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Is anyone here familiar with Acorns? I was checking it out earlier today, and it looks like a way to invest your change from transactions daily. You link it to a debit and/or credit card, and if you buy something worth 45.55, it rounds the transaction up to 46.00, and invests the 45 cents. It sounds interesting, but I don't know nearly enough about it. It says there is a $1 fee per month, and a 0.25-0.5% annual management fee. Otherwise there are no fees on transactions.
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Oct 16, 2014 15:16
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GAYS FOR DAYS posted:Is anyone here familiar with Acorns? I was checking it out earlier today, and it looks like a way to invest your change from transactions daily. You link it to a debit and/or credit card, and if you buy something worth 45.55, it rounds the transaction up to 46.00, and invests the 45 cents. It sounds interesting, but I don't know nearly enough about it. It says there is a $1 fee per month, and a 0.25-0.5% annual management fee. Otherwise there are no fees on transactions. It's been mentioned like 5 times here in the last month, and it's a bad idea
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Oct 16, 2014 15:23
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Quoting myself from the Long term investment thread. quote:It's a neat idea, but not really something to recommend. If you figure out your average monthly "round up" amount you can just as easily set up an automatic deposit of that amount to a better and cheaper account. Something a lot of people like is that there is only a $5 minimum, in comparison to $1000 for the cheapest Vanguard funds, but the $12/year fee eats up the gains of anyone with that little money invested.
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Oct 16, 2014 15:38
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slap me silly posted:I'd say that falls firmly in the "expensive gimmick" category.
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Oct 16, 2014 16:28
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request to change the thread title to "Newbie Personal Finance: Don't use acorns" 
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Oct 16, 2014 18:29
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Bisty Q. posted:request to change the thread title to "Newbie Personal Finance: Don't use acorns" +1 
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Oct 17, 2014 17:08
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Squirrel personal finance: Invest in acorns. Humans have better things to use. 
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Oct 18, 2014 03:36
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I've had 10k sitting in my BoA savings and only today decided to look at the apy - 0.01%.... That's abysmal. I don't want to go through the hassle of setting up a new direct deposit with my company and closing a bank account, really its not much work but should I open one of these high yield savings accounts at another bank and xfer the money and keep the BoA account for a checking account? Also I have no credit, so I figure I should get a credit card and start building it up. Is it possible to get a credit card with no credit history or am I going to have to get a secured card?
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Oct 20, 2014 18:03
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EAB posted:really its not much work but should I open one of these high yield savings accounts at another bank and xfer the money Yes, it is almost no work. It takes 10 minutes to set up an account with someone like CapitalOne 360 or Ally and make your first transfer. The APY is still only like 0.7-0.9% but that's about 70x better than BoA and on 10k that's $70-90/year for free. quote:
Personally, I think you should stop using BoA (or WF, or Chase) for everything since they are a terrible company and I wish people would stop supporting them. Changing your direct deposit is not a big hassle. An online-only bank like CO360, Ally, Schwab, etc. or a highly-regarded credit union (national or regional) offers better products, better rates, and aren't actively trying to screw you. Even if ATMs are a concern for you, many online banks reimburse all ATM fees and most credit unions are part of a HUGE national network of fee-free ATMs called the Co-Op network. For instance, there's a Co-Op ATM in basically every 7-11. quote:Also I have no credit, so I figure I should get a credit card and start building it up. Is it possible to get a credit card with no credit history or am I going to have to get a secured card? A credit union will likely be able to offer better cards with less bullshit than someone like BoA for someone with little/no credit history. It may or may not be secured, would depend on the CU's policies.
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Oct 20, 2014 18:14
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Guinness posted:A credit union will likely be able to offer better cards with less bullshit than someone like BoA for someone with little/no credit history. It may or may not be secured, would depend on the CU's policies. Only if they can't get a 1-2-3 card. I don't even bank with them anymore but its still my primary card, and much better than any regional banks or credit unions offer here. You can even get an extra 10% on rewards for depositing it into a boa account.
