topic Re: Expanding Personal Finance All Around in Personal Finance

Expanding Personal Finance All Around

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 13:35:40 GMT

I was fairly lax about my personal finances... Get paid, deposit in checking, stuff a little into savings... Didn't worry much else about it, few years ago, grabbed some no frills credit card, no rewards, low limit, still meh. Now? My entire financial world has been flipped over, and I blame you guys. Especially a shoutout to those in the credit card boards.

The members here at MyFico have caused me to make a hobby out of my finances, get rewards where I can, shuffle around for better interest earnings, etc. In the past couple months, I've worked out a plan on where and how to utilize my month, went from 1 bank to 3, 1 checking to 3, 1 savings to 3, 1 CC to 5, and shuffling things all over the place.

Old Setup: 1 Checking, 1 Savings, 1 CC, all through same bank.

First TN Bank:

To be closed after everything has settled.

Premier Checking: 0.01% APY

Classic Savings: 0.01% APY

Visa Classic: $1k Limit, denied CLI @ 750 FICO, 2 Years 4 Months age (this is what started the journey)

New Setup: 3 Checking, 3 Savings, 5 CC (so far ), 3 Banks, Cards in sig.

Ally:

Checking: 0.1% APY (10x increase), Main checking account.

Savings(2): 2.2% APY (220x increase), Main longterm savings, "Goal" savings, highest yield.

US Bank:

Brick & Mortar local bank

CC: Cash+ $1k SL

Gold Checking: Free with CC for rewards deposit/transfers, also ATM/Branch deposits if desired.

Discover:

CC: Discover it $2k SL

Savings: 2.1% APY "Sin spend" savings, for non-goal, popup wants.

Checking: 1% Cashback debit, to spend said sinful savings. Also for Foreign ATM usage while traveling if required.

Most spend use will be on my credit cards, category dependant. Have auto savings setup each week since I get paid weekly and all savings are compounded daily, earlier the better. All other checking/debit/transfers are bank dependant to skim around fees the others may have and situational dependant. As stands, between my banks and CCs, nothing I do financially should incur a fee, even while traveling. Unless something bad happens anyway. Between rewards, savings interest, etc. I'm looking at major increases for returns. I've also added a few services to be at my disposal, such as Zelle, Visa Signature benefits, ATM deposits. In the end, just overall better financial planning and management.

Opinions are welcome, and thanks again for giving me the push to actually seek out better options and accounts that work and earn more for me.

Re: Expanding Personal Finance All Around

Chelow — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 14:30:20 GMT

It looks like you got this under control.!

Congrats on taking charge of your financials.!

Way to go. !

Re: Expanding Personal Finance All Around

LakeLife — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 14:35:22 GMT

Congrats on your journey! It is a lot of fun as well as really good for your financial health, and I wish I would have started years ago. It's never too late though. I can remember a time when I would not want to look at my credit card statements, now I can't wait to log on and check my progress on all my financial matters. Because of that I'm so much more careful with my spending and know where every dollar goes. My retirement in 4 1/2 years never looked so good!

Re: Expanding Personal Finance All Around

CreditInspired — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 14:42:15 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I was fairly lax about my personal finances... Get paid, deposit in checking, stuff a little into savings... Didn't worry much else about it, few years ago, grabbed some no frills credit card, no rewards, low limit, still meh. Now? My entire financial world has been flipped over, and I blame you guys. Especially a shoutout to those in the credit card boards.

The members here at MyFico have caused me to make a hobby out of my finances, get rewards where I can, shuffle around for better interest earnings, etc. In the past couple months, I've worked out a plan on where and how to utilize my month, went from 1 bank to 3, 1 checking to 3, 1 savings to 3, 1 CC to 5, and shuffling things all over the place.

Old Setup: 1 Checking, 1 Savings, 1 CC, all through same bank.
First TN Bank:
To be closed after everything has settled.
Premier Checking: 0.01% APY
Classic Savings: 0.01% APY
Visa Classic: $1k Limit, denied CLI @ 750 FICO, 2 Years 4 Months age (this is what started the journey)

New Setup: 3 Checking, 3 Savings, 5 CC (so far ), 3 Banks, Cards in sig.
Ally:
Checking: 0.1% APY (10x increase), Main checking account.
Savings(2): 2.2% APY (220x increase), Main longterm savings, "Goal" savings, highest yield.

US Bank:
Brick & Mortar local bank
CC: Cash+ $1k SL
Gold Checking: Free with CC for rewards deposit/transfers, also ATM/Branch deposits if desired.

