paycheck Archives - Page 27 of 184

Apache is functioning normally

July 7, 2023 by Brett Tams

Cash App, a digital money transfer service, has transformed the way we manage our finances. From sharing restaurant bills with friends to paying your gig economy contractor, this app packs a punch beyond the basics of money transfer. Think of it as your mobile money manager, where you can easily check your Cash App balance, do direct deposits, cash out, and even manage your taxes. Yes, you heard right, Cash App taxes can also be managed within the app.

History of Cash App

In 2013, the minds at Square Inc. introduced the world to Cash App. With a vision to simplify monetary transactions, they created a platform that has become a key player in the fintech revolution. It’s fascinating to observe how the app evolved from a basic peer-to-peer payment service to a fully-fledged financial solution.

How Cash App Works

Imagine this: your nephew needs quick money for school supplies. He’s in another city, and you have no idea how to send him cash without physically being there. Enter Cash App.

Once you’ve installed the app and linked your bank account, transferring money is as simple as choosing a contact, entering an amount, and hitting ‘Pay.’ The money will instantly move from your Cash App account to theirs. And voila, crisis averted!

Here are the steps to use Cash App

Step 1: Download and Install

Cash App is available for both iOS and Android devices. You can find it in the App Store or Google Play Store. Once you’ve located the app, download and install it on your device.

Step 2: Create Your Account

Open the app, where you’ll be prompted to enter your mobile number or email address. You’ll then receive a confirmation code, which you need to enter in the app. This process verifies your account and helps protect your personal information.

Step 3: Link a Bank Account

Next, you’ll be asked to link a bank account. Enter your debit card details associated with your bank account. By linking your bank account, you’ll be able to transfer funds to and from your Cash App account seamlessly.

Step 4: Create a $Cashtag

A $Cashtag is a unique identifier for your Cash App account. This is what you’ll give to people when you want to receive money, and what you’ll use when you’re sending money to others. It can be up to 20 characters long and should be something you’re comfortable sharing with others.

Step 5: Understanding the Interface

Once you’re set up, you’ll notice that the main screen is split into two main sections:

The “Cash & BTC” section displays the current balance in your Cash App account. If you’ve chosen to invest in Bitcoin via the app, your balance will be reflected here too.
The “Banking” section allows you to add cash to your balance, cash out your balance to your bank account, view transactions, or invest in stocks and Bitcoin.

Step 6: Sending Money

To send money, tap the “$” symbol at the bottom center of the screen. Enter the amount you want to send, then press “Pay.” You’ll be asked to enter the recipient’s $Cashtag, email, or phone number. Add a note to remind them what the payment is for, then press “Pay” again.

Step 7: Receiving Money

When someone sends you money, it will appear in your Cash App balance. You can keep the funds in the app for future transactions, or cash out to your bank account.

To cash out, tap the “Banking” button at the bottom of the screen, then tap “Cash Out.” You can choose to cash out instantly for a small fee, or to cash out to your bank account within 1-3 business days for free.

Step 8: Using the Cash Card

Cash App offers a free debit card called the Cash Card. You can use this card to spend your Cash App balance at any store that accepts Visa. For individuals who frequently use their credit card for purchases, the Cash App can be a great way to boost savings toward chosen goals without much work. To request a card, tap the card-shaped icon on your Cash App home screen and follow the steps.

Step 9: Investing

Cash App allows you to buy stocks or Bitcoin directly from your account. From the main screen, tap the Investing tab (looks like a chart). Here you can view your investing portfolio, search for stocks, and make trades.

Remember, investing involves risks, and it’s important to understand these before you start.

The beauty of Cash App is its simplicity. It’s a secure and versatile platform that’s ideal for quick mobile payments, money transfers, and even dabbling in investments. Whether you’re a parent paying for piano lessons or a college student splitting rent with roommates, Cash App is an option worth considering.

Cash App Features

Cash App isn’t just a money transfer service. It’s so much more. You can link it to Apple Pay or Google Pay, pay with the custom Visa debit card (known as the Cash Card), and even buy Bitcoin cryptocurrency. Cash App also offers a feature called ‘Cash App Investing.’ With it, users can invest in stocks, making the world of Wall Street accessible right from your smartphone.

One exceptional feature of Cash App is that it allows users to receive paychecks through direct deposit. This is excellent for workers in the gig economy or for anyone preferring a digital banking experience.

Is Cash App safe?

In the age of data breaches and identity theft, Cash App ensures the safety of Cash App users’ personal information through encryption and fraud detection technology. The app is designed to keep your transaction details secure, even if your phone is lost or stolen. It also provides notifications for all account activities, helping you keep an eye on your transactions.

While Cash App is a financial platform, it is not a bank. It provides banking services and debit cards through its bank partners, but a great feature is that the balance in your account protected by FDIC insurance (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), just like a traditional bank.

Competitor Analysis

There are other players in the digital money transfer field such as Google Pay, Zelle, Venmo, Square Cash, and PayPal. What sets Cash App apart, however, is its combination of simplicity, versatility, and user-focused design. While other services might offer similar features, Cash App’s uncluttered interface and intuitive user experience keep it at the forefront of other payment apps.

See my in-depth comparison between Cash App and its competitors

Economic Impact

The rise of apps like Cash App has changed the financial landscape dramatically. By eliminating the need for brick-and-mortar banks, they’re driving the shift towards a more digital, user-centered banking experience.

Future of Cash App

Looking forward, Cash App appears poised to expand its offerings even further. The rapid growth of fintech and evolving consumer preferences suggest that apps like Cash App could begin to offer more extensive services, such as loans or insurance products, in the not-too-distant future.

Critiques and Controversies

No service is without its challenges. Cash App has faced criticisms related to customer service and has also been used for scams. The company has taken steps to address these issues and is continually working to improve Cash App user experience and security.

Through its various features and offerings, Cash App has made managing finances a more seamless experience. Whether you’re looking to go digital with your banking, simplify money transfers, or venture into investing, Cash App may become your preferred payment method.

Cash App FAQs

To wrap things up, let’s address some common queries you may have about Cash App:

Can you withdraw money from Cash App without a card?

Yes, you can transfer money from your Cash App account to your linked bank account.

Can someone steal your money with your Cash App name?

No, your Cash App name, also known as a $Cashtag, is just an identifier for others to send money. They can’t access your funds with it.

What happens when someone sends you money on Cash App?

The money will be added to your Cash App balance. You can use it within the app or withdraw it to your linked bank account.

How do you withdraw from Cash App without a bank account?

You need to have a linked bank account or a Cash Card to withdraw money from Cash App.

Do you have to provide your Social Security Number to Cash App?

For certain functions, such as sending large amounts of money or using the app for investing, Cash App does require your Social Security Number to comply with federal regulations.

Do you need a bank account with Cash App?

You can send and receive money with just a debit card, but having a bank account linked allows you to transfer funds to and from your bank.

Is it free to make ATM withdrawals using Cash App?

There may be a fee for using ATMs with your Cash Card, but Cash App can reimburse the fees if you have at least $300 coming into the app each month, like a paycheck deposit.

Source: pennypinchinmom.com

Apache is functioning normally

July 7, 2023 by Brett Tams

With the S&P 500 still down more than a third from its 2007 high, we’re all a little unsure about our retirement plans these days. So it’s time for some good old-fashioned elbow grease. A little effort now should make for a lifetime of security and peace of mind. And the first step is to run your numbers through financial calculators to estimate whether you’ll have enough saved to kiss the boss goodbye. (Metaphorically, of course.)

The calculators’ answers are important information. But what’s even more useful is changing the variables to see what most improves your chances for success. A retirement plan has a lot of moving parts — how much you save, where you live, when you start taking Social Security benefits — and some decisions will have a bigger effect on your nest egg than others.

The factors that have the biggest impact on a retirement plan vary from person to person. But to demonstrate how you can fiddle with your factors to analyze your own plan, let’s examine the retirement prospects of a hypothetical worker — whom we’ll call Hilda, as I’m a sucker for good German names — and see how dialing her numbers one way or the other changes her projected retirement income. Here are Hilda’s particulars:

Age: 55
Marital status: Single
Current income: $60,000
Desired retirement age: 65
Desired retirement income: $45,000
Estimated age at death: 95
Current savings: $100,000
Annual contributions to retirement accounts: $6,000
Assumed annual return on investments: 8%

For our analysis, we’ll use the “Am I saving enough? What can I change?” calculator found among the retirement calculators at The Motley Fool. Once you’ve entered your numbers and hit the “results” button, the calculator provides the number of months that it estimates your savings will last given your desired retirement income. In Hilda’s case, here’s the calculator’s analysis: “Your living expenses after retirement will be fully funded for 127 months.” Divide by 12, and you see that her money is expected to last 10.6 years. Unfortunately, that’s not good enough. If she wants to retire at 65 and expects to live until 95, she needs her money to last 30 years, or 360 months.

So what should Hilda do? Here are her options and possible outcomes, adjusted a single factor at a time.

Save More
Hilda’s current savings rate is 10% of her income. What if she ups that to 15%, or $9,000 this year? According to our calculators, that will make her income last 155 months — an additional 2.3 years. That’s a fine first step, but it still has her running out of money in less than 13 years.

Let’s say she, through a drastic lifestyle reduction, managed to contribute the maximum to her 401(k), which in 2009 is $22,000 for someone age 50 and older. That would supersize her portfolio enough to last an estimated 322 months, much closer to the 360-month mark. But she probably can’t save 36% of her income. She’ll have to look at other options.

Spend Less in Retirement
What if Hilda decides she can live on a retirement income of $40,000 instead of $45,000? After all, she’ll no longer be stuffing her 401(k) or paying Social Security and Medicare taxes (7.65% of each and every paycheck), and her income-tax bill will drop, too. Maybe she’ll also have eliminated her mortgage by then.

Dropping her annual income requirements by $5,000 adds 51 months (4.3 years) to her portfolio’s estimated lifespan. Not huge, but not negligible, either. However, Hilda feels this would be cutting costs a little too close. She wants to look at other possibilities.

Retire Later
What happens when Hilda continues to save just 10% of her income but retires at 68 rather than 65? In that case, she’d have three more years of saving, a higher Social Security benefit (because of her higher lifetime earnings and her beginning benefits later), and she’d need her money to last just 324 months.

In this case, her money would last 255 months, or 21.3 years. By retiring three years later, she’s doubled the longevity of her portfolio. But it still won’t last until age 95. However, if she retires just one more year later — at 69 — the calculator estimates her money will last longer than she will, which is the goal of any retirement plan.

