Consolidate, Simply, Improve Your Finances

I have been helping a family member wrap her arms around her financial situation recently and thought I'd share my observations. Unlike the typical situation these days she has judicially salted away money every month for a very long time and therefore won't be wondering if she can maintain her lifestyle in retirement. But, her husband ran into some health issues two years ago and she had to take the reins of their finances for the first time in 20+ years. In their family, her accountant husband had a mind for numbers and had invested money with 15+ mutual fund companies, opening one or two funds at each. This caused paperwork nightmare for someone who is financially savvy, let alone someone who has problems balancing the checkbook.

The health situation opened her eyes and woke her up to the fact that if something happened again she wasn't sure she would even know where all their money was. Of course, having 20 different mutual funds doesn't mean you are diversified. It's also a huge hassle. I've been enlisted to help them consolidate their accounts, re-balance and simply things. They are also looking into working with a financial planner. I'm admittedly not an expert on equities, bonds, and the like, but as the financial meltdown of 2008-2009 has shown, neither are most of the people on Wall Street. I'll list the steps I have taken below. They want to take a mostly DIY approach to their investments so I've tried to not make things overly complicated while bringing their risk down.

STEP ONE. CONSOLIDATE

As noted above, my relatives had holdings at over 15 institutions. While they had some real quality companies working for them, I question whether each of the offerings at T.Rowe Price, Vanguard, and Schwab have significant enough differences to spread your money around everywhere. This is especially true with the number of non-transaction fee funds and ETF's available at most full service discount brokers.

a) Where to consolidate?

This is essentially a personal preference since many of the brokers have similar offerings these days. My personal favorite is Fidelity, though Schwab is a close second. Both have a solid offering of branded no transaction fee funds, charge no annual fee, have relatively low minimums, and charge lower trading fees than many of their competitors. There are cheaper options for trading and lower minimums elsewhere, but these two have very good customer service in my experience which is worth the extra dollar or two on trades (since they are mostly invested in mutual funds).

There are also some very good mutual fund companies such as Vanguard and T.Rowe which basically have a brokerage account tacked on as an afterthought to their fund offerings. Both are great companies, but have thin offerings outside their branded funds.

After laying out the options they have decided to go with Fidelity.

b) Making the Move

One of the reasons that we settled on Fidelity was that quite a few of their funds were part of Fidelity's NTF network, so they could be rolled and moved into the brokerage account essentially unchanged. A number of the other offerings will be liquidated and moved into a similar offerings from the Fidelity branded funds, NTF funds Fidelity offers, or comparable ETF's. The whole process can be initiated online and finalized by mailing some paperwork to Fidelity. It is a fairly pain free process, but takes a little while.

STEP TWO. SIMPLIFY

Asset allocation is the single most important factor in this process and I haven't been able to find any online tools that I feel confident with. This is especially true given the huge differences in allocations each recommended. My relatives are about 5 years from retirement, so they will need a more conservative allocation than someone like me. I have recommended that my relatives visit a financial planner who charges hourly and schedule an appointment to review their goals and get a plan figured out. A few hundred dollars is a small price to pay for solid advice.

STEP THREE. IMPROVE

While things haven't been finished yet. They are off to a good start. The final pieces will fall into place once they meet with the financial planner. I believe they will benefit a great deal from having the vast majority of their investments under one umbrella and just a few funds at another broker. Now, if something happens at least all their money will be in one place and accessible if necessary.

I'm interested to hear if you have had an experience good, bad or otherwise moving things under one roof. Do you have any other advice for them? If so, email me.

Image Credit: Ben30 @ Flickr

Free Up Some Time with a Virtual Assistant

One of the great things about the internet is that it removes a lot of the barriers that people face every day. No pesky brick and mortar store fronts to eat up overhead expenses, telecommuting reduces the need for office space substantially, and email and VoIP help keep people connected. With companies downsizing you might find yourself forced to do more with less and being squeezed to work longer hours. Or, maybe you own a business and are feeling maxed out. You might be able to get some cut rate freelance help whether you need it for a day or the next year. I haven't used any of the sites below, but I'm kicking around the idea of trying them out as projects present themselves or to give this site a face lift. In no particular order, here are some of the personal assistant/freelance websites that I've come across recently.

