Recently, Value Walk won the eCollegeFinder mentor award. The award was given to the 50 top sites on the web that provide valuable financial advice to students. That being said while mainting the overall value oriented theme of the site, I am going to write a bit more about personal finance.
I am not only doing this because of the award, I think personal finance is very important. You can have people who are excellent investors, but if they do not save and know basic financial living rules they will likely retire paupers. On the other hand you can have people who might not be the best investors but know how to save, and they can retire as millionares. So I believe personal finance is very, very important, and comes first before investing. Personal finance is learning to crawl, and learning to invest is walking- you can’t skip the first step.
One question I get asked a lot nowadays is where do I park my cash? Most people complain to me that they have their money bank accounts or money market accounts that are yielding close to nothing.Long term treasury rates are awful, and the stock market is overvalued, and is not a store for money that might be needed in the near term future.
So what is one to do in this scenario?
Luckily, do to technology we are at an advantage for answering this question. Nowadays, you can search over the internet for online savings accounts. These accounts usually offer much higher rates than brick and mortar banks. Part of the reason for the higher rates, is because online banks expenses are lower than a physical bank’s(think Amazon versus Barnes and Nobles).
While the rates might be 100 basis points higher 1.3% instead of 0.3%, in several decades that is the difference between doubling your money, or making a few percent or your money. You decide. All it takes is a few searches on Google to find online banks that offer high rates. Just make sure they are FDIC insured. One great current option, is Ally’s High-Yield Online Savings Account.
Good luck!
