricted, taxable mutual funds that our spreadsheets told us would carry us through the first 18 years (our “phase 1”). We based those projections on extremely conservative market gains – only about percent real returns after inflation – so that we’d be okay even if the markets are flat for many years.
9. What sacrifices or hard decisions did you have to make?
I think the way we did this – focusing mostly on keeping our lifestyle contained as our earnings increased and automating our savings – made it not feel like a sacrifice. We for sure did give some things up like frequent meals out and traveling with a bit less of a budget orientation, but for those things, it was easy to give them up because we knew exactly why we weren’t spending money on them anymore. Having our goals clear in our minds and both being excited about our vision for the future was so motivating that it headed off any potential feeling of sacrifice.
Two of the hardest decisions we made along the way were to alter our plans to be able to help out family members. We hadn’t planned to buy a rental property, but it became clear that a relative with special needs would be helped a lot if we’d buy a property that would meet those needs and rent it to them, and so we adapted our plans to allow for that. And then another relative was about to go to debt collection for some medical debts that weren’t their fault, and we decided to make a personal loan to let that person move forward financially. Both decisions have worked out super well, and we believe strongly that there’s no point in having money saved if you can’t use some of it to help people you care about, but it was definitely tough to make each of those decisions.
10. What will you do about health insurance in early retirement?
We fully expect the landscape around health care in the U.S. to keep shifting, but for now we have health insurance that we purchased through the Affordable Care Act exchange. It’s a bit pricey but it’s normal insurance, which is a huge comfort to have!
11. What are your long-term plans now that you will have significantly more time not working?
We’re trying to keep things as open-ended as possible! I’m definitely going to keep writing the blog, and we’re both actively volunteering in our community. We went to Taiwan earlier this year and are planning a few more trips through the end of 2018, and then, who knows?
We’re exploring getting a very small motorhome (not big and fancy like yours, Michelle!) that we can use for road trips around the west, but that’s not for sure yet. A few years ago, we decided that our purpose is service, adventure and creativity, so while we don’t yet know what path our lives will take, we know we’ll be doing some of each of those three.
12. Are you doing any lifestyle changes to reduce your expenses in early retirement?
We are! When we were working, we were so crunched for time that we ate a lot of frozen and convenience foods, even though we would have preferred to make everything from scratch. We also couldn’t really comparison shop because we didn’t have time for that. But now we’re making more food from scratch and visiting a wider array of stores and learning what items are priced best at each place.
We’re also DIYing everything we can now that we have time to do that. But beyond that stuff, we were already living at a level we were comfortable with and that let us save a lot, so it doesn’t feel like we need to trim much more. But ask me again in a year, and maybe I’ll have found some new ways to save!
13. I’m curious to know what your methods for staying focused on accomplishing such a major goal?
Even in the very best case scenario, saving for early retirement takes years, so it’s important to know up front that you will feel some impatience along the way. Everyone who’s done it has felt it at one time or another, or maybe many times!
We found it helped a ton to track our progress and look at it often, so that we could see how far we’d come. And having everything automated also helped because we didn’t even give ourselves the opportunity to have the thought, “We’d rather spend this money instead this month to treat ourselves.” And finally, we didn’t deprive ourselves, and I think that’s important.
Living solely for tomorrow is not the way to be happy with your life – you have to allow yourself some joy today. We tried to keep things modest, of course, but we still let ourselves do fun things and spend money on things that made us happy instead of saving all our money. Living for both today and tomorrow helps with the impatience a ton!
14. If you were starting back at ground zero, what would you do differently from the beginning?
If I could go allllll the way back, I’d never set foot in Target! Haha. When I was just starting out in my career, Target was my kryptonite, and I wouldn’t set foot in there without buying a whole bunch of home decoration stuff that I didn’t need. One of my best practical saving tips is to know your spending triggers and avoid them, so to this day, I do not set foot in Target, and I get what I would have bought there on Amazon or at less tempting stores.