1. AskSunday.com

This site offers virtual personal assistants. Their website says that the most commonly requested services include: appointment scheduling, data entry, gathering information from the web and research, making telephone calls, booking travelnand ordering flowers or gifts. Pricing isn't available on the website, but new users can get a free week of service for signing up.

2. RedButler.com

This site offers similar services to asksunday.com with the addition of some membership rewards. The service starts at $36.95 for 15 requests / mo. and increases from there. Again, the site seems to specialize in the mundane repetitive tasks that often chew up a lot of time.

3. Elance.com

Elance more of a full-scale freelance site. Rather than outsourcing your projects to the company itself, Elance acts like more of a matchmaking service. Elance helps you match up people with projects and professionals who have the skills you are looking for. Professionals can then bid on the projects. At Elance you can hire IT professionals, lawyers, writers or finance specialists. Elance allows individuals to post opportunities for bid or search providers and contact them directly after reviewing their portfolios. I am considering using Elance to find someone to give this site a face lift, because my design skills leave something to be desired. If anyone has suggestions I'd be interested to year your experiences.

Has anyone used these sites? Are there better ones out there? Please let me know and I will post updates with any I receive. I will also update the site after I try them out myself.

Image Credit: vargklo @ Flickr

Obama, McCain and Your Money, The Cheat Sheet

After reading a Wall Street Journal article today about the money related positions of Barack Obama and John McCain, I figured it might be helpful to make a cheat sheet about where each candidate stands on the issues. I won't attempt to give an in depth analysis on any of the topics, this is just a very, very, brief overview.

Income Taxes:

Obama: Wants tax cuts for middle class, increases for families making $250k+ and inviduals pulling down $200k+. Wants to extend Bush tax cuts, but raise the top rates to 36% and 39.6%. Get rid of taxes on the elderly making less than $50k/yr and give people earning less than $75k/yr a credit equal to about $500 each year. The top 1% would see an approximate $19k/yr increase in taxes.

McCain: Wants to permanently extend Bush tax cuts, raise personal exemptions for each dependent from $3,500 to $7,000 over a few years. Wants to keep top tax rate at 35%. The top 1% would see a cut of $125k+/yr.

Short-Term Economic Relief:

Obama: To jump start the economy he wants to give a $1,000 rebate to each family or $500 per individual. He also would like people be able to withdraw 15% of their 401k or IRA up to $10k penalty free.

McCain: Wants to cut the capital gains tax rate for stock held more than one year to 7.5% and would increase the amount of loss that is deductible on stock sales from $3k to $15k. Would cap withdrawals by seniors from IRAs and 401(k)'s no more than 10%

Estate Taxes / AMT:

Obama: Keep 2009 estate tax rates in effect, taxing only estates worth more than $3.5 million per person at 45% per person. A $5 million dollar estate would pay approximately $675k in taxes.

McCain: Wants flat 15% estate tax (currently at 45%) on estates valued at over $5 million. A $5 million dollar estate would pay NO taxes.

Health Care:

Obama: Require employers not offering coverage to kick in a percentage of payroll towards a national plan (note small businesses are exempt). Would try to set up a national exchange for health insurance.

McCain: Would replace the income-tax exemptions for insurance paid by employers with a refundable tax credit of $5k per family or $2,500 per individual.
Investments:
Obama: Would eliminate all capital gain taxes on start-ups and small businesses, but raise top rates on securities and dividends to 20% for families making more than $250,000 per year.

McCain: Keep the max capital gain rate at 15%

Retirement / Social Security:

Obama: Wants to institute a 2 - 4% payroll tax for earners of more than $250k to be paid by employees and employers together. Would be phased in over 10 years or more. Impliment a savers credit to match 50% of the first $1,000 of savings for families earning less than $75,000.
McCain: Privitize social security and allow younger workers to place a portion of their account in the market.

