High Yield Rate: 1.39%

The very first thing we look at when thinking of a high yield online savings account is the annual rate. Ally Bank is offering a decent 1.39% (FDIC secured) interest rate.

Smaller Rate than SmartyPig but More Flexibility

I will make a few comparisons between the SmartyPig account and the Ally Bank product as they both offer some of the highest interest rates on the market right now (especially when you consider minimum deposit amounts and no fee accounts). When we compare rates, we have 2.01% for SmartyPig vs 1.39% at Ally Bank. While this seems like quite a difference, I would say that the latter gains additional points with its flexibility.

As you will see in the fees’ section, Ally Bank doesn’t require a minimum amount or monthly deposit. Therefore, it is easier to manage your money if you don’t have any specific goals or if you only want to invest a starting amount and leave it there as an emergency fund.

What About The Fees?

As you can see, the first 6 first transactions are free. However, it is quite expensive to use this kind of account as a regular savings account with a $10 charge per transaction exceeding the first 6. However, a high yield online savings account should show 1 to 2 transaction per month (a monthly or bi-weekly deposit ).

I also like the fact that you can write good old, paper checks from the online savings account without any additional fees.

There is no minimum balance and no monthly fees related to the online account. When compared to the SmartyPig high yield savings account, you can open the Ally Bank account without a systematic investment. In fact, you can open the account online with a 0$ balance.

The High Yield Rate Is Not A Promotion, It’s A Philosophy

Besides the flexibility offered by Ally Bank, I also like the fact that they really want to offer a high yield online savings bank account with the lowest fees possible and the highest interest rate.

Therefore, the 1.39 annual percentage rate on their savings account is not a promotion but their regular rate. Then, you know that your savings account won’t go from one of the highest interest paid to almost nothing like some banks do once their promotion is over. Ally Bank definitely wants to position its online account as a steady high paying interest account.

Along with this philosophy, Ally Bank is also compounding your interest on a daily basis as compared to other banks that do so monthly, quarterly or annually. The fact that the interest helps your money work harder for you and grow faster.

As with most well known online savings account, the Ally Bank high yield savings account is secured by the FDIC up to $250,000.

Before making a decision, look at this chart; the Ally Bank account is a real strong choice

For your information, I have compiled the highest paying saving accounts among all in this chart. SmartyPig looks like the most attractive due to a 2.01 APY% (and additional bonus if you take the gift certificate from specific stores) but the Ally Bank savings account is definitely the choice with the best combination of flexibility – low fees – high interest rate.

Bank

APY

Min Deposit

Review

Notes

Learn More

APYMin

9.65%

$0

APYMin

2.01%

$0

Review

Learn More

APYMin

1.50%

$100

APYMin

1.49%

$1,500

APYMin

1.35%

$500

APYMin

1.29%

$0

Review

Learn More

APYMin

1.25%

$10,000

APYMin

1.25%

$1

APYMin

1.16%

$10,000

Review

Learn More

APYMin

1.10%

$1

APYMin

1.10%

$1

APYMin

0.95%

$50

APYMin

.90%

$100

APYMin

0.85%

$5,000

APYMin

0.50%

$1,000

APYMin

0.50%

$1

APYMin

0.35%

$5

APYMin

.10%

APYMin

0.10%

$1

APYMin

0.05%

$1000

APYMin

0.05%

$100

Savings Account and Money Market Rates updated daily. Data provided by Debt Kid.

Author: Mike.

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We often leave the house for days at a time and I have developed several habits that save us money and protect our belongings.