But if we’re just talking about the beginning of the early retirement journey, we would for sure have invested in more rental properties. Real estate offers a quicker path to financial independence than does saving, and it gives you some diversification you don’t get by only investing in the markets. I thought I’d hate being a landlord and so wasn’t interested in real estate, but now that we’ve done it for several years, we wish we had put more focus on rental properties.
15. Lastly, what is your very best tip (or two) that you have for someone who wants to reach the same success as you?
Don’t just think in terms of numbers. Get clear about what you really want to be doing with your life – what that looks like, what will make you feel like you have a purpose, what you want to be able to look back on at the end of your life and feel proud of – and then decide what you’re willing to give up to make that happen. Doing that exercise will help you figure out much more quickly how much your new life will cost and how much you can afford to save now, but best of all you’ll have the motivation to do that saving because you will have already invested the time in forming that solid vision for yourself instead of saving just to save, or just because you don’t like your job. If you retire early just because you don’t like your job and not because there’s something else you’re super stoked to do, you’ll probably be unhappy in early retirement, too.
And on the numbers front, don’t just focus on saving money. Focus on earning more. There’s a limit to how much spending you can eliminate but no limit to how much you can earn, so don’t neglect that half of the equation.
Are you interested in early retirement? Are you saving for retirement?
Save more, spend smarter, and make your money go further
The temptation to overspend is seemingly everywhere you go. Whether you’re at the grocery store, checking your email, or scrolling on Instagram, ads are everywhere you look. These days, targeted ads are getting better at stealing your attention and your budget. While shopping never goes out of style, you may be wondering how to stop spending money on unnecessary items. Luckily, we have a few tricks up our sleeve.
From becoming your own chef to creating and sticking to a budget, there are a few ways to avoid temptations to overspend. Not only does overspending impact your finances, it could hinder your chances of meeting your financial goals. Curb your temptation to spend money with our 13 budget savers below.
1. Know Your Weaknesses
While you’re gearing up to end overspending, first find out where you spend the most money. Look through your recent statements and highlight any unnecessary expenses. Where are you spending the most on items or services that benefit your finances, or steal from them? Once you’ve recognized your unnecessary expenses, limit your spending.
Bonus step: Create your ideal budget and set specific financial goals using the Mint app. Enable alerts to notify you anytime you’re nearing your budget’s limit.
2. Create a Budget and Stick to It
Now that you’ve identified where you overspend, it’s time to create a budget to keep your temptations at bay. As a general rule of thumb, you should follow the 50/30/20 rule — 50 percent of your income going to necessities, 30 percent towards extras, and 20 percent towards your savings.
After figuring out how much money comes in versus out, set your monthly budget goals. As each month may have different expenses, plan for the adjustments. Sit down at the end of each month to readjust your budget for the next month ahead.
Bonus step: Schedule budget check-ins once a month to hold yourself accountable.
3. Give Every Dollar a Purpose
When creating your budget, try budgeting to zero. When you have extra money laying around in your account, you may feel tempted to spend it on things you don’t need. Once you’ve accounted for your necessary expenses like rent, electricity, and WiFi, divide up your leftovers to put towards your savings, extra debt payments, and investments until you reach zero.
Bonus step: Set up automatic savings contributions to make sure your income is directly deposited where you want it to go.
4. Only Shop With a List
Write out a shopping list before you enter the store to ensure you get everything you need without any extras. While you’re shopping, only stick to what’s on your list. If it’s not on the list and you haven’t budgeted for it, put it down and just keep walking.
Bonus step: To avoid impulse purchases, unsubscribe from all your email newsletters and delete shopping apps from your phone.
5. Check Your Budget Before You Spend
If you do find yourself eyeing an item that you haven’t budgeted for (it happens!), check in on your bank account before making the purchase. If it fits your budget, ask yourself the hard questions. Do you really need this item? If so, how would it benefit you and your lifestyle? Could it save you time or money? If yes, follow through with the purchase while respecting your budget.
Bonus step: Wait three days before purchasing an unneeded item. After 72 hours, if you’re still interested and it fits your budget, go back and get it.
