So, where do you keep YOUR money?
I received an email this weekend asking about good places to have financial accounts, as the emailer was not sure what investment companies were good, bad or ugly. So I wanted to write out this list about where we keep our money for various things like retirement, emergency funds, etc and hope it answers some of his questions.
General banking
Though a lot of people have a big problem with Bank of America, we have been with them for years and have not (knock on wood) had any issues yet. We have our checking accounts and our measly savings account with them, and we do all of our online banking and bill paying through their site as well. The advantage to being with a big national bank is that there are ATM’s everywhere in this country that we do not have to pay fees to use. The disadvantage is that it is sometimes difficult to get customer service to answer a phone call. I am sure that if we lived in a small town we would use a local bank where they might know our name, but while we are in this giant metropolis we will stay with Bank of America. One thing I do like about them is that I can see all my accounts, from credit cards to frequent flier miles, on their site through the My Accounts tab. Makes keeping track of everything a lot easier. Also, their Keep the Change program has definitely helped us save a few extra bucks.
Retirement Savings
We hold our retirement accounts at TRowePrice and have never had a problem with them either. I started some of these accounts a long time ago, and the reason I went with them was that you could open any account, from a mutual fund to an IRA, for just $50 per month on their Automatic Asset Builder program. So for someone that does not have a lot of money to put into these accounts at first, this program enables you to get into mutual fund/retirement investing without the large initial deposit that most brokerages require. As long as you put $50 in automatically every month, you can open any account you want with them. And their customer service is great, too.
Emergency Fund
We hold our emergency funds at ING Direct. Though there are a few online banks that pay a little bit more interest, we have found ING to have great customer service and a very easy to use website, and it is just not worth moving our accounts over to another bank right now. Money transfers take a few days, but earning 4.5% instead of the 1% or so at BofA makes us a lot more money. Plus, having the money somewhere where you can’t get to it asap stops you from spending it for anything other than a true emergency. Also, if you are NOT in debt, you can store the money from a 0% balance transfer there and actually make money from your credit cards. If you don’t have an account there but wish to open one, contact me and I will give you a referral code for a $25 bonus into your account. I get $10 for referring you and you get $25; it’s a win-win and it’s free money!
Vacation Fund
We hold our vacation fund at ING as well, in a separate account than our emergency fund. Sure, we might be losing a few pennies in interest every month because the accounts are not combined, but keeping some extra money available for vacations is worth it to us. Every once in a while I transfer a hunk of money into this account for when the day comes when we want to take a vacation. This way, we don’t have to go into debt to go away! Even just $25 a month can give you one long weekend away, “free” of charge as you have already put the money away.
Mutual Funds
Though we only have a few of them, our mutual funds are held at TRowePrice as well as our retirement IRA’s. Again, ease of use, low start up costs and great customer service is why we have our money there. Plus, their funds (at least the ones I have) have done very well for us over the years and the management fees are very reasonable.
DRIP Stock account
Because a relative of mine worked for a big bank many years ago, and that bank has traded up and up to be bought by BofA, I have a substantial account held by Computershare of BofA stock. (Yet another reason I bank with them; I guess if I own a percentage of the company I should use them, no?) So this account sits there, reinvesting its dividends in more and more shares of BofA. Sure, if the bank collapsed we would lose a lot, but this is what I consider a gift and not anything I put away, and the last several years has been very good to us with this stock. Besides, once a year we sell some shares and move the money elsewhere so we don’t feel like we have so much tied up in one stock. But seeing what this stock has become since my relative had shares 50 years ago in whatever bank it was back then is a reminder of what stocks can do over the long run.
“Play” stock account
My play money is over at Scottrade because trades are only $7. There are no account minimums and no account fees, so it makes sense to have it as a place where I don’t do much trading. While I used to play more with individual stocks, I got burned badly in the dotcom crash so now I just use a little extra play money to buy and sell stocks here, while trusting the mutual fund managers to do better with my real money. You can see the individual stocks I own in my sidebar near the top, and these usually change about once or twice a year. But this group I have now, except for the satellite radio company, have done well lately and don’t think I will be selling any of them. I might pick up one or 2 new ones this year, but like I said, I let the big guys play with my real money.
Extra places we put some cash away
While the above are the places we have most of our money, we also have money stashed at various other places, whether by choice, inheritance or otherwise. We have money in a California tax exempt bond fund (inheritance), a credit union from my hometown (parent used to work for the head company), some at Putnam (inheritance), insurance policies, a paid-for car, and some in the change jar in our office. It is also a good idea to keep some money at home in case something happens (power outage, earthquake, etc) and your bank’s ATM’s don’t work, so we keep some here at home too.
You should be sure to diversify your money not only in the investments you make, but also the locations where you keep it as well. I was told a long time ago by my grandfather to never keep all your money in one place…one bad move by some idiot can make it all disappear. So while putting all of our cash in one account could hypothetically make us more interest per year, I feel better knowing that my money is not all with one company, just waiting for that idiot to make his move.
I hope this post gives that emailer a few ideas as to where to keep his money; where do you keep YOUR money?
Well, here is where I keep my money:
General Banking – HSBC… lots of local branches here for easy access and its free.
Emergency Fund – HSBC Online Savings account. Good interest rate (5.05%) and in a real emergency I can get the funds immediately from my local branch instead of having to wait 2-3 days for the funds to transfer from an online bank.
Retirement Savings – My work 401k is administered by T Rowe Price so don’t really have a choice there, but have been pretty happy with them. My ROTH IRA is at Vanguard who I like for their low expense ratios.
Mutual Funds – I don’t have any outside my retirement savings… I only invest in ETFs right now.
DRIP Stock account – My parents used to buy me stock for birthdays / holidays so I have a few of these scattered around at Compushare, Bank of New York, and Mellon.
Stock Account – Zecco has free trades… can’t beat the price. I’ve been doing all my stock and ETF trades in here lately but I still have accounts at Ameritrade Izone and Scottrade.
Thanks for the list Chuck. How has your experience been with HSBC? I love ING, but often times I get mad at myself for not just going for the higher interest rate.
HSBC has been pretty good. The online savings account works best when paired with a HSBC checking account because internal transfers are next day versus taking 3 days for external transfers (I think thats the same as ING but a couple other online banks are faster).
[…] Where I Keep My Money By Martin I saw a post on My Two Dollars about where he currently keeps his money, so I thought it would be a good idea to share where I keep mine. Bear in mind that this article will be very short as I do not have a lot of money. […]
Thanks for the info Chuck. I might have to look into them. I had read that they had some hiccups for a while there but maybe they have gotten everything sorted out!
E-fund ING
Stocks Sharebuilder
401(k) Vanguard
Mutual Funds TRowe Price
Checking local credit union
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[…] David presents So, where do you keep YOUR money? posted at My Two Dollars. […]
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checking – local credit union
accrual (property tax, insurance prepay, etc) – local credit union ‘gold’ account
e fund – ING
401(k) – Schwab (work, no choice)
Roth – Vanguard
Stock ESSP and profit sharing – UMB (work, no choice)
Other Stocks – hold actual share certificates as of 1 Jan – need to move to a DRIP account asap (past employer cancelled ESSP accounts for all former employees and retirees)
US savings bonds – some paper in safe dep box, some at TreasuryDirect
[…] unions to online savings accounts to companies like PayPal, the choices are seemingly endless. I wrote about this before, but things have changed a little since then. So to maybe give you some ideas, I figured I would […]