• Turn down your hot water heater. Most homes in the United States have natural gas powered hot water heaters. When you are gone, obviously you do not use any of the hot water, but if your hot water heater regulator is set too high, the water will continually cool down and have to be reheated again. If you do not need the hot water, there is no reason to keep it hot. Do not turn your hot water heater off, but set it at a lower setting so that it only has to run once a day or once every two days. Just remember to turn it back on before you take your first shower when you return home . . . you could be in for a cold surprise!
• Turn down your heat. Same principle as the water heater, but you need to be aware of how cold you can allow your home to be without freezing your pipes. Err on the side of caution here. A plumbing accident is far worse than spending a couple extra dollars to heat your home. Where we currently live, I can turn the heat completely off, because the sun warms our house every day – even when the outside temp is below zero. In our former house, I could not turn the thermostat below 50 degrees F because of the freezing issue.
• Leave a light or two on, but make certain that the lights are CFL bulbs. I typically do not like compact fluorescent lighting, but if the lights are going to be on for a couple of days or a week, it is worth the time to change the bulb. Leaving a light on will give a feeling that the home is occupied, but more importantly, it allows passersby or police to see into your home. If the light is turned off unexpectedly, this can also be a warning to neighbors.
• Protect important papers. Your important papers should be in a safe place when you are out of the house. Fire can start when you are out of town, floods too. Birth Certificates, deeds, social security cards, titles, insurance forms are all items that are very difficult to replace if damaged – and if they happen to be stolen . . . well, identity theft is one of the worst things that can happen to you nowadays.
• Stop your mail delivery. This is really important. Mail is the most common way for your identity to be stolen. Do not allow mail to pile up in your mailbox. Go to the USPS website and hold your mail. Sometimes we have a trustworthy neighbor pick it up and store it for us – same with the newspaper.
• Trash pick-up. If we leave on a trash day, we will put out our garbage, but ask a neighbor to pull the cans back up by the house after they are emptied. If it is a long time until trash pick up when we leave, we lock our trash in the garage. Better to miss a trash day than to let someone dig through your waste.
• Water. Most of you will not have this problem, but I used to turn off the water to the whole house because we had a couple of faucets that dripped. I also wondered from time to time if the neighbors “borrowed” some of our water from the hose when we were out of town.
• Wash the dishes. This might not save you a lot of money, and I know that none of you would ever leave the house in disarray when you leave for vacation, but for the rest of us, isn’t it nice to come home to clean tile, vacuumed carpets and an empty sink?

Happy Trails!

Article by Stew

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I do not normally like to steal other people’s ideas, but I thought I would offer some responses to a recent article that I saw in a magazine. No, not online, an actually paper-and-ink glossy magazine that someone gave my wife and she had it sitting around the house. I do a lot of personal finance reading and naturally a title like “Save $2,010 in 2010!” would catch my eye. The article appeared in the January 2010 issue of Woman’s Day.

Here are the suggestions from the article and my peanut-gallery comments:

1. Reduce kitchen paper. WD suggests using fewer paper towels and switching to cloth napkins. Spending money on disposable paper is a major annoyance of mine, but I have not found too many ways to reduce kitchen paper usage other than trying to use half of a paper towel when possible. Cloth napkins? That might be a good idea. Following WD’s instruction will save you $83 over the course of a year.
2. Unhook the cable. If you currently subscribe to cable, this could be a huge savings – $600 +
3. Use rechargeable batteries. We do not use a ton of batteries, our digital camera is pretty much the only place where we use rechargeable batteries.  You could save up to $24 this way, but I am not sure if that savings will come in the first year, unless you use a lot of batteries.
4. Cut childcare costs. WD suggests opening a dependent-care flexible spending account. Not every company offers such an account and you would need to be in at least the 28% tax bracket in order to realize much savings. Should you qualify on all accounts, you can save as much as $900. We save childcare costs by having a stay at home mom and “trading” babysitting whenever possible.
5. Drop the landline. Many families are moving to all mobile phones or online services such as Skype in order to save the expense of a landline. WD puts the savings at $300. We have not had a landline since 2001.
6. Sell the gold. My kids see the “sell old gold” commercials on television all the time. They are convinced that we are going to get rich this way. The problem is that we do not have any old gold. WD suggests that if you do have gold to sell, take it to a jeweler, do not mail it in. I think this is sound advice. At the same time, I doubt that I will be making $200 anytime soon. Have any of you sold scrap gold for money?
7. Chop and grate. Stop purchasing vegetables, fruit and cheese that is already sliced, diced, pealed or grated. I do not know a whole lot about grocery prices, but WD estimates yearly savings of $260 using this technique. Is that accurate? It is worth it, if that is an accurate number.
8. Cancel the gym. Gyms can be one of the biggest money pits around. Some gym membership contracts are harder to get out of than an arms treaty. Cancel it and find a way to work out for free and you could save as much as $420 a year.
9. Reduce dry cleaning. We have little need for dry cleaning. I used to have to wear a suit and tie to work every day, so this cost was high. My current job . . . well, let’s just say that I wore a polo shirt and shorts recently and one of my coworkers asked why I was dressed up. No more drycleaning, annual savings: $120.
10. Think before you print. Ink cartridges are a killer on the wallet. Do everything you can to reduce the amount of printing – both black and white and color – that you can. We usually only have to replace our cartridges once a year, but it still costs close to $75. WD estimates that you could save $120 annually.