6. Invest In Multi-Use Products
While your monthly goal may be to save as much as you can, be open to higher-priced items that could help you reach that goal. For example, buying reusable paper towels means you’ll spend less on disposable ones over time. Another way to save on small expenses is to become your own barista, which can save you between $1,934 to $2,327 a year.
Bonus step: Consider adopting some minimalist lifestyle ideas to help spend less and declutter.
7. Ditch Food Delivery and Cook at Home
The average American spends $3,459 on eating out every year. Instead of ordering food for lunch every day, meal prep at home. You can work this into your weekly routine by designating a day for meal planning and a day for grocery shopping and cooking. Planning your meals saves you from overspending while still making your favorite gourmet meals. You can save eating out for special occasions.
Bonus step: Delete all your food delivery apps from your phone to avoid the urge to order a speedy, but expensive, meal.
8. Pack Leftovers the Night Before
When your calendar’s booked, you’re most likely looking for the easiest way to get food for lunch. Nix your takeout food budget and pack your leftovers from the night before. While some nights you may be booked with events or virtual get-togethers, meal prep once or twice a week to ensure you have food for lunch every day. Simple dishes like chicken and veggies are easy meals to make on a budget.
Bonus step: Organize a “lunch swap” with your coworker so you don’t get bored of eating the same meal.
9. Squash Sale Shopping
If items on your shopping list aren’t on sale, don’t go looking for unnecessary items on the sale racks. You may walk out of the store buying something you don’t need because “it was only five bucks!” Kick discount shopping to the curb unless the items you need are part of the sale.
Bonus step: Save time and money by avoiding discount catalogs and sale sections.
10. Opt For Generic Over Name Brand
While checking off your shopping list, see if there are any generic alternatives to big-name brands. Most big box stores make the same products at a discounted price in exchange for the branded packaging. Compare the ingredients of a generic item against name brand products to see if you can spot a difference. Purchasing generic food products alone could save you 30 to 60 percent.
Bonus step: Google online coupons at checkout to see if you can get an added discount.
11. Cancel Unnecessary Subscriptions
While your gym membership and TV streaming system may have served you a few years ago, it may not now. Audit your expenses each month to see what you’re able to cut out. Instead of paying for a gym membership that costs on average $696 each year, purchase weights and a yoga mat for your own home gym. Not only could it save you money year after year, it could save you the commute to the gym and back.
Bonus step: As 65% of people don’t keep track of their monthly spending, schedule budget audits on your calendar every three months.
12. Challenge Yourself to a No-Spend Challenge
Participate in daily, weekly, or monthly savings challenges to make penny-pinching more fun. Ask your friends and family to join in on a no-spend challenge to up the stakes. Spark some friendly competition while giving back to your bank account. Once the month has come to a wrap, treat yourself to your favorite snack in celebration of your achievements.
Bonus step: Set an alert on your phone for a no-spend day each week. One New Yorker saved $18,432 in six months from having one no-spend day a week.
13. Set New Budget Goals and Repeat
Challenges help keep your eyes on the prize. Set differentgoals as you audit your budget each month. One month you may want to focus on contributing to your emergency fund, while the other you may want to increase your student loan payments. Get creative with your goals and set up budget alerts to ensure you’re meeting them.
Bonus step: Tell your friends and family about your goals each month to increase your odds of meeting them.
Invest Your Time and Money On Things That Help You Save
What else could you do with your money to earn more? Simply investing a hundred dollars in home gym equipment could pay for itself (and more) instead of purchasing an annual gym membership. Below are a few more options that could save you time and money year after year.
Make your coffee at home: Buy yourself a coffee maker and cup that you love. Use your machine and reusable cup every day to save hundreds of dollars on takeout coffee.
Become a beautician: Order hair shears, at-home dye supplies, and nail kits to save on the tremendous beauty industry markup prices. Ask your friend to do your hair or take it upon yourself to learn.
