Happy New Year, friends!

Just had a randomly refreshing chat with a fellow coffee shop goer, and as things tend to go we ventured into finances and the words that came out of his mouth were outstanding, lol… So much so I had to stop him mid-sentence a couple of times to make sure I got his phrases right!

Here were some of the highlights from our convo, in *his own words* as best as I can remember…

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“I would rather play chicken with my bills than with my savings”

Instead of spending on “wants” first like I’ve done all my life, I flipped it around and now SAVE first and pay bills second. Then if there happens to be anything left over, I use that to buy any “extras” I might want.

I went from not being able to save $1,000 and a credit score of 580, to having over $13,000 in the bank and a score of 730 within one year!

There were a handful of things that led to this, but it was mainly re-ordering my priorities and paying myself first that got me going in the right direction.

“I’ve gone to a more “spatial” system of managing my cash flow”

Another reason I was able to save so much this year was because I drastically changed my management system. Instead of having everything in 1-2 accounts, I’ve gone to a more “spatial” system.

What I mean by that is I spread my accounts across multiple banks that all serve a specific purpose:

1. I have one account for my short-term savings
2. One account for my long-term savings
3. One account for my bills
4. And then one account for my spending/wants.

My business banking looks similar: one account for savings, one account for bills, and another account for taxes (I pay quarterly). It’s a lot to manage, but it’s brought so much peace and savings.

“I threw away my debit cards”

The first thing I did when I started re-arranging everything was to move all my savings into a brick and mortar bank that had no online access. This way the only way I could access my money was by going there in person. I did get debit cards, but I immediately cut them up and threw them away.

This has immensely strengthened my discipline, and partly why I was able to go from $1,000 to $13,000 so fast. It took me over 30 years to save my first $10,000 and now the hardest part is over!

“I spend a lot of money looking for women”

Over the course of 3-4 years I’ve spent $40,000+ looking for love, or about $1,200/mo.

Part of that goes to dating apps like eHarmony (which I initially balked at as it cost me $300!), but most of it comes from just doing my best to be “visible.” So lots of eating out and hanging with friends, visiting bars/community events/etc. You have to put yourself out there if you truly want to meet people.

I initially felt bad about spending all this money with no savings in the bank, but later I realized I was prioritizing what I wanted and I became okay with it. Now I could have been more *efficient* with the way I went about it, but I am proud to say it worked out in the end and I will be getting married at the end of this month! Ironically, to a woman I found on eHarmony!!

(Editor’s Note: This was the most interesting part of the whole conversation, haha… As someone who met their partner years before online dating and apps came around, I’m always fascinated by the mixture of tech and love. And really how much dating seems to cost in general??! And I’ve surely never met anyone who has TRACKED IT ALL, lol… Probably exactly what I would do if ever back in that situation )

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So basically, yeah – most stuff we’ve heard before, but in much more entertaining ways ;)

1) Save first, spend later

2) Build a system that works for you!

3) Make yourself more “visible” when you want something. Whether it be love, business, career, you name it. If you’re not putting yourself into the position to *receive,* you’re limiting yourself! Nothing great has happened sitting on your couch – you have to put yourself out there and tell the world what you are looking for!

(This is exactly, btw, why I choose to do my projects out of coffee shops. I never know who I’ll run into or what type of magic might happen! And surely this blog post would have never been created, so who knows what you would be reading right now??! Lolol…)

At any rate, all good things to think about as we head into the new year here :)  Will you consciously place yourself in situations which allow you to get closer to your goals or farther away from them? Are your management systems still serving you okay, or is it time to blow them up and start from scratch? Where will you be putting that first dollar from your next paycheck? If it isn’t to YOU, you need to re-read this whole blog post! ;)

Your F.G.A. (Financial Guardian Angel),

[This post, I would rather play chicken with my bills than with my savings, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Hey money lovers!!! I just learned about an AWESOME website that helps you find unclaimed money that is owed to you! Maybe this is old news for some of you, but this is the first time I’d ever heard of it.

Searching last night I found more than four hundred dollars in missing funds and payments for some of my friends and family!!! (Sorry for all the exclamation marks, I’m just so excited about this!!! )

Here’s the main site — missingmoney.com — but first let me explain what it is and how it works…

Unclaimed Property a.k.a. Missing Money.

You know how sometimes when you close a bank account or switch service providers, there’s an unsettled positive balance left over in your account? Typically it’s a small credit, like a refund from overpayment, or pro rata interest that was never paid to you.

Anyway, when this happens, first the company will try to pay you the credit. They might send you an email or letter saying you have an unsettled positive balance, or maybe they’ll post you a small refund check.

Even if it’s only a tiny amount, like $0.16, legally it’s your money and the company is not allowed to just keep it.

Now, let’s say the bank or company has reached out to you multiple times over the years and cannot get a hold of you for whatever reason. Or maybe the refund check is so small that you throw it away or never cash it … at this point the money will be transferred to the government and held as “unclaimed property.”

Apparently 1 in 10 people have money owed to them!!! These missing money amounts, although mostly small, add up to an INSANE amount of money each year. Like, billions and billions of dollars in total.

Each U.S. state maintains its own ledger of outstanding credits owed to citizens and has a treasury department website set up for you to find money and claim it! You just search your name in the database, and submit a claim. So easy! You can money owed to you that you never even knew about.

How to Find YOUR Missing Money

The best way is to search within your specific state website. Here’s a list of all the sites — just click your state and search your name.