This list did not save me $2,010 this year, but if you are new to frugal living, you might find lots of areas on this list to reduce your spending. You and I can always make do with less. Believe me, we can.

Article by Stew

Photo by Seth Tisue

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Image: alamosbasement

When it comes to saving, sometimes starting small feels almost like not starting at all. A bit here and a bit there tends to add up like drops in a bucket. The important thing to remember though when it comes to saving money is that those drops can eventually grow to a trickle, then to a stream, then a torrential current of cash.

Using small ways to save is similar to the bundle of sticks story – remember the one that starts with the man easily breaking a single stick. Then he snaps two, even three sticks together. But when given an entire bundle of sticks, he finds it is virtually unbendable, let alone breakable. It’s much the same with small savings techniques. Many, seemingly inconsequential savings methods bundled together can significantly grow your nest egg to immense proportions.

1. Get rewarded for spending on a credit card

It might seem odd to begin an article on ways to save with a topic like credit cards. With interest rates often ranging anywhere from 10-20% percent (unless you get a zero balance transfer credit card), credit cards can be the arch nemesis to a savings plan, but only if you let them. First, you must ensure you pay off your balance each month to avoid those hyper-inflated interest rates. Second, get a credit card that offers cash back, store discounts, or other rewards and incentives, so that when you do spend, you also save.

2. Take advantage of balance transfer cards

If you are carrying a credit card debt then it will definitely be beneficial for you to transfer your credit card balance between cards, which will allow you to avoid paying the sizeable interest rate on a balance. Making such a move with your debt, say from a card with a balance of $1,000 and a 15% interest rate, to a card with an significantly lower or introductory 0% rate, can save you hundreds of dollars, if not more depending on the time it takes to pay off your balance.

3. Coupons will save you money

What if you saw a dollar bill taped inside the Sunday newspaper? Would you take it? Of course you would. Yet, there is a missing sense of urgency among many of us when it comes to coupons, which are essentially the same as cash. Certainly not all coupons are money savers, especially if they are used on particular name brand products that are more expensive than their generic competitors, but if you comparison shop and know a deal when you see one, coupons can turn small savings into big cash.

4. Start to save your spare change

Hey, if it worked when you were seven, it might just work when you’re thirty-seven. Hauling all that change to the bank to be turned in is often a big enough deterrent to make most people leave the jar where it is. Moreover, while all that change probably doesn’t look like much, you might be surprised how much cash you get when you eventually turn it in.

5. Save tax-free with government bonds

Putting money into government issued savings bonds can be a great way to save. These investment vehicles offer a low initial investment ($25 is the minimum E-series buy in), a secure way to save, and guaranteed (albeit sometimes low) returns. Taxes on U.S. government savings bond interest can also be deferred until the time the bond is cashed, allowing your investment to grow for up to 30 years tax-free, and if used for educational purposes might be tax-free altogether.

6. Set up a monthly direct deposit to a savings account

Direct deposit can be a small saver’s best friend. Diverting a portion of your paycheck, even if it’s only $20 each pay period, to a separate account, can add up to big savings over the years. That $20 deposit every two weeks is $520 a year, $5,200 after ten years, and that’s before you add any interest earned on the account.

7. Payroll deductions

Having certain items removed from your paycheck before you are paid is a small way to earn some big savings. Using deductions for an employer sponsored health plan, retirement account, or savings plan, can be a wonderful way to save without really noticing the loss of money. Not only are you stashing cash, but some of these deductions are pre-tax, saving you even more, especially over the long run.