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Oct 20, 2014 19:53
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I've got a Kasasa Cash account. Some of those pay 2%+. I'd see if you have one in your area. Mine just requires 15 POS and 1 ACH transaction per month, which isn't much at all.
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Oct 20, 2014 20:04
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Guinness posted:Yes, it is almost no work. It takes 10 minutes to set up an account with someone like CapitalOne 360 or Ally and make your first transfer. The APY is still only like 0.7-0.9% but that's about 70x better than BoA and on 10k that's $70-90/year for free. Think I will open an account with Ally on my day off, tbh I don't know why I've stuck with BoA for so long, laziness I guess.
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Oct 20, 2014 20:28
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Bob Mundon posted:Only if they can't get a 1-2-3 card. I don't even bank with them anymore but its still my primary card, and much better than any regional banks or credit unions offer here. You can even get an extra 10% on rewards for depositing it into a boa account. Once you have established credit history and can get the good rewards credit cards, then sure some of the big banks offer competitive products. I myself use a Citi Forward card for the rewards, but I don't ever carry a balance and don't bank with Citi for anything else. None of the big banks offer competitive or appealing checking/savings products. Of course, rewards cards are enabled by the majority of people who are bad with money and pay the ludicrous APRs (15%+) on their carried balances. I also have a CU credit card with an APR of 6.9% were I to ever need to charge a large purchase with the intent of carrying a balance. So far I haven't needed to.
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Oct 20, 2014 20:44
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EAB posted:I've had 10k sitting in my BoA savings and only today decided to look at the apy - 0.01%.... That's abysmal. I don't want to go through the hassle of setting up a new direct deposit with my company and closing a bank account, really its not much work but should I open one of these high yield savings accounts at another bank and xfer the money and keep the BoA account for a checking account? How old are you and do you have retirement accounts set up? If you don't have retirement accounts set up then I have an entirely different answer for you. (Hint, it involves retirement accounts)
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Oct 21, 2014 00:16
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It sounds like you have an account with direct deposit with BOA. You shouldn't have a problem getting a 1-2-3 card.
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Oct 21, 2014 02:04
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posh spaz posted:I've got a Kasasa Cash account. Some of those pay 2%+. I'd see if you have one in your area. Mine just requires 15 POS and 1 ACH transaction per month, which isn't much at all. I have one of these accounts through my credit union and my checking account gets ~2.5% APY up to 10K. This is what part of the fine print says quote:For Kasasa Cash, if qualifications are met each monthly qualification cycle: (1) Domestic ATM fees incurred during qualification cycle will be reimbursed and credited to account on the last day of monthly statement cycle; (2) balances up to $10,000 receive APY of 3.00%; and (3) balances over $10,000 earn 0.25% dividend rate on the portion of the balance over $10,000, resulting in 3.00% – 0.53% APY depending on the balance.
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Oct 21, 2014 03:58
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Guinness posted:Yes, it is almost no work. It takes 10 minutes to set up an account with someone like CapitalOne 360 or Ally and make your first transfer. The APY is still only like 0.7-0.9% but that's about 70x better than BoA and on 10k that's $70-90/year for free. Could someone elaborate on the bold part? Does it just have to do with fees and low interest rates or does it go beyond that? Separate, Popmoney question: If I know their account info, can I send money directly to someone without them needing to fuss with creating an account or setting anything up? i.e. I know my landlord's account/routing # and would like my rent to magically show up in their account without any extra steps required on their end. I've got an Ally account and will be sending this to Bank of America.
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Oct 22, 2014 00:38
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Teeter posted:Could someone elaborate on the bold part? Does it just have to do with fees and low interest rates or does it go beyond that? Big banks, in my experience, are unhelpful and try to nickel and dime you to death. We use a small bank now, we get better customer service. For instance, chargebacks and fraud are dealt with much more quickly and easily with my current bank than when we had an account at Wells Fargo. We also get more ATM refunds, and much higher interest. Big banks should have the resources and economies of scale to crush small banks, but they just suck in most ways a bank can suck and are only still in business due to being too big to fail.