Image: jvumn @ Flickr

Keys to Financial Success as Told By Mark Cuban

I personally don't have a problem with Mark Cuban, but I know he rubs many people the wrong way. For those of you who don't know, Cuban founded Broadcast.com and sold out to Yahoo at the peak of the tech bubble for about $5 billion dollars, he then went on to buy the Dallas Mavericks and dabble in some other ventures like HDNet and potentially buying the Chicago Cubs. For certain, the guy is emotional, opinionated, and undoubtedly rich by any standards... oh yeah, he likes the enjoy his money.

This week Cuban posted an article on his "blog maverick" site titled "How to Get Rich." The article raises some interesting points that run counter to conventional wisdom. In a nutshell Cuban says, 1) keep money in cash, 2) don't take shortcuts, 3) stop using credit cards, and 4) find a job you love.

I have to admit I was really skeptical when I received the link from a friend yesterday, but Cuban gives some solid advice. I whole-heartedly agree that there are no shortcuts to building wealth. It's a slow process that for most people requires sacrifices and SAVING MONEY. Bottom line, you have to put more money in the bank or securities than you blow on entertainment, luxuries or other disposable expenses. I also strongly believe that for many reasons loving your job is important. People spend more time at work than just about anywhere else. If you hate your job, chances are you are either a) not good at it, b) overqualified, or c) would be a lot better at something else. There's an untold number of people out there who made fortunes in weird niche industries and businesses. The person who created the temporary tatoo, hackey sack, or spork probably all flew under the radar -- and didn't live way beyond their means. They probably all also ended up with more money in their estate than you or I will. Even if it doesn't necessarily contribute to your bottom line right away, doing what you love will make you a lot happier.

I would disagree with Cuban on his keep your money on cash and don't use credit cards opinions. Historically the stock market is not as risky an investment as he makes it out to be. Yes, it is driven by emotion and not closely correlated to actual market conditions, but earning 3-4% in a CD won't cover inflation most of the time. You can no longer buy a stock and hold it for 30 years (if you ever could) and need to actively monitor things by diversifying your asset and portfolio allocation but averaging a conservative 6% is almost double what short term CD's pay. Having a sizable position in cash or bonds makes sense, but keeping all your money in cash is foolish. Also, although most people use credit cards irresponsibly, there are plenty of people who don't carry a balance and get some cash back rewards in the process.

Does anyone have other ideas to add to the list? I'd like to compile my own list and post it sometime in the future if anyone

Christmas Deals Come Early This Year

Consumer advocate and finance guru Clark Howard is predicting that sales for Christmas will begin mid-late October this year and run through December 10. He says that there will still be Black Thursday deals, but that consumers will have more options this year. I don't know whether that's a) good for all of us because there are more deals to be had, b) bad because we will be inundated with the Christmas trappings even earlier this year, or c) a clear picture of the sorry state of the economy.

Shocker of the Day: Bling is a Terrible Investment

File this under the "obvious" category. The WSJ Wealth Report has a post reporting that even super high end jewelry doesn't hold its value. Given the fact that the value of jewelry is a subjective thing, that's not too surprising. Additionally, buying jewlery is typically an emotional decision and doesn't involve the rational investing approach that other investments might go through. I think very few people say "at least this engagement ring will be worth twice this much if I ever get divorced and sell off assets." The only reason the story is noteworthy is that it backs up its points with figures from famous jewlery pieces that have been sold by some of the big auction houses. So, if you were planning to drop some money on a rapper chain you might want to find a better place to park all that cash.

Image: Swanksalot @ Flickr

Number of Millionares in World Increases 600k

Recent reports now say that the world now is home to over 10 million millionaires. (note: this millionaire club doesn't include real estate worth in its calculation). The year over year total grew 600k (about 6%) from 2006 to 2007. You might say, who cares? There are oh, 6.6 billion people on the planet -- so in the grand scheme of things its still tiny (somewhere around 1/5th of 1% of the population). The interesting thing about these new statistics is what has driven the increase in millionaires.