AL – AK – AZ – AR – CA – CO – CT – DE – DC – FL – GA – HI – ID – IL – IN – IA – KS – KY – LA – ME – MD – MA – MI – MN – MS – MO – MT – NE – NV – NH – NJ – NM – NY – NC – ND – OH – OK – OR – PR – PA – RI – SC – SD – TN – TX – UT – VT – VA – WA – WV – WI – WY  (Canada, see here)

It’s important to search within each state you have ever lived in or had service in. You might have outstanding credits from decades ago when you lived somewhere else. There is a way to search multiple states at the same time — missingmoney.com — BUT, not all states participate in the group search results, so I recommend searching individually on the specific state treasury websites above.

Once you’ve finished searching your name, try your friends, siblings, parents, neighbors, or anyone you know! Like I mentioned, I found about $400 in payments owed to my neighbors and siblings, who are in the process of reclaiming it. Now they owe me beers for finding them money they didn’t even know existed!

How Does Money Go Missing in the First Place?

You might be thinking that you’re fully on top of your finances and that there’s no way you’d have an outstanding credit you don’t know about… But, you’d be surprised how many ways people can have credits owed to them. 

Here are some common ones:

• You switch TV, Internet, phone, electricity or utility providers and move to another address. If there’s an outstanding credit on the old account and they don’t know how to contact you, they transfer the money to the state. (These companies don’t try very hard to find you, especially if it’s only a few dollars.)
• If you close a bank account, credit card, brokerage account, etc. and there’s a positive balance that is never paid out, you have money owed to you.
• You buy or sell a house, and the escrow company finds an excess pro-rata payment from tax/interest/mortgage or whatever that needs to be refunded. They might accidentally send the refund check to the wrong or old address and it never gets cashed.
• A company sends you a refund check that you never cash, or it gets lost. They may transfer that money to the state to get it off of their books.
• A relative dies and the state doesn’t know who to give property or funds to.
• You pay a security deposit for something, the money is held in escrow and when it comes time to pay you back, your bank info has changed. If you never notice the missing money, the escrow people may just transfer it to the state.
• You cut ties with a bank and forget to empty your safety deposit box… The contents are transferred to and held by the state.

It’s completely free to search for and claim your lost property. Technically, the state treasury department is just acting as a custodian over your money until you claim it.

There’s Sooooo Much Missing Money Out There!!

Most payment amounts are small, but they all add up! Here are some fun facts I found looking at some of these state websites…

– In Connecticut, 13 people have more than $500,000 of unclaimed money! Actually, it looks like 10,000 people have more than $10,000 in unclaimed funds. WOW.

If you know anyone in Connecticut, forward this email or post and help me find these lucky individuals! They are walking around with winning lottery tickets and don’t even know it.

– New York by far has the highest amount of missing money. It’s over $16 billion in unclaimed funds for the state, which if it was split up evenly across the 20 million residents, that’s about $800 per person.

– In Idaho, they’ve already paid out $1.2 million since Jan 1 of this year! Woohoo! But, that’s only scratching the surface of the $120+ million that the state is holding for people!

– The California state website is fun if you want to waste some time putting celebrity names into the search bar. Not sure why Al Pacino hasn’t claimed his $27.50 yet… I should text him and let him know! 

– If you live in Nevada and put $1 on the roulette table, your chances of winning are 1 in 37. But if you put your name into the NV lost property database instead (for free) your chances of finding owed money is probably like 1 in 10! Nevada is holding $830 million for past and current residents that probably don’t even know it!

– In Hawaii, instead of refunding residents in U.S. dollars, the state decided to pay everyone in the form of coconuts .  Just kidding, I made this up. But on a serious note, Hawaii is one of the smarter states… They implemented a rule starting in 2024 that any unclaimed funds less than $100 will become the property of the state if not claimed within 10 years. So for all y’all Hawaii peeps…. go claim your money asap!

Good luck, everyone! Let me know what you find!?

Have a great weekend and Happy Valentines Day this Sunday!

Love, Joel

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BTW – most of these state sites only require first name and last name to search. But if you’re filing a claim, you’ll obviously need more information to prove you are who you say you are. Needless to say, if you are submitting a claim, please be careful of any personal information you share over the Internet!! Make sure you’re following the state process and not posting to a fraudulent website or something that steals your identity.

[This post, 1 in 10 People in the U.S. Have Missing Money. Here’s How to Claim Yours., was first published by 5am Joel on Elite Edge Money]

I just learned about a cool new bank called HMBradley. It could be a great tool if you are currently building up an emergency fund, saving up a down payment for a house, OR, if you want to earn a decent interest rate on an existing pile of cash!

HMBradley offer a 3% interest rate on a regular checking account (increased to 3.5% if you carry/use their credit card also!). Pretty dang good in today’s climate where the average high yield savings account get’s you ~0.5%.

BUT, to qualify for the incentive, you gotta have at least a 20% savings rate.

First off, what I love most is that this is the first time I’ve seen a bank link their incentive program to a “savings rate,” which as you probably know, is one of the most important factors in calculating your time to financial independence!

Most of my friends (actually I’m guessing most people in the U.S.) still don’t know what a savings rate is! So it’s exciting to see financial institutions start using the same language us FIRE peeps use, and actually encouraging good personal finance practices. I hope other new fintech banks will start following suit, and continue spreading the

**By the way… I’m not getting compensated to write this HM Bradley review, or to recommend any HMBradley services. I’m just sharing cool info that I come across. In fact, I learned about this bank from a random guy I met surfing who works there!**

First, I’ll explain how the bank works and how the savings rate is calculated. Then I’ll talk about some good use case scenarios to take advantage of the 3% interest on your cash.

HMBradley Review

I spent some time on the HMB website (and I even signed up for an account to start playing around). The savings account has no monthly fees, no account minimum, and no min/max number of transactions. They don’t have separate “savings” and “checking” accounts… It’s all the same stuff just bundled into 1 single account.

