In case you missed the emails and the news like I did, ING Direct lowered there interest rates effective 9/19. ING Savings accounts went from 4.5% to 4.3%. Electric Orange Checking rates took and even bigger hit from 4.0% to 3.5% $0-49,999.99 earns a 3.50% APY $50,000.00-$99,999.99 earns a 4.90% APY $100,000.00 or more earns a 5.00% APY Finally, Business Savings rate went from 5% to 4.75%. For the $12,000 we have in emergency fund and our average checking account balance, the loss will be about $50 a year. Not a huge loss in the scheme of things. I don’t [...]
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I cleared a hurdle I had been putting off for about three weeks now; I spent about two hours tonight bringing my Microsoft Money records back up to date. It was two hours I didn’t have, but two hours that were sorely needed. In mid July Microsoft decided that their Money servers need a complete overhaul. Since that time I haven’t been able to download my transactions for my ING Electric Orange checking, savings, or my one credit card. With the July Cash Spending Experiment in full swing, I wasn’t too worried about it since my normal way of operating [...]
Read MoreI ran some numbers and here are the savings that we will receive in the next year by migrating our checking accounts to ING Electric Orange checking. It is not a ton of money, but it comes from a change that will also simplify our personal finance system. Two for one deal.
Read MoreWith the previously posted guidelines in mind, we set out to come up with positive changes to our financial system that would increase our freedom and support the things we truly want to focus on. Here is the link to the previous system. And without further adieu, here is the map of the updated system : Note: On some screens the map appears off center, you can click and drag it to center it. Sorry. As you can see the main change the move from our Wachovia free checking to the paperless ING Electric Orange Checking as our primary checking [...]
Read MoreBefore I post on how we are going to change our current system, I wanted to discuss what I am looking for in a good finance system. Note, I am using personal finance system to mean the accounts and tools that your money flow through from paycheck through payment and/or savings. As always, the purpose of analyzing this and the overall theme of The Happy Rock is to continually simplify our lives in order to create more freedom for the goals and people we truly value in life. Here are five areas that should be analyzed when creating, tweaking, or [...]
Read MoreFor just under a year we have been saving to fund our emergency fund. During that period our finances have been on auto pilot. Monthly budget meetings were taking five minutes, and there weren’t many decisions that needed to be made. We finally have our emergency fund to $12,000 or about 5 months expenses and now it is time to attack the retirement and college savings. Seems like a perfect time to shake things up and create more simplicity and freedom in our finances. Before we get there though, I wanted to thank Wachovia for graciously providing the impetus to [...]
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