According to the report a steady combination of inflation and booming emerging economies has fueled the boom. The millionaire club has, unsurprisingly grown fastest in India and China. Those of us in America be warned. The United States is still home to 1 out of 3 millionaires, but it remains to be seen if the emerging markets around the world will be able to spread their new found wealth around enough to change those figures when the 2008 stats come out.

Image: Justin Vining

Fidelity mySmart Cash v. Schwab High Yield Checking

I'm currently debating moving my primary checking account - the two alternatives I am deciding between are the Schwab High Yield Checking and the Fidelity mySmart Cash account. While I'm not sure which account I'm going to go with yet, I decided to post the pros and cons (as I see them) of each for other people who may be unhappy with their current checking options.

Schwab High Yield Checking

The Schwab High Yield Checking is a relatively new offering from Schwab. The account is basically a standard FDIC insured free checking account, but offers more perks than your average local bank. The account offers no fees, zero minimum balance, ATM fee refunds, a variable APY now hovering around 3.01%, free checks, a free check card, and a free brokerage account.

Fidelity mySmart Cash

The Fidelity myCash account is similarly a fairly new offering from Fidelity. mySmart Cash is a cash management account that operates as a quasi-checking account. A client opens a mySmart cash account and links it to a current Fidelity offering (like a money market fund). The mySmart cash account has no minimum balance requirement, no fees, ATM fee reimbursement, free checks, and free self-funded overdraft protection. The client is free to withdraw funds at an ATM or write a check on the account regardless of the balance, Fidelity will then move the appropriate amount from the designated account to cover the balance if the mySmart cash accounthas insufficient funds.

Comparison

Outside of a few minor differences the offerings from Fidelity and Schwab are pretty similar. However, there are a few relatively major differences that may contribute to the decision for some people. First, Schwab currently offers a higher APY on its checking account. However, this is probably offset by the fact that the mySmart cash account can be set to automatically draw from a higher yielding account (like a money market or mutual fund). A second difference is that the Schwab account comes standard with a free brokerage account. If you aren't already set up with a brokerage account then this may be an advantage to you - especially since the brokerage account has no minimum balance or opening amount. Below I have made a quick chart to show the features of both accounts, you'll see that they are pretty similar. I have a feeling that for most people the decision to chose one of these accounts would be based on whether they currently have a Fidelity or Schwab holdings already.


Do you find either of these accounts compelling? Do you already have one? Let us know how you like it.

Link: Schwab High Yield Checking

Link: Fidelity mySmart Cash

What Are The Best Personal Finance Books?

As I was walking around the local Barnes & Noble over the weekend, I found myself in kind of a rut. Nothing seemed particularly interesting, but I haven't read a good book about money for quite awhile so that's what I was browsing for. Instead of searching through the Amazon reviews for a good book, I though it might be better to open it up to everyone out there.

So, what is your favorite book about money? The last money book I read was one of Jim Cramer's (the high strung Goldman trader turned hedgie-turned CNBC talking head), and can't say that it was something I'd recommend.

Image: Lin Pernille @ Flickr

High Yield Checking Account Interest Rates Hold Up Better Than Savings

High yield savings account interest rates took a hit again this week (Feb 16) with a majority of the major players again reducing returns. However, high yield checking account returns have held up better. Bankdeals.blogspot.com reports this week that there are still plenty of good returns to be found with high yield checking accounts. Below is a list of places that you can still get a good deal from Bankdeals. The site also has a ton of information about the highest CD, savings, credit union yields, and bank account bonuses for the rate chasers out there.

• 6.01% Reward Checking at Air Academy FCU
• 6.01% Reward Checking Account at Charter Bank
• 5.51% Reward Checking Account at Provident Credit Union
• 5.09% Reward Checking Account at Consumers Credit Union
• 5.01% Reward Checking Account at State Bank of Toledo
• 5.01% Reward Checking Account at Connexus Credit Union
• 4.44% Reward Checking at First Arkansas Bank & Trust
• 4.00% Reward Checking Account at First National Bank

PS: Before you jump to a new account for what could be a teaser rate it's a good idea to crunch the numbers with a rate chaser calculator to see how long it will take for that new rate to pay off.

