Time To Review Your CDs
It is time again to review your CDs and I don’t mean those musical discs you keep all your music on. I am talking about your certificates of deposit where you keep the money that you do not have an immediate need for.
I like to review my CDs every few months to make a note of when they will be maturing. When a CD matures you have the option of cashing it out if you think you will need the money, or if the interest rate is not worth it any more.
You may also choose to renew your CD if you do not need to use the money in the near future, or if you will be getting a better interest rate by renewing. Ally bank (which I use for my CDs) gives you a bonus percentage amount on top of the rate you were already getting when you choose to renew a CD instead of cashing it out.
Take a few minutes and look over your current financial situation with regards to your CDs so that you can be well informed before the maturity date. Having all your details ready when it is time to make a decision.
Save Money On Interest Payments With A Balance Transfer
This is part 1 of 3 in a series where I expand on the post where I said you can save money by reducing your interest rate. I used to have a lot of high interest credit card debt and at one point I felt like I would never be able to get out from under the mountain of debt that I had gotten myself into.
I realized that I had to find different ways to save money and one of the ways to do this was to reduce the amount of interest that I paid on the debt I owed. I knew I was not able to completely rid myself of the debt because I did not have money to pay off the entire balance so the next best thing was to manage the debt that I did have, until I could pay it off.
One of the methods I used to reduce the interest payments was to do a balance transfer. I simply moved the balance from the high interest card to a lower interest card and ended up reducing my interest payments significantly with just a few clicks.
Of course there are a few things to look out for when you are doing a balance transfer. These include but are not limited to:
- Transfer fees
A Few Trading Account Options
The stock market is a crazy place and it can be really scary especially when you see things like Chase announcing a $2 Billion loss happening right before your eyes. Of course people can still make money when the price of a certain stock goes down or they can protect their money by moving it out of that affected stock as well.
If you are looking for a trading platform for your stocks, options and ETFs a good way to save money is to look for one that has low fees.
There are a number of places you can choose from but each one has a different set of requirements, ranging from the minimum to open the account to the cost per trade.
Here are a few options that you can check out when you are looking for a place to trade on the stock market. I personally use Sharebuilder because for someone like me with limited knowledge and a very limited cash base the choices are simple.
I also liked Sharebuilder because it allows you to buy partial shares of a stock so you can still own the stock even if you don’t have the money to buy a whole share at a time.
BROKERAGE
Open with $500, Trades cost $7.00
Open with $2,500, Trades cost $7.95
Open with $0, Trades cost $6.95
Open with $1,000,Trades cost $7.99
Open with $0, Trades cost $9.95
There are many other options out there when it comes to investing your money but do any of you have experience using any of the ones listed here? Any recommendations for really great places to trade?
It Is Time To Lighten Your Wallet
It is time to lighten your wallet….and I don’t mean swapping out the black wallet for a tan one!!! Too many people are carrying around TONS of stuff in their wallets on a daily basis.
Do you REALLY need to carry EVERY single credit and debit card that you own all day long. Do you really need to carry around your library card with you. You know the library card that you use maybe once a month because you have tons of books on your kindle that you have not gotten around to reading yet, so you don’t have time to stop at the library.
Do you have to carry around that giant wad of cash…..especially when you use your credit card for all purchases anyway. Keep a few bills in there for emergencies and get rid off all the rest.
And while we are on the topic of cash take a look at all of those coins. Unless you are visiting a wishing well soon there is no need to have all those coins adding bulk to your wallet. Take them out of the wallet and put them in a jar or something at home. When that jar is full then you can take it to coinstar or a bank and get them changed into something less bulky.
I say take a look at your wallet and see what you actually use on a daily basis and then remove everything else. If the wallet is not too stuffed then you can add in things that you use at least once a month.
You should also remove all those receipts from your wallet. Are you planning on returning an item soon? If not then the receipt does not belong in your wallet. File it away or scan it and get rid of it.
Lighten up your wallet and you will be doing yourself a big favor.
Save Money By Reducing Your Interest Rate
Some people think that the only way to save money is to actually put money away into an account of some kind. This can be a savings account at a bank or credit union, or a checking account or even a retirement account of some sort.
Other people think that you can only save money by getting a reduced price on something that they are going to purchase. This can be in the form of
- rebates
- coupon use
- sale