8. Avoid taxes to increase your savings

There is a big difference between evading taxes and just avoiding them for a while. As we’ve already seen, everything from savings bond interest to certain payroll-deducted items can be tax deferred. Avoiding taxes will allow a larger portion of your money to grow, increasing your savings over time, and delaying the cost of taxes for years – sometimes indefinitely. When buying products or considering retirement, it is also important to consider sales and property tax rates since they can range widely depending on cities, counties, states, or regions.

9. Let your savings save

Once you’ve managed to start saving, let your stash work for you. Compound interest, dividends, and similar returns on investments can grow you’re money without you having to lift a finger. While sometimes the returns are small, over time, they can grow exponentially, and who can deny that free money, no matter how little, is nice to get.

10. Liquidating leftovers

Few people realize just how much money they have in their home, either in the form of books, CDs, DVDs, antiques, or other household items. Strip mall stores, resale shops, and a growing number of internet sites offer to purchase specific items such as textbooks, CDs, DVDs, and more. These businesses have made selling personal items a lucrative source of income for many. Reselling such belongings can be a great way to turn your unused items into cash.

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About the author

Kris is a personal finance writer who blogs about money management techniques for an Australian comparison website where you can compare credit cards such as cashback credit cards that actually help you make your money go further.

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I personally believe that Cash for Clunkers was a mistake . . . you might disagree  and you are welcome to your opinion – it’s a free country! (at the moment) If you do happen to believe that incentivizing consumer deficit spending through the use of government debt is a good idea, you will be happy to know that the next big thing is on the way this fall: Cash for Refrigerators. The government has set aside about $300 million for states to use to give out rebates to buyers of energy-efficient appliances like freezers, refrigerators, furnaces and central air conditioners.

The details of the program are still taking shape, but the hope is that the program will jumpstart the sale of energy efficient appliances.  Sales for household appliances are at their lowest level ever and there seems to be no signs of recovery. The stock prices for appliance companies like General Electric, Electrolux and Whirlpool have seen a small jump as news of the program has started to trickle out, however, I believe it is unlikely that there will be any sustained growth in this sector. (FYI: I am not an investment advisor and anyone who would make a a stock purchase because of something I write on this blog needs their head examined.)

Here are some of the details that I have uncovered in my research:

• States are responsible for deciding how to specifically spend the money.
• The amount of funding is roughly equal to $1 per person, so more populous states will get more funding.
• Refunds will range from $50 per appliance up to $200 per appliance.
• Most sources estimate that the rebates will begin to become available in late October or November.
• You can get more information from the Department of Energy website.

If you are already considering the purchase of an energy efficient appliance in the near future, you might want to wait until the details of the plan become available for your state in October or November.

So what I do I really think about this program? Well, I do not want to upset anyone who reads this blog, but here are a few questions/statements that I think are relevant:

• This is money that the government does not have, but it will have to take from us (or our children) at a later date. It must be repayed with interest.
• What happens when the $300 million runs out? Appliance sales will probably drop even further than they have over the last year.
• What happens when people who have a perfectly good refrigerator, but decide to go out and put a new fridge on the credit card because of a government rebate? Is the addition of more debt to their household a good idea right now?
• Remember that there are administrative costs to any program like this. How much money is the government spending in order to send all of us $300 million that belongs to us in the first place?
• When will our government give us incentives to save money?

The Smiths have an older washing machine and could save up to $80 in yearly energy costs by purchasing a new Energy Star model. So they go to Sears and find a new washer for around $700. The state rebate on this machine is $100, so they finance the rest with an in-store credit card at 10% APR. The Smiths will take three years to pay off the remaining balance. The total cost of the new machine for that family will be approximately $650. Over the three years, they will save about $80 in energy costs. So they spend $650 to save $240. If the machine lasts eight years, they will have broken even.

But that is not the whole story.

