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How do people normally split up their money? For a few years, I've been dumb and had everything in a free, no interest checking account. Time to fix that. I'm thinking something along the lines of: - Free checking account without much money in it. I would use this to pay off bills/rent and then have an extra $500 or so in there. - Short term 'savings' in a money market or savings account. This would also include 6-9 months expenses. (The rates at the banks were at most 0.5%, but it looks like 1.5% is doable online.) - Retirement Savings (Set up an IRA somewhere like Vanguard which seems to be popular as a hands-free solution. Employer doesn't do matching of 401k contributions at the moment.) Is this a reasonable/normal set up? One more question about the magical 3-12 months expenses: Where do most people keep this money? (I used The Sun Financial Diary listing of savings rates. I found it useful, so it might be useful to have in the OP unless there is a better resource that I missed.)
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Jan 21, 2010 06:01
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 06:17 |
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I did all of my research and stuff into checking accounts at banks in my area, and ended up going with Wells Fargo yesterday. However, this afternoon in my mailbox, I found a promotional item from Chase that offers $150 free (as opposed to the $25 I was offered in person). Otherwise, the offers are effectively the same for me. (I don't write checks so the main difference of free checks vs. $14 /box doesn't seem like a big deal.) Is there a reason why I shouldn't try to close my account with Wells Fargo tomorrow (obviously "returning" the free $10 they gave me thus far) and open one with Chase? The difference is $115, so it's definitely worth considering...
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Jan 23, 2010 04:26
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After bills and such, my monthly surplus is ~2k, which I have been using to build an emergency fund, but I now have one years expenses saved up. I don't know what to use that money for now. In debt, I have: Student loan - $11k - 7% Student loan - $9.5k - 6% Misc other student loans - $4k total - <3% Car - $7.5k - 4.25% I've already done my max Roth IRA contribution for the year. Should I invest my extra money in some other way or start paying down the loans faster?
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Jun 27, 2010 04:30
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