Work in Retirement
Unfortunately, Hilda can’t stand the thought of working full-time for more than another decade. However, she’s open to the idea of working part-time for the first five years of her “retirement.” If she earns $30,000 in each of those five years, her portfolio’s life expectancy improves from 127 months to 237 months, or almost 20 years. That doesn’t get her to age 95, but it’s a significant improvement. In fact, for every year she works part-time in retirement, she adds about two years to the estimated endurance of her portfolio.

Quick note: Because Hilda’s “full retirement age” for Social Security purposes is 66, she shouldn’t begin taking Social Security until then if she’s still working. When you begin benefits before your full retirement age but then earn work-related income, your benefit can be significantly reduced.

Tap Home Equity
There are a few ways to use home equity to boost your retirement. Let’s see how Hilda could add these to her calculations.

First, let’s assume that she no longer needs her family-sized home. She actually has some equity in the home, so she sells it, buys a smaller home, and comes out with an extra $50,000. Realistically, given the state of real estate these days, it would take at least a year to sell her house and actually get that $50,000 into her hands to invest. If it earns 8% a year, it would add 58 months — almost five years — to the longevity of her savings. That’s a decent-sized boost, and that’s not counting the lower cost of heating, cooling, maintaining, and paying property taxes on a smaller home.

The other option is a reverse mortgage, which is when a bank pays you money based on the value of your home, and you don’t pay it back until you move. A reverse mortgage on a home currently worth $300,000 could provide a check of $1,200 every month that the borrower stays in the house, according to www.reversemortgage.org. Our retirement calculator doesn’t have an input field for reverse mortgage, but since it operates essentially like a pension, that’s where we’ll add the $1,200. Input “30” in the “Years you will receive payments” field, and check the “First payment adjusted for inflation” button (but not the others). Click on the results and — voila! — Hilda’s retirement is fully funded.

While that’s encouraging, we should mention that it assumes Hilda’s mortgage is paid off before she takes out the reverse mortgage. If she moves before she passes away, she’ll have to pay off the loan. Plus, reverse mortgages can be expensive. So our preference is to put off taking out a reverse mortgage for as long as possible, perhaps using it only in the case of an emergency, such as needing in-home long-term care.

Note: There’s a helpful infographic on reverse mortgage myths which can be useful on seeing if this might be the right choice for you.

Change Your Expiration Date
Of course, Hilda’s original retirement plan is perfect as long as she dies within 127 months of retiring. All jokes aside, it’s worth remembering that we’re playing it very safe by assuming she’ll live to 95. According to the Social Security actuarial tables, only 10.3% of 55-year-old women make it to 95. If Hilda’s not in good health or longevity doesn’t run in her family, she might assume she’ll die at age 90. That doesn’t change how long her portfolio will last, but it does change how long she’ll need it to last.

A Mixture of the Factors
We looked at many variables in isolation, but the best solution for Hilda is to tweak several categories to find a combination of changes that she finds palatable. For example, if Hilda downsizes to a smaller home (resulting in a $50,000 investment a year from now), saves $200 more a month, delays retirement to age 66, and works part-time for the first two years of her retirement, her money will last until she’s 95. Considering all her options, Hilda decides these are adjustments she can live with.

The Bottom Line
Retirement calculators are very handy tools, but they’re not crystal balls. The results are based on many variables — such as inflation, investment returns, and Social Security benefits — that we can’t predict and could turn out worse than expected.

How should you handle this uncertainty? Run your numbers once a year, using updated account balances, savings or cd rates, and benefits projections (for example, put in the estimated Social Security benefit found in the statement you receive in the mail three months before your birthday each year).

Also, different calculators provide different results, so don’t rely on just one. For additional opinions, check out:

Despite their shortcomings, retirement calculators do a good job of estimating the value of one decision over another. For Hilda, the variable that had the biggest impact on her plan was retiring a few years later. But it will be different for other people. As one example, boosting a savings rate from 10% to 15% would have a much bigger payoff for younger investors than it did for Hilda, who was already within a decade of her target retirement date.

What will provide the most power to your plan? There’s only one way to find out. Visit a financial calculator and start plugging away.

Source: getrichslowly.org

Apache is functioning normally

July 7, 2023 by Brett Tams

The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet, Inc. does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.

Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money podcast, where we answer your real-world money questions. In this episode:

Learn how checking your bills can prevent you from overspending, how to manage a raise and how to build wealth early.

This Week in Your Money: Sean Pyles and Liz Weston discuss how you can prevent overspending by double-checking all your bills and share how doing so saved Sean more than $100 on just a single bill. They also discuss some surprising ways bills can demonstrate that you’re getting shortchanged.

Today’s First Money Question: Smart Money co-host Sara Rathner helps Sean and Liz answer a listener’s question about how to prioritize spending and saving after a significant salary increase. The hosts dive into the 50/30/20 budget, how to combat the temptation of “lifestyle creep” that comes with entering a new income bracket, and methods for setting financial goals and establishing a path to meet them. They also look at how to prioritize debt repayment and retirement savings when you’re in your 40s or 50s and your budget may be more stretched.

Today’s Second Money Question: Personal finance Nerd Kim Palmer joins Sean and Liz to answer a question from a 16-year-old listener about how to get an early start on setting up a bright financial future. Kim discusses options for starting to save early, the time value of money and when it may be worth considering switching banks.

Check out this episode on your favorite podcast platform, including:

NerdWallet stories related to this episode:

Episode transcript

Liz Weston: Hey, Sean. When you were 16, what were you doing to build wealth?

Sean Pyles: I can confidently say that I was doing nothing at all to build wealth.

Liz Weston: Well, today we’ll give a 16-year-old listener some ideas for how they can start to build wealth early. You’ll also learn why you should double-check all your bills and how to prioritize your spending and saving when your income increases from a pay bump.

Sean Pyles: Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money podcast. I’m Sean Pyles.

Liz Weston: And I’m Liz Weston.

Sean Pyles: This month, we’re bringing back some of our most popular money tips from the last couple years, so if they sound familiar, no, it’s not just you.

Liz Weston: Today, you’ll actually hear two terrific money questions from listeners. The first one is how to manage a change in your income, and the second is about how to build wealth while you’re young. But first, here’s a story we did about why you should always double-check your bills. And, yes, that means all of them.

Sean Pyles: And listener, if you changed any of your money habits around checking your bills after you heard the story the first time we ran it, then please let us know. We’d love to hear your story. Leave us a voicemail or text us on the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That’s 901-730-NERD or email a voice memo to [email protected]

Liz Weston: OK, on with the show. For medical bills, restaurant tabs and even your insurance, it’s worth giving everything you’re expected to pay a little more scrutiny. Sean, this was inspired by a recent bill you received. You want to tell us about that?

Sean Pyles: I recently received a bill for $100 more than it should have been, and that inspired me to dig into what was going on and realize that I’m actually being charged for more things than I really should be. So let’s start with this bill. Basically, I have the same medical appointment every four months. It’s pretty standard. And every time I have it, it’s covered by my insurance even though I have a high-deductible health care plan.

For the latest appointment that I had, I received this bill that was for over $100, and I looked into it a little bit. I called the billing department, I called my insurance company. I had a lot of back and forth. It turns out that they coded the wrong appointment. The code that they used was one number off from what they typically use, and after talking with them for a long time, took over two hours to get this whole thing sorted out between all of the phone calls, they ended up reissuing the bill to my insurance company and it was covered. And if I hadn’t done that, if I had just accepted the bill and thought, “Oh, bummer, got to pay this bill,” I would’ve been out over 100 bucks that I really didn’t have to pay at all.

Liz Weston: Medical bills are notorious for being incorrect, for charging you things they shouldn’t have charged you.

Sean Pyles: It’s worth being pretty punctual about this as well. The moment I got the bill, I knew it was not right and so I called and I dug into it and it was resolved within a day, which is great, but it also can be a lot more of a lengthy process for those who aren’t as well-versed in how to do this. Anytime you get a bill for any sort of medical expense, it’s worth asking a couple questions, just making sure that the billing code is correct and that you are being charged what you’re supposed to be.

Liz Weston: And I’m a huge fan of automatic payments. I have almost everything on autopay, but the downside of that is you can let things slide. Cable bills, internet and satellite radio are really notorious for jacking up the price after they’ve given you some kind of teaser intro rates. That can wind up being hundreds of dollars that you don’t need to spend.

Sean Pyles: And somewhat similar to my experience with the medical bill, I also recently had a prescription that, because I’m on this high-deductible plan, was not covered by my insurance. So I talked with my medical office and they said, “Oh, just charge it through GoodRx. Here’s the price that I’m seeing.” I’ve talked about GoodRx before, but I’d never actually used it. So I finally signed up, and I was able to save half off what the pharmacy was originally asking me to pay.

Liz Weston: That’s something about those high-deductible plans. They really inspire you to look around for some savings.

Sean Pyles: But that’s where the health savings account comes in pretty handy. So I could have just expensed it, but again, I’m trying to have as much money in there as possible so I can invest it.

Liz Weston: One of the things you can do to make sure that you’re not overpaying is keep an eye on your transactions, whether you autopay or not, making sure that you review your transactions. I try to do it every month or so. And our app, the NerdWallet app, is a really good way to keep track of a bunch of different accounts at once and look at those transactions. Is that something you do or is that something you have to remind yourself to do?

Sean Pyles: So I am a big weirdo who pays off my credit card almost daily because I used to have credit card debt years ago and it’s something that has stuck with me, this almost hawkish approach to making sure I’m keeping my spending in check. So I look at it more than maybe I should or most people would even want to, but it helps me know that what I’m paying is what I should be paying.

I actually had another similar experience to this, touching on the whole aspect of making sure you’re getting billed correctly at restaurants and bars, where I was recently going through my credit card statement and I saw a charge for a bar that I went to. I only had one drink, but I was charged over $70. And I realized that my friend was trying to close out their tab. Everything they had been charging wound up on my credit card. So we had to sort it out. It was fine in the end, but it’s a reminder to double-check everything you’re being charged because that really stood out and if I hadn’t double-checked and looked at this closely, I would’ve been paying that.

Liz Weston: And that’s not something you want to do.

Sean Pyles: No. As much as I love my friends, I don’t want to shell out $70 for their tater tots and beer. Another thing that I’ve been thinking about, I recently discovered that Target and Best Buy in particular have excellent price matching policies. So if you’re looking for something and you see that it’s a little bit more at Target, but it’s easier to shop at Target because it’s in your neighborhood and you don’t want to rely on shipping or something like that, you can say, “Hey, here’s what I’m seeing at this other retailer. Can you price match me?” And they pretty much will.

Another area folks should look into if they don’t want to be overcharged is their car insurance. While a lot of people will just be tempted to sit with their same car insurance company year after year, one analysis found that folks could save an average of $560 by shopping around for car insurance.

Liz Weston: OK, that’s some serious cash. And I know we’ve talked about this before, but again, it’s something that’s really easy to leave on autopay or leave on automatic and not realize that you can save a ton of money with just a little bit of effort.