Our government is now another $100 in the red and it cost them another five bucks (estimated) to process the paperwork and reimburse the retail outlet. This money adds to our debt and the interest rate on our national debt is around 5%. Eventually, Congress will have to raise taxes on the Smiths in order to finance the $105 and since our government never pays down principle, the Smith’s, their children, their children’s children and on into perpetuity will have to pay a extra $5.25 in taxes every year. Of course, this does not take into account the inevitable rise in inflation due to the devaluation of the dollar.

Now I am not an economist any more than I am an investment advisor. I am just trying to do the math. If you understand this scenario in a different way, feel free to nicely explain where I went wrong! And if you can get a new appliance for $50 or $100 or $200 less than the asking price, I do not fault you for taking advantage, but make sure you understand what you are doing.

Photo by Ingorr

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I decided to share a few of my tricks to save money. Since my wife stays at home with our two kids, we must be careful with our spending and make sure we make savvy purchases.

We have lived together for the past 10 years. When we first started, we got all our furniture from friends and family. Absolutely nothing was new. While it was great 10 years ago, second hand furniture still has a maximum life expectancy! Recently, we had to buy a new bed for us (my mattress and my bed was 30 year old!) and another one for Amy (she just turned 2 so it was time for her to move up, into a real bed).

I always found there is a very thin line between wasting money away on goods and treating one’s self to something you really like. I must admit, I am not the model of frugality. I try to not waste money on emotional purchases and I also like really nice stuff. This is the internal fight between the angel of saving and the devil of spending… I have a strange feeling this will last forever!

Since we plan to keep our bed for another 20 years and Amy will probably keep hers for a good 10 years, we decided to look for brand new furniture.

How can you save money on brand new goods? Use your Network!

In this specific case, it was quite easy for me to buy cheap furniture as my sister-in-law works in a big furniture store. She gave me the “family discount” which was cost + 10%. Since she is working for a family owned company (not hers), they encourage their employees to refer their families with this huge discount.

One of my colleagues at work benefited from the very same trick (using her network). She was building a new house and needed new furniture. I had suggested that she take a look at this store and they gave her an additional discount since she was referred by someone “from the family”. Since I believe in helping others, I always try to introduce people I know to my network.

I always ask people what they do for a living. I ask pretty much everybody I encounter. More often than not, I even ask them what others in their family do as well. Occupational hazard I guess, comes from my day job (financial planner), it’s still a great way to learn about others and open your network of contacts. Usually people like to talk about themselves and their friends & family. On top of that, they love when their connections can help others. As such, I am never afraid to ask if I can call one of their friends for advice or to buy goods…

By using my network:

- I buy meat from a local butcher that is a my father’s friend. The meat is less expensive and tastes a lot better than what is found at the grocery store!

- I bought the ceramic for my new bathroom from a small shop owner who worked with my brother-in-law.

- The guy that did the renovations in my basement was a friend of a friend. Great job, cheap price (he did the electrical work as well!)

- I get suits half price from a co-worker I trained a few months ago.

- I did an amazing landscaping job for the front of my house and it cost me nothing! People we know gave us the plants, trees and flowers we used.

- I get a cheap price for a condo in France from one of my client’s mother for my future vacation (I still have to pay for it because of potential conflict of interest).

- I got flowers for my wedding at half the price as the sister of my wife’s colleague studied to be florist back then.

There are so many ways you can save when you are dealing with friends and their connections. They say that an individual has more than 100 friends/family members that he talks with on a regular basis. Therefore, if you talk to your 100 connections and they talk to their 100 connections and their connections do the same thing… you are building a saving network of infinite possibilities!

I was blessed to benefit from my father’s network to start mine. He is actually the master of networking. He talks to absolutely everybody he meets. The funniest part is that he does it naturally and as a result, makes friends. He just has a big mouth and loves to talk It turns out that people in general are more than willing to help and always find solutions for him when he talks about something he would like to do or buy… So don’t talk to people with a specific interest in the back of your head, just be friendly with as many people as you can and you will be rewarded one way or another.

image source: Luc Legay

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A frugal vacation is almost an oxymoron, but there are some small ways that our family has developed to reduce travel costs. Frankly, my idea of a vacation involves staying home . . . so maybe there is such a thing as a frugal vacation. Anyway, my job and our current financial situation do not allow for traditional vacations in the sense that we go to a particular location for the purpose of relaxation and entertainment. Our vacations merely consist of traveling to see family – we live roughly a thousand miles from both major relative groups – or work related trips. We spend a great deal of time on the road.