Here’s the fee schedule from their user agreement: 

Couple other things to note:

• All accounts are FDIC insured, so it’s a legit bank. There’s no risk storing money there (up to $250k)
• You get a debit card, and can do digital transfers, but there are no physical checkbooks or checks available.
• They have a mobile app, which seems easy to use and you can manage all your stuff from the app.
• I was easily able to link them to my Mint.com account for translation tracking. I assume it’s available for Personal Capital too!

Savings Tier and Interest Rate %

First, you can set up a direct deposit to have your work paycheck deposited there. (If you are self employed, or have other income sources, that seems OK too, as long as you flag these transactions as income deposits with customer service.) You gotta have at least 1 direct deposit per month.

The bank adds up all your monthly deposits, then minuses all the withdrawals. The leftover figure is used to determine your overall savings tier, based on the rate you are saving at. This analysis is done on a quarterly basis, and the interest rate you qualify for is applied to the following quarter.

Here are the interest rate tiers, which apply to the entire account balance:

(full details here on the bank website)

Saving 20% of income gets you earning 3% interest. Saving 15% gets you 2%, etc. etc… 

So for example: Someone depositing $5,000 per month, then withdrawing $4,000 per month, would qualify for Savings Tier 1 (3%APY) based on saving 20% of their income. Woohoo!

It’s important to understand though, that the bank only sees the money coming in/out of this specific account – not your overall financial profile. So they don’t take into account taxes, pre-tax paycheck withdrawals, or other earnings/spending outside of this bank account. The savings tier is solely determined on the transactions it processes. 

This is a smart move by HMBradley, because it means the account has to keep growing and growing in size. (But, it also gives room for a loophole, which I’ll explain more below in use case #3 below!)

Saving Rate vs. Investing Rate

In the FIRE world when we talk about our savings rate, we are really referring to our investment rate . Any money we “save” each month, we usually transfer right away to our investment accounts, putting the money to work for us immediately. Our savings are rarely kept all in cash if we already have a full emergency fund.

So in the case that someone invests all of their saved money, HMBradley would see an equal amount of incoming deposits as outgoing withdrawals. The system would assess this as 0% savings, because there’s no *new* money leftover in the account each month.

BUT, there are a couple of scenarios where people are building up their cash pile, and in these situations HMB could be a great account. Here are the use cases I can see being a good fit:

Use Case #1: Someone Building an Emergency Fund

Whether you’re starting a new emergency fund, or growing an existing one, HMB could be a great option instead of a regular savings account. As long as you’re planning to keep the savings in cash, you may as well try to earn as much interest as possible.

Earning 3% is rare for a checking account! Most of the big banks and money market accounts right now offer less than 1%.

As a comparison, here’s a list of “highest APY interest accounts” I found on Bankrate (as of Nov 2020). There are other outliers out there that pay a higher interest rate, but most cap the amount you can save.**

If you have your paycheck deposited into an account at HMBradley, and only withdraw 80% of the funds, you’ll qualify for earning 3% interest on the entire account balance. As you keep saving and saving, you can rest knowing your money is earning a great interest rate while saving up your emergency fund.

**Earlier this year I opened an account with Chime. These guys right now offer 1% interest on savings accounts with no hoops to jump through, and no annual fee. This was part of my churning bank accounts, and my wife and I both got $50 signup bonuses.**

Use Case #2: Someone Saving for a Down Payment on a House

One of the biggest mistakes I made when saving up for my rental property was just using a regular checking account to store my cash pile. I saved about $60k, and it took me 7 years to accumulate.

During this 7 year period, I made a total of $0 in bonus interest. In fact, my money was losing value due to inflation each year!

Instead, if I had the option to earn 3% interest on my savings (provided I qualified for the rate), my $60k in savings over the years could have earned an additional ~$5,000 in interest! Oh, how I’d love an extra 5k right now .

Remember checking/savings accounts are federally insured, so there’s no risk you’ll lose your savings contributions. This is one of the reasons people prefer to save housing down payments in cash vs. investing in the stock market for a short term.

**The 3% interest is available on amounts up to $100,000 at this bank. So if you’re saving more than that for your house downpayment, you gotta work something else out :)**

Use Case #3: Earn 3% on Your Existing Cash (Using an Artificial Savings Rate)

As some of you know from my last net worth report, I have about $40k sitting in cash right now, which is our emergency fund. I’m earning next to 0% interest on this money (well, that’s not entirely true because I’m using it for churning bank accounts, but if the money did just sit there it would be earning 0%).

Unfortunately, my wife and I don’t have a 20% after tax savings rate currently. So transferring this $40k over to HMBradley wouldn’t do me much good because I wouldn’t qualify for even their lowest tier incentive.

But here’s where the loophole could help… Since HMBradly only looks at the incoming deposits and outgoing withdrawals from their accounts only, I could create my own savings rate. I would do this by using my regular bank for all my usual transactions just like I do today, and only deposit or withdraw money to the new HMBradley account that meets the savings rate qualifications.

For example: Let’s say I asked my work payroll to divide my paycheck up into 2 separate deposits, sending $100 every month to HMBradley, and the remainder to my regular bank as usual. Then, let’s say I just left the new account untouched, making no withdrawals…

The system would see $100 in deposits, $0 in withdrawals, and treat this as a 100% savings rate. I could leave this set up for years, and the account would just grow slowly staying at the highest 3% interest rate tier.

Since they give 3% interest *on your entire account balance*, as long as I have my $40k sitting there from the get go, I would earn a 3% return going forward. That’s over $1,200 in interest I’d be earning a year, vs. the $0 I get now.

Actually, this trick could be used with the other 2 use cases if you don’t qualify for the highest tier. Just treat the account like a 1-way street. Only direct deposit small amounts of money in and never take any out.