Sean Pyles: Absolutely, and the Nerds on the insurance team found that the ideal cadence for shopping for car insurance is once a year.

Liz Weston: OK. I think I can manage to do that.

Sean Pyles: Yeah, just set aside an hour, maybe even less, on a Sunday afternoon and just knock it out. Liz, I know you recently had an experience not getting the credit you deserved for credit card purchases and points. What happened there?

Liz Weston: Yeah, well, the big one has to do with a voucher for a trip we had to cancel in 2020, and it’s a fairly substantial voucher. It’s for $2,500.

Sean Pyles: Oh, wow.

Liz Weston: Yeah, I can’t find it on the airline site and customer service is so backed up. I actually got an email when I inquired about it. It’s like, “Why isn’t this voucher on my account?” They say they’ll get back to me in 10 weeks. Excuse me?

Sean Pyles: OK.

Liz Weston: That’s kind of a outlier, but I’ve noticed when you sign up for, say, money-back offers on your credit card, you can get $50 off if you spend $250. Half the time I have to go to the customer service line and say, “Hey, I didn’t get credit for this particular purchase.” So again, the credits are inducing you, those offers are inducing you to spend money. If you do it, make sure you follow up and make sure you got that money.

Sean Pyles: Yeah, make sure they’re following through on their word.

Liz Weston: Because they don’t always do so, and again, we all get busy and it’s easy to let it slide, but this can add up to real cash.

Sean Pyles: All right, well, I think that about covers it. Let’s get on to this episode’s money question.

Liz Weston: This episode’s money question comes from a listener’s voicemail. Here it is.

Speaker 3: Hi, guys. Thank you for doing the podcast. I really appreciate it. I have a question about prioritizing. So I’m in my late 20s and I am about to have an over $200,000 pretax income after basically never having a salary before. I’m starting at a big law firm. And I have about $100,000 in debt from grad school, some of which has, I think, a 6.8% interest rate. And I just have no idea whether to start by putting any of that excess income into a 401(k), into a Roth IRA or going against my student loans. What’s the smart order to go in here? Thank you. Bye.

Sean Pyles: To help us answer our listener’s question, we are joined on this episode by our occasional Smart Money co-host Sara Rathner. Hey, Sara, welcome back on.

Sara Rathner: Thank you. It’s fun to be on the other side of the proverbial microphone today.

Sean Pyles: Yeah. Well, we are going to grill you, so I hope you’re ready for it.

Sara Rathner: Oh, boy.

Sean Pyles: Our listener is about to experience a sudden and dramatic change in their personal finances, and I think that they should probably take some steps to set themselves up for success and make sure they’re managing their money properly going into this new phase of their life and their career. And where do you think they should start?

Sara Rathner: Well, one, acknowledge that this is a very nice problem to have. Congratulations to our listener for getting this job offer coming out of law school. That’s a big deal, so you should be proud of yourself. Whenever you experience even a somewhat major life change, like an income increase or decrease or new job or relocation for work or anything like that, it’s a great time to ask all of these questions. All the questions that this listener is asking are great. And you never really want to go into these situations just thinking that “I can just keep managing my money the way I did before,” because things are different. So it is good to take stock of what you’re doing currently, if it’s working for you, what more could you be doing with your new situation? And earning $200,000 a year, even if you have substantial grad school debt, it’s the kind of thing that can give you a really nice head start in life if you play your cards right. That’s what we are here for. We’re here to help you with it.

Sean Pyles: Right. Well, one thing I was thinking is that it would be helpful for them to take stock of their income and expenses, basically getting a grip on their new budget. One tool that we like to recommend is the 50/30/20 budget, where half of your income goes to cover needs. That’s rent. Thirty percent goes towards wants. That’s kind of fun things like travel. And 20% goes towards debt payments and savings. And with a pretty hefty income that our listener has, I think they should be able to use this pretty well.

Sara Rathner: Something that’s a big adjustment when you’re new to working is figuring out how much you cost. Because your life might have been very different when you were a student. Maybe you were being supported financially by family or you were working part time while in school, living with roommates.

Sean Pyles: Living off of ramen noodles.

Sara Rathner: Living the student life, and now you are out into the world potentially taking the rein of your finances on your own for the first time possibly. And so figuring out how much do blueberries cost. You know what I mean? It’s the little things you need to know. And that’s going to take some time, but it’s OK to take a couple of months and just sort of observe your spending and formulate a budget based on where your money is going and then also where you wish it would go if it’s not going where you want it to go.

Liz Weston: Well, and if somebody is jumping from being a broke law school student to having $200,000, it’s going to be really hard not to go nuts. Buy a new car, get a great apartment, buy clothes, do everything.

Sara Rathner: Yeah. Listen, I know you want the Tesla. OK? We can talk for a second. You don’t need the Tesla yet. This is not Tesla time.

Sean Pyles: And also there are plenty of other great cars besides Teslas. Let’s say that, too.

Sara Rathner: Yeah, if you aspire to Tesla, do it. They’re beautiful. But it is just important to recognize where you are, especially when you’re going into big law. The lifestyle creep temptation has got to be significantly higher than it is in other industries because it’s one of those industries where depending on what firm you work for, what city you live in, how you look matters.

It matters to clients, it matters to the partners, and how you look is, it’s how you dress, it’s what you drive, it’s how you arrive. You know what I mean? Do you golf on weekends? That’s a very expensive hobby. Do you ski? I don’t know. These are people who do things like this. And you are entering this world. And if this was not part of the world that you grew up in, it could be a real adjustment, too.

Sean Pyles: Well, yeah, that also brings me to the point that I think our listener should think about their financial goals and they can set them for one, three, five years down the road and then actually establish a path toward meeting them.

Sara Rathner: Yeah, that’s really big. The listener in their question asked about retirement savings and they asked about student loan debt. But there’s a lot of other things you have to plan for in life. You’re not just paying off your student loans and retiring. I would hope that you do other things and those other things are going to cost you money, like potentially buying a house or traveling, or maybe you want to help family out financially. Maybe you want to have children eventually. If you are working in a big law firm, child care is definitely going to be something to budget for because you work long hours. There’s a lot of life that happens in between grad school and retirement, so it’s important to list out what those things are for you and then begin putting some numbers behind them and begin making some monthly savings goals for those things.

Liz Weston: We should also make the obvious observation that you don’t net $200,000. And when you’re up in that stratosphere, you might be a little shocked at how much comes out in taxes. So figuring out what your after-tax income is going to be will really help with the 50/30/20 budget, but it will also help you right-size some of your expectations, so about how much you have to spend for an apartment, how much you have to spend for a car.

Sean Pyles: One tool that might be helpful is having a savings bucket strategy that I’m super fond of. And, Liz, actually, you turned me onto this.

Liz Weston: Oh, cool.

Sean Pyles: For me, I have half a dozen different savings accounts with different goals attached to them, and I have a certain percentage of my income go into them each paycheck, so that way I am saving toward different goals. One of them is just fun money, and that is my general bucket of cash that I have for things like travel and gifts for friends and restaurant night outs, things like that. So you can have fun with this, but I think it’s important to give every dollar a purpose.

Sara Rathner: Yeah, that’s super helpful. And when you name your goals, I think there’s studies that back up the fact that if you have a named goal, you save more, more quickly than if it’s just, “This is my savings account. It’s for saving.”

Sean Pyles: It can help gamify it because you’re seeing how much more you’re getting each paycheck.

Sara Rathner: Right. Yeah. And that way you can say like, “Hey, in five years I’m celebrating a milestone birthday and I want to take a big vacation and I’m going to budget five grand to do that.” OK, so you have to save $1,000 a year towards your vacation. Divide that by 12, set that money aside, make an automated transfer into your vacation account, and when you’re ready to book, you have the money. You don’t have to take on debt to take that trip.

Liz Weston: And you’re doing more than one thing at a time. People can get really focused on, “I’m going to pay off all my debt and then I’ll save for retirement.” No, you do it at the same time because you want to take advantage of the time value of money and multitasking is the way to go.

Sean Pyles: But there is also a balance between multitasking and prioritizing where you put your money, which is the question that our listener had. So Sara, what are your thoughts on how to prioritize different financial goals and ways to direct money?

Sara Rathner: All right. There are the big goals like retirement, buying a house, getting married, things like that. Retirement is big. Everybody has a different vision of what they want their retirement to look like, but there will be a point in your life where you can no longer work. So even if you want to work until you’re 80, your body might have other ideas and you’ll have to quit earlier because of medical issues. That’s unfortunately really common.

You do need to plan for an eventual time period where you’re not working anymore where you might have higher medical expenses, things like that. And so you’re young, you’re just out of grad school, you’re just getting started, and Liz mentioned the time value of money. Getting started early means that you can save less every month and end up with more money when you’re in your 60s or 70s than if you wait until you’re in your 40s or 50s to try to catch up.

That’s how compound interest works. The more time you give it, the better off you’re going to be, and the less aggressively you’ll have to save. And when you’re in your 40s or 50s, you might not have the money in your budget to save that aggressively for retirement because by then you might have kids in college and your vacation home and your fleet of Teslas or whatever, and you’re just not going to have as much money every month to put into your retirement account. And so start early when your life is a little simpler and just save, save, save.

Sean Pyles: But prioritization can also be a matter of personal preference, too. Maybe our listener really doesn’t like having that six-figure student loan debt hanging over them, so that might be something they want to prioritize just because psychologically that would benefit them.

Sara Rathner: Honestly, that’s what I did with my student loans. I thankfully did not have $100,000 in debt, but I did have debt. And every year before tax time, you get a letter in the mail that tells you how much interest you paid over the year. And I remember I was making my minimum monthly payments every month, and then I get this letter and it tells me how much I paid in interest, and that letter made me mad. I was like, “I just spent this money to literally just have debt.” And I was upset. I took a hard look at my budget and I was like, “How much more can I put toward this every month?” And I put an extra $40 a month toward the principal for a while, and when I got down to the last thousand dollars, I paid it all off.

Sean Pyles: Nice.

Liz Weston: Sweet.

Sara Rathner: If having that number hanging over your head annoys you or makes you angry, that’s a good thing. That’s power. You can put that anger to work. Even if you can put an extra $25 to $50 a month into the principal, it’s something. It will chip away that debt that much faster. If you get an annual bonus, for example, from your law firm — a lot of law firms do that — it could be that you set aside a certain percentage of your annual bonus and put it toward the principal of your loan just to chip away at that faster, so that’s another way that you can prioritize that debt.

