Ally Invest and Ally Bank: Access High-Yield Vanguard and Fidelity Money Market Funds

Ally Invest is the self-directed brokerage arm of Ally Financial, and you may have an account from previous TradeKing and/or Zecco mergers. Ally Invest just removed their $9.95 mutual fund transaction fee, including for money market funds: At … [Read the rest]

Best Interest Rates on Cash – February 2023

Here's my monthly roundup of the best interest rates on cash as of February 2023, roughly sorted from shortest to longest maturities. We all need some safe assets for cash reserves or portfolio stability, and there are often lesser-known … [Read the rest]

Tiicker: Shareholder Perks: New $100 Amazon GC Offer

Update: Tiicker has added a few new Perks for Real Good Foods, the most direct one being a $100 Amazon gift card for holding 50 shares of RGF with no minimum holding period. There are also other bigger perks for holding a lot more shares for at … [Read the rest]

Alliant Credit Union $400 Banking Bonus ($300 For Existing)

Alliant Credit Union has a new FastPass promo worth up to $400 total, broken up as follows: $100 for Savings Account. Open a savings account by March 31, 2023 plus have a minimum $1000 savings average daily balance on April 30, 2023 to earn a … [Read the rest]

Free Investing Book PDF – Two Funds For Life (Merriman and Small Value)

Paul Merriman is a long-time financial advisor known for his "Ultimate Buy-and-Hold Portfolio" that utilized a more complex 10-fund version of a low-cost index fund portfolio that includes additional exposure to certain asset classes. Although now … [Read the rest]

Capital One 360: 11-Month CD at 5.00% APY

Capital One 360 has a new special 11-month CD at 5.00% APY. Note that unlike many other 11-month CDs, this one does have an early withdrawal penalty of 3 months of interest, and it looks like they will eat into principal if you withdraw in the … [Read the rest]

$6,000 IRA Contribution Goal 2022 Final Results: $6,259+ in Total Bonuses

2022 Year-End Update. Each year, I have a side goal of earning the equivalent of the maximum annual IRA contribution limit ($6,000 for 2022) using the profits from various finance promotions alone. In 2021, I reached $5,592 in bonuses and $2,500+ … [Read the rest]

Primis Bank: Premium Checking and Saving 4.35% APY (5.03% APY for Grandfathered Customers)

Update 2/17/23: Primis announced that new customers will only get 4.35% APY. Existing customers who got in while it was 5.03% APY will be grandfathered in for the time being (duration unknown). You were one of the first – and you deserve the … [Read the rest]

Steady Investing Returns: $833 a Month x 10 Years = $145,000 (2013-2022)

Instead of only looking at year-to-date or last year's return numbers that are often quoted in the media, I also like to take a longer-term perspective (especially on down years). How would a steady investor have done over the last decade? … [Read the rest]

CreditUnion1 High Yield Savings Plus $1,000 Deposit Bonus

CreditUnion1 is offering a $1,000 bonus on its High Yield Savings Plus account. This promo requires a $100,000 minimum deposit held for 12 months, so it has a limited audience, but it does provide an opportunity to understand why some of these … [Read the rest]

Home Ownership Affordability: Historical Factors and Charts

The recent double-whammy of rising home prices and quickly rising interest rates has created a drop in home sales. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta created the Home Ownership Affordability Monitor (HOAM) Index, which tracks the ability of a … [Read the rest]

Callan Periodic Table of Investment Returns 2022 Year-End Update

It's the same at the end of every year. People will explain 2022 to you like it was obvious that cash would be king, and the proceed to make confident predictions about 2023. Humility may not get you a lot of social media followers, but it's a … [Read the rest]