Use reusable products: Reduce your waste and purchase reusable products. Swap your paper towels for reusable towels to save the earth and budget.
Shop quality over quantity: For instance, invest in staple clothing pieces over fast fashion. You could save money and time on constantly shopping for new clothes.
Create an at-home gym: Purchase a few weights, a yoga mat, and a water bottle and get a sweaty workout done at home. You may even feel less stressed about beating traffic to make it to your fitness class on time.
Track your spending on the fly: Download our free app to track your spending habits, even when you’re out and about. Set up alerts to ensure you’re always on track with your budget.
Divvy up time for your passion projects: Say no to events that don’t benefit you and use that time to create passive income projects that last a lifetime.
Even though you may be looking to save more and spend less, you don’t have to cut all your favorite things out of your budget. Instead, practice spending with a purpose. Your weekly dinners out on the town may not as mean as much as they do when you treat yourself to a nice steak made at home. If you’re frequently tempted to spend your money instead of saving, create a budget to ensure you’re always keeping up with and sticking to your savings goals.
Save more, spend smarter, and make your money go further
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In only a few years, the rapid advancement of mobile technology has placed the power to invest at our fingertips and ushered in a wave of fintech startups, armed with new and innovative solutions for investors. Names like Acorns and Stash are now competing head-to-head with traditional brands such as E-Trade, and TD Ameritrade. (Imagine E-Trade being considered a “traditional” brand!)
With so many great options to choose from, it can be downright difficult to decide which investment app is right for you. To take out the guesswork, I’ve compiled a list of the best investment apps for 2021. From beginner investors to advanced traders, there’s something here for everyone.
Before we dive in, I should point out that this list of best apps is not a ranking. Instead, I’ve chosen what I believe are the best apps for a variety of situations – trading stocks, exchange traded funds (ETFs), no-fee, and micro-investing, you name it.
This means that the investment app I chose as best overall won’t necessarily be the top pick for every investor. Rather, it’s the one that I feel most clearly meets the needs of its target client. With that in mind, I present to you the Best Investment Apps for 2021.
Best Overall: Acorns
My top choice for investment app is Acorns. Not because it does everything well, but because it does what it’s designed to do, as well or better than the competition. Acorns was made specifically with new investors in mind, and it delivers precisely what so many of them are looking for: simple, automated investing, with very low fees, and no minimum balance requirement.
To achieve this, Acorns uses an innovative feature known as roundup savings. Here’s how it works. Acorns syncs to your debit and/or credit card, and automatically rounds up your purchases to the nearest dollar. It then deposits the “spare change” into your investment account. For example, let’s say you buy a cup of coffee for $1.48. Acorns will round up to the nearest dollar, setting aside $.52 into your savings.
Open an Acorns Account Today
From there, the money is invested in one of five professionally managed ETF portfolios, that match your recommended asset allocation. What I love about Acorns is how easy it is to set up an account directly from the app, and get saving. For account balances less than $5000, the fee is $1/month (.25% annually for balances over $5000). For an additional $1/month, you can now open an Acorns checking account, complete with a Visa Debit card, making the process even more seamless.
Features:
Ideal for new investors
Easy to use app
Innovative, roundup savings
Syncs to your credit/debit card for automated savings
No minimum balance requirement
Monthly fee: $1 (for portfolios up to $5000, over $5000, .25% annual fee)
Available Acorns checking account with free ATM use nationwide
Acorns Found Money – earn credit from retail partner stores
IRA account available
No stock trading functionality
Best for Automated Investing: Acorns, M1 Finance
While the real magic of automated savings comes in the form of roundups, Acorns offers even more layers of automation. For example, with Acorns Found Money, you can earn cash when you spend money at Acorns retail partner stores, a list that includes Sephora, Barnes & Noble, and Walmart. To register, simply download the Acorns Chrome extension, then sit back and watch as retail discounts are returned back to you in the form of credits to your Acorns account when you shop.