Liz Weston: The interest rate they’re paying makes me think that they probably got federal student loans. It was probably graduate PLUS loans, and if that’s the case, they’re probably going to get pitched to refinance those loans into private loans just to lower the interest rate. And I’d be really hesitant about doing that just because federal loans have a ton of protections, as we know from the pandemic pausing the payments for so long. If you lose your job, if you have any kind of economic setback, you’ve got some flexibility there, whereas private student loans don’t have that as much.

Sean Pyles: Mm-hmm.

Liz Weston: If they do happen to be private student loans, then refinancing can be a great idea because it just lowers your interest rate and you’re not losing anything. But you do lose something very substantial if you’re trying to refinance federal student loans. And this is relatively high rate debt, and I doubt that they’re getting any kind of tax break on it. Usually we say, “Don’t worry about your student loans, let them ride, you’ve got more important things to do with your money.” But in this case, I endorse paying some of that down.

Sean Pyles: That brings me to another question from our listener, which is, what is the quote “smart order” to do things in?

Sara Rathner: That’s a million dollar question, isn’t it?

Sean Pyles: Yeah. I think the answer is that there maybe isn’t one specific, perfect smart order to do things in.

Liz Weston: Yeah, I think it’s very individual. With most people, you’ve got to prioritize retirement because most of us are going to get there, most of us are going to need the money, and it takes a long time. That’s an expensive goal. But if this debt is bothering you and you want to pay it off faster, that would be the next thing for me.

Sara Rathner: Obviously, if something’s a top priority and this listener mentioned retirement and debt, sounds like that’s on their mind. That could be a good place to start. Getting yourself set up so that you have your automated payments into your student loan so you know that money’s going out every month on time. Do you want to add to those payments and overpay your loan to some extent? Go ahead and do that. You also automate your retirement savings if it’s through your employer. That comes out of your paycheck automatically. When you start your job, there’ll be some paperwork to fill out, but get that going. Don’t delay. Get that money into your retirement account, select your investments and just let that money accumulate over time.

So once you automate all those things and you learn to live without that money in your bank account every month, that’s when you can really start thinking about, “OK, well this is what I have left. What do I want to do with it?” And that’s where that 50/30/20 budget comes in. And what you want to prioritize can change from year to year. You might prioritize living super cheaply so you can save up for travel, but then the next year you finish your trip and you’re like, “I hate my apartment. I don’t want to live with roommates anymore. Now I want to prioritize finding an apartment that’s just mine that maybe is a little bit nicer.” That’s going to cost you more money. Leave room in your plan for those changes because you’re at a point in your life where a lot’s going to change from year to year.

Sean Pyles: You kind of touched on getting things set up to begin with, and I think that’s something that is very smart to do first, if possible, because there’s a certain amount of administrative overhead involved in setting up your savings accounts. As you mentioned, getting your retirement savings and contributions and investments all organized. And that might take a good Sunday afternoon set aside to dive into, but then once that’s done, you pretty much have it going in the background and your money is going where you want it to.

Sara Rathner: Yeah, you revisit it every couple years, but for the most part, those things can run on autopilot for a while.

Sean Pyles: Right. All right, Sara, do you have any final thoughts for our listener?

Sara Rathner: Well, it’s just like we said, this is a huge change for you. You’re going from being a student to making a substantial annual salary, which is amazing, and this gives you options. Don’t sleep on how well you can set your life up with this income. This is a really great time to sit down and make a plan for yourself and really think about where you want your money to go, how hard you want it to work for you. You do work for clients as a lawyer, right? So think of it as if you are your money’s client, and it’s got to work for you or else you’re going to fire it. Well, you can’t fire it, but you know what I mean? We’re trying to make a metaphor here. Just go with it. But really the people I know who have made it to their mid-30s and later who are financially comfortable for where they are in life are people who didn’t ignore this stuff when they were in their 20s.

They’re the people that used that time to set a good foundation for themselves. The people who just kind of, well, winged it, they’re like, “I make money, I spend money, whatever, it’s all in my checking account. I don’t know,” they’re the ones who are hitting their mid-30s and they’re like, “Why can’t I afford a house? I don’t have a retirement account. Should I have a retirement account?” Yeah, yeah, you should. Because, yeah, we’re millennials. We’re not going to have any social safety net, right?

We do need to save for these things. That’s the advice I would give to you. As somebody who’s been out of school long enough and who has friends in the same boat to see all the different choose-your-own-adventure paths people have taken, I would say, “Use this time wisely.” You can still have fun. You can still do all the things you want to do, but you could do it because you know you’re also doing the things you have to do.

Liz Weston: That is an excellent point, Sara.

Sean Pyles: Well, thank you so much for talking with us.

Sara Rathner: Thanks for having me back, guys.

Sean Pyles: Before we get into the next money question, I wanted to mention that this is probably not the first time you’ve heard us suggest the 50/30/20 budget and it probably won’t be the last. The tool is a handy framework to get a grip on your spending so you can be more intentional about directing your income. If you haven’t already looked into it, then I hope you do now or maybe the next time we bring it up, and we definitely will. OK. Now let’s get on to the next money question.

This episode’s money question comes from Luca. Here it is. Hi, Wallet Nerds. I have used NerdWallet for quite some time and recently discovered your podcast, and I am a very big fan. I have a few questions I would like to ask of the show. I’m 16 and, as you can tell by me emailing you, a personal finance nerd. I want to know if there’s anything I can do now to help my financial future. I have a job, IRA, checking/savings account, and I am an authorized user on my parents’ credit card. Is there anything else I can do? Because I’m a personal finance nerd, I also like looking into various accounts. I am not very satisfied with my current bank and want to switch. Are there any cons to having multiple accounts? What about closing old accounts? I feel confident in my ability to manage them and keep track of my money. Thank you very much. Sincerely, Luca.

Liz Weston: I love Luca. Luca is our kind of nerd. Getting an early start with investing is always good, but getting started as a teenager, that is huge. Those extra years could more than double the amount that Luca can put aside for retirement. This is awesome. Anyway, to help us answer Luca’s question on this episode of the podcast, we’re joined by one of our own personal finance Nerds, Kim Palmer.

Sean Pyles: Welcome back to the podcast, Kim.

Kim Palmer: Thank you so much for having me.

Sean Pyles: Our listener, who is the youngest that we’ve ever heard from, is looking for some advice about how to jump-start their financial future. What do you think?

Kim Palmer: First, I think we have to acknowledge that they’re off to such a strong start because so many people aren’t even thinking about money yet. I think it’s really great that they’re already so far ahead. There’s one area actually that they didn’t mention and that is spending. I think it might make sense to take a deeper dive into how they’re currently spending money.

One thing I’ve noticed is that once you get in the habit of saving and of spending less than you’re earning, it’s easier to maintain. What a perfect time to start that habit when you’re a teenager. One tool we love at NerdWallet is the 50/30/20 budget, and that basically allots your take-home income into three different categories. You have 50% going toward needs, you have 30% going towards wants, and 20% going towards any debt payments and savings. Now, as a teenager, everything might not apply to you there. For example, you don’t probably have rent right now or a mortgage, but I still think it’s a useful tool just to start thinking about where your money is going.

Sean Pyles: I also think our listener should appreciate the really unique opportunity they have by starting building wealth so young. There’s the saying that youth is wasted on the young and for so many, so is their time horizon for saving for retirement and investing. But I think that Luca might be an exception to this, and as you nodded to, Kim, because they’re starting so young, they don’t have as many financial obligations. They probably don’t have student loans or a car payment or a rent, so they can maybe fudge the 50/30/20 to make it so that they can save a lot more right now.

Kim Palmer: I think that is a great idea. When it comes to investing, you do have to be 18 to actually go ahead and open up a brokerage account, but it can definitely be something that you do along with your parents and, as Liz mentioned, when you do start investing early, you have a head start. You have so much more time to grow your money.

One thing I like to do with my kids is go through a company like Stockpile and buy fractional shares of really big companies that you’re already familiar with. For example, with my kids, they can take $25 and buy Netflix or Disney and see how the stock fluctuates, and I think it can just be a way to get your head around what investing feels like, see if you like it.

Liz Weston: Yeah, because one of the problems with getting started with investing is that sometimes the buy-in is really high. Shares of companies that kids know and recognize might be $100 or more, and that’s not easy to get started with. Or if they’re looking at mutual funds, they can have an even higher minimum investment, so these fractional shares are a good way to get an early start.

Sean Pyles: But they will have to be 18 to open one of these accounts? How can they get around that? Is it that they’ll open one with their parents, and are there also any other limitations that Luca shouldn’t look out for because they are still under 18?

Kim Palmer: There is definitely a limitation in that you have to be 18 to open some of these accounts, but the easiest way around it is if you do have the help of your parent, then they can do it for you or you can do it jointly. Liz, do you think I’m missing anything else he should be thinking about?

Liz Weston: You’ve got to consider financial aid. If you think that you’re going to need financial aid to go to college, then you don’t want to have this money in the child’s name. Or you can do a workaround, which is to open a Roth IRA. Now, there are contribution limits to those, but Roth IRA and other retirement money is not counted in financial aid formulas, so that’s a way to get around that concern that your holdings could interfere with how much financial aid you get.

Sean Pyles: One thing I keep thinking about is how lucky Luca is to have parents that have encouraged their kid to start building a solid financial foundation really early on. Adding them as an authorized user on the credit card, for example, will give Luca an early start on building good credit. Kim and Liz, I’m wondering if you can share any other tips that you have as parents for how parents out there can help their kids get started like Luca’s parents did.

Liz Weston: Well, I think it’s like most things with parenting is that you start talking about it early and often so it’s not a subject that’s being brought up at the last possible minute. When you take your child shopping, you can talk about the cost of things and how you decide what to buy and what not to buy.

With our daughter, as soon as she was recognizing that money bought things, which was very early, like 3 years old, I want to say, that’s when we started her with an allowance. And that’s very early, but we had some good experiences with it. That’s something to consider.

Sean Pyles: And she seemed ready, right?

Liz Weston: Oh, yeah. Well, we’ve talked about this before. She was ready to save. She was ready to spend. She didn’t understand the sharing part. Why should she have to share her money? Then as she got older and she got jobs and started her own little business, we would match her earnings with Roth IRA contributions.

Sean Pyles: Oh, that’s cool.

Kim Palmer: That is very cool. My parents did the exact same thing, and I really think it helped me. I think it helped me learn how to save. One thing I’ve noticed with my kids is that from a very early age, like toddlerhood, they start asking for things, and they have no qualms about spending your money. The good thing about that is that it gives me a chance and parents a chance to say no and to explain the whole idea of scarcity. We can’t have everything we want. That’s really the basis of learning how to budget right there.

As they get older, it morphs into a more complex conversation. For example, with my 12-year-old, we can have a more nuanced discussion about saving and putting money aside so you can afford something bigger. And I think as the kids get older, you can start having those more nuanced conversations, but it really starts, I think, around age 2.