I realize the bank probably didn’t create the account to be used this way, but there’s nothing that prevents it. And, if I took this route I wouldn’t feel too bad, knowing that HMBradley is probably lending my money out somewhere and making a higher return for themselves!

One last note: HMBank also offers a credit card – only for existing clients. Using the HMBradly credit card adds another 0.5% onto your checking account earnings. So potentially, you can earn 3.5% APY total! But, they use your total monthly deposits to determine your credit card approval (as well as your credit score obviously), so if you’re using the smaller deposits trick you might not get approved.

The HMBradly credit card has a $60 annual fee (waived for the first year) and you have to use it for at least $100 of spending each month to qualify for the higher rate.

Final Thoughts on HMBradley

I’m excited about the traditional banking industry getting shaken up by new fintech companies. It seems that new banks like HMBradley are offering better and better incentives for savers, as well as making things quicker and easier to use.

While this bank might not suit everyone’s situation, you can’t deny that earning 3% interest on a checking account is hard to beat! And the fact that they’re helping people better understand savings rates and encourage improvement … I’m a fan .

What cool new banks and fintech offerings are you coming across?

[This post, HM Bradley: A 3% Interest Checking Account Based on your Savings Rate, was first published by 5am Joel on Elite Edge Money]

One of my 2020 goals was to start taking advantage of cash bonus rewards via new bank account signup promotions. This is similar to “travel hacking” or “credit card churning,” except the bonuses are paid in all cash, and there’s no credit applications involved.

I’m by no means an expert in this type of stuff, but I’ve done a pretty decent job so far this year and made $2,200 for a pretty small amount of work. This post details my process and experiences.

Churning bank accounts isn’t a good idea for everyone… So I want to be cautious about promoting activities that might lead to account fees or banking issues. (There are no referral links to banks or affiliate promotions in this post). Everything I write should be taken with a grain of salt!

YTD Summary & Bonus Results:

Since January, my wife and I have opened up 9 new bank accounts. That might sound like a lot! But spread throughout the year, across 2 people, it’s been pretty easy to track and manage it all.

We’ve earned $2,200 CASH in sign up bonuses. This money was credited to our various accounts after completing easy welcome offer terms. None of this $ is from referral credits — which could earn us more rewards, but referrals was never our main focus.

Here’s the accounts we opened and bonuses we received:

Unlike a credit card company, none of these banks charged an annual fee for opening an account. So this $2,200 only cost me time to set up and manage. If I had to estimate, it probably took 10-20 hours throughout the year to open these accounts, set up transfers, and close whatever I didn’t want to keep open.

Getting Started Churning Bank Accounts:

During my sabbatical, I kept a larger than usual amount of cash in an emergency fund. One of the downsides of holding cash is that the money isn’t invested or growing wealth — most cash just sits in a simple savings account, earning peanuts.

So I started researching different banks that could offer me a slightly higher interest rate, as well as a nice signup bonus or welcome offer to join them. I set aside $20,000 of my emergency fund to start opening accounts but later realized I could do most of these activities with less than $10,000.

What I like about churning bank accounts is there is no hard pull on your credit report*, and every checking and savings account is FDIC insured. Moving money around between established financial institutions is virtually a risk free activity. If I ever needed to pull the cash out, I could do it anytime at no cost.

*Just as a precaution, I monitored my credit score each week throughout the entire year. I started 2020 with an 816 credit score, and today it’s 814. Opening checking accounts doesn’t have the same effect on your credit history as opening multiple credit cards or new lines of credit.

Finding Welcome Bonus Promotions:

To find which banks are offering the best and highest signup bonuses, I used this site: Doctor Of Credit. They constantly refresh the current promotions list and available offers across the country.

Also there’s a TON of information on the site, including user feedback and experiences that help avoid scams, fees and bad deals.

Some things to note about bank account bonuses:

• Not every bank or offer is available in every US state.
• Each offer has different and unique qualifying activities. (The most common ones are explained below)
• Each bank has a different set of terms and conditions for opening, closing accounts, and minimum balances to avoid a monthly fee.
• These offers are mostly for NEW customers. So if you’re already with a particular bank, or recently received a bank bonus, you may need to wait a year or two before qualifying for another bonus with that same bank.

Needless to say, there’s a decent amount of research and fine print to read. For my first few accounts, I chose banks with promotions I could easily qualify for, had the best reviews, and ones that had physical bank branches near to where I live.

Meeting Criteria for a Welcome Bonus Offer:

The two most common ways a signup bonus is achieved is with qualifying direct deposits, or a minimum account balance held for a specific time period (typically 60 to 90 days).

For example, the Wells Fargo promotion I signed up for required a minimum of $3,000 in direct deposit activity, each month for two months in a row. That’s a total of $6,000 across multiple deposits. After this activity was done, they posted a $400 checking bonus.

For the CitiBank promotion, this required a minimum of $15,000 cash deposited and left in the account for a 60 day period. After that time period, they applied a $400 account bonus. Easy stuff.

Note: Each bank has a different definition for “qualifying direct deposit.” Changing your employer payroll is one option (the banks prefer this), but it’s not always the most convenient. In my case, since I was a freelance contractor this whole year, I just set up ACH transfers from myself to myself. This site here has a great list of which methods qualify as a direct deposit for each bank or credit union.

Account Tracking Systems and Reminders!

Signing up online for accounts is pretty easy, but what’s hard is remembering all of the unique promotion details, qualifying activities, user IDs and passwords for each bank. There are a few tools I recommend to help stay organized. 

• Excel or Google Sheets: I use a simple spreadsheet to track all the bank names, dates, bonus amounts, etc.  
• Word or Google Docs: I created a simple document to journal anything new I learned, make a note of recurring transfers I set up, and special T&C’s I need to remember.
• Mint.com: After each new account opening, I immediately connected the new bank user-id and password to my Mint.com account. Makes for easy tracking of transactions and net worth updates! (Some people prefer Personal Capital)
• Calendar Reminders: For the accounts I want to close or money to withdraw in the future, I set calendar reminders so I don’t forget stuff.

