3 Easy Steps to Finding the Best Savings Account Rates!

I’ve been rocking online savings accounts since 2009 when a typical interest rate was around 3.0% APY.  Even earlier than that, online savings account rates were as high as 6% APY!  (Crazy, huh?)  It can be so hard to tell who has the best interest rate and if you can trust them with your money, so I thought I’d write this post on a website I’ve been using for years to help me stay on top of it: www.bankrate.com.  Bankrate.com was first recommended to me by my college personal finance professor and it hasn’t let me down yet!

Who is Bankrate.com?

Bankrate.com is a consumer financial services website that offers calculators and tools for managing your finances.  They also operate several personal finance blogs on the website to help keep you up-to-date with money news and tips.  Since I don’t have a mortgage or any loans that need refinancing, I really only use the website to make sure I’m getting the highest online savings account interest rates.  However, I’m really happy with the content they provide so I’m sure they would be pretty helpful for your other personal finance needs.

Why should I care about finding the best interest rate?

If you’re already saving in a high-interest savings account, good for you!  You know that banks are competing with each other to hold onto your savings, and they’re willing to pay you more than other banks just to have your business!  It’s money you aren’t planning to spend at the moment, so you’re making it work for you until you need it.  Very smart!

If you’re not saving in a high interest savings account, chances are you think you (a) don’t have enough money for a savings account or (b) it would be too much of a hassle to open a new account somewhere else.  If you’re in the former group, the first and biggest step in growing your wealth is practicing the mantra “Pay Yourself First”.  You are responsible for yourself, and if you don’t look out for your future, who will?  Even as little as $10/month is a good start, and there are a lot of banks offering signup bonuses of $25+ with very little or even no minimum balance requirement.  (Keep your eye out for offers from ING Direct and Discover for promotions like I just mentioned.)  If you’re in the “signing up for new accounts is annoying” crowd, wouldn’t you say it’s annoying that everyone else is earning a lot of interest on their savings accounts except you?  In my honest opinion, savings account interest is the easiest way I earn extra money every year… free money is nicer than no free money, don’t ya think?

Finding the best savings account rates:

Bankrate.com aggregates interest rates from several financial institutions into one place, tells you what rating they give the bank, and then lets you sort through the information on your own.  You can search in three easy steps:

1.  On the Bankrate.com homepage, click the “Checking and Savings” tab on the header.

2.  In the center of the page, find the “MMA/Savings rate” search box and click Search.  There is no need to to change the options in question 1 or 2 unless you’re specifically searching for a local brick-and-mortar institution or you want to only look at jumbo sized MMA accounts where the minimum balances are typically higher.

3. To sort the banks by APY (Annuity Per Year), click the APY option on the ‘Sort by:’ drop down menu.  This will list the banks with the best interest rates on top so that it’s faster for you to search through.

Evaluating interest rates:

Here is the trickiest part so please pay attention!  You now have a list of banks with the highest interest rates available.  You can also see what their minimum balance and monthly fees are… but even more important than that are the number of stars that are listed under the bank name.  The ratings range from 1 to 5 stars and are indicative of the relative financial strength of the institution.  While the rating may vary from week to week, you can generally trust banks with 3 stars or more.

I remember searching and debating all the banks on Bankrate.com before I opened my first online savings account.  One of my roommates at the time told me she had used the website and opened an account with the bank at the very top of the list because it had the best interest rate (3.10 % at E*Trade I think).  She didn’t pay attention to the fact that the bank only had a two star rating, and within two weeks, the bank’s rating plummeted to 1 star and her interest rate was at 1.0%.  How annoying, right?  I had gone with a bank (www.FNBOdirect.com), that had a better star rating and a similarly high interest rate (2.80%) and it stayed extremely steady and competitive in its rates for more than the a year and a half before I finally decided to change banks.  What you have to watch out for are banks that are struggling financially or have a small business base.  You’ll identify them by their star ratings, and frequently they’ll offer the highest interest rates possible for a brief amount of time to try and attract as many new customers as possible.  However, it isn’t sustainable for them to offer high rates for too long, so the rates will get slashed after a while to something they can manage.  Obviously, this ends up hurting you because you’re not only stuck with a low interest rate, but you are always wondering about the financial stability of the bank that does this!  The ratings are there for YOUR benefit, so don’t forget to use them when you are using this website’s search tools.

