For those of you who haven’t heard today is Mardi Gras (or Fat Tuesday in a literal translation). Today would be the day in past times when you would use up all your fat and leavening type agents to prepare for the coming season of Lent.
Financial Plan?
If you didn’t have time to implement a financial plan for the new year, here is a perfect opportunity for you to restart and retry. You even have a set time frame to work from, make the promise to yourself that you will implement your new Financial Regimen and have it run from February 6th to March 21st, and on that weekend you will revisit (and celebrate if you succeed in your goals). Pretty simple really, don’t you think?
I got a very good comment yesterday about a pledge by one of the Financial Bloggers who reads my column as well (we are an incestuous bunch and enjoy reading each other’s copy), that she would not only give up the Latte a day habit for Lent, but she will donate that money to charity! Now that is good Karma at work. No matter what religion you are, one of the pillars of your beliefs is Charity, so keep that in mind. If you don’t believe in God, then believe in doing a good thing for one of your fellow humans on this Earth, especially if you are blowing $4.00 on a cup of coffee!
Remember When?
On the weekend something tweaked my memory of when I was a teenager, and how back then if you had a savings account, you only got interest paid to the account twice a year (sometimes only once), and the big new exciting thing was Monthly Interest payments on your savings accounts. Banks fought implementing them and then embraced them and called them “Daily Interest Accounts” (except that they computed interest on the minimum monthly balance you had for the month, so I am not sure where Daily fits into that model).
Why am I writing about this. I noticed how much interest my savings account got this month, 10 cents, whoopee! If I paid for my banking, that means I’d only be out of pocket $14.90 this month instead of $15.00! Ten cents interest? However, if I had left that same balance on my Credit Card I most likely would be paying tens of dollars in monthly finance charges. Wonder where banks make money do you? Hmmm…
Evidently HSBC is offering 4.75% on their savings accounts (on line), sounds ok, except there was a small caveat even in the announcement:
…The 4.75 per cent introductory interest rate will apply to new deposits until May 2, 2008. Interest is calculated daily and paid monthly on balances up to $1 million.
Wonder what the rate is after that? I believe the rate it drops to is 3.70%, but I am not sure about that one (here is the full legalese explanation of the account). Now the account has no fees on it, which I do like, so if you are going to put money in a bank, this might not be a bad choice (how Rumsfeld-ian of me), but I am not recommending this, I am simply pointing it out.
and check out Citizens Bank of Canada – 4.0%, and I believe their ‘ultimate savings account’ is their feature product of the year. Full disclaimer: I work there part-time as I build my business. But check it out for yourself; it may well be worth it (plus the profits go to non-profits you nominate and vote for, since it’s owned by a credit union)