Liz Weston: Luca’s also wondering about switching banks. Kim, what do you think they should know when they’re shopping around?

Kim Palmer: It’s a really good question to look into switching banks. A lot of people are afraid to switch banks, and they just go with the flow of their current bank even though they’re not happy. I really encourage this line of thought to look at if another bank could serve your needs better. What you want to do when you start thinking about opening a new bank is first see what would be a good fit.

That starts with some online research. Where can we make sure we’re paying as few fees as possible? Where can we earn the highest APY? Where can we get the most for our money? Once you do that comparison and you choose a good fit with your new bank, you just go ahead and you transfer any money that you have into the new account, you close your old one. And it’s really not as complicated as I think a lot of people worry that it is.

Sean Pyles: Or as a lot of banks might want you to think it is to switch banks like that. I did this in the past year. I had had a goal for a while to go from the big national bank I’ve been using since high school to a local credit union in the Pacific Northwest, and it took me a while to actually muster up the energy to do it, and it took me five minutes. It was shockingly easy.

Liz Weston: Yeah, I think it’s more complicated when you have more bills to pay, especially if you’re autopaying through your bank account, so you may need to keep your old account open for a while for those to clear, but if you’re somebody like Luca who’s just starting out, you can choose whatever bank you’d like. And an online bank might be a good fit because they tend not to have minimums and a lot of fees. You can start with a small amount and build from there.

Sean Pyles: But, again, they’ll probably have to have their parents help to open any sort of account like this.

Liz Weston: Luca is obviously in pretty good shape today and is already saving for their future.

Kim, what else should Luca consider going forward?

Kim Palmer: Well, I think it really all goes back to getting in the habit of saving money. I think some of the habits that they’re establishing now really will last possibly their whole life. Of course, as a teenager, you might not have the same priorities that you will have in your 20s or 30s or beyond, so I think when you’re focused on saving and you have that savings cushion, it helps you have that flexibility. So wherever you turn, whatever priorities emerge over the next decade or two decades, if you have that savings habit, I think that gives you such a strong backbone to rely on.

Liz Weston: Yes. Absolutely. And I love the fact that you talked about the importance of saving while you’re young because a lot of people just keep putting it off thinking, “Well, in the future I’ll have more money. It’ll be easier in the future.” It is never easier in the future. Start now, do it now, and you’ll have a lot more flexibility down the road.

Sean Pyles: Well, Kim, thank you so much for talking with us.

Kim Palmer: Of course. Thanks for having me.

Liz Weston: So Luca gave us a chance to talk about the power of compounding, which is another of our favorite topics, and how an early start can make a huge difference in how much you can save over time. But we don’t want people to despair if they’re coming late to investing and wealth building. We want them to have some kind of hope.

Sean Pyles: Right. Because even small changes can make a big difference over time. Just getting a handle on your budget can be a great first step. And that’s all we have for this episode. Do you have a money question of your own? Turn to the Nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. That’s 901-730-NERD. You can also email us at [email protected]

Liz Weston: Remember to follow our show on your favorite podcast app to automatically get new episodes. If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, then tap that five star button to rate the show. We really appreciate it.

Sean Pyles: This episode was produced by Liz Weston and Cody Gough with help from me. Kaely Monahan mixed this episode with additional audio editing by Cody. And a big thank you to the folks on the NerdWallet copy desk for all their help.

Liz Weston: And here’s our brief disclaimer. We are not financial or investment advisors. This nerdy info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances.

Sean Pyles: And with that said, until next time, turn to the Nerds.

Source: nerdwallet.com

Apache is functioning normally

July 6, 2023 by Brett Tams

What’s the first sign that a movie is going to be bad? I’ll go first. When you can tell that the trailer used all its best footage. Sometimes you can just tell, and it never fails to prove true. After someone asked for other examples in an online film forum, here is what moviegoers had to say.

1. Multiple Comedy Trailers Highlighting the Same Joke

When you have seen multiple trailers for the same comedy movie, and they are all centered around the same joke or laughing point, that’s when you know something is up. One individual pointed out, “That’s usually the only joke in the movie.”

2. The Remake of a Previously Successful Movie

If a film or film franchise was already successful, what reason do you have to try to make a reboot? Many agreed, “Feels like it’s just a safe money-grab. It would be cool if movies that didn’t do so hot get reworked into good movie remakes, but I guess that’s too much of a risk for studios to bother with.”

3. Visual Effects and Celebrity Presence

When the only focal point of the film is the significant celebrity presence or the overwhelming reliance on visual effects to captivate the audience, get yourself out of there; it’s going to be a stinker, my friend.

4. Death by Exposition

Exposition in a film can be a helpful tool to move along plot points, highlight character traits, or even just illuminate specific details. What is not helpful is when there is a character giving an exposition to a fellow character who should already know what’s going on.

5. Multiple Writers, Lack of a Clear Idea

We have all seen movie credits that list multiple writers without realizing the correlation to the incoherent plot of the story. It doesn’t always happen, but when there are more than two or three writers, the film can lack coherency. It’s like “the too many cooks in the kitchen mentality.”

6. It’s the Best Movie of the Year, in Late March

It’s a clear sign that the movie has a good chance of flopping when advertised as the “Best Movie of the Year” or “The #1 Movie of the Year.” How can a studio declare something so daring at such an early stage in the year? It’s insane.

7. Someone Is Shrugging on the Ad Poster

Several people shared, “I like to imagine that when they take the photo shoot for the movie posters and promotional material, the lead actor/actress just shrugs like ‘I don’t know what I’m doing here or why I took this gig, but a paycheck’s a paycheck I guess.”

8. Production Took How Long?

Several filmaholics noted the film Chaos Walking. “It changed screenwriter, director, and production company so many times over ten years. It was sold on it being a Charlie Kauffman movie starring Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland. But, unfortunately, Kauffman left in 2013; Ridley and Holland filmed it over years due to so many reshoots and failed screenings.”

9. Snack Refill Without Pausing the Movie

For us, adamant movie viewers, a great perk to home movie viewing is the ability to pause, rewind, etc., as we please. When you have to get up within the first five to ten minutes of the movie and don’t feel the need to pause it, you know this movie isn’t going to be too good.

10. The Trailer Can’t Hide the Terrible Acting

When a well-edited trailer can’t hide how terrible the dialogue of a film is, there’s no hope for the movie at all. You have to remember that the trailer is what visually draws the moviegoer in. If the studio can’t manage to put their best foot forward at the most crucial time, you can’t expect much for the rest of the movie.

Source Reddit

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Source: financequickfix.com

Apache is functioning normally

July 6, 2023 by Brett Tams

AnnieMac is suing a former branch manager to recoup an alleged $500,000 signing bonus, its second such federal lawsuit against a former employee in the past two months.

Peyton Elizabeth Fullerton, a Denver-based originator, owes $496,136.63 after voluntarily leaving the company in January, AnnieMac alleges in its complaint filed last week. The sum stems from a $500,000 retention bonus Fullerton signed when she joined the company last July as an originating branch manager, and it mandated she stay with the firm for at least 18 months or repay the bonus.

Neither AnnieMac, its attorney, nor Fullerton, who is still working for the Denver-based The Mortgage Project, responded to requests for comment last week. A summons for Fullerton in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey was issued June 28.

The lawsuit includes an alleged copy of Fullerton’s electronically signed retention bonus, which said she would receive the sum across her first two paychecks last July. Sections describing Fullerton’s salary and compensation in basis points per volume threshold are redacted.

Fullerton had $3,863.37 deducted from her final paycheck in January to cover the retention bonus, the complaint said. The employment agreement also requires Fullerton to pay for costs of litigation and to consent to litigation in a New Jersey state or federal court.

AnnieMac earlier this month voluntarily dismissed a similar suit against former Pennsylvania-based branch manager Nicholas Roberto DeJesus, who allegedly owed the firm $102,133.01 after his departure. DeJesus, according to the complaint, received a $144,000 retention bonus when he joined in October 2021 but quit last October, falling just short of his agreement’s 12-month stipulation to keep the bonus.

The lender allegedly deducted $41,867 from DeJesus’ final paycheck, and the former branch manager refused to repay the rest. AnnieMac’s voluntary dismissal of the suit June 1 didn’t say whether the sides had reached any agreement.

The company is also facing a discrimination complaint from a former Florida-based mortgage closer, who alleged disparate treatment of Black workers during her employment, and AnnieMac has yet to respond to a summons in that case.

The Mount Laurel, New Jersey-based firm originated over $731 million in mortgage volume between January and April this year and over $4 billion in mortgage volume last year, according to data from analytics firm S&P Global. AnnieMac counts 450 mortgage loan originators according to Nationwide Multistate Licensing System records, and in March it acquired in-state competitor Family First Funding.

The lawsuits over retention bonuses resemble an action by megalender CrossCountry Mortgage, which is also suing at least one former employee to recoup an alleged five-figure sign-on bonus. That case remains pending in an Ohio federal court.

Source: nationalmortgagenews.com

Apache is functioning normally

July 5, 2023 by Brett Tams

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Annual Fee: $0
Credit Needed: Poor or better

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The information related to the Chase Freedom Rise Credit Card has been collected by Money Crashers and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer of this card.

When you’re looking for your first credit card, your choices are often between cards with high annual fees and others that have no rewards and free benefits. Chase has leaned into the first option — becoming one of the largest credit card issuers largely by offering premium travel rewards and cash-back cards to existing credit card users.

But with its new Freedom Rise Credit Card, Chase is making a strong push to attract applicants who are new to credit cards. And it’s using a few innovative incentives to make the card appealing and increase your chance of being approved for your first credit card.

What Is the Chase Freedom Rise Credit Card?

The Chase Freedom Rise Credit Card is a cash-back card that’s made for those who are looking to improve their credit while earning valuable rewards at the same time.

Although this card doesn’t have a really strong spend-based sign-up bonus, it does offer new account holders the opportunity to earn a $25 statement credit after signing up for automatic payments within the first three months of account opening.

The card earns 1.5% cash back on all purchases, which you can redeem for cash back in the form of a statement credit or direct deposit into most U.S. checking and savings accounts. You can also use your rewards to shop with points at Amazon.com or redeem them for gift cards. Cash-back rewards don’t expire as long as your account is open, and there is no minimum to redeem for cash back.

With free credit score tracking and a higher chance of approval if you have a Chase checking account with a balance of at least $250, this card is a good option if you have poor (or just middling) credit but are eager to improve your credit score. Chase considers new-ish account holders for credit line increases 6 months after account opening, and there’s a good chance you’ll earn one if you use your card responsibly.

This card also includes a few valuable benefits. When shopping, your purchases are covered for up to $500 against theft and damage. You can also get extended warranties on eligible items with existing manufacturers’ warranties. And when your travel plans go sideways, you can be reimbursed for up to $1,500 per person with a trip cancellation and trip interruption policy.