Things can get messy really quickly. So if you’re not great at record keeping, perhaps churning isn’t a good fit for you. Or, try maybe signing up for just 1 new checking account bonus at a time.

Overall Churning Experience and Is It Worth It?

Since I have the time, cash, and a personal interest in nerdy finance stuff, making extra bonus money is fun for me. For just a few hours each month I can make an extra few thousand dollars each year.

I’m pleasantly surprised at how easy it all was and plan to keep taking advantage of promotions as they come up.

Another cool thing about joining all these banks… I got to evaluate each of their processes and systems to see if they were worthy of me switching all my primary accounts over to them. I’ve been with Chase for about 10 years so it was good to shop around a little bit. I found some impressive things here and there but none of them really blew me away enough to make them my primary bank.

Have you tried churning bank accounts like this? Any killer stories to share?

[This post, Churning Bank Accounts for Cash Bonus Rewards, was first published by 5am Joel on Elite Edge Money]

Morning!

Lots of talk lately about stores going completely cashless, and wondering where you stand on this? Are you a big cash and coin lover like me, or do you say good riddance to it all?!

Here are some of the major pros and cons that are making businesses think twice:

Pros to abolishing cash:

• It’s more convenient for everyone
• It’s faster to process transactions (1-2 seconds vs 6-7 using cash (or 6-7 minutes using check – hah!)
• It’s safer, so long as it doesn’t get hacked
• It supposedly lowers crime and theft as there’s no tangible money to steal

But the CONS?

• You don’t have squat if technology breaks (you need electricity at all times, an open communication network at all times, and most importantly – security at all times)
• People can steal your info and money just the same electronically as they can physically (and much more of it in one swoop!)
• Not everyone uses or has access to credit cards/apps/bank accounts, particularly the underserved
• And then perhaps the biggest issue of all for us finance people – most people tend to SPEND MORE using plastic/apps than cold hard cash! Great for the economy, not so much the average person!

My friend Joe recently summed it up nicely on that last one:

We live in WA State.  I recently heard on the radio that our local stadium is going cashless!  This got me thinking about how our society is clandestinely separating us from our hard-earned money.  At what, like $10 or $12 for a beer, a lack of physical cash leaving your wallet can be a scary thing!  And not actually having empty pockets to indicate you’re cut off, no more beer??  Just whip out that card!  Scary.

Yup – it is scary.

Now obviously most people are ALREADY using their cards and apps and such this way so it won’t be much different for them if stores go through with this, but there’s still a slew of people who prefer (and budget) using a cash system – not to mention all the wee little kids who learn about money using coins and dollars and such! Sure they can still learn through modern technology, but there’s still something to be said about holding (and smelling!) cold hard cash.

Shouldn’t we at least have THE OPTION to continue using it if we want?

My curmudgeonly two cents on it, anyways…

How do you feel about this coming trend? Have you already stopped using cash? Have you shopped at any of these stores doing this already, like the physical Amazon ones?

I don’t think I’ll have any real say in what businesses choose to do or not do over time, but my hope is that whatever route they go they at least think hard about the inclusiveness of it all. Most of us will cope just fine as it’s mainly a personal preference, but there’s a whole slew of others out there who don’t have a choice in the matter.

Here’s just a few of the top articles that come up when you Google the side effects of this:

• A cashless society is dangerously disruptive for the poor, elderly, and homeless – Quartz
• How the Cashless Economy Shuts Out the Poor – NY Times
• Millions would be put at risk in a cashless society, research warns – CNBC

How fortunate are we that we don’t even have to worry about this!

*****
Cool pic up top by @thefreak1337

[This post, Are you cool with stores going cashless?!, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Morning, friends!!

I’m packing up for our yearly financial blogging conference this morning (FinCon – will you be there??), and every time I reach for my suitcase I’m reminded just how nice it is to be a minimalist :)

The old me used to spend hours trying to figure out what to bring and what not to bring (because you need to prepare for ALL the possibilities and feelings and weather of course!), but these days I literally just walk into my closet, pick up everything on my shelves/racks, and then literally just dump them all into the suitcase and I’m done.

BOOM!

Because the only clothes I have left are the ones I love and use every single day! And when you narrow it down to the essentials it magically takes up much less space – even allowing for all your hair accessories so you can still rock your fully quaffed ‘hawk ;)

But I tell you all this not to brag or steal from the fashion bloggers out there (okay, maybe I want to brag a little bit – but only because my wife is tired of hearing about it!!), but I share because this simplicity can improve the effectiveness of so many other areas in our lives too – particularly finances.

• What do you think is easier to maintain: 8 checking accounts or 1?
• How about credit cards? Would you rather keep track of 8 or 2?
• 37 investment funds or 3 investment funds?
• 4 brokerage accounts spread out everywhere or condensed into 1?

So many areas where the sheer number of accounts alone can cause you to give up!

I’ve talked about this before, but one of the biggest moves I’ve made in my finances over the years is simplifying them all down to as little accounts needed as possible. I can tell you where every last dollar of mine is snuggling, and in the off chance something happens to me one day my wife and other family members will easily be able to find it too.

• I have one credit card for our family
• One checking account for our family
• One savings account for our family
• One main place where all my retirement money is (Vanguard)
• One main place where all our insurances are (USAA – which also houses all our banking accounts)
• And then one main place where all my biz $$ is (Capital One – only because USAA still refuses to offer business accounts!! I raise my fist at you, sirs!!)

In other words, I basically have one main account for anything needed, which is typically housed under one main financial institution for even greater efficiency!