M1 Finance also gets a nod here, for their ability to invest preset amounts directly into an ETF investing platform, absolutely free of charge. Unlike Acorns, however, M1 will require a minimum balance of $100, and they lack some of Acorns added features.
Best for Beginning Investors: Acorns, Stash
From the Acorns app, you can access a huge assortment of educational content for beginner investors. Whether you’re learning about the differences between stocks and bonds, or the basics of dollar cost averaging, these articles will give you the confidence you need to start investing. With tools like this, it’s clear that Acorns understands its target market.
For beginning investors, Stash gets an honourable mention (more on them later), due to the creative names they’ve assigned to their various ETF portfolios, making it easy for beginners to visualize the underlying investments. For example, Stash account holders can choose from portfolio selections such as Retail Therapy, Delicious Dividends, or Robots Rising.
Best for Financial Management: Personal Capital
Personal Capital has become known for their cutting edge tools that help people budget and keep track of their net worth. However, they also act as an asset manager, providing customers with a dedicated advisor, and investment portfolios that include individual stocks and low-cost ETFs. On the downside, they are more expensive than other robo-advisors, charging an annual fee of .89% on assets up to $1MM.
If you meet Personal Capital’s asset threshold, and you’re looking for an investment app that will provide you with powerful tools to help you manage your finances, as well as dedicated advice, Personal Capital might be the way to go.
Features:
.89% fee up to $1MM
$100,000 minimum investment requirement
Free tools
Dedicated advice
App can sync all of your financial information
Best for Stock Trading: TD Ameritrade, E-Trade
TD Ameritrade has long been a leader in the discount brokerage space, with solid pricing (including an introductory offer of 60 free trades), powerful research & data analysis tools, and a very robust trading platform, making them a top choice with stock trading investors. What makes the TD Ameritrade mobile app great, is that it takes a lot of the functionality of the desktop site, and places it right at your fingertips.
Investors can access educational videos right from the app, receive price alerts on stocks they’re tracking, and place trades with ease. In addition to stocks, TD Ameritrade offers over 100 commission-free ETFs, with no account minimum. You can download the TD Ameritrade app for use on any iOS, Android, or Blackberry device.
I’m giving an honourable mention to E-Trade, which, like TD, boasts an easy to use app, loaded with functionality. They do have a $500 account minimum, however, and don’t offer commission-free ETFs.
TD Ameritrade Features:
Powerful research/data analysis tools
Educational videos available from the mobile app
No account minimum
$6.95 per trade (standard)
Free trades for the first 60 days (with qualifying deposit)
Over 100 commission-free ETFs
Best for Free Stock Trades: Robinhood
Robinhood is the investment app that boasts no strings attached, free trades on stocks and ETFs. If low fee investing is what you’re after, Robinhood is pretty hard to beat. In exchange for free trades however, you’ll give up some of the advanced features that come complimentary on competitor apps.
For example, access to research tools costs $5/month, and margin trading can only be done through Robinhood Gold, for which there is a cost. Think of Robinhood as a discount supermarket, offering rock bottom prices, with no frills service. In addition to free trading, there are no account fees, and no minimum balance requirement.
Active traders may be turned off by the reduced functionality, but if you’re ok with doing your own research and don’t require the margin capability, Robinhood may be the right investment app for you.
It comes as no surprise that Vanguard’s competitive advantage lies in its pricing. After all, would you expect anything less from one of the industry’s forerunners in low-cost investing? What I wanted to know was how well the Vanguard app measured up, when compared to the competition.
With the Vanguard app, you can place trades on thousands of funds and ETFs free of charge. In addition, there are no account fees, nor is there a minimum balance requirement. Where Vanguard comes up short is in its functionality as a stock trading platform. The app is not as capable as offerings from competitors such as TD Ameritrade, and E-Trade.
Not only that, Vanguard’s fee structure for stock trading is somewhat complicated, in fact, it could be argued that it’s biased against active trading. Here’s an example: If you have less than $50,000 in Vanguard funds, you’ll pay $7/trade. But after 25 trades, the fee increases to $20/trade, which alone is enough to steer active traders elsewhere.