Schwab Offers High Yield Checking Account

Schwab has thrown its hat into the high interest checking ring recently. For those of you with Schwab brokerage accounts their "Schwab Bank High Yield Investor Checking" may be a convenient addition to your portfolio. A quick look at the account's stats show the following:

Rate: 4% variable APY.
Min: No account minimum.
Fees: No service charges or fees.
ATM: Unlimited ATM fee reimbursement.
FDIC: FDIC insurance up to $100,000.

I think it looks like the high-yield checking is a solid offering from Schwab. For starters, it beats the Electric Orange account from ING in terms of interest rates and features. Additionally, the Schwab money market is paying 4.32% (7-day avg as of 1-20-08), which means that if you give up .32% interest you can gain FDIC insurance and no minimum. A checking account isn't a great place to stash money in terms of investment opportunities, but if you have short term cash or carry a larger than average checking account balance it might be a good thing to look into.

Does a high yield checking account have a place in your portfolio, do you use a money market account with check writing, or just a plain old checking account?

Image: liewcf @ Flickr

101 Best Web Freebies

While they assuredly won't help you grow your nest egg, or retire early (for the most part), there are a lot of useful free goods and services you can score online. BusinessWeek has done some of the leg work for all of us by compiling a list of the best freebies you can get on the web. It's not presented in the most reader friendly manner, but you can check the list out here. The list is almost exclusively software or web based services and I have listed a few samples of the items on the list below:

Operating Systems - Ubuntu
Anti-Virus Software - AVG
Free Phone Calls - Skype
Accounting Software - Mint
Tax Software - TaxAct
Business Cards - VistaPrint
Remodeling Software - Google Sketchup

Read the entire article BusinessWeek.

Price Drop After You Bought an Item? Get Your Money Back

I know that many stores have policies that if they drop their prices after you make a purchase you can get the difference refunded to you. Unfortunately, these policies are not particularly valuable to me because 1) I don't have the time to keep tabs on prices after I buy something and 2) usually the hassle of running to the store and claiming my refund isn't worth the $5 to me, especially if it's far away. I would guess I'm not the only person who thinks this way - precisely whey stores have this policy - they don't get taken up on it much.

I've been playing around with Price Protectr the last few days and though it might be helpful to others out there. The site supports 72 stores currently and many are the largest online retailers (like Best Buy and Amazon). You simply copy and paste the item URL into a box on the Price Protectr webpage and your email address. If the price drops during the protection period, the site will email you to let you know. Then you can take over and fire off an email or phone call to the retailer to claim your refund.

Anyone else use this service or other similar ones? Now if someone could just figure out something like this for traditional brick and mortar stores I'd be in business.

Free Websites That Help You Save Money

Mint: Think a free stripped down version of Quicken, Money or other personal finance packages delivered via the web. Mint connects to over 3,500 U.S. financial institutions and even suggests where you can get higher rates.

Rent-o-meter: Want to know if your landlord is ripping you off? Are you charging your tennants the market rate? Simply enter your address, monthly rent, number of units, and unit size. The Rent-o-meter gives you a snapshot of whether you are getting a good deal or not.

Buy-side Realty: Megadiscount (no service) broker that will give you back 75% of the commission they receive from the broker. For example if you purchased a $200,000 home and the buyer's agent typically gets 3% of the purchase price, you pocket about $4,500 out of the deal.

Trulia: Demographic information on various areas. Find homes for sale, track trends, local real estate data and more.

Zecco: This online broker has received some mixed reviews and they recently altered their business model from free trades -- to free trades if you maintain a $2,500 account balance. Still pretty good. If you don't want to keep $2,500 in the account then it will cost you $4.50 per trade.

Bankrate: Bankrate aggregates the going rates for mortgages, home loans, credit cards, cd's, and has a lot of other useful financial information too.

Zillow: Real estate valuation service. Check what homes are selling for in a particular area. There have been plenty of people who claim its data is flawed and that it can be far to high or low, but even if imperfect it still has some useful data for people that are home shopping.

