Beating Broke

Choosing Your Next Bank

September 23, 2013 By Shane Ede 16 Comments

In the last five years or so, the banking industry has seen some major changes. Interest rates have plummeted. We’ve had at least one recession, and a recovery of sorts. The stock market has dropped like a rock and soared like an eagle. We’ve also seen the rise of online banks become a new-fangled curiosity to something that most of us accept as a standard.

Online banks have made it normal to have services like bill-pay, electronic deposit, and easy to use online account management. They’ve also put the pressure on traditional brick and mortar institutions to revamp their services, lower their fees, and offer more for their users. But, they’ve also made it more difficult to decide on a bank. No longer do we just pick the best one of a handful in our town, or the one that mom and dad used to use. They’ve increased our selection, and made the decision a tad bit more difficult. So, how do we go about selecting our next bank?

Bank Location

Even in our super digital world, where our physical locations are becoming less and less likely to matter, the location of your bank might make a difference to you. You might like the ability to walk into a branch of your bank and make a deposit, or talk to someone face to face. You might just like the security of knowing that you have that ability should you really need it.

When you’re choosing your next bank, you really need to decide if having a local branch available to you is something that is important, or if it’s just something that might be nice. If it’s important, you’ll want to take most of the online banks off the list of eligible institutions right away. If it just might be nice, you can leave them on the list.

Bank Fees

There’s been a lot of talk about bank fees, hidden fees, and transaction fees lately. After the most recent housing market crash, and the new legislation on credit card transaction fees, many banks are trying to find new innovative ways of recouping the costs. They’re getting creative with their fees, and their fee structures. It should go without saying that you can have the best bank in the world, with all the shiny services, but if they’re adding on fees all over the place, they just aren’t that great.

When you’re choosing your next bank, take a close look at their fees and fees structure. Does their checking/savings account have a monthly fee if you’re inactive? Does it have other monthly fees for services? Are the fees they have significantly higher than what other institutions charge? Fees that you don’t, or won’t, end up being charged might not seem all that important, but they can be an indicator of the future of the institutions fee structure. Be sure to make note of, or cross off entirely, any bank that has a difficult to understand fee schedule, or higher than average fees.

Bank Services

Here’s where you can usually weed the really bad ones out. Maybe they have all the right locations, a huge ATM network, and better than average fees. All of that will be somewhat useless if they don’t have all the services that you want. Find out what services they offer.

When choosing your next bank, be sure to check to make sure what services they offer. Make a list of services that you must have. Bill-Pay would be top of that list for me. If it’s an online bank, having some way of depositing checks electronically through an app on your phone might be high up on the list. Does their debit card offer cash back? Do they offer any rewards? What other perks does the account have? What perks would you like it to have? The truly analytically minded out there, like me, might just choose to use a spreadsheet to tick off what each candidate has, and use it to compare.

There are plenty of choices out there. Decide on what it is that you want in a bank, and then go about finding one that offers it all. Chances are that you’ll find it. For me, I’m still using the Capital One 360 (used to be ING Direct) account I opened up years ago. I like that it’s easy to use, super simple to create sub accounts for categorization, and has very few fees. I’m also a fan of Ally bank, but their login process seems to lock me out about every third or fourth time I try and login. That’s not very convenient for me. 🙁 But, their rates are usually up there with the highest and their customer service is top notch. If you’re better at remembering your password than I am, they’re a good option as well. I’ve also heard good things about ~~Perkstreet (2% cash back debit)~~, and USAA, but haven’t used either to verify.

Here are some banks offering some great rates for online savings (rates are accurate as of 9/23/2013):

Capital One 360 — 0.75% APY — Apply Now
AMEX — 0.85% APY — Apply Now
Ally — 0.84% APY — Apply Now

I know there are plenty of other options that others rave about all the time. What is your favorite bank? What qualifications do you look for in a bank?