In short, if you’re a buy and hold ETF investor, better yet, a dedicated Vanguard investor, you’ll likely find this to be a perfectly suitable investing app. But if you’re looking for a place to buy and sell stocks on a regular basis, it’s best to look somewhere else.
Features:
Well suited for the buy and hold, Vanguard ETF investor
No commission fees on thousands of ETFs
No account fees, or account minimum
Top-notch educational resources available
$7 trading fee for stocks, rises to $20 over 25 trades
Complex fee structure for stock trading
Not suitable for active traders
Best for Socially Responsible Investing: Wealthsimple
Canada’s largest robo-advisor is now making inroads here in the US, with a mobile app that is intuitive, enabling much of the functionality of the desktop site. With Wealthsimple, you can choose from a selection of low-cost ETFs that will fit your investor profile. What I love most about Wealthsimple however, is their focus on Socially Responsible Investing (SRI).
These days, more and more investors are steering clear of companies that may not reflect their values. Wealthsimple makes that easier through their SRI ETFs, which include holdings in the low carbon, cleantech, and affordable housing sectors. In addition, Wealthsimple offers a Halal portfolio, which only includes investments that align with Islamic investing principles.
In other words, any company profiting from the sale of alcohol, tobacco, gambling, pork, or weapons, is excluded from the Wealthsimple Halal portfolio. Halal portfolios do not include income investments, such as bonds or CDs, as they are considered debt instruments. Because of this, rather than ETFs, Halal portfolios are made up of 50 carefully selected, individual stocks.
Features:
Robo-advisor offering a broad selection of low-cost ETFs
.50% annual fee on portfolios up to $100,000, .40% over $100k
No minimum investment amount
Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) available
Halal portfolio available
Best for Real-Estate Investing: Fundrise
The Fundrise investment app was designed with a very specific customer in mind: the real-estate investor. Advertising themselves as an alternative to the stock market, Fundrise enables investors to select from portfolios comprised of private real-estate investments. Fundrise portfolios are tailored to three specific asset allocation models – income, balanced, and long term growth.
What I love about Fundrise is that they make real-estate investing accessible to almost anyone, with a $500 minimum investment. There is an annual fee of up to 1.00%, which is not far off some of the robo-advisor competition.
I will issue a note of caution relating to the historical returns that are advertised prominently on the Fundrise website. Not only is past performance not an indicator of future returns, but Fundrise portfolios have yet to endure a severe market downturn, having only been around since 2012.
That said, real-estate investing, in general, has proven to be a suitable long term investment for many generations. If you’re looking for a way to add some variety to a standard stock and bond portfolio, Fundrise may be a good alternative.
Similar to other micro-investing apps, Stash makes it easy to get started, by saving very small sums of money. What I love about their investment app, is that it allows you to open an account in only a couple of minutes. Not only that, but as soon as you deposit $5, they’ll match it with a $5 contribution of their own.
Investment apps like Stash make micro-investing possible because they have the ability to purchase fractional shares of the underlying investments (stocks and ETFs).
You can actually browse through a large selection of stocks and ETFs on the app, making it easy to choose a portfolio that aligns with your values. As I mentioned earlier, Stash ETF portfolios have some pretty creative names. Who wouldn’t want some Retail Therapy, or Delicious Dividends.
Features:
Same pricing as Acorns
Ability to invest small amounts with fractional share capability
Customized ETF portfolios to align with your values
$5 welcome bonus (with a $5 deposit)
Ideal for beginner investors
$1/monthly fee might not be worth it for everyone
Which Investment App is Right for Me?
To figure out which investment app is right for you, start by deciding which features are the most important.
If simple, automated savings is what you’re after, Acorns is probably your best bet. Serious stock traders will prefer the robust trading platforms and research tools offered by TD Ameritrade or E-Trade, while fans of Vanguard may be satisfied with its offering of thousands of free ETFs.
Either way, once you know what you’re after, the final decision becomes a lot easier.