Make the most of your money
I think I’ve pointed it out before, but the GTD set usually seems to intersect in large part with the Personal Finance set…
So, here’s where I’m putting my money:
1) NetBank Checking account: 1% interest - no charge for ATMs… you can use Washington Mutual surcharge-free ATM’s for free money withdrawal
2) NetBank Money Market: 3.04% interest (minimum balance of $500) - used as overdraft protection for the NB checking… which basically means all my liquid cash goes in here with very little in the checking account because there is no charge for using the overdraft protection.
3) ING Direct Savings: 3.30% - provides easy transfer of funds from Money Market account to…
4) Emigrant Direct Savings: 4.0% !! - they just upped the rate yesterday; guaranteed through the end of December 2005. This is where my wife and I are putting our savings for the house downpayment (and, well, any extra cash we have as well).
It’s a little bit of process to get the money from the money market to the ING to the Emigrant, but the 4% interest is Definitely Worth It.
In addition:
1) Discover Card - 1% cash back with no limit. You can double for some retailers to get gift cards. Others give you a little extra (GAP gives $25 for redeeming $20, same for Bed, Bath & Beyond. Great for going to weddings… )
2) Marathon (Gas station) Credit Card - 5% back on all Marathon purchases (since they usually have cheaper gas than most places anyway) and 1% back on everything else… not sure about the limit on this one…
3) TJX/Marshall’s credit card - 5% back at Marshalls and TJ Maxx which is where my wife and I do pretty much all of of our clothes shopping. The 5% goes towards a gift certificate that they mail automatically when you get over $10 (nice to not have to request anything).
There you have it. As an added bonus, I can manage all of my finances from the Web.
Hope that didn’t take more than 2 minutes to read.