Why are you recommending this website?

This post is 100% a factor of personal opinion and was not solicited by bankrate.com or any other interested party.  I am getting no money from the content of this post… I just wanted to share a helpful bit of advice!  Now that I have an Emergency Fund saved up, I evaluate my savings account interest rate every few months to make sure I’m still getting a competitive rate.  Thankfully, my Discover bank savings is still a top performer (yay!), but I’ll move onto the next bank if it ever drops to the middle of the pack.

If you’re curious about what bank interest rates were historically, I used to follow a spreadsheet on Sun’s Financial Diary that used to update each bank’s interest rate once a month for consumer comparison.  The owner is no longer updating the sheet, but it may be a helpful or interesting reference for some of you who want to know what interest rates looked like between 2007 and 2011.  I don’t know of any website or blog that is currently tracking this info.  (Sorry about that.)  Please let me know if you do.  Happy browsing!

New Job Offer? Relocation Expenses are Negotiable, too!

I have a lot of regrets about accepting my last job offer and how I was too meek to negotiate what I knew I was worth to the employer.  Except, I thought the only things I could negotiate were pay, vacation days, and benefits!  I didn’t realize that relocation expenses were negotiable, too.  After talking to several of my senior co-workers, it turns out that this can be another bargaining chip and could have saved me several thousand more dollars on some of my relocation expenses.  Here’s a summarized version of some options I had available:

Relocation Allowance-
Free home-finding trip (3 days and 2 nights included a free flight, hotel stay, any fees or expenses incurred, plus $150 per diem per person for food)
Lease Reimbursement (up to two months rent plus any early lease cancellation fees paid to my landlord)
$3,000 Relocation Allowance (After tax amount)
$3,000 Self Move Allowance (Before tax amount… or $4,200 if direct billed to employer … or none if professional movers were hired by the employer)
Free 30 days of temporary housing (at $3,600 rent/month) plus 30 days free temporary storage.
Free area tour and free rental tour with a real estate agent

Final Trip Allowance-
Free hotel reimbursement (within reason)
Free flight to destination if not driving
$50/person  food per diem per day of travel (must travel ~300 miles/day per day which is a ridiculously short distance for eager 20-somethings)
$0.59 flat fee reimbursement per mile (estimated) driven

When it came down to it, the relocation expenses looked standard, and they looked pretty good to me.  I had never been relocated before, so my parents and I had no idea if this was a good offer, a great offer, or a lousy relocation offer. I’m not sure exactly how much is negotiable from the list above… the per diem seemed generous (who buys $50 of food per day?), I was being reimbursed a flat $/mile driven which turned out to be more than double the reimbursement I actually needed for gas, and the relocation allowance was “standard” for incidentals associated with moving (like fees for applying for a new driver’s license and registration or for rent down payments on a new place).  I now know that at minimum, the temporary housing was negotiable too!  Several co-workers had negotiated two or three months worth of temporary housing on their own offers, which would have saved the fiance and I not only our failing sanities, but between $2,000 and $4,000 worth of rent expenses!

We went with the “self-haul” option that gave us a lump sum (no questions asked) fee to move our belongings.  We had just gotten engaged prior to receiving the job offer, so we silly fools decided to sell all of our furniture on the east coast and drive out to California with our belongings packed into a car.  Actually… half a car each since we had to split it!  He was big on minimalism and “I’ve done this before”, while I was big on not lugging his super uncomfortable multiple-times-Craigslisted furniture across the country to build our first place together.  We figured we’d be making $$$ by doing all this ourselves — and we did– but I didn’t realize how much in assets we actually owned until I was literally giving expensive items like my mattress and 46″ flatscreen away for cheap or free.  I would possibly recommend the “everything in my car” option if you’ve just graduated college and can have a whole car to yourself and your belongings, but I would highly advise against it if you possess high value furniture pieces or have a whole family coming with you.  The direct-bill and professional movers options are usually approved for a much higher amount of expense and will eliminate a lot of stress and waste for you.  Trust me!