I don’t reap as many rewards and bonuses as others do (no fancy cash back or free miles to travel the world), but the peace of mind and ease of use is more than enough reward to keep me happy, and even more so – SANE.

The same mentality goes for general *life goals* too. I read somewhere once that the average person can truly only work towards one main goal at a time effectively, and anytime you start throwing on extras the odds of failing in *ALL* of them increase dramatically. Which still doesn’t stop any of us from trying because we’re wired to go for ALL THE THINGS!, but something still to be cautious of at least, especially if you’re not happy with the progress you’re currently making (or not making). Provided of course whatever I read back then was *right*, and you never do really know since I did read it off the internets ;)

Another known fact (this time from ME, so you know it’s accurate – hah!), is that it only takes ONE thing to become a millionaire over our lifetime too!

You can do more to speed it up and get there even faster, but if you literally just did one of these things year in and year out there’s no way for you NOT to amplify that wealth enough to hit the double comma club… Even if that club won’t be as exclusive as it is now with inflation and yada yada yada…

Those “things”?

1. Maxing out your ROTH IRA every year ($6,000)
2. Maxing out your 401(k)/TSP/403(b) every year ($19,000)
3. Paying off your entire mortgage and saving all future payments ($100,000? $300,000? $500,000??)
4. Saving 50% of your income over your lifetime (assuming you work most of your life)
5. And then of course, winning the lottery… you’re surest bet ;)

Now some of these are a lot harder to hit than others of course, looking a you #4!, but the fact of the matter is any of these will snowball that wealth to glorious heights and it’s not that complicated in the least. It’s when you start getting crazy and trying to cut corners that often lands people in trouble!

And even if you can only hit these goals *some* of the years and not every one, it’ll still amplify your finances enough to keep you motivated! Especially when you see all that compounding at work! Because once that money’s *invested* it keeps compounding and compounding and then the compounded monies start compounding making even more compounded babies! It’s a compounding orgy!! (Am I allowed to say that now, Motley Fool??)

You ever hear of the magical penny? It’s like that, only with a little toned down rate of return ;) Here’s what a penny adds up to after doubling for only 31 days…

Isn’t that insane??? $10 MILLION DOLLARS after only 31 days of doubling?? I couldn’t believe it until I saw it, so I had to make my own spreadsheet (above) to really prove its accuracy.
And yup! It sure is accurate!

So all this to say that it doesn’t take a complicated plan to hit your financial goals. And in fact, the more you can simplify it the easier it just may become as you get rid of all the extra noise and can clearly see the picture before you! We’ll all hit our numbers on our own pace, but the path to get there has been relatively the same for thousands of years.

Spend less than you earn, save/invest the rest, let it compound and never touch it.

You stick to that and there’s no way you fail.

For further reading on some of these concepts:

• 8 Ways to More Minimalist Money
• Where All My Bank Accounts Are
• The Power of Doing Just *ONE* Thing
• How 1 Penny Doubling Every Day Turns Into $10 Million by Day #31.

If you’ll be at FinCon this week make sure to come find me!!!

And for everyone staying behind, we’ll still be serving up some juicy articles here, so it’ll be a party wherever you are ;) And I’ll even give you a sneak peek of what’s to come:

• Tomorrow: how a friend became more frugal after having acne!
• Friday: how my friend’s ex-fiancé spent all their rent money on weed (!!!)
• Monday or Tuesday, depending on how much I party do “work” this week: the net worth report that may or may not go over a million dollars…

Fun days ahead – not gonna wanna miss them ;)

[This post, The Beauty of Simplicity, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Morning!

My boy James Clear just came out with a clever new newsletter, and I thought I’d be a bit cheeky today and copy it for a fun little blog post ;)

Here’s the idea behind his latest endeavor:

“Every Thursday, I send out my “3-2-1” newsletter with 3 ideas from me, 2 quotes from others, and 1 question for you. The goal of each 3-2-1 email is to share the most wisdom per word of any newsletter on the web.”

Now I can’t say my post here will contain the most wisdom per word on the web, haha, but let’s try it out and see what happens ;)

3 Ideas From Me

I. $1,000 checking account buffer. Melanie Lockert (DearDebt.com / Lola Retreat) recently asked how much people recommend keeping in their checking accounts, and my answer to that was a flat $1,000. Enough to shield you from stupid little mistakes that inevitably pop up, but not so much where it’s impossible to start or keep topped off! It also doubles as an excellent mini emergency fund and helps you sleep a little better at night. (Just make sure you’re not someone who spends everything they see! Otherwise chop off one of the zeros and go for $100 to protect yourself from yourself )

II. $20 monthly donations to places you care about. I’ve talked about this one before, but I just added the 6th organization to my list of donations and I can’t tell you how EMPOWERING (and EASY!) it’s been since implementing this idea! I tend to be good at donating and raising money when it’s a *project* I’m working on (see: Love Drop and The Community Fund), but it’s always been a personal struggle doing it consistently in my offline world until recently when I realized *automation* is just as powerful here as it is in the other areas of finance. And now just a short while later we’re up to $160/mo and getting closer to my ultimate goal of 100 organizations to give to! Woo!

III. Calculate your Lifetime Wealth Ratio (LWR). Ever wondered how much you have left out of all the income you’ve earned over your lifetime?? Get a quick reality check by dividing your net worth by the total income earned that the Social Security Administration has for you (or your own records if you’re a super nerd!), and that will give you the ratio you’ve kept. Anything from 0%-10% is suboptimal, and anything 50%+ is sublime. It’s not an exact science by any means, but it sure does put things in perspective faster! Then use it to fuel your motivation.

*******

2 Quotes From Others

I. From Sophia Amoruso, author of #GIRLBOSS and one of the richest self-made women in the world:

“Treat your savings account like just another bill. It has to be paid every month or there are consequences.”