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Oct 22, 2014 01:04
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posh spaz posted:Big banks, in my experience, are unhelpful and try to nickel and dime you to death. We use a small bank now, we get better customer service. For instance, chargebacks and fraud are dealt with much more quickly and easily with my current bank than when we had an account at Wells Fargo. We also get more ATM refunds, and much higher interest. Big banks should have the resources and economies of scale to crush small banks, but they just suck in most ways a bank can suck and are only still in business due to being too big to fail. This doesn't match my experience at all. I've been a Bank of America customer for five+ years and I've never had anything but great customer service. I do not use them as my primary bank because their rates are not attractive, but most local credit unions are none better. Good credit unions have their advantages/disadvantages and so does a place like BoA.
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Oct 22, 2014 01:35
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antiga posted:This doesn't match my experience at all. I've been a Bank of America customer for five+ years and I've never had anything but great customer service. I do not use them as my primary bank because their rates are not attractive, but most local credit unions are none better. Good credit unions have their advantages/disadvantages and so does a place like BoA. I agree with this, but also posh spaz's post. Wells Fargo service has repeatedly been awful. BoA treated me great, although I ended up changing to a credit union for rewards checking interest rate reasons.
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Oct 22, 2014 01:57
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I'm pretty sure Guinness is referring to the financial bullshit and predatory practices that the Big Four are involved in on a much larger scale, rather than their treatment of individual account holders. I switched to BoA for checking out of convenience; I did it rather grudgingly because of their history, but I haven't had any customer service issues. Heh, but I would certainly not get a mortgage from them...
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Oct 22, 2014 03:33
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So I'm moving to a big city next week. We don't have a car, but my work should be easy biking (15-ish miles) in fair weather, and near light rail for bad weather. Light rail is about $4 per trip, bike is mostly free, maybe $300 a year on replacement parts. I've been looking at my budget from the last time we lived in the States, and had a car. It looks like we spent about $4k a year on gas/insurance/maintenance/repairs, and roughly $1k in depreciation. It was an older car. We were looking at buying a newer car, so I'm assuming insurance would be more, gas a bit less, due to less driving, and maintenance the same, repairs hopefully less. So here are the options I'm contemplating. -$7-10k for a car -$1500? per year depreciation -$4k? a year in gas/maint/repair/taxes/insurance Or -$300 bike parts -$960 on train tickets (50% of commutes via train) or -$1500 for a yearly pass -$1000? for rental/zip/car share/whatever when we need or want to drive somewhere. I don't have any emotional attachment to having a car. I really enjoyed not owning a car in Europe. I previously lived in said US city without a car at all, so I know it's doable, if inconvenient. I'm just having a hard time justifying the (apparent) high cost of car ownership here. Thoughts?
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Oct 22, 2014 05:04
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posh spaz posted:So I'm moving to a big city next week. We don't have a car, but my work should be easy biking (15-ish miles) in fair weather, and near light rail for bad weather. Light rail is about $4 per trip, bike is mostly free, maybe $300 a year on replacement parts. In what big city can you bike 15 miles in a reasonable amount of time? If it was flats and no stops the whole way, I'd say it'd be about an hour for someone in shape to do this without really breaking a sweat. In Chicago, this would typically take ~2 hours due to traffic, traffic lights, and stop signs. Biking to light rail sounds like a clear winner here.
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Oct 22, 2014 05:18
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baquerd posted:In what big city can you bike 15 miles in a reasonable amount of time? If it was flats and no stops the whole way, I'd say it'd be about an hour for someone in shape to do this without really breaking a sweat. In Chicago, this would typically take ~2 hours due to traffic, traffic lights, and stop signs. Well, it's Denver, so not a proper "big city." About 90% of my route to work would be on segregated multiuse bike paths, so no traffic or lights. I actually did a very similar commute the last time I lived there, and it was as short as 50min on a good day, maybe 1:10 if it was snowing or something. My job has no dress code since clients never visit, so it's not like I need to keep my suit looking good or anything.
