A 529 college savings plan is run either by the state or a higher education institution. They’re designed to help families put away money for their child’s college fund. It is called a 529 because of section 529 of the IRS code. State 529 college savings plans don’t have to be used in the state’s…
If you own a business and you don’t keep your business finances separate from your personal finances you’re going to have to start doing it. The best way to get started on that is to open up a small business checking account. Free business checking accounts aren’t as common as free personal checking accounts, but…
Getting a jump start on your retirement is always a good idea. Thinking about your retirement in your early 20’s isn’t normal, but it should be. Fewer than 30% of workers between the ages of 21 and 24 participate in a retirement plan that their employer offers. This is compared to over 60% of workers…
This offer is available to residents of Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada and Wisconsin. M&I Bank is offering a $100 bonus when you open their Cash Back Checking Account. This bonus will last until February 12th, 2010. To qualify you must make 5 purchases with your check card (signature based) within 45…
Second chance checking accounts are bank accounts for someone that has been reported to a bad checking account history database like ChexSystems. Financial institutions use ChexSystems to basically keep out the bad apples and minimize their risk with their deposit account holders. Second chance checking accounts have extra restrictions on the account due to the…
Here’s a simple easy to use savings calculator you can use to calculate how much you’ll have at your retirement or how much you need to put away each month/year for your child’s college savings fund. Total Added Each Month to Savings: Number of months/years: MonthsYears Interest rate on savings: % End Amount : Just…
If you have a Discover credit card that has a cash back bonus program, like the Discover More Card, you can donate your cash back balance to the American Red Cross Haiti relief fund and Discover will match your donation dollar for dollar for up to a million dollars. Discover is really stepping it up…
An IRA, individual retirement account, is a tax-deferred retirement account for individuals. You can setup an IRA in many different financial institutions such as a bank, a credit union, a brokerage, or an insurance company. There are big tax advantages to setting up IRAs and there are many different investment options for your retirement money….
Community Bank and Trust has an account called Power Interest Checking that’s available to Wisconsin residents. It’s offering a 3.05% APY on balances below $25,000, 0.5% on balances between $25,000 to $100,000, and 0.25% on balances over $100,000 (if you have over $100,000 in your checking account you’ve got other problems). If you don’t meet…
For people that want to invest with large lump sums of money they should look into jumbo CDs as a sound investment. These accounts are setup for large sums of money and jumbo CD rates typically offer the highest CD rates. If you want to invest in a jumbo CD you’re going to need to…