Geezeo joins the ranks of Mint.com, NetworthIQ.com, and Wesabe.com as a social personal finance site. The USP (unique selling point) of the site is their mobile accessibility.
It works like this:
Henry’s walking down the street. He stops and wonders if he’s got enough for a Big Mac. He sends a text message to the ether and waits. Moments later a text message comes back with all of my account balances that he setup at the website. Welp. Looks like Henry will have to go another day without food.
It’s targeting students or recent graduates for their service but anyone can use it. They target them because they’re more “connected”. It’s also US-only. Sorry Canada. They have compatibility with 6000+ institutions.
Here are a couple of improvements I would make:
Instead of texting the word “geezeo” to get current account balances, make it a common word that I can enter without switching to “abc” mode.
Instead of texting the word “geezeo update” to update my balances, it should already be updated when you retrieve your current account balances (see item 1). Why would anyone want non-updated information? Deprecate this.
Send a pie chart or graph or something via MMS if possible.
There are more things but here’s the one sentence summary: “Geezeo tracks your money automatically and there’s also discussion boards as well.”
Is it useful? Sure. Consistent awareness of your financial situation is very important for building wealth or getting out of debt.
Will I use it? Probably not. Calculating my net worth at the end of the month is good enough for me.
-h
PS - Sorry about the absence. I was doing pull-ups this entire time.
Fidelity offers Age-Based 529 investments. Just pick a year.
The best time to save for your children’s college tuition is when your child is born. A small investment now will help them cover their college costs in the future. Say you invest $10,000 when they’re born. Assuming a 12% annualized return, it will grow to about $80,000 by the time the kid’s 18 years old and ready for college. $10,000 investment to pay for $80,000 in school costs? Not a bad price to pay for college at all.
Watch out though: You don’t want a bear market to challenge your kid’s future. You’ll want to secure that fund as cash as the child gets older. Use an age-based 529 investment to save for college.
Age-Based 529 Plans automatically adjust from aggressive (mostly stock investments) to conservative (mostly bonds and cash) as the child comes closer to their project college years. All you have to do is pick a projected year and the fund will handle the rest. The downside is that you pay a bit more in management fees since it’s an actively managed funds. The upside is that you get to spend more of your time playing with your kid instead of balancing their investments.
The sooner you and your spouse can agree on where the family money goes, the better. The best time to figure out finances is before you’re married when both of your money is separate.
I’m getting married in November. The shared finances discussion has begun. It will continue for the next few months until we’ve covered all of the ground rules. These premarital financial discussions should minimize the fights while we’re married.
Buy books that are used. Most are in good condition. You’re buying the book for the words so don’t worry that the spine is a little bent or the pages are a bit folded. I just bought a $35 dollar book on Amazon.com for $15 bucks used.
Some people are irked by buying books used. They’re afraid that the previous owner had abused and neglected their book before putting it on the market. Rest assured: They’re nothing wrong with most used books. The previous owner is selling it because they need the money. Or they do what I do and buy books and then not read them.
A good practice when investing money in certificate of deposits (CDs) is to “ladder” your investment. You start out by purchasing several CDs with varying maturity dates, i.e., a one year CD, a two-year CD, and a three-year CD. As each CD matures, you would then reinvest the money into another 3-year CD. So every year for the next 6 years, one of your CDs will reach maturity. This practice will not only protect you against interest rate fluctuations, it will also give you the security of knowing that at least a portion of your investment will be available to you within a relatively short period of time.
The other day I was driving a familiar route (to the pub), and it dawned on me that I never make it through a certain light. If I’m driving the speed limit, I arrive at this light about 4 or 5 seconds after it turns red, so I’m always stuck there waiting for the majority of the red light. Instead of speeding 20 mph over the limit to make this light (and risking a ticket in the process), I decided to slow down and coast for a while (no, there wasn’t anybody behind me). My plan worked to perfection, and I reached the light just as it was turning green. It might not seem like much, but over a period of time, small actions like this can add up to save you a fair amount of money.
I think I read a study once that said stop-and-go driving can increase gas consumption by up to 33%. That means if gas costs $3.00 per gallon, you’re essentially paying $4.00 per gallon, as compared to an efficient driver. If you avoid quick stops and quick accelerations and try to drive at a steady pace, you can save a good deal of money without even trying.