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Oct 22, 2014 05:46
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posh spaz posted:Well, it's Denver, so not a proper "big city." About 90% of my route to work would be on segregated multiuse bike paths, so no traffic or lights. I actually did a very similar commute the last time I lived there, and it was as short as 50min on a good day, maybe 1:10 if it was snowing or something. My job has no dress code since clients never visit, so it's not like I need to keep my suit looking good or anything. I live 11miles bike-ride from my work, and have similar options. Biking is great - but it gets old to do every single day. Some days I have more to carry than I want to bring on a bike, sometimes the weather is a question-mark as to whether or not its going to storm (and I carry a laptop with me), sometimes I feel lazy, sometimes its too cold, etc. I find more satisfaction in cycling for recreation rather than as a mode of transit regardless of all the above. But thats just me I'd say just dont set yourself up for failure; make sure you have a backup plan for when you dont want to or cant bike. My wife and I share a single car, and she uses it every day. For my side of transit I use a mix of metro, biking, walking, and car2go when I'm in a pinch. It works great and between work subsidy for mass transit, and occasional car2go I spend less than $50/month on all transit here.
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Oct 22, 2014 13:19
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Walked posted:I'd say just dont set yourself up for failure; make sure you have a backup plan for when you dont want to or cant bike. I think I'll just start with 10-ride ticket books and see how much I actually use the train before I buy a pass. Unfortunately my work doesn’t offer transit discounts or pretax purchase options. I am not super concerned with the weather. I've got waterproof panniers and waterproof backpack if I need to carry anything sensitive. Denver has ~300 days of sun a year. Plus if the weather really sucks the bike is definitely faster than cars or busses.
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Oct 22, 2014 14:58
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Quick question. I've got 3 credit cards right now. I'm paying on each but want to cancel one due to an annual fee. Is it going to do much to cancel it while there's still a balance?
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Oct 22, 2014 15:50
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I've got a quick question about credit cards too, hopefully I can ride the Irritated Goat coattails to some expert advice. I just got approved for my first credit card, which was difficult because I have literally nothing on my credit report and I'm old enough that it looks funny. The plan is to charge my daily purchases, and pay them off at the end of every month, literally just to build credit. Is this a good strategy? After a couple of years will this sort of strategy lead to great credit, or do I really need to buy something I can't afford and pay it off in installments to qualify for the Platinum Ultra-Bourgie Plus cards?
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Oct 22, 2014 16:13
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Cheekio posted:I've got a quick question about credit cards too, hopefully I can ride the Irritated Goat coattails to some expert advice.
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Oct 22, 2014 16:23
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Irritated Goat posted:Quick question. I've got 3 credit cards right now. I'm paying on each but want to cancel one due to an annual fee. Is it going to do much to cancel it while there's still a balance? What card is it? You might be able to convert it to a no-annual fee card rather than cancel it.
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Oct 22, 2014 16:39
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Irritated Goat posted:Quick question. I've got 3 credit cards right now. I'm paying on each but want to cancel one due to an annual fee. Is it going to do much to cancel it while there's still a balance? I am not exactly sure what you mean by 'do much' - I don't believe there will be any greater impact if you cancel it when there is a balance then when there isn't. The important thing is that you are closing the card, so it's not like it is being closed on you due to a balance issue. Functionally, what usually happens is that you inform them you wish to close the account, and they should lock it at the current state; the rate stays whatever it is now, you keep making appropriate payments, and cannot make any new purchases. They will probably try to talk you into keeping the card though, if you are carrying a balance and paying it timely. Cheekio posted:Is this a good strategy? After a couple of years will this sort of strategy lead to great credit, or do I really need to buy something I can't afford and pay it off in installments to qualify for the Platinum Ultra-Bourgie Plus cards? Yes, this is a good strategy. Do not buy anything you wouldn't buy otherwise on the belief that it is helping your credit - just funnel your budget through the card so that it is getting used and paid regularly. You do not need to make any special purchases, or carry any balance. This is what I do, and my credit is great. The only thing I would mention is that if you have a new card with very little credit history, you probably have a modest limit. You don't really want to be charging your limit all the time, even if you are paying it off. What I did when I was starting out was pick a couple reliable things to charge to the card that would be well within the limit, like a phone bill and groceries, etc. After you have had the card and used it properly for a while they will probably raise the limit.