Free Online File Storage With Driveway

I have been swapping a lot of pictures lately with a few of my friends from a recent trip. The problem I have run into is that a picture from a 5 mega pixel camera clocks in at over a 1 meg and my university email account has a rather small cap of attachments. I switched over to my gmail account, but was still capped at about 20 megs. Thus began my search for a better way to transfer the files. I tried a few of the online photo services like flickr but I wanted the pictures transmitted in their full resolution glory.

I read about the DriveWay.com file sharing app and gave it a shot this weekend. It's a start-up that lets you transfer files up to 500 mb (I'm not sure how much cash they will burn through offering a free service with massive bandwith requirements, but maybe they are building on the YouTube business model that is all the rage these days).

The website is really easy to use. You simply click the browse button on the front page and then navigate to the file on your computer you want to upload. You can then type in an email address that the website will "park" the file for. The interface is also really clean and simple. Very web 2.0. My only concern with the service is that there do not seem to be privacy settings available that let you shield the download from the average "Joe" online. This service would work fine if I was sharing some freeware or a stock photo (aside from the obvious copyright concerns), but I'm not so sure I want my family pictures out there for everyone to see so easily.

The Verdict: Worth a bookmark and a try, (remember its free) but won't hit the mainstream until there are stronger privacy controls (or at least they are easier to find). I'm looking forward to following the services as they add features and products.

Google Your Way to Saving Money Online

As almost every retailer has an online presence, so come the online coupons. Since I'm cheap all about saving money I typically start by Googling "[store name] coupons" before I make a purchase online. Not exactly rocket science, but then again most of the time saving money is more about luck and being persistent than it is about actually being smart.

Yeah I know, it takes an extra minute or two, but it is well worth it if you can get free shipping, $5 off, or sometimes a bit more. For example, my latest search looking for Target coupon codes let me to find $5 off a purchase of $50 and free shipping.

If you aren't into sifting through Google sites for coupons you can always start at places like CouponChief. Check it out.

Link
Coupon Chief - Online Coupons

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A SPONSORED POST

The Rich Don't Save Either

Market Watch has an article this week claiming the lower and middle class aren't the only ones finding it difficult to put money away. The article cites a study conducted by HSBC bank that surveyed people making over $250,000 per year. Over a third of respondents said they had difficulty saving money because of a "need to pay everyday bills".

You won't find a shoulder to cry on here. If you are pulling down a quarter million a year, even if you are getting eaten alive by taxes, you should be able to at least max out your retirement savings accounts. You might not get that beach house on Florida or that new Porsche you had your eye on last year, but sometimes life just isn't fair.

Link
Sophisticated Investor @ MarketWatch
Image James & Vilija @ Flickr

Cool (Inexpensive) Projects to Do With Your Kids

If you are looking for interactive things to do with your kids or other children you may have in the family that don't involve a TV or XBox you might want to check out GeekDad. It's a pretty neat website. I'm all about activities that encourage creativity and cleverly disguise learning as fun.

For the most part these activities can be completed with a few inexpensive items and some reading material for the adult supervision. Here's a small sample of the type of projects available on the site.

• Model trains
• Painting with a 6 point perspective
• Ant farms
• Kite launched skydivers
• Electric model airplanes
• Build your own radio

The site is only a few months old, but they have a few more contributors now so I expect there to be a steadily increasing number of posts.

Review: E*Trade Complete Savings Account

Now that I have been using E*Trade's Complete Savings Account for a couple months the time has come to give a little review of the service.

For a little background, E*Trade introduced the Complete Savings Account in the not-so-distant past and it operates VERY similar to the other online savings account providers out there like HSBCDirect, INGDirect, or Emigrant. The account offers a 5.05% APY compounded monthly and can be linked to outside bank accounts or any account you may already have with E*Trade. I have had, or currently have, accounts with HSBC and ING so I will compare them to E*Trade as I go in this post.

Opening an Account

It took about two weeks for me to open an account. I filled out the online form and about a week or week and a half later had the registration forms. You sign the form and mail it back to the bank within 7 days and you are all set. Not as sleek and fast as ING, but a lot better than HSBC.