This post was first published in June 2013, but is being republished today, with updates (Perkstreet is closing, and rates updates)

Embrace Abundance

September 12, 2013 By Shane Ede 7 Comments

One of the tried and true tenets of personal finance is frugality. Either through penny-pinching and coupon clipping, or through budgets and smart spending, we aim for frugality. We choose to be frugal either because we have high debt loads, or because we just want to save some money for some purchase. In short, we’re reacting to a scarcity of some resource. In the case of many of us, that resource is money.

Through scarcity, we find ways to make things last longer, or stretch further. We find ways to turn something raw into something useful. Scarcity teaches us to be resourceful; not only with our money, but with our food, clothing, supplies, our whole world.

But, sometimes we get so wrapped up in embracing scarcity, and learning from it, that we forget to also embrace abundance.

Sometimes we even participate in abundance, but only because we claim that it’s the scarcity that’s the driving force of our action.

Today, forget scarcity. Embrace abundance.

Just for a day. (I think you’ll want to do so longer, but start with a day.)

Embrace the things in your life that are abundant. Embrace the abundant opportunity to partake in the last few days of summer and go to the park. Swing. Play with your children. Or pets. Or friends.

Embrace the abundant knowledge that you have in your local library, or through services like PaperbackSwap, and learn something. Read a book. (Even if it’s strictly for pleasure.)

Embrace the abundant joy that you have in your family. Break out the cards or board games and enjoy their company. (Even the one who’s ruthless at Monopoly. )

It doesn’t matter what it is. But, don’t do it because of scarcity. Do it because there’s something in abundance that you want to enjoy.

What do you have in your life that is overflowing in abundance? Embrace it.

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Save Money and Eat Healthy: Rent an Apple Tree

September 3, 2013 By MelissaB 10 Comments

When my health began to suffer a few years ago thanks to stress, being overweight, and having some intestinal issues, I started taking much better care of myself. That meant eating organic foods, following a Paleo diet, and losing over 70 pounds.

I used to always say I didn’t have money to buy organic foods, but my health issues weren’t cheap, so I decided in the long run, eating the best food I could was a priority, even if it was more expensive. Over the years, though, I’ve found ways to cut costs on eating organic. One way is renting an organic apple tree.

How Does Renting an Apple Tree Work?

I simply Googled “rent an apple tree” to find one near us. Then, I rented one apple tree for $55. All the apples on that tree were mine. I paid in the spring, and the Paula Red apples were ready in August.

The farm called me to tell me when the apples were ripe, and then I and my family headed out to the orchard to pick the apples. It took less than 45 minutes, and we left with 94 pounds of organic apples.

What Did We Do With All Those Apples?

Paula Reds don’t stay good for long, so we turned them into applesauce. (And we ate a lot of them fresh.) We ended up with 28 quarts of applesauce, which I stored in the freezer. It took me, my husband and son working together 7 hours to process all of the apples.

We didn’t have to add any sugar because they were naturally sweet.

How Much Did We Save?

The lowest price I have been able to find for organic applesauce is $2.50 for 16 ounces at Trader Joe’s. Just like our applesauce, Trader Joe’s applesauce only contains organic apples. There are 32 ounces in a quart, so one quart of Trader Joe’s applesauce is $5.00.

One quart of our homemade applesauce from apples on our rented tree is approximately $1.96. Overall, we saved $85 and will have enough applesauce to last us through the winter.

We also signed up for another apple tree in October for apples that are suitable for storage. We’ll be able to keep them in our refrigerator for several months and eat them fresh. If we get another 94 pounds, we’ll be paying just 58 cents a pound, which will be a significant savings over the grocery stores where I can never seem to find organic apples for less than $1.99 a pound.

It’s Not Just About the Savings

Still, it’s not just about the savings. What matters is that we know exactly where the apples came from and how they were processed. In addition, they are local, in season, and organic, which is the best way to eat food.

If you want to feed your family healthier foods but feel that they are out of your budget, don’t despair. There are several unique ways to feed your family organic food on a budget. Renting an apple tree is just one of those ways. We’ll be sure to do this again next year.

Have you done something like this? Do you buy food direct from the farmer?

Original Photo Credit:MetaphoricalPlatypus, on Flickr.