There is no annual fee for this card, but it does charge a 3% foreign transaction fee. That’s something to keep in mind if you travel abroad often or ever buy stuff from merchants based overseas.

What Sets the Chase Freedom Rise Credit Card Apart?

This card has a few features that distinguish it from other credit-building cards.

1.5% cash back on all eligible purchases. This card earns 1.5% cash back on all purchases, which you can redeem for statement credit, cash through a direct deposit, or gift cards. Many cards of this class only earn 1% cash back.
Automatic payment bonus. New account holders can earn a $25 statement credit after signing up for automatic payments within the first 3 months of account opening. This is a fairly unique offer among cards of this class. Most have no sign-up bonus at all.
Increased opportunity to be approved. Those who have a Chase checking account with a balance of at least $250 are more likely to be approved. No other major card issuer advertises this feature.

Key Features of the Chase Freedom Rise Credit Card

The Chase Freedom Rise credit card is a good option for those who are looking to build or improve their credit while still earning cash back on everyday purchases.

Sign-Up Bonus

There is currently not a spending-based sign-up bonus offer for this card. However, there is an unusual but welcome perk for new account holders: Earn a $25 statement credit after signing up for automatic payments within the first 3 months of account opening.

Earning Rewards

All eligible purchases earn 1.5% cash back. There’s no cap on how much you can earn and your rewards don’t expire as long as your account is open.

Redeeming Rewards

You can redeem your rewards in any amount for cash back in the form of a statement credit or direct deposit into most U.S. checking and savings accounts. You can also use your rewards to shop with points at Amazon.com or redeem them for gift cards, also generally without minimums.

Important Fees

There’s no annual fee for this card.

However, Chase charges a balance transfer fee of $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater. The cash advance fee is either $10 or 5% of the amount of each transaction, whichever is greater.

The foreign transaction fee is 3% of the amount of each transaction in U.S. dollars. There is a late payment fee of up to $40 and a return payment fee of up to $40.

Travel & Purchase Protections

Chase Freedom Rise comes with several notable travel insurance benefits and purchase protections for shoppers, including:

Trip cancellation coverage worth up to $1,500 per person and $6,000 per trip for prepaid, nonrefundable expenses
Purchase protection coverage for 120 days against damage or theft on covered items up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account
Extended warranty for one additional year on any eligible purchased item with an existing manufacturer’s warranty of 3 years or less

Credit Required

Chase describes Chase Freedom Rise as being best for those who are new to credit. It’s not clear what the minimum credit score is to qualify for this card, but it seems that having limited or no credit history won’t automatically justify your application.

That said, if you have a Chase checking account with a balance of at least $250, Chase indicates you have higher chances of approval. If you have poor credit or no credit score at all, open and fund an eligible checking account first before applying for this card.

Credit Limit Increase

You may be considered for a credit limit increase in as little as 6 months after opening your account. An increase isn’t guaranteed but is certainly more likely if you’ve used your card responsibly and paid your bills on time in the meantime.

Pros & Cons

Like all entry-level credit cards, Chase Freedom Rise has several distinct advantages along with some significant drawbacks.

Unlimited 1.5% cash back on eligible purchases
Decent incentive for new cardholders
Higher chances of approval with a Chase checking account, even with limited credit

High foreign transaction and balance transfer fees
No 0% intro APR promotion
No spending-based sign-up bonus

Pros

Chase Freedom Rise is relatively generous for a credit card of its class, particularly for new-to-credit users.

Unlimited 1.5% cash back on all purchases. This is an excellent cash-back rate for a starter credit card, especially one open to people with limited or no credit.
Decent incentive for new cardholders. Chase Freedom Rise credits you $25 for enrolling in automatic payments within the first 3 months of opening your account. Setting up automatic payments is a good idea anyways, so consider it free money.
Increased chances of approval with a Chase checking account. If you have a Chase checking account with a balance of at least $250 when you apply, you’re more likely to be approved for this card. That’s a relatively easy lift for many applicants, even those living paycheck to paycheck.
Strong travel insurance and purchase protection policies. These perks are especially notable in a starter credit card with no annual fee.

Cons

Chase Freedom Rise has relatively high fees and lacks some important features found elsewhere in the cash-back category, including a 0% intro APR promotion and a spending-based sign-up bonus.

3% foreign transaction fee. Chase imposes this fee on transactions processed outside of the U.S., including point-of-sale purchases overseas and some purchases with foreign merchants. In short, this isn’t the best card to take on international vacations.
5% balance transfer fee. This fee is far above the standard 3% found on most cards in Freedom Rise’s class.
No 0% intro APR promotion. Most other Chase cash-back and low-APR credit cards offer some sort of 0% intro APR promotion on purchases and/or balance transfers. This one doesn’t — a notable omission.
No spending-based sign-up bonus. Chase Freedom Rise has a $25 incentive for new users to set up automatic payments during the first 3 months, but it lacks a more substantial spending-based sign-up bonus. Some other cash-back cards offer sign-up bonuses worth $200 or more.

How the Chase Freedom Rise Credit Card Stacks Up

Chase Freedom Rise’s closest competitor is probably Quicksilver Rewards for Good Credit from Capital One. The biggest difference is that Capital One’s card requires good credit. Here’s how the two cards compare:

	Chase Freedom Rise Credit Card	Quicksilver Rewards for Good Credit
Annual fee	$0	$0
Sign-up bonus	None	None
Rewards rate	1.5% cash back	1.5% cash back
0% intro APR	No	No
Foreign transaction fee	3% of the transaction	None
Credit needed	Limited is OK	Good or better

While the Chase Freedom Rise Credit Card has more lenient underwriting standards, it charges a 3% foreign transaction fee. That might not matter if you never travel abroad or buy stuff from overseas merchants, but otherwise, it’s a potential downside.

Final Word

Most Chase cards are designed for people with established credit, but the Freedom Rise is a new offering specifically for those who are looking for their first credit card. By offering 1.5% cash back to people applying for their first credit card, and making it easier for existing Chase customers to be approved, this card competes well against starter cards that have high annual fees and others that don’t offer any rewards.

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.

The Verdict

Our rating

Chase Freedom Rise

Chase Freedom Rise is a great product for young adults and others who are new to credit cards. It offers competitive cash back, useful benefits and an innovative incentive to also become a Chase checking customer. While there are other cards that are targeted towards new credit card users, this is one of the few that offer cash back with no annual fee.

Jason Steele is one of the nation’s leading experts in credit cards and travel rewards since 2008. Jason is also the founder and producer of CardCon, which is The Conference for Credit Card Media. Jason lives in Denver, Colorado where he enjoys bicycling, snowboarding and piloting small airplanes.

Source: moneycrashers.com

Apache is functioning normally

July 5, 2023 by Brett Tams

Last week, I went running with my friend Mac. As we ran, we talked. Mac asked me how it felt to be out of debt, to actually be saving money. Like many of my friends, he’s watched my financial turnaround with interest.

“It feels great,” I said. “I should have learned from you and Pam earlier.” Mac and Pam have always made smart financial choices. They’re not misers, but they’re thrifty, carefully choosing where they spend.

“I’m glad you’ve finally seen the light,” Mac said, and though he didn’t say anything further, I could tell what he was thinking.

Over the past couple of years, many of my friends have told me, “I can’t believe you write about personal finance.” To be honest, I can’t believe it either. For years, I was the poster boy for poor financial choices.

Once, Kris and I were riding to an Independence Day rodeo with Mac and Pam. We were talking about something expensive (let’s say computers, because I can’t remember exactly), and I said, “I just got a bonus at work. Now I can buy that new iBook I’ve been wanting.”

Pam turned around to look at me in disbelief. “But J.D., just last week you were complaining about how broke you are. How can you afford to buy a computer? Aren’t you in debt?”

At the time, I was angry. Who was Pam to tell me how to spend my money? In retrospect, she was absolutely right. Now I recognize that this conversation was a turning point in my attitude toward money. I gained a glimmer of insight that day. I started to see how others perceived my spending habits. I was living paycheck-to-paycheck by choice. I was earning enough to save money, but I had nothing saved, nothing to show for my efforts but a lot of toys.

Tightening the belt
As the economy worsens, I see the effects everywhere. “This reminds me of the early eighties,” I told Kris last Saturday as we drove to dinner at her sister’s house. “That was a rough time for my family. The pervasive gloom and the constant bad news feel exactly the same right now. It’s eerie.”

Over homemade beef stew, Kris and I talked with Tiffany about the recession. Business is slumping at my family’s box factory. It’s slumping everywhere. When Kris and I meet with contractors for our upcoming home projects, they’re all eager to start as soon as possible. Three of my friends have lost their jobs, and several others are worried they might be next. Nearly everyone we know is looking for ways to save money.

We talked about how belt-tightening is hard for some. Kris and I are fortunate because we’ve been pursuing a policy of thrift for several years. We’ve already cut back, and have identified areas where we could cut back even more. (Dining out, for example.) For other people, though, it’s not as easy. Some don’t have room to cut back — and others who could do so cannot see their own bad habits.

Fumbling in the dark
“I have a friend who complains about how tight his budget is,” Kris said, “but his family shops at Whole Foods. He just signed a long-term contract at a gym. He drives an SUV and bought a hot tub. Whenever I suggest that he exercise at home or forgo the latest gadget, he laughs at the idea. He says he’s tightening his belt and trying to start saving, but from the outside, that’s not how it looks. If you’re committed to buying all of your groceries at Whole Foods, you’re going to have to cut back in other areas. You can’t have it all.“

“Yeah,” said Tiffany. “Our society has become used to getting everything it wants. It’s used to instant gratification. Now that things are tight, it seems like people don’t know how to choose. What’s more important? Eating organic or sending the kids to summer camp?”

“You can’t have everything you want at once,” Kris said. “That’s a quick way to get in over your head. And you can’t have the best of everything. You have to choose what’s important to you and make sacrifices elsewhere. I’ve learned that when I can save money in areas that are less important to me, it doesn’t feel like a sacrifice — it feels like a victory. Food is important to me, but I’m not willing to pay full-price for new clothes.”

Tiffany nodded. “It’s hard to listen to the complaints when you can see inconsistencies. It’s one thing if the person really is cutting back as far as possible and they still can’t make it, but it’s another when the behavior isn’t consistent with the talk. I think we may all need to adjust our expectations of what we deserve to have.”

“That’s true,” I said, but I was remembering my conversation with Mac and Pam on our drive to the rodeo. “It can be frustrating to watch others struggle. Like my brother, for example. At the same time, I try not to be judgmental. I’ve been there. It feels different from the other side. Sometimes when you’re making poor choices, you’re not even aware of it. Or if you are aware of it, you don’t know how to stop. I see my friends who are struggling, and I want to help, but I’m afraid to offer unsolicited advice. I used to resent it, and I’m afraid they will too.”