II. From Mookie Wilson, former Major League Baseball outfielder and coach remembered as the Met who hit the ground ball that rolled through Bill Buckner’s legs in the bottom of the 10th inning of game six of the 1986 World Series:

*******

1 Question For You

This weekend we’ll be wrapping up an old month and moving into a new one.

What’s the ONE thing you can do this next month, that by doing so makes your finances exponentially better? Or less stressful?

There’s a great book that deep dives into this if you need some help zeroing in – “The ONE Thing” – but try your best to really think about it as 20% of the things you do usually make for 80% of your success.

Good luck, everyone! Make those dinosaurs proud!! ;)

******
To learn more or sign up to James’ new newsletter as I just did, click here.

[This post, 3 ideas, 2 quotes, 1 question, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Caught this stat the other day and thought I’d get your opinion of it ;)

58% of Millennials would consider banking with Amazon, Facebook or Google
if these tech giants enter the banking space

HAH! Could you imagine??

As if they needed any more of our money (or time)!!

But I missed the cut off of being a millennial and don’t even have a personal Facebook account anymore, so what does this Old fogy know….

I polled my twitter audience for better perspective and their responses did not disappoint ;) (And you can tell they’re millennials because of their epic gif game!)

Haha… that Free Prime idea probably would sway a few folks ;)

But as another (older) commenter pointed out, there’s no way these behemoths would even want to get into the business of banking and subject themselves to tougher financial regulations and more government scrutiny…

So probably not happening anytime soon, oh well!

Still, fun to think of/poke fun at ;)

Here were some other stats from the polling done by financial technology platform, Marqeta.com:

“Only 1-in-6 Millennials said they couldn’t imagine ever wanting to change from their current bank.”

Yup, same here! Over a decade banking with USAA and very much loving having all my accounts under one roof… I’m over the days of rate chasing…

UPDATE: I think I read that stat wrong, haha… It looks like it’s actually the *opposite* and people have no problems cheating on their banks! ;)

“48% of Millennials said they’d consider moving to an independent digital-only bank.”

I can see that… And there are some good digital banks out there right now (Simple Bank, Chime, etc), though not sure what they mean exactly by “independent”?

“More than half of Millennials (52%) said they were comfortable using TouchID and FaceID to authorize mobile wallet payments — almost double the number of Baby Boomers (29%) who said the same.”

Totally. Seems much better security wise than the usual routes to me! Though admittedly I’ve never tried them or even looked into them before, haha…. You guys?

“More than twice as many Millennials (57%) than Baby Boomers (27%) said that they have used peer-to-peer banking apps like Square Cash or Venmo.”

I hear Venmo is all the rage, but I still stick to my old school Paypal account… And they’re basically the same company anyways, just targeted differently.

“Millennials (49%) were twice as likely as Baby Boomers (20%) to pay someone back using a peer-to-peer banking app than a physical currency like cash or check.”

Haha yup… Paying people back in checks is super annoying, but not even for the hassle of writing them out, but for the *waiting* of them to actually be cashed! It’s the worst waiting and waiting and then eventually forgetting until the day it randomly shows up on your account and you pray you have enough funds to cover it! Though I don’t mind an ounce receiving checks in the least, haha…  I’ll take money however it comes! ;)

Anyways, not sure what the point of this is today, but I am curious to hear your thoughts if any of these guys ever DO one day get into the banking business and cause a stir…

Would you ever open an account with Amazon or Google or Facebook? If you had to choose one, which would you go for?

(I’d prob go with Google, just because I’m over Facebook and we already give plenty of our money to Amazon as it is, haha…)

None of them made Forbes’ list of “World’s Best Banks” we shared last week, but you never know – it could be a reality one day!! Technology is creeping into our lives more and more, and it’s good to know where your boundaries lie.

*****
// Google pic by lalo Hernandez

[This post, Would you ever bank with Amazon, Facebook or Google?, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Guess who landed the #1 slot on the new “World’s Best Banks” list??

Oh – it’s USAA! Heyo!!!

And that’s just not my opinion as it always is, but this time that of a new survey that just dropped by Forbes after interviewing over 40,000 people around the globe.

Here’s the background on it:

Instead of gauging the balance sheets and P&L statements, as Forbes does for its ranking of the 100 largest publicly-traded U.S. banks published annually in January, Statista surveyed more than 40,000 customers around the globe for their opinions on their current and former banking relationships.

Banks were rated on general satisfaction and key attributes like trust, fees, digital services and financial advice.

So a more “Peoples Choice” feel here than statistics, which it SHOULD be these days because people are supposed to always come first! Making me even happier to see USAA on top of the list since their service to their members is legendary…

Here’s what they specifically said about them in their analyzation of the report:

USAA was the highest-rated bank in the U.S. The bank is open to members of the U.S. military and their families and has more than 12 million members. It scored highly on trust, financial advice and terms and conditions.

Yup! And why I’ve been a proud member for over 20 years now! Thanks Daddy-o!

But enough gushing….

Here are the top bank lists from the US, Canada, and United Kingdom who make up a bulk of the readers of this blog… With a little action from Indonesia thrown in, in hopes of wooing them to read more and improve their rank of 20th place here! ;)

The Best Banks in the U.S.:

A total of 60 were listed, but here’s the top 10:

1. USAA
2. Bell Bank
3. S&T Bank
4. Liberty Bank
5. United Community Banks
6. Fulton Bank
7. WesBanco
8. Discover Bank
9. Rockland Trust
10. Eastern Bank

Not surprisingly, you don’t see any of the Big Four on there! (Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup) In fact, two of the four didn’t even place in the top 60, and the other two who did (Chase and Citigroup) came in at 37th and 51st respectively.