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Oct 22, 2014 16:49
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Ashcans posted:After you have had the card and used it properly for a while they will probably raise the limit.
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Oct 22, 2014 16:55
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Ashcans posted:I am not exactly sure what you mean by 'do much' - I don't believe there will be any greater impact if you cancel it when there is a balance then when there isn't. The important thing is that you are closing the card, so it's not like it is being closed on you due to a balance issue. Functionally, what usually happens is that you inform them you wish to close the account, and they should lock it at the current state; the rate stays whatever it is now, you keep making appropriate payments, and cannot make any new purchases. THF13 posted:What card is it? You might be able to convert it to a no-annual fee card rather than cancel it. Capital One card. I just wanted to cancel it and not incur the annual fee so I could pay it off more timely. If it isn't going to make a larger impact on my credit then I'll do that.
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Oct 22, 2014 20:51
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Bob Mundon posted:Only if they can't get a 1-2-3 card. I don't even bank with them anymore but its still my primary card, and much better than any regional banks or credit unions offer here. You can even get an extra 10% on rewards for depositing it into a boa account. Meh, there are a lot of cards better than the 123 card. I used to have it, and they just limit the 2-3% pretty heavily in terms of maximum. It took forever just to get $25 back.
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Oct 23, 2014 10:37
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Duckman2008 posted:Meh, there are a lot of cards better than the 123 card. I used to have it, and they just limit the 2-3% pretty heavily in terms of maximum. It took forever just to get $25 back. It's not the greatest card because of the quarterly cap, but it's cash back is still decent and it's no fee, so I'd say it still qualifies as quite good. You can certainly beat it, but was just pointing out BOA does have a good option that's easy to get if you already have a relationship with them. I use it mainly for gas and random stuff, so I'm not hitting the cap on the 1,500, that way a free true 3% back on gas and 1 on other stuff I certainly can't complain. For comparison sake far better than the card the smaller bank I switched to offers. Bob Mundon fucked around with this message at 15:15 on Oct 23, 2014 |
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Oct 23, 2014 15:07
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The 5% Sallie Mae MasterCard (gas, groceries, books) blows away the 123 card. Made the switch, no regrets
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Oct 23, 2014 16:13
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1) I'm trying to figure out what a reasonable amount to spend on rent will be, given my new job. (I'm also running numbers for if I get fired almost immediately, just to be sure I have enough in my savings for 9-ish months of expenses) I found these percentages from Money Management International: Personal debt (credit cards, personal loans), 14 percent, with a range of 10 to 20 percent. Housing , 27 percent. Range: 20 to 35 percent Food , 21 percent. Range: 15 to 30 percent. Transportation (including car loan, insurance, gas, etc.), 8 percent. Range: 6 to 20 percent. Utilities , 6 percent. Range: 4 to 7 percent. Clothing , 4 percent. Range: 3 to 10 percent. Miscellaneous (travel, child care, entertainment, gifts), 1 percent. Range: 1 to 4 percent. Savings , 7 percent. Range: 5 to 9 percent. Insurance (health, life, disability), 6 percent. Range: 4 to 6 percent. Personal care , 3 percent. Range: 2 to 4 percent. Health (prescriptions, eye care, dental), 3 percent. Range: 2 to 8 percent. I remember someone said the ROT for housing + transport should be <40%, which is in the range given above. Do the rest of those numbers seem reasonable? Utilities seemed high at first glance, but I guess not if it includes internet. Savings seemed too low. 2) I've also heard about the 50/30/20 approach, breaking costs down into fixed/variable/savings. Is that a more reasonable approach, or is that a question better suited for the budgeting thread?