This will probably come across as some lame geometry textbook problem, but I assure you this is a true story.
The other night, a friend and I ordered a pizza at the bar. We were pretty hungry and the pizza was cheap, so we ordered a 12″ round pizza for the two of us. (Pepperoni, sausage, green peppers, and onions, though the toppings are immaterial.) A little while later, the waitress came by with an 8″ round pizza, explaining that another waitress had mistakenly given our pizza to someone else. She said we could have this 8″ pizza now, and she’d have the cook throw another 8″ pizza in the oven for us. She claimed that we’d be getting more total pieces of pizza, so this was a good deal for us.
After doing some quick mental math (area of a circle = pi*radius². Two 8″ pizzas = 2*pi*(4)² = 32*pi square inches, One 12″ pizza = pi*(6)² = 36*pi square inches), I told her we’d be missing out on over 12 square inches of pizza, so we’d rather just have the one 12″ pizza. She complied, and as a nice bonus (probably because she was impressed by my quick geometry skills), she let us have the extra 8″ pizza anyways. Score one for geometry!
I know that math is used all of the time in personal finance situations - calculating per unit prices in the grocery store, figuring out payments on credit cards or mortgages, preparing your tax return, etc., but for some reason I was really proud of my quick math skills at the
bar that night. I think sometimes the simplest things can be the most rewarding.
Looks like I’m fielding the money question for this week. This week’s question is related to last week’s question regarding emergency fund accounts. A lot of people recommend a money market account for their emergency funds. The best rates for money market accounts are often found in online bank accounts.
Should interest rate be the only factor you should look for in an online bank account? This leads to the question:
What Do You Look For In An Online Bank Account?
I don’t use a physical bank. My main bank account is located online. I also use cash a lot of the time. In my particular case, it was important that I had an online bank that paid for my ATM fees. Checkwriting was a must for me as well.
I asked a couple of friends the same question of what they look for in online bank accounts and here’s what they said:
I don’t look for much in an online savings account overall. I have an ING Direct account that I’ve put about $150 in. It sits there earning decent interest, but not a lot. I have had this account for around 6 years now. At the start of the account, I had funded it with a severance pay from around the dot com bust, but I needed to draw down on the account over time.
I currently use my Home Equity Line of Credit for an emergency plan and since I have a balance on that from an engagement ring purchase and upcoming wedding costs, I’m focusing largely on paying that down. At the same time, I’m putting some money in Prosper.com. Lastly, a couple of thousand dollars went into a joint account with my fiancee so that we can pay expenses from that. By keeping an extra thousand in a couple of different accounts to protect against overdraft, I really don’t have the funds for conventional savings right now.
When I do, I will probably look into what USAA has. With my fiancee being military, it opens up options such as that. I know she makes around 5% interest with great customer support. They score major bonus points for me because they don’t ask me 16 questions and make me deal with typing in letters in distorted pictures to prove that I’m human. ING Direct has become more and more cumbersome like that. I realize it’s for my own security, but there’s a limit. I wish I could view my account simple log in, but transfering money could require the real security. Of course adding money should be easy as pie. If anyone wants to add money to my account, I’d be more than happy to let them do that.
1. be from a reputable bank or financial institution 2. incur no or low fees 3. earns decent rate
In my personal situation though, I don’t have a savings account but rather a money market cash account. This represents a combination of my rainy day fund and “opportunities” fund, which I would draw from in case of sudden expenses or if so required by business/investment opportunities that arise. What’s interesting is that I have it in a tax exempt fund because I actually get better returns here compared to other money market funds that are regularly taxed. The tax exempt rate I am receiving right now is the equivalent of an interest rate of 6% from a taxable savings or regular money market account.
I have only one reason to use an online savings account: rate! Therefore, when I choose an account, the first thing I look is its interest rate. It doesn’t have to be the highest, but should be higher enough as compared to the rates I currently earn from existing accounts to justify the shift. In addition to interest rates, there are a couple of items I will look as well:
1. FDIC insured: I won’t use any bank without FDIC insurance, no matter how high the rate could be. A savings account should guarantee the safety of the principal.