Sometimes my job allows me to combine work and play, so I try to book a “job” in a place that my family might like to visit and then take them along. As a result my three children, currently all under the age of seven, have accompanied me on trips to Georgia, Illinois, Florida (Orlando and Miami), Colorado, Wisconsin, Kansas and South Dakota – all via the road. The longest trip that we have taken as a family involved over thirty hours of driving. One of the worst trips that we ever took involved a four hour traffic stand-still in 20 degrees-below-zero temperatures in the middle of Iowa.

There is no way to really avoid spending money on the road, especially if your trip is long enough to require overnight stays and meals and there are times when traveling with three young children, that we throw frugality out the window and just get whatever will keep the kids quiet . . . admit it, we all have those moments. However, well planned trips can keep costs low. Here are a few suggestions:

Food

Pack snacks that are satisfying and don’t mess up your car. My top three car snacks are baby carrots, string cheese and apples – filling and relatively inexpensive. Take sandwiches in a small cooler for at least one meal during the day. If you pack a good lunch and a few hearty snacks, you can avoid expensive restaurants or fast food for at least two meals.

Visit your local grocery store and splurge before leaving on your trip. The most expensive snacks in your grocery store are far cheaper than anything in the gas station convenience store.

If you must eat out, make sure you carry plenty of coupons. If we have to eat out on the road, we decide where to go, by looking at our coupon folder.

Impulse buying will destroy your traveling food budget.

Have plenty of water with you so that you don’t have to spend money on something that is almost free in your own home.

Gasoline

Glblguy will not like this one, but we use a cash back credit card in order to purchase gasoline on all of our trips. It is the only way we really can save money in this area. The best scenario occurs when my employer reimbuses me for travel expenses. My card gets me 3% cash back on every purchase, when I turn in my receipts, I am reimbursed for the full amount spent. On a $100 gasoline purchase, I make an extra six bucks. Not a huge amount of money, but I’ll take what I can get.

Once again, this blog as a whole is not a “fan” of credit cards – our family has strictly defined budget categories for credit card use and we pay off our balance every month.

I have also found that I get much better gas mileage with higher grade gasoline. This is probably different with every vehicle, but if the price difference between the regular grade and the mid grade gasoline is less than 10% of the regular grade price, I purchase the mid grade. I have found that my vehicle gas mileage improves over 10% with mid grade gas, especially on the freeway.

Hotels

Once again, money spent on hotels is almost never well spent, however, I have a few strategies for keeping costs down in this area:

Purchase your hotel room online as far in advance as possible through an online cash back portal like Ebates or MyPoints. This could save you anywhere from $5 to $25 per night.

Become a member of every hotel chain loyalty club, purchase your room through Priceline or some other discount broker and then make sure that you are credited with a night’s stay through the loyalty program when you check out of the hotel. I keep all of my membership numbers written on a card in my wallet. The catch with loyalty programs is that you become committed to that particular chain, even when they do not offer the best price in town, but if you are a member of several programs, you can simply go for the lowest price. Eventually you will start to earn free stays.

If we are not certain how far we will be able to travel in a particular day, I get online and write down the phone numbers for several hotels along the route, near where we think we might stop. When we get an hour or so away, we start to call the various properties to see who has the best deal. Sometimes we can talk hotels down in price, sometimes we can play them against each other – especially later in the evening, and sometimes we end up driving an hour or two further in order to get a better deal. Once, when I was on the road by myself, I employed this strategy and discovered that all of the hotels in eastern Nebraska were completely booked. I spent the night, sleeping in the back of my pickup at a rest area in 80 degree temperatures, 100% (at least) humidity and mosquitoes . . . Fortunately, that has not yet happened while my family was along.

We always stay at a place that includes breakfast. For a family of five, a free breakfast can save us a lot of money.