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Oct 23, 2014 16:19
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I don't really find percentages to be particularly helpful, because a lot of spending doesn't scale very well with income. Like if you live in a cold region, you are going to have to heat your house to some degree, even if it takes a significant portion of your income because you are broke. Saying that housing+transit<40% is an ok metric for some imaginary median individual, but no one knows how it applies in your situation. What is your income? What is your debt? What do you currently have in the way of savings, both emergency and long term? Paying our a higher percentage for comfortable housing is less of an issue if you have very little debt and already have a solid retirement/savings situation. Less so if you are struggling in those areas. It took me a moment (and a google search) to realize those were MMI's recommended percentages, not your actual ones. At a glance they look pretty terrible (14% on debt payments, not including home and auto loans, and 21% on food? What?) It's clear that they have been really lazy with this - as one obvious example, they just drop a bunch of stuff on 'miscellaneous' and tag it at 1%. Including childcare, travel, entertainment, and gifts. Realistically, any one of those things would blow that percentage out of the water.
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Oct 23, 2014 17:47
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Ashcans posted:What is your income? What is your debt? What do you currently have in the way of savings, both emergency and long term? Paying our a higher percentage for comfortable housing is less of an issue if you have very little debt and already have a solid retirement/savings situation. Less so if you are struggling in those areas. Yeah, I wasn't a huge fan of those percentages, I just wasn't sure where to start. The last detailed budget I had was made by analyzing expenses over a few months, figuring out what reasonably attainable benchmarks were, then trying to meet or beat those targets. I know a fair amount about corporate finance and budgeting, but I don't have much experience with personal finance, and it's also hard to be objective when it's your own money. Reasonably attainable standards don't encourage continuous improvement and can lead to unnecessary budgetary slack. Like, maybe I'll pay too much for something I could buy at a store 15min away because I don't feel like making two trips and I'm still "under budget" in the category. But if the goal is too hard I'm sure I'll get demoralized and sabotage the whole process. So with the new budget I'm starting from scratch, trying to avoid too much slack, and trying not to get into a situation where my rent is killing me. As far as income, I'm contractually prohibited from discussing my pay. I doubt anyone would ever actually trace it back to me, but I'd rather not take the (albeit incredibly remote) risk. Student debt is about 150% of my gross. No other debt. From the research I've done, market rates for the kind of apt I'm looking for are about 27-35% of my net, with tons of options in the 31-35% range. Here's what I've come up with this morning: Housing 35% (I'll spend less if I reasonably can) Food 17% (I like to cook) Transport 6% (a bit tight but feasible, I think) Utes/phones 3% (we have burners) Clothes 3% Misc 5% Insurance 4% (estimated) Medical 2% (treated like a prepaid expense account, rolls over monthly, mostly for copays and glasses) Debt service 25% (includes interest and additional payments to principal) At normal spending level I currently have 6 months of expenses in savings, at "essentials-only" level I have about 11 months in savings. That's after subtracting what I estimate we'll spend at Ikea for a bed/kitchen junk for the new apt. My wife will be getting a job as well, but she's a teacher and the hiring season isn't til next spring, and I have no idea what kind of work she'll find in the meantime, so I'm planning on 0 income from her in the short-term.
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Oct 23, 2014 19:27
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My wife doesn't have a ton of credit history, but she's had some store cards for a few years now that she keeps paid off. But I'd kind of like to get an idea where her credit score is, would it be the worst thing in the world to have her apply for some kind of Discover card, which includes the FICO score, and then just use it sporadically?
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Oct 23, 2014 22:02
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