The Interface

(click the picture to enlarge)

E*Trade's Complete Savings Account has a nice clean interface. Things are easy to find and it is painless to add linked accounts. Those of you who have or have had E*Trade accounts in the past (regardless of how unhappy you were with customer service) will likely enjoy it.

Transferring Funds

(click to enlarge)

This is where the E*Trade Savings Account really shines. The company has chosen not to nickel and dime people by putting a hold on transferring money. While companies that hold transfers don't really cost you anything in real terms, the are profiting off the float on your money that could be going to you. The transfers I have made are done within 1 business day! Zero days of lost interest. ING is usually pretty good around 2 business days, and HSBC is pretty terrible taking substantially longer.

It's also really easy to add linked accounts. I should be with any service, but you can instantly validate accounts with E*Trade if you are willing to divulge your online user name and password for the account.

The Rate

E*Trade is paying 5.05% APY which isn't terrible, but there are plenty of other players in the mix now. ELOAN is consistently above 5% (5.25% right now) and many of the traditional banks like WaMu are offering similar services with competitive rates. The company has been offering a $25 sign-up bonus which as far as I can tell is still effective. Check out my former post on the bonus and try some of those codes to see if you can still snag the $25. UPDATE *I found a link to the bonus and it is now at the end of this post*

Fees

None, just keep at least $1 in the account.

Overall

I have had some bad experiences with E*Trade as a brokerage which I will write about some other time. However, I'm happy to say my experience with E*Trade's Savings Account has been good so positive. Of course I haven't had to use the customer service for much which has been the brokerage's main downfall.

Pros:

• No minimum, $1 to open, no fees, sign-up bonus of $25, FDIC insured.
  
• No hard credit pull to open the account.
  
• 5.05% APY is good but not the best.
• Blows competition away when it comes to transferring funds in an out of the account.
• Links to other E*Trade accounts if you choose
• If you have $5,000 or more in deposits you can get a checking account with ATM card as well.
  

Cons:

• Variable rate (but it is with any of the online savings accounts so far as I can tell).
• You can get a better rate other places if you look around, especially if you have more money to park in one of these accounts.
• When dealing with E*Trade brokerage I have run into some of the worst customer service experiences I have had anywhere. I'm not sure if they share customer service departments, but keep this in mind. With HSBC I have had decent customer service and INGDirect has some of the best I have ever had when I have contacted them.
• You might be able to get a comparable rate at a local banking branch where you already do business, especially if you have a significant amount to invest.

Link: E*Trade Complete Savings w/ $25

10 Ways to Save on Gas This Summer

With gasoline rising by the day and major media spreading rumors of $4 gas on the horizon. Here's a few things you can do to make the most out of the car you have and stretch your gas dollar.

1. Drive cautiously and avoid unnecessary acceleration and breaking: Common sense here.
   
   
2. Check your tire pressure and don't over or under inflate your tires. This can rob you of 1% fuel efficiency for every 2 psi your tires are under inflated.
   
   
3. Check your air filter and replace if dirty. This can save you 1/2 to 1 mpg.
   
   
4. Keep your car maintained and tuned up: This can save you 4% according to my car owner's manual, but varies between makes and models.
   
   
5. Avoid idling and turn your car off if you will be sitting for an extended period of time.
   
   
6. Remove excess weight from your car and avoid transporting items on top of your car on the roof rack or roof top carrier if possible. Extra wind resistance cuts down on fuel efficiency.
   
   
7. Keep the outside of your car clean to save on air resistance.
   

Fuel consumption myths

1. Buy bigger tires: Bigger tires weigh more and don't necessarily buy you any fuel efficiency. Wider tires can create more drag as well.
   
   
2. Run your air conditioner less: Depending on your car make and model, you may actually create more drag and use more fuel by driving with your windows rolled down.

If all else fails you can always start shopping for a hybrid or learn about "hypermiling" (@ Washington Post)

Sources:
K&N Air Filters
Summer Gas Tips @ LifeHacker
Gas, Money & the Environment @ Carnegie Mellon