Restroom breaks

All I can say here is, when nature calls, do your best to stop at the highway rest areas, they are typically cleaner and will not tempt your family to purchase overpriced, unhealthy items.

Not-so-frugal travel suggestions:

If you have small children, take special note of large malls with play areas along your route. If your kids really need a break, there is no substitute for a play area at a mall. If you can resist the temptations posed by the stores, food court and coffee shops, so much the better.

The older I get and the more I stay in hotels, the more I value hotel cleanliness. I will often pay an extra $20 to $30 for a hotel room in a chain that I am confident will be clean. Not the most frugal suggestion . . . but if I can avoid cockroaches, greasy bedspreads, and strange hairs in the restroom for twenty-five bucks, I will do it.

By all means, stay alert. You need to figure out your limites, but if you are falling asleep on the road, pull off, get a room or at least spend some money on an energy drink.

Our favorite on-the-road restaurant is Chik-fil-A. Costs a couple of bucks more than the Wendy’s or McDonald’s dollar menu, but it is a smidge healthier and typically much cleaner.

Photo by Toastie14

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I received an email from ING this week making me aware of a new site (or at least new to me) they have called ING Compare Me (www.ingcompareme.com).  The site is basically a tool that allows you to compare your savings and debt against others like you.  To be honest, I’ve never really gotten a great deal of value out of comparing myself to others, but thought I would check it out as it sounded interesting.

ING Compare Me

ING Compare Me basically walks you through a series of questions about your spending, investing, debt, and planning.  Before jumping in though, you have to complete a little profile information so that the tool can compare you to your peers.  Required fields within your profile are: age, gender, household income, and marital status.  Additional optional information such as education, location, number of children, ethnicity, etc can also be entered, but isn’t required.

The tool is done in the traditional high quality and ease of use I’ve come to expect from ING.  It’s very easy to figure out and is just plain “slick”.  I did find some of the questions a little more useful than others.  ING must have recognized this and added a feature in the bottom corner that allows you to rate how useful you found each question.   An example question that I found rather useless is:

After specifying your answer, the tool will show you how other people answered (based on %).  While I found this question to be of no value, I do recognize that there might be others who do.  I’m just not seeing it.  Incidentally, these questions (there are 5 of them) are the lowest ranked questions in the tool.

The end result of the tool is a really nicely formatted PDF report that summarizes your answers.  The report provides suggested next steps for each of the questions that is dependent on the answer you provided.  The report can be used as input into a personal finance plan or to take to a personal finance professional.  The later being the main purpose of the tool.  It seems as if ING is beginning to focus on financial planning services.

Overall it’s an interesting tool for getting a perspective on where you are compared to other people like you.   With that being said, each of us has unique goals and objectives in our lives, so you must remember that just because you are doing as well or better than everyone else doesn’t mean you are on track for your own personal financial goals.

ING Your Number

Another tool that ING has, which I found from the Compare Me report is ING Your Number.  This tool helps you determine the dollar number you’ll need to support your retirement needs.  I found this to also be an excellent tool.

The tool is very interactive, and even includes a rather large actor that comes in and talks you through the process.  I found this a bit annoying, so I selected “Quick Mode” which skips that.  Also, the actor comes in rather quick, and “he” startled me since I wasn’t expected…so you’ve been warned!

I hadn’t really thought through “My Number” in a while, and it turned out to be a little higher than I recalled.  I need to go to the retirement planning I did a few years back and see if I can find the difference.  If you aren’t sure how much you’ll need, ING Your Number is a really quick and what seems to be accurate way of determining your retirement needs.  I’d highly recommend you give it a try and adjust your retirement contributions accordingly.

Have you tried them?  What are your thoughts?  Are you aware of other similar tools like these?  Add a comment!

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Be Smart: Look for Free or Discounted Shipping Deals

There are a number of aggregating shipping deals across multiple retailers. My personal favorite is FreeShipping.org. I like it for a few reasons: it is free and clean. The site provides exhaustive information for you to decide if the offer suits your needs. You can navigate it using the list of categories (to the right), via the merchant brand names (with help of the drop-down menus) and using the search option (it will search by the retailer’s name).

