Open a Savings Account! (with a Good Rate!)

Next step to growing up, realize what to do with the money that you have. You probably have a checking account and a savings account. Let's fix those up.

Checking:

Is your checking account free with no monthly fees and no ATM fees? If yes, skip to the next paragraph. If no, find one. Find A Better Bank is a great resource for finding one. I'm not going to make a recommendation, except that having a debit card connected to your checking account is very convenient!

Savings:

Here's where the important stuff comes in! Your savings account should be growing constantly. (If you have enough money, you can even start investing in a 401(k), but we'll discuss that later.) But you want a savings account with a high interest rate so that you will receive the highest return on your investment. Now a few years back, you could find a bank that would give you 4 or 5% back! Those days are long gone unfortunately, now 0.6% is a good rate. Sad, right? Before I looking into this, I want getting 0.04% back on my savings account. So about 4 cents a month. Now I have an account with 0.75% interest, and I'm making $0.85 a month. Still not great, but it will add up!

https://home.capitalone360.com/referafriend?save=5XPeDjLUpD

Now feel free to do your own research on savings accounts. The highest rate I found was about 0.8%, but it came with questionable customer service. So I went with Capital One 360 (formerly ING Direct), who give me a 0.75% interest rate. I highly recommend them, and if you use this link to sign up, I'll get a bonus and you will too! Even if you don't want to use my link, I recommend this bank. Since it's all online (no physical branches), they can save on overhead and provide you the most bang for your buck. They also have automatic savings plans, where you can have a certain amount of money transferred to your savings account each month; a very wise thing to do!

Don't forget, your checking and savings accounts do NOT have to be at the same bank. You can mix and match to find what best fits you. But the sooner you set this up, the better off you will be. Contact me for any questions and good luck!