Discover:
CC: Discover it $2k SL
Savings: 2.1% APY "Sin spend" savings, for non-goal, popup wants.
Checking: 1% Cashback debit, to spend said sinful savings. Also for Foreign ATM usage while traveling if required.

Most spend use will be on my credit cards, category dependant. Have auto savings setup each week since I get paid weekly and all savings are compounded daily, earlier the better. All other checking/debit/transfers are bank dependant to skim around fees the others may have and situational dependant. As stands, between my banks and CCs, nothing I do financially should incur a fee, even while traveling. Unless something bad happens anyway. Between rewards, savings interest, etc. I'm looking at major increases for returns. I've also added a few services to be at my disposal, such as Zelle, Visa Signature benefits, ATM deposits. In the end, just overall better financial planning and management.

Opinions are welcome, and thanks again for giving me the push to actually seek out better options and accounts that work and earn more for me.

Thanks @masterlink for sharing. A very nice read.

Yep, tending to one’s personal finances and credit profile is a hobby all in itself and for me an extremely enjoyable one. Like you, I was just strolling along in 2016 when I happened on MyFICO. WOW, the world of options just blossomed right before my eyes and I’m enjoying every single moment of it.

Re: Expanding Personal Finance All Around

CreditInspired — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 14:43:29 GMT

@LakeLife wrote:
Congrats on your journey! It is a lot of fun as well as really good for your financial health, and I wish I would have started years ago. It's never too late though. I can remember a time when I would not want to look at my credit card statements, now I can't wait to log on and check my progress on all my financial matters. Because of that I'm so much more careful with my spending and know where every dollar goes. My retirement in 4 1/2 years never looked so good!

Kudos to you @robertj

Re: Expanding Personal Finance All Around

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 14:55:49 GMT

Thanks everyone, and @RobertJ that sounds awesome.

Re: Expanding Personal Finance All Around

Revelate — Thu, 21 Mar 2019 17:31:22 GMT

Nicely done!

I think your next step is to look into at least some basic retirement / brokerage accounts, even with something simple yet good like the Bogleheads 3 ETF plan or similar.

Fact is YTD the S&P 500 is up like 13% and my own portfolio is up even more than that; I'm not entirely sure where we're at currently as things are just flat as far as volatility is concerned but that's where dollar cost averaging comes in over time... over the next 30 or whatever years I'm still expecting we're up and to the right as we have been over the last few generations and as such it's worthwhile sticking money there as a savings account at 2.1% is barely north of even current inflation rates.

Re: Expanding Personal Finance All Around

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 02:46:29 GMT

I really should look into more options, investing, etc...

Re: Expanding Personal Finance All Around

CreditInspired — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 10:17:04 GMT

@Revelate wrote:
Nicely done!

I think your next step is to look into at least some basic retirement / brokerage accounts, even with something simple yet good like the Bogleheads 3 ETF plan or similar.

Fact is YTD the S&P 500 is up like 13% and my own portfolio is up even more than that; I'm not entirely sure where we're at currently as things are just flat as far as volatility is concerned but that's where dollar cost averaging comes in over time... over the next 30 or whatever years I'm still expecting we're up and to the right as we have been over the last few generations and as such it's worthwhile sticking money there as a savings account at 2.1% is barely north of even current inflation rates.

Thanks @Revelate for this info. I want to do something like this. I Googled and found Boglehead 3 fund portfolio, which I’ll start reading if the one you’re talking about. What does ETF stand for?

Re: Expanding Personal Finance All Around

Revelate — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 23:54:33 GMT

Exchange traded fund: basically low cost diversified investing as an alternative to picking a bunch of diversified equities.

It’s a solid plan; most actively traded funds like mutual funds tend to underperform once you factor management expense ratios and an extra 1-2% savings over a long time period adds up to a lot.

Re: Expanding Personal Finance All Around

wasCB14 — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 03:36:59 GMT

I've been going in the opposite direction. I use my old Schwab checking account now for bill pay, and I keep a small amount on a new Cash App card for discounts.

I've closed Chase checking, Chase savings, Citi checking, Discover checking, and Discover savings.

Re: Expanding Personal Finance All Around

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 16:43:19 GMT

I just opened a Charles Schwab checking account, it pays more interest than my Ally, and the usual freebies. I also happen to have 2 branches relatively close (say 20 miles). I keep a checking account around for each of my banks as using Google pay + debit cards to transfer money is a lot faster than ACH transfers, basically instant, maybe 2 minutes. Everytime I tried Zelle, my account would be put on hold, and I would have to call in during business hours and manually okay a 3 day transfer, never had an "instant" zelle transfer.

Also going to start looking into some investing since the Schwab account comes with brokerage. Always gotta plan for the future.