I actually don’t recognize any of those banks up there except for USAA and Discover Bank, which probably means a lot of the littler regional ones are getting some good play!! So good on y’all!

The Best Banks in Canada:

There was only a total of 5 banks listed here for some reason (maybe they blew the others out of the water?!), but here they are in the order ranked:

1. ATB Financial
2. Tangerine
3. Simplii Financial
4. Desjardins
5. RBC

Tangerine used to be alllll over the blog scene back in the day, and you could hardly even read an article without a Canadian $$$ blogger mentioning them! So glad to see they’re still making people happy!

The Best Banks in The United Kingdom:

Here are the top 10 out of the top 15 that made the list:

1. Starling Bank
2. Monzo
3. Nationwide Building Society
4. First Direct
5. Virgin Money
6. M&S Bank
7. Sainsburys Bank Plc
8. The co-operative bank
9. Clydesdale Bank
10. Tesco Bank

Don’t know any here except for that Virgin brand (hubba hubba), but interestingly I did notice a majority from the next five that rounded out the list (Halifax, Barclays, Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland). They used to advertise across a lot of $$$ blogs :)

The Best Banks in Indonesia!

The top 5 out of 10:

1. Bank Central Asia
2. PT Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Nasional (BTPN)
3. HSBC
4. Bank Negara Indonesia
5. Bank Mandiri

That last one sounds like a tropical drink, doesn’t it? :)

To see the full lists of all 23 countries polled, click here: The World’s Best Banks 2019 (use the drop down on the left to select your country) And then to see the write up and analyzation of the lists, go here: The World’s Best Banks: ING And Citibank Lead The Way

ING bank ended up ranking highest across the world with 8 “top” appearances out of the 23 countries, who was then closely followed by Citibank who made 6 placements, though again not highly listed in the U.S. or even Canada or the United Kingdom. In third place came mobile bank N26 who landed on 5 top slots without even operating any physical branches! (Their free worldwide ATM withdrawals and fee-free currency conversions sealed the deal for them!)

So there you have it! The world’s best banks according to Forbes!

What do you think? Did your bank make the list? Have you tried any of these and later ended up regretting it?? Where all my Indonesians at?! ;)

Speak your mind now or forever hold your peace(ful checking account)!

*****
For more “top lists”, see The Best Banks and Financial Products of 2019 that we shared in January covering banking too, but also financial apps, credit cards, credit unions, brokerage accounts, and more.

[This post, The World’s Best Banks According to Forbes, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Had to laugh at this recent comment on our Stamp Hustling post:

“It’s easier to hit a high savings rate when you’re underwater for 90-day patrols.”

Haha… It came from our retired submariner friend, Nords, who RACKED UP the money while out on deployments, and yet it highlights a pretty simple – but obvious! – point:

If you don’t have a way to spend your money, you can’t spend it!

Yet look at all the ways we make it SO EASY to get rid of our cash these days!

• Keeping 13 credit cards in our wallets
• Keeping a smartphone with access to every single store in the world on it
• Keeping c/c info automatically saved at these same stores
• Using Bank apps that give us access to our cash 24/7
• LOGGING ONTO AMAZON EVERY DAY!!!!

In fact, it’s so easy right now that you can even order a small robot in your house named “Alexa” to go buy it for you without having to bother yourself again. Or I should say – so your 6 y/o won’t ever have to bother himself again, if he was the first in your family to figure out this trick too (!!!).

Of course, the alternative of going off the grid wouldn’t make your life that much better either, so it’s always a fine balance between keeping the convenience of what technology offers these days, but with enough barriers to prevent yourself from spending off a cliff.

That is, at least if you’re the average consumer out there and not a reader of this blog ;)

Still, we could always use as many tips as we can get, and while I’m still trying to find all my own leaks to plug up here, here are a few I’ve either tried myself or have heard over the years that seem to bring people success. Maybe you have some to add to the list?

1. Keep your savings at a separate bank miles away – and don’t sign up for online access. If there’s anything more annoying than spending too much, it’s having to go out of your way to get your own money in the first place! ;)
2. Unlink all your bank info online (and your phone!) – to force you to think for a few moments before typing it all back in.
3. Make all your passwords gobbelygook! To make the above even more annoying! [UPDATE: I don’t mean to *literally* make your passwords “gobbelygook”, I mean to make them all random #’s and letters so there’s no way you’ll memorize them for easy logging in ;)]
4. Delete all shopping apps from your phone
5. Only carry the amount of cash on you that you’ll need for that day’s expenses
6. Cut up all your credit cards or hand them to a friend – who you trust ;)
7. FREEZE your credit cards and use the thawing time to reflect on impending purchases
8. And my latest favorite –> Never bring your phone to bed! Or even in the same room! Which I learned the hard way last night* as I got sucked into Ebay and dropped $50 in a fit of late-night excitement (despite my wife’s warnings that she “saw it in my eyes!”)

And there’s probably a million other barriers you can put in place too, depending on your level of need and comfort ;)

What’s important, though, is that you’re always experimenting and looking for those epiphanies! As you never know what stupid little hack will end up changing your life! Haha…

Did I tell you I started brushing my teeth at 8pm every night now? I randomly did it a year or so ago after brushing my kids’ before they went to bed, and then I found out how well it prevented me from snacking and drinking beers into all hours of the night! Because who wants to brush their teeth twice?!

So I’m telling you, you never know… Just gotta keep dabbling!

———
*In my defense of that Ebay splurge, I did just come across a small windfall after selling an old domain name last week ($1,250 – score!!) which I allotted a portion to “guilt-free” spending… Though I swear, no matter how hard I try I have yet to fully rid myself of that nasty feeling! Why is that?!

[This post, Hack #1308: Put yourself in situations where you can’t even spend if you wanted to!, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]