Money Musings 💭 My favorite high yield savings accounts 💸
Now that rates are higher, we can earn some legit interest (3.5-5%!) just by keeping our money in a savings account. 📈
I’m a huge proponent of online savings accounts (also called high yield or high interest savings accounts) as part of our overall financial strategy.
HERE’S WHY I LOVE THEM.
1. They are out of sight, out of mind. We are less likely to take the money out and transfer it to checking.
2. They earn interest. Right now you can earn around 3.5-5.0%. If you keep a $15,000 rainy day fund in your HYSA at 4%, you’d earn $600 per year in interest.
3. You can create multiple accounts or sub-accounts to save for specific goals and sinking funds. This gives each dollar a job. For example, $5,000 in my travel account, $15,000 in my rainy-day account and $5,000 for summer camp.
Otherwise, we have one blob of savings that we have to account for in our heads. This gets messy and we might allocate the same dollar multiple times. I’ve done it! 💵
IF THIS SOUNDS LIKE A FIT, HERE’S MY CRITERIA TO CHOOSE ONE.
1. It’s free. There are plenty of free options to choose from.
2. You earn some good interest. Around 3.5-5.0% at the time I’m writing this but look around at different rates.
3. It’s FDIC insured. Most are but this protects you for up to $250K ($500K in a joint account) if something were to happen to the bank.
4. Read reviews. We want it to be easy to use. By reading reviews we can hear about others’ experiences with the bank.
The next question I get is which banks do you recommend. So, naturally, I went on a mission to find you the best online savings accounts.
Here are my favorites.
MONEY MOVE OF THE WEEK
MONEY SAVVY TRAVEL SERIES - #3 - PUT NUMBERS TO YOUR PLAN.
You have your list and what’s important, now it’s time to estimate the cost. 💸 I use the word estimate very purposefully. It’s better to estimate and be off (which we typically will be!) than to not plan at all.
Go through and map out the cost of each trip you have planned. The more detailed the better. Make sure you include these items when applicable:
The flights (don’t forget to include transportation to and from the airport or parking at the airport)
Rental cars
Hotels / home stays
Meals (only include the amount you will be spending in addition to your typical spending)
Activities, shopping and other daily spending
Also, don’t forget to renew your passport if necessary with plenty of time.
Then, add it all up (per trip and a grand total).
Great work! If this total isn’t workable, go back to step #2 to see if there are ways you can let go of some of the costs. That might also mean reducing the length of the trip, reducing the number of trips or giving yourself more time to save for them. More on saving next!
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
LGBTQIA+ PAY AWARENESS DAY. 🏳️🌈
Thursday, June 15th is LGBTQIA+ Pay Awareness Day. Why pay awareness vs. an equal pay day? Because we really don’t know. 🤯
While we know there are very real and raging wage gaps, there is still a lot of data missing, particularly when it comes to the LGBTQ+ community. Without data, we haven’t quantified the problem. And that keeps us from doing something about it - especially when it comes to policy.
Here are some things we do know:
Equal Pay Today: 22% of the LGBTQ+ community live in poverty.
The pay gap is $0.90 for LGBTQ+ men and $0.79 for LGBTQ+ women.
Women’s Law Project: The LGBTQ+ community is experiencing heightened instability in terms of both wages and housing due to the rise in anti-LGBTQ+ bills, exacerbating financial strain.
Discrimination in the workplace because of sexual orientation or gender identity is experienced by nearly 30% of the community.
The wage gap increases for LGBTQ+ people of color.
Transgender women’s earnings fall by more than one-third after they transition.
What can we do about it?
Get educated about the lack of information about LGBTQ+ pay and other financial inequities. Learn more here about what’s missing and what data exists.
Spread the word. Talk about it with friends and family and/or share about it on social media.
Vote for policymakers who support gathering this data and LGBTQ+ rights in general.
Contact your senators and demand action to protect LGBTQ+ individuals by making discrimination on the basis of gender and sexual orientation illegal in all areas of public life, including employment, education, housing, public accommodations, and credit.
MY TRAVEL JOURNEY
A FAMILY HERITAGE TRIP.
About a year ago, as part of one of my son’s school projects, I started researching my family heritage. A lot of our history was a mystery to me as all of my grandfather’s family were killed in the Holocaust.
My grandfather had fled Germany on his own and passed away when my father was very young. He also didn’t talk about his family much as I’m sure it was incredibly painful. There was so much we didn’t and still don’t know.
Through my research I found that my grandfather had changed his first name from Chaim to Harry and his last name from Witkowski to Whitcup. Knowing his original name made it much easier to find more about him and his family.
I found that before he left Germany his father founded and ran a shoe and clothing store with his brother in Braunschweig, Germany and there are now commemorative plaques for them at their business address.
I was able to find all of this information out about them because the current students in the town had done research on the families from the town who had died in the Holocaust and published that information.
While we're in Europe this summer, we're going to take a few days to go visit where my family lived in Germany.
your weekly money wins
Here are all the amazing money moves you made this week 👏👏👏
Bia: I earned $264 during the first week of June by reselling items from my closet on Poshmark (@heybia)! Yay! :)
Amy B: Transferred a chunk of money from a 4.40% account to a 5.07% account. Paid another $2,000 off of my mortgage.
AstroLorraine: Switched to a job that pays the same $ but now I have 3 months off every year!!!
Sara S: Sent back items that I didn't love totaling $300
Erin G: Had a great check-in with my financial advisor and increased my monthly brokerage account contribution by 50% 💪🏻
Tania R: Faced my frugal mentality and got myself a well deserved new laptop
Doga: For the first time I managed to ask someone for the money they owe me
Ella H: Travelled for work this week, so expensed everything & didn't spend my own 💰
Caitlen: Meal kit delivery saving time and money ending dinner rut
Lauren A: Realized I've saved/invested enough to safely get me through a months long strike
Mariel Y: Used the travel fund I've been working on for years to buy plane tickets to Tokyo!!
Colleen: Found out I can get more back than I thought as a MN renter paying property taxes w/ CRP :)
Shel: Had a fun no spend weekend using gift cards!