“Each person has to come to it on their own,” said Kris. “You can’t force them to see. It’s like when Michael gave you a copy of Your Money or Your Life. He was trying to tell you he could see what you were doing, but you weren’t ready to listen. You took the book from him and put it on the bookshelf for a year or two. But eventually, when you were ready, you picked it up and you read it. Then it made a difference.”

Learning to see
As we ate our dessert of rice krispie treats, I thought of my friend Gillian, the woman who is very good at spending money, but not so good at saving it. Gillian is still living the same lifestyle, unable to cut back on cable television or the housekeeper or her cell phone — and still wondering why she struggles to make ends meet. She can’t see how her choices affect her financial situation.

Not so long ago, I was in this position myself. With the help of friends, I was able to open my eyes. I began to see how even small choices I made had a big impact. As I learned more about money, as I learned more about my own behavior, everything started to make sense. I made changes in my life. I sacrificed some of the things I wanted. I worked hard to boost my income. Today, as the national economy crumbles around me, I feel relatively secure.

The road ahead looks rough, at least for a little ways. I encourage you to do what you can to tighten your belt. And if you know you have a decent income but still feel pinched, don’t be afraid to ask for advice. Sometimes a friend or family member can see things about your habits that you can’t.

Source: getrichslowly.org

Apache is functioning normally

July 4, 2023 by Brett Tams

While Minnesota life did not make the Good Financial Cents® top 10 life insurance companies it did get an honorable mention and we have had great success working with this company.

The History of Minnesota Life Insurance Company

Since 1880, Securian Financial Group has been the holding company and parent of Minnesota Life Insurance Company and Securian Life – as well as their affiliates. This financial powerhouse specializes in working with employers to offer financial, retirement, and insurance plans to their employees.

And, for more than 80 years, Minnesota Life Insurance Company has provided businesses with customized solutions to their employee benefit needs, as well as with expertise in administering large public and private employer plans to small and medium sized municipal employers. This insurer also offers individual insurance options.@media(min-width:0px)#div-gpt-ad-goodfinancialcents_com-medrectangle-3-0-asloadedmax-width:300px!important;max-height:250px!important

This insurance company insures more state plans than any other group insurer. It also counts 20 percent of the Fortune 100 companies as its clients. Also, it is proud to offer industry leading technology, such as the first mobile optimized website for group insurance transactions.

Minnesota Life Insurance Company Review

The unique brand of service that is provided by Minnesota Life Insurance Company has established the company as a valued partner and a premier provider in the group insurance coverage arena. Just some of the quality and exceptional service that Minnesota Life Insurance is known for includes the following:

100 percent of the insurer’s new clients recommend its implementation services;
The company pays out 99 percent of death claims within ten calendar days of receiving proof;
The insurer offers technological solutions to ease its policyholders’ administrative load;
The average tenure of the company’s staff is 12 years.

Its parent company, Securian, is also considered to be strong and stable. Securian has nearly 15 million customers, and more than 5,000 associates and representatives in its headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota, as well as in sales offices around the country. Also, the company has more than $1 trillion of insurance in force, and in just the year 2014 alone, it paid out more than $4 billion in benefits to its customers.

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The Financial Strength and Ratings of Minnesota Life

The parent company of Minnesota Life Insurance Company, Securian, has been provided with extremely high ratings from the insurer ratings agencies. These include:

A+ (Superior) from A.M. Best. This is the 2nd highest of a possible 16 total ratings.
AA (Very Strong) from Fitch. This is the 3rd highest of a possible 19 total ratings.
Aa3 (Excellent) from Moody’s Investors Service. This is the 4th highest of a possible 21 total ratings.
A+ (Strong) from Standard & Poor’s. This is the 5th highest of a possible 23 total ratings.

Life Insurance Products Offered

Minnesota Life Insurance Company offers both term and cash value life insurance policies. Life insurance policies are individual and group in nature.

For the group plans that are offered, regardless of whether these are offered as basic or as voluntary plans, group life insurance products are considered to be the mainstay of most employee benefits programs – and Minnesota Life Insurance Company provides them all.

Group life insurance products that are offered through Minnesota Life include the following:@media(min-width:0px)#div-gpt-ad-goodfinancialcents_com-banner-1-0-asloadedmax-width:580px!important;max-height:400px!important

Group Term Life Insurance Coverage – Group term life insurance coverage offers life insurance protection for a set period of time. This type of life insurance will pay out a benefit only if the insured passes away during the term that the coverage is in force. With term life insurance, there is no cash value build up.
Group Universal Life Insurance Coverage – A group universal life insurance plan will combine the protection of life insurance coverage along with the option to build up savings with cash value. This cash value account will earn a fixed rate of interest.
Variable Group Universal Life Insurance Coverage – A variable group universal life insurance plan will offer a death benefit, and will provide the option to invest in a variety of different investments, and will also make allocations to a guaranteed account. With a variable group universal life insurance policy, the investment “sub-accounts,” there can be some both potential risks and rates of return so that employees may “customize” their investments to meet their specific financial goals. These investments can fluctuate, and when they are redeemed, they may be worth more or less than the amount that was initially invested by the employee. These plans may be designed to include a guaranteed account that offers a fixed rate of return that is guaranteed never to fall below three percent. The guarantees for the guaranteed account are based only on the financial strength and claims-paying ability of Minnesota Life Insurance Company, which are important. However, this has no bearing on the performance of the individual investment options.
Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance – Accidental death and dismemberment, or AD&D, coverage provides a benefit if the insured attains bodily injuries that result in death or dismemberment as a result of an accident.
Business Travel Accident Insurance – Business Travel Accident, or BTA, insurance will provide a lump sum benefit if the insured dies or is injured due to a covered accident while he or she is traveling for business.
Critical Illness insurance – If an insured is diagnosed with a condition that is covered in a critical illness insurance policy, then the lump sum benefit may be used in any way that the insured chooses. These may include making mortgage payments, paying for child care, or paying for any out-of-pocket medical costs.
Accident insurance – The accident insurance that is provided by Minnesota Life Insurance Company will offer a payout to use in any way that the insured wishes that can cover deductibles, out-of-pocket medical expenses, or even everyday living expenses.

Other Coverage Products Offered by Minnesota Life Insurance Company

In addition to term and permanent life insurance coverage, and the accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) insurance protection, accident insurance, and critical illness insurance to both large employers and to executive groups across the nation, this insurer also partners with Zurich International Life in order to provide group life insurance coverage for global employees.

Individual annuities are also offered by Minnesota Life Insurance Company. These can help individuals to ensure that they will have an income for the remainder of their lives, by paying out a guaranteed income stream on a regular basis, regardless of how long the person lives. Also, retirement plans are also offered through Minnesota Life Insurance Company.

They have an IncomeToday! Annuity, which is an immediate income annuity (as you can probably guess from the name). With these annuities, you pay one lump sum and then you’ll start receiving paychecks immediately. If you’re getting close to retirement, you might be worried about having enough money, but that’s where these annuities come in.@media(min-width:0px)#div-gpt-ad-goodfinancialcents_com-large-leaderboard-2-0-asloadedmax-width:300px!important;max-height:250px!important

Aside from the immediate paycheck, there are several other annuity options that you can choose. One popular is a fixed indexed deferred annuity. These are annuities that are based on the performance of the markets. That means that these annuities are going to give you guaranteed income, but there is a chance that they could earn you much more.

Another type of annuity that you can choose to supplement your retirement income is variable deferred annuities. When you invest in a variable deferred annuity, there are several options for investing your money. The investment options of the annuity can reflect your risk tolerance and you can change the investments as you get closer to retirement.

Through the parent company of Minnesota Life Insurance Company, Securian, there are many additional insurance and financial products that are offered, too. These include retirement plans, investments, and executive benefits. Because employers are this company’s key market, Securian works with groups in identifying the right plan types for their needs – from profit sharing and 401(k)s to defined benefit and cash balance plans.

The 401(k) plan design options are based primarily on employer goals, as well as the budget and demographics of the particular employer. Investment options can be selected from more than 5,800 unique investment options, and investment allocation portfolios are based on age or risk tolerance. Profit sharing and matching contribution components are also available.

While few employers offer defined benefit plans today, Securian helps companies to differentiate themselves and offer their employees the security of knowing that they’ll have an income for life with a pension income. Regardless of how the investments in the plan perform, the participants in this type of plan will be able to still receive a set amount of retirement income.

Cash balance plans are also available through Securian. These types of plans can help an employer to essentially bridge the gap between a traditional defined benefit plan and a defined contribution plan such as a 401(k). The qualified plan products that are offered by Securian are done so via a group variable annuity contract that is issued by Minnesota Life Insurance Company. While the company (Securian) works with employers of all sizes, it specializes in plans that have assets up to approximately $200 million.

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Source: goodfinancialcents.com

Apache is functioning normally

July 4, 2023 by Brett Tams

An emergency fund can help you cover life’s curveballs when an unexpected financial situation comes your way. You may be wondering where to keep your emergency fund until you actually need it.

You could stuff your emergency savings under the mattress or in a piggy bank, but a bank account can be a smarter way to save. The best account for emergency fund savings is one that offers you convenient access to your money, a competitive rate on deposits, and minimal fees.

Weighing some of the different banking options can help you decide where to put emergency funds. Read on to learn more about:

• Where you can keep an emergency fund

• How much to keep in an emergency fund

• The pros of having an emergency fund

• How to start an emergency fund

Where to Keep Emergency Funds

Now, where to keep an emergency fund? There are different places you could keep your rainy-day money. When making a decision, it’s important to consider what works best for your lifestyle. And you’ll also want the security of knowing your money is safe, so it can be best to bank at a financial institution that is insured by the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) or NCUA (National Credit Union Administration).

With that in mind, here are five possibilities you might consider when looking for the best account for emergency funds.

1. Traditional Checking or Savings Accounts

You might consider keeping emergency savings in a traditional checking account or savings account at a brick-and-mortar bank. On the pro side, that could make it easier to access your money in an emergency. However, you may not get the best rate for your money. Also, checking accounts often don’t earn you any interest, and their accessibility can make it tempting to dip into the funds for something that isn’t a true emergency.

Traditional banks are not known for offering the highest annual percentage yields, or APYs, on savings accounts either. You’re also more likely to pay a monthly maintenance fee for a traditional savings account than one at an online bank.

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2. High-Yield Savings

High-yield savings accounts offer above-average rates on balances. For example, you might find a savings account with an APY that’s five, 10, or even 20 times higher than the national average.

