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Thread: Need Help?

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    Veteran Member Brooklyn's Avatar
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    Default Need Help?

    hey every body i want to start a savings account but i want to do one seperate from the bank i have my checking . i want to do this so i want be tempted to take it out every time i use my checking.... Is this a good way to save money or is there a better place or someting to invest in .... please help? i also want to know what bank has the best deals for savings accounts..

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    God/dess Emily's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Help?

    I've got a Netbank (netbank.com) money market account that's got a pretty competitive interest rate. You can make it so you don't have checks or a debit card, so it's hard to withdrawl money.

    If I were in your situation, I would do a CD at any bank since there are penalties for early withdrawls, but it still accessible in an emergency

    Do you have an IRA set up yet? If not, another great way to save money. You can't touch that until you're 59 1/2 without severe penalties.

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    Default Re: Need Help?

    hey every body i want to start a savings account but i want to do one seperate from the bank i have my checking . i want to do this so i want be tempted to take it out every time i use my checking.... Is this a good way to save money or is there a better place or someting to invest in .... please help? i also want to know what bank has the best deals for savings accounts..
    Savings accounts don't pay much interest no matter where they are. Check your newspaper's business page. Usually they have a weekly feature on local savings, CD, checking and mortgage interest rates. Savings accounts don't pay much interest because they don't represent a very long term commitment of funds on your part. They really should be used only as a holding account until you get enough money to put in a higher yield investment.

    If you can, an IRA and a Roth IRA are great vehicles for savings. You can self direct your IRA and Roth with just about any investment you want. As they are longterm vehicles, you can and should make more risky investments there.

    For a plan, I would start with a simple savings account. Put at least ten percent of your gross in there everytime you get paid. If you have to pay estimated taxes, open a separate account for those and make the appropriate deposit there too out of your gross. Once your savings has $1000 in it, buy a CD. Once you have at least six months in savings and CDs you can start more aggressive investing.

    Start your 2003 tax planning now. Owning your own business (i.e. being an independent contractor) is Uncle Sam's most tax advantaged option. Take advantage of your fellow citizens' largesse.

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    Banned Melonie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Help?

    If you have access to the internet, and if you're looking for very good interest rates on savings accounts and CD's, and if you're looking to reduce the temptation to withdraw these funds on a whim, I highly recommend checking out . They have a Yield Pledge money market account which pays more interest than standard savings accounts but without any withdrawl penalties. They also have Yield Pledge CD's for later when you have saved up $3000-$4000 in your money market account and can afford to commit additional money to a 1 year CD in exchange for higher interest rates (the money market account actually pays higher interest than 6 month CD's, and without an early withdrawl penalty!). One of my favorite things about this bank too is that they also offer CD's in other currencies besides US$ when you're ready for even more sophisticated investing (my own Euro account returned like 15% over the last year between interest and exchange rate gains).

    They also have ATM deposits available in most areas which means putting more money into your Yield Pledge account is free and easy. But to get money out of your account you'll either need to request a check or wire transfer money to your checking account at your local bank, which cuts down on the temptation to withdraw money on a whim. Of course you could also add check writing to your money market account, but that might defeat the purpose of making this money deliberately difficult to get your hands on at the spur of the moment.

    But you do need to save up $1500 to open a Yield Pledge money market account in the first place, and you do need to maintain a balance of $1500 or more to avoid monthly fees. Monthly fees can really turn into a big deal and change a supposedly high interest rate account into a loser - for example Emily's netbank.com account advertises a slightly higher money market interest rate than everbank.com, but it charges a bunch of other fees ( see ). Admittedly netbank.com does not charge fees on one type of account if you maintain a $250 balance, and I assume that this is the money market account Emily mentioned (Emily this NetVantage account looks really good!). My only point here is that before deciding to open any new account you should read the fine print.

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    God/dess Emily's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Help?

    Admittedly netbank.com does not charge fees on one type of account if you maintain a $250 balance, and I assume that this is the money market account Emily mentioned (Emily this NetVantage account looks really good!). My only point here is that before deciding to open any new account you should read the fine print.
    Ya, that's the one I have. Even the regular checking account has a pretty good rate at 1.4%. Both have promotions all the time that if you open them and keep them active for 3 months, they will give you $50, so there's that bonus too.

    I like NetBank a lot, but the one thing I hate about them is they have the absolute worst customer service on the planet, so I would try to avoid them for a regular checking account.

  6. #6
    Veteran Member Brooklyn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Help?

    Hey girls thanks for the advice

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