If you are a frequent shopper, you can also subscribe to their mailing list and receive weekly deals to your email box.

Each page dedicated to a separate retailer contains comprehensive information on the deal: the coupon code, expiration date and the conditions to qualify. Note: the site lists free shipping offers without conditions (that is, your purchase will be shipped to you for free no matter what you buy) as well free shipping deals with minimum purchase (your purchase will be delivered for free if your order total is over the set minimum) and free shipping deals on the selected items. Besides the deal details, you will also be able to see the merchant’s official shipping and return policies. Here is the exampe of the retailer’s page – Macy’s coupons:

Be Picky: Let Shipping Providers Bid for Your Package and Choose the One That Fits

UShip is an online auction that “lets customers choose the Transportation Service Provider who will give them the best service at the best price”. You will be able to register there for free and choose the lowest possible price for your package to be delivered. The sign-up process is fast and smooth. Immediately after the sign-up you will be offered to specify the details of your package. You will be able to provide the exhaustive information of it to save time on further discussion with the service provider – you can even upload a photo and add comments.

The auction is eBay-style meaning you can view the service provider’s ratings and reviews and thus avoid any sort of scam.

You can also link your eBay account to your UShip account to get your purchased shipped with ease.

Be Prepared: Estimate Your Shipping Charges Beforehand

Two online calculators will allow you to estimate the shipping cost and also compare it throughout major service providers. One is ShippingSideKick. It compares shipping rates for USPS, UPS, FedEx and DHL.

ShipGooder is another one. Transportation services listed include the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx, DHL, Purolator, Canada Post and various local couriers. You can choose the table view: to compare either by days or couriers. You are also able to save the report in Excel, print it or email it to a friend:

The guest post by Ann Smarty – check out her SEO Consulting blog or follow her on Twitter.

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I read about a woman who saved her $5 bills for 3 years and saved $12,000! I thought it would be cool to conduct my own experiment & see what I could do for the month of December. Up until this decision, I didn’t use a lot of cash, mostly my debit card, but I had wanted to transition over to cash (for more accountability) anyway, so this was the perfect time. I took out my ‘play’ money at the beginning of December and went on with life.

This ‘play’ money is budgeted every month. I use it for special treats I may want for the office, eating out and other little things I may want or need during the month. More often than not, I would not ‘want’ it so much when it actually came down to buying it. My play money amount is $200 per month.

I can’t tell you how many times I would break a $20 and wait in anticipation to see what I received back. It became the funniest game to me. More often than not, I would get 2 and sometimes 3, $5’s back. I would just laugh and into the envelope they would go. One time, I was going to pick something up at the store & my mom asked me to pick something up for her and handed me 2 fives, LOL. Into the envelope they went! I admit there was a time when I came close to using a $5, but I held fast and did not use it. I decided I did not need the item that bad and stuck to my guns.

At the end of December I counted up my fives and found that I managed to save $65! So I thought I would just keep going. I did not count them at the end of January and I have continued on through today. As of today, I have… $230!!!

An added bonus to saving the $5 bills is I have found that I am totally stingy when it comes to my cash! I have even managed to have extra play money left over each month. I just turn it into the next month’s cash ‘kitty’ so I am always a little ahead in case something drastic comes up.

I am not sure how long I will continue to do this but, it certainly has not been as hard as I though it would be. A few things I could do with the money are:

1. My nephew has a birthday coming up and he has been saving for a Nintendo Wii so I could contribute some to that.
2. I have a friend that is having her first baby and could give some to the new baby for his first savings account.
3. I also know someone that has been out of work and could really use help with bills about now.

I know, I could put it in savings (I have a daily interest savings), but if I can help someone out and/or make them happy, then why not? What would you do?

Thank you so much to GLBL for letting me guest post on his blog. If you haven’t subscribed, you need to. Gather Little by Little is awesome. – Bobbi

From Glblguy: This was a guest post from Bobbi who’s been a reader of Gather Little by Little almost since the beginning.  She and I have exchanged emails off and on and I finally asked her if she would be interested in writing a guest article for me.  Bobbi, you are most welcome and thank you for being such a loyal reader!

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