When I tallied it up at the end, we were credited $8,936.33 in the move and only incurred $1045.76 in expenses, which left us with a $7,890.04 pre-tax profit!  Now remember, part of that “profit” was lump sum payments to go to things like rent, car maintenance, and other unforeseen incidentals.  I estimate those around $4,000 expected expenses plus about $3,000 unplanned expenses (like a car he now needed to get to work, the flight home to my sister’s wedding, the freak hail storm damage in Arizona that nearly “totaled” my car, and the furniture we now needed).

A lot of people, especially young people, are too worried they’ll be seen as greedy if they try to negotiate salary increases with interested employers.  However, relocation expenses can be a huge financial burden to the relocating employee and should also be considered negotiable before accepting the final “total package” offer.  Take the risk and speak up!  Temp housing is probably the biggest single item that can be negotiated.  It’s usually fully furnished and ready to go, and can give you more time to apartment or house shop until you find a place you find comfortable. You may also be able to add more days to any “home finding trip” and perhaps bank all that fun per diem instead of spending it all.

If there are any readers out there who have had experience negotiating relocation expenses, I would really value your input and comments below!  I hope I won’t have to relocate again soon, but with the layoff rumors running rampant at work again, one can never be too sure.  Plus, I bet there are a lot of people who would be interested in hearing what you were/weren’t able to score when you tried.  I know I am! 🙂

276 Days Left Until the World Ends: What’s on your list?

  According to the Mayan calendar, the world ends on December 21, 2012.  It’s so weird… I remember talking about 2012 decades ago in elementary school like it was a lifetime away, and now it’s finally here!  All this hype has had me thinking… what would I do if the world were really going to end?

Having just moved to a new state, I think I’d want to go out and experience it as much as possible.  I actually made a list a while back of all the things I want to do in Cali before the end of the year.  We’ve done some whale watching, and tourist stuff like the WB lot tour (so cool!), and we have a trip up to Napa Valley with some friends in two weeks.  In all, we had 16 options listed and are already on activity number 4.  We’re going to postpone any bigger trips since we’re trying to save, but I like having this list as a reminder for us to keep going out and doing things together.  Plus, there are several items on the list we can do for fairly cheap (like when we spent the day at the Santa Monica pier with our families).  One of my regrets was living near D.C. all my life and never really experiencing the breadth of what it had to offer.  We hope not to make that mistake with our time here in Cali.  As a another fun reminder to myself, I even set a countdown timer on my phone for 12/21/2012 so I don’t forget how much time is passing by.

If the world was going to end in December 2012, what would you realistically want to do before then?  Do you think you’ll end up doing it?

Points to Consider with Travel Rewards Credit Cards

I’m currently trying to find a travel rewards credit card to help us save money when we book the flight to our destination wedding.  Since the fiance and I are both committed to paying off credit card balances in full every month AND we won’t be applying for any loans in the next year or so, a rewards credit card is a reasonable option.  My favorite Well-Heeled blogger saved over $2000 on her honeymoon airfare by cashing in on a British Airways credit card offer!  That’s incredible, isn’t it?!  The best part is that most of these cards waive the annual fee for the first year, which gives you enough time to use the promotion and cancel the card without ever getting hit with a fee.

Friday Finds: It’s the month of free money!

What’s nice about this March is how many potential opportunities there are to find “free” money in our bank accounts!  It’s a month that has an extra paycheck, tax refunds, employer bonuses or merit increases… and I’ll even mention March Madness winnings just for fun.  I hope you all are finding some “free” money this month.  (Before continuing, I should mention I owe in taxes and I’m “too new” for a bonus or merit increase this year… but it’s still like a fun lottery.  I like guessing how many times I’ll “win”!)

Technically… it’s not free, right?  Most people know how many paychecks they’ll get this year,  you know that a tax refund is really a “loan” you sent to the IRS,  you know that merit increases hardly ever keep up with inflation but it’s Friday and let’s not ruin the moment, shall we?  As someone who is trying to keep to a budget, I estimate how much I make per month of the year and stick to it.  Doing that makes me more aware of the months I get paid on three Fridays instead of two.  This month, I’m going to send it all straight to my savings account instead of figuring out what I can buy with it.