It’s more common to find high-yield savings accounts at online banks vs. traditional banks. That’s because online banks tend to have lower overhead costs so they’re able to pass on savings to their customers. You’re also less likely to pay a monthly fee for a high-yield savings account.

Of course, you won’t have branch banking access with an online savings account. You may, however, be able to access your account via an ATM card or debit card, or by transferring funds to a linked account.

3. Bonds

A bond is a type of debt instrument. When you buy a bond, you’re agreeing to let the bond issuer use your money for a set time period. In return, the issuer agrees to pay interest back to you.

Bonds can be attractive since you can earn decent interest rates on savings. However, they’re not great for accessibility since you have to wait for the bond to mature to get your money back.

You could cash out a bond early but that might mean forfeiting some of the interest you could earn. So you may want to consider bonds for money that you’d like to invest, versus money that you might need to tap into for emergencies.

4. Certificate of Deposit (CD) Accounts

A certificate of deposit or CD is a time deposit account. When you put money into a CD, the bank agrees to pay interest on your balance over a set time period. Once the CD matures, you can either withdraw your initial deposit and the interest or roll it all over to a new CD.

CDs can be a reliable way to save, since interest rates are guaranteed. However, your money is locked in for the entire maturity term. If you need to break into a CD early, your bank may charge an early withdrawal penalty. That could cost you some or all of the interest earned.

If you’re interested in using CDs for emergency savings, you might consider a CD ladder. Laddering CDs means opening multiple CDs with different maturity terms. That way, you always have a CD maturity date on the horizon. CD laddering could also help you to capitalize on rising interest rates since you can roll expiring CDs into a new account with a higher APY.

5. Money Market Accounts

Money market accounts combine features of savings accounts with checking accounts. For example, you can earn interest on balances and you might also get a debit card or paper checks that you can use to access your money.

A money market account can offer flexibility since they’re easier to access than bonds or CDs. And you might find money market accounts at online banks that offer rates comparable to what you could get with a high-yield savings account or CD. However, read the fine print: There may be minimum account opening and balance requirements as well as monthly fees to be paid.

If you’re considering a money market account for your emergency fund, consider the fees. An online money market account might be preferable for minimizing what you pay in fees while getting a competitive rate. Remember, the best account for an emergency fund will be the one that suits your specific needs.

How Much Should You Keep in Your Emergency Fund?

A common rule of thumb for emergency savings is to aim for a minimum of three months’ worth of expenses and many financial experts bump this up to six months. How much money you should keep in your emergency fund should be a number that you’re comfortable with, based on your financial situation.

For example, instead of aiming for three to six months’ worth of expenses, you might choose to save $2,000 for every person in your household. If you have a family of four, that means you’d need an $8,000 emergency fund.

Whether that’s sufficient can depend on what expenses you have, what other financial resources you have, and how quickly you believe you could replace lost income if you end up out of work. Some people may be fine with having a $1,000 mini emergency fund while others are more comfortable setting aside nine to 12 months’ worth of expenses for emergencies.

The Benefits of Having an Emergency Fund

The importance of emergency savings can’t be underestimated. When an unexpected situation or expense comes along, your emergency fund can act as a safety net and help you pay bills without resorting to high-interest methods.

In this way, an emergency fund may be able to reduce stress and give you a sense of financial security.

When you have money in emergency savings, it becomes easier to:

• Avoid high-interest credit card debt. Rather than using your credit cards, you can draw from your emergency savings to cover extra expenses. You can then pay yourself back by depositing money into savings, without having to pay the high interest a credit card might charge.

• Get through financial challenges. An emergency fund can pay for a smaller expense, like a new tire, but it can also cover bigger obstacles. For example, if you lose your job unexpectedly, having emergency savings to fall back on can ease anxiety over paying bills while looking for a new job.

• Avoid impulse decisions. Having emergency savings gives you some breathing room so you can make financial decisions with less pressure. That’s a good thing if it allows you to avoid a potentially negative outcome, like rushing into an expensive loan without reading the fine print.

Keep in mind that your emergency savings isn’t meant for any kind of spending. It’s designed for emergencies only.

So what is a financial emergency? Generally, it’s any situation that you weren’t expecting that affects you financially. Examples of financial emergencies can include:

• A job loss or extended layoff

• Natural disasters that displace you from your home

• A car accident or breakdown that requires major repairs

• Illness or injury that leaves you unable to work

• An important appliance (whether that’s a washer or a laptop) that breaks down

• Unexpected loss of a loved one

Those are all examples of when to use your emergency fund. Buying new clothes, funding a last-minute, or upgrading your furniture because there’s a sale happening, on the other hand, are “wants” and not true emergencies.

Starting an Emergency Fund

If you’re ready to start an emergency fund, the first step is finding the money in your budget to save. The amount of money you get started with doesn’t have to be much; the most important thing is to commit to saving for emergencies on a consistent basis.

For example, say you can only save $25 per pay period and you get paid biweekly. That’s $650 you could save in one year if you’re saving regularly. If you’re not satisfied with that amount, you could review your budget to look for more money to save.

Here are a few additional tips for starting an emergency fund:

• Consider opening a separate bank account to hold your emergency savings and linking it to your main checking account. Money in your checking account often gets spent despite the best intentions.

• Look for a savings account that offers a competitive APY with no monthly fees.

• Set up automatic transfers from checking to savings each pay period to make saving effortless.

• Use “found” or extra money, such as tax refunds or year-end work bonuses, to grow your savings versus going shopping with the whole bundle.

Comparing different banks can help you find the best place to keep your emergency fund savings. And remember that while saving money might seem difficult at times, it can pay dividends if you’re able to stick with the habit.

The Takeaway

Having an emergency fund can help you sleep easier at night if you know that you’re covered should an unexpected expense crop up. If you’re looking for the best emergency fund savings account option, you can start with your current bank then compare it to other banks. Look for a combination of high APY and low (or no) fees to make the most of your money.

For instance, you might consider opening an online bank account with SoFi. With our Checking and Savings account, you can spend and save in one convenient place, plus you’ll earn a competitive APY on balances while paying no account fees, which can help your cash grow faster. One other terrific benefit: Qualifying accounts can get paycheck access up to two days early.

Better banking is here with up to 4.30% APY on SoFi Checking and Savings.

FAQ

What type of account is the safest for emergency funds?

A bank account at an FDIC-member bank is the safest option for holding your emergency fund. FDIC insurance protects your deposits in the rare event that your bank fails. Accounts that can be FDIC-insured include savings accounts, money market accounts, checking accounts, and CD accounts. NCUA serves a similar function insuring credit union accounts. Both offer $250,000 coverage per depositor, per account type, per insured institution.

Should I open a separate bank account for my emergency fund?

Opening a separate bank account for an emergency fund can be a good idea if you’re worried that you might be tempted to spend savings that are mingled with other funds. Having a separate savings account that’s linked to your checking account can allow for easy transfers. You’ll also continue earning interest until you need the money.

Should emergency funds be kept in cash?

Keeping an emergency fund in cash can be problematic as it increases the risk of the money being lost or stolen. You’re also not earning any interest by keeping emergency funds in savings. What’s more, certain emergency expenses might need to be paid using a check or debit card, which would still require you to deposit your cash into a bank account at some point.

Photo credit: iStock/dobok

SoFi® Checking and Savings is offered through SoFi Bank, N.A. ©2023 SoFi Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.

The SoFi Bank Debit Mastercard® is issued by SoFi Bank, N.A., pursuant to license by Mastercard International Incorporated and can be used everywhere Mastercard is accepted. Mastercard is a registered trademark, and the circles design is a trademark of Mastercard International Incorporated.

Financial Tips & Strategies: The tips provided on this website are of a general nature and do not take into account your specific objectives, financial situation, and needs. You should always consider their appropriateness given your own circumstances.

SoFi members with direct deposit can earn up to 4.30% annual percentage yield (APY) interest on Savings account balances (including Vaults) and up to 1.20% APY on Checking account balances. There is no minimum direct deposit amount required to qualify for these rates. Members without direct deposit will earn 1.20% APY on all account balances in Checking and Savings (including Vaults). Interest rates are variable and subject to change at any time. These rates are current as of 6/9/2023. There is no minimum balance requirement. Additional information can be found at http://www.sofi.com/legal/banking-rate-sheet.

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Source: sofi.com

Apache is functioning normally

July 4, 2023 by Brett Tams

Hard times without the Bravo paycheck? Lisa Rinna and her husband Harry Hamlin totaled $4.3 million in mortgages on their Beverly Hills home. This is on the heels of her departure from the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills at the end of Season 12.

So, what’s going on with Lisa and Harry’s finances? Was their wealth all a front for the show? This most recent mortgage is just one of three that the couple took out in recent years.

“Bank of the Stars” to the rescue

According to The U.S. Sun, Lisa and Harry first took out a home loan for $2,830,000 in August 2018. Property records show that merely a year later, the couple took a second one for $617,000. Finally, in April 2023, the third and largest loan was granted at $930,000. City National Bank financed the loans. This “Bank of the Stars” is known for working with celebrities.

Harry and Lisa bought the mansion over 20 years ago. The price was never disclosed. It boasts 4,000 feet with five bedrooms and four bathrooms. They raised their two daughters, Delilah Belle, 25, and Amelia Gray, 22, in that home.

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills filmed many cast events there as well. Harry is a fan of the domestic arts and is often on camera preparing food. Once there was the pie baking. His unparalleled sauce made a splash on the show as well. As for Lisa, she has filmed dance videos throughout her lavish home and gardens with an unwitting Harry completing tasks in the background.

It’s obviously a cherished home. But Lisa and Harry have very little equity in it currently. Realtor sites claim mansion is worth $4.9 million. So having $4,388,800 in loans means the bank is more so the owner now than Lisa and Harry.

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills returns – without Lisa and Harry – in November 2023.

TELL US – WHAT IS YOUR REACTION TO THE AMOUNT OF HOME LOANS HARRY AND LISA HAVE? DO YOU THINK THEY ARE SIMPLY REORGANIZING THEIR FINANCES?

Who is the worst housewives husband of all time?

See our picks for the most memorable episodes of RHOBH.

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1. Multiple Comedy Trailers Highlighting the Same Joke

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Table of Contents

The History of Minnesota Life Insurance Company

Minnesota Life Insurance Company Review

The Financial Strength and Ratings of Minnesota Life

Life Insurance Products Offered

Other Coverage Products Offered by Minnesota Life Insurance Company

Where to Keep Emergency Funds

1. Traditional Checking or Savings Accounts

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2. High-Yield Savings

3. Bonds

4. Certificate of Deposit (CD) Accounts

5. Money Market Accounts

How Much Should You Keep in Your Emergency Fund?

The Benefits of Having an Emergency Fund

Starting an Emergency Fund

The Takeaway

FAQ

What type of account is the safest for emergency funds?