2. Support ACH fund transfer: If the only way to fund the account is by mailing a check, then it’s not worth the effort to get an account even if it offers a higher rate. The loss of interests could offset any gain from the rate.
3. No fee and low minimum requirement: Once the rate at the bank becomes unfavorable, I should be able to move my money out without having to maintain a high minimum to avoid fees. I usually don’t open an account the minimum is more than $1,000.
In addition, if the account has a cap on monthly transfer-out, then it could be a concern if the cap is low. For example, I have an account with IGoBanking which currently pays 5.30% APY. However, I can only transfer a maximum of $20,000 out of the account every month. If all the sudden I need more than $20,000, though unlikely, I will have to wait the maximum of 30 days before I can get all money out of the account. Because of this, I don’t put all my deposits with them.
Because of the simple use of online savings account, I really don’t care too much whether the bank has user-friendly interface, offers extra security features, or provides good customer service. I just want to deposit my money quickly, earn interests, and get out without penalty.
In addition to online savings accounts, I also like 4-week T-bills, which has been covered in the previous Money Question series.
Here is what I would look in an online savings account.
1. High Interest Rates - This is the juicy part of online savings account; without the high interest rates, there is nothing attractive about them.
2. Easy of synchronization with other bank accounts - the online account should easily (without any hassle) communicate with my brick- and-mortar banks and also with other online savings accounts. In my experience, HSBC Direct is the best in this matter.
3. Absolutely zero fees - I don’t have any tolerance for “low” fees so I would look for one that has absolutely no fees at all. I *hate* banks that have $X fees if you balance falls below $Y. All the above named banks don’t have any fees.
4. No minimums - This sort of ties in with “zero fees”. The account shouldn’t have any kind of a minimum balance requirement. Sometimes there is a “minimum account opening amount”. Ideally this should be $1, but anything below $250 is bearable.
5. A good *feel* for online security - Ok, I have to agree that the *feeling* is a bit vague, but if you visit the login page of an online bank account, it should feel solidly designed with sufficient security features. In my experience, ING Direct *feels* the safest followed by HSBC Direct and Emigrant Direct.
6. Goes without saying that any online savings account should be FDIC insured.
We keep our emergency fund in an ING Direct account. I wasn’t very scientific about the way I chose to go with ING over the other alternatives. A friend at work had a coupon that gave a $50 bonus for opening an account with ING Direct. I was sick of the 2% interest we were getting in our money market several years ago so I opened an account with ING Direct and moved the money over there.
It seems to me that the biggest differentiator between different online savings accounts is the interest rate they offer. I considered moving the money from ING Direct several times to different accounts but the small rate difference wasn’t worth the time and hassle in my opinion. Our finances are pretty much automated as far as direct deposit, online bill pay, and automatic investments so I don’t like to mess with it unless I stand to save or make a good sum of money. For now I’m happy with ING Direct but I am going to look into the 4-week T-bills and tax exempt money market funds that Sun and SVB suggest.
Leave a comment if you want to throw in your 2 cents.
Money Smart Life is fielding a money question today.
Is there such thing as saving too much money in an emergency fund? What’s the best place to keep the money you do save so it still earns you something while just sitting there?
Here’s the answer I gave over at Money Smart Life:
I suppose it’s possible to save too much in an emergency fund but it’s unlikely. If some dude gets in a car crash, would he have:
1) money for a new car in case their old one gets wrecked?
2) money for medical expenses?
3) money for living expenses?
He’d be saving too much in his emergency account if he could cover all of these pretty easily. Unless they have that kind of dough stashed away, most people won’t have to worry about saving too much in their emergency account.
As always, consult a financial adviser before making your decision.
It’s highly unlikely anyone can save too much money into their emergency fund. There are a lot of freak accidents that can occur and they can get pretty expensive.
As far as where to keep it, I recommend a high-yield money market account. I like ING Direct. You can get a bit of interest paid on your money and you won’t get any penalties or extra taxes for withdrawing the money.
Visit Money Smart Life and leave a comment if you want to throw in your 2 cents.
Looks like I’m fielding the money question for this week. This week’s question is related to last week’s question regarding