Did any of you find free money?  What are you going to do (or what have you done) with yours?

Now on to some of my Friday Finds!  Here are some of my favorite blog posts from around the web this week.  I love reading blogs.  Please let me know if there were any good blog posts I’m missing 🙂

Budgets are Sexy: How To Save Even MORE on Hotel Rooms

Shopping to Saving:  Thoughts on Volunteering

The Happy Homeowner:  ‘I Have No Food’ and Other Lies We Tell Ourselves

The Money Spruce:  Life After Quitting Questions Answered

Because I’m Addicted:  Be More Awesome

Wedding Decisions for the Budget-Minded

I’ve written before that I’m solely responsible for paying for my wedding.  (The fiance is currently paying down debt so we can enter the marriage completely debt-free.)  Unfortunately for us, I’m not loaded with cash, inheritances, or incoming financial gifts of any sort.  So what’s a girl to do?  Here are some of the options I considered:

Cost of a Road Trip

Not surprisingly, driving across the country costs a lot of money!  We took I-40 from D.C. to Los Angeles, which is probably the most direct (toll road free) route you can take.

Knowing that we slept in hotels every night and that we traveled for 6 days… any guesses on what our grand total was?

Mid-March Financial Update

My finances are still in the gutter… shut down since the day I embarked on my road trip seven months ago.  I haven’t saved a penny for my wedding since we got engaged ten months ago.  Luckily, we pushed the wedding back to 2013 which is a year away, but with both of my parents unemployed and the fiance in heavy debt, it looks like I’ll have to figure this beast out on my own if we’re going to have a wedding at all.

It’s funny, but we haven’t even purchased a bed frame for our bed or a light for the bedroom and we’ve lived here in our little 1bd/1bath for 6 months!  Yes, it’s pitch-dark in there but it’s really only used for sleep.  (I think we slept on an air mattress for two months before finally finding one we were happy with.)  I don’t know what my problem is, but I suppose moving to California for an adventure and a pay cut was really asking a lot.

But if personal finance bloggers are teaching me anything, it’s that good old accountability and discipline can pull me through this rough patch.  Can it really be that simple?

College Kids Are Clueless About Money: 5 Suggestions to Help Them Along

My younger sister was lamenting to me the other day on the topic of her college winter break.  She hardly got to see her friends because she was trying to earn money for her spring semester textbooks. When she did spend time with them, she listened as they dreaded the day they would have to pay for their own gas, discussed the $7,000 price tag they wanted their parents to pony up for BoTox injections (to prevent sweating) —you see, this is considered a “cosmetic

My First Post!

Thanks for coming to my blog!  Let me introduce myself as GB, a girl on a Budget.  I’m a young 20-something in the “Millennial” generation learning to manage my finances and hoping to share my knowledge with anyone willing to read!

My story so far…

During my final year in college, I took a personal finance course that completely innovated the way I manage my money.  While I didn’t have a job immediately after graduation, I hit up the college career fair circuit at several rival universities until I finally managed to get something.  On $44,000 a year salary (+ paid overtime)  and a couple side hustles, I was able to pay off a $15,500 car and save a $15,000 emergency fund in less than two years… without living with my parents, inheritances, or allowances!  A pretty big feat (to me) considering the astronomical cost of living.

Well… A lot of big things happened for me in 2011, most notably my engagement to an incredible man, a new job, AND a cross-country move from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles.  (Because really, what is life without a few adventures?)  What I didn’t realize was that big changes would mean even bigger expenses, and now I find myself supporting two people — myself and the beau — and literally bleeding money as I try to build a home without any financial help or even a gift registry.

Inspired by some of the PF blogging Greats, I’m hopeful that this blog will help me find my balance, save for my wedding, and connect with a finance-savvy community.  In return, I’m hoping to inspire and guide others to better financial situations.  It’ll be win-win for us both.  I can’t wait!

I would love if you left me some love/advice/encouragement in the comment section below ♥♥

Sincerest regards,

GB