First Month of Amex Savings

Just about a month ago I opened a High Yield Savings Account with American Express where the interest is 1.30%. I opened the account with $5,130 and now have just over $6,600 in it. Of course I've been waiting for a month to go by so I could see what the interest earned would be, and it showed up today! A whopping $6.52!

I know this isn't a lot of money, but it is exciting because it's free money! So much more than if I had kept my cash at my local credit union where I was earning .25%.

The other option is to open a CD where the interest rate would be around 2.75% if I keep the money there for 5 years. I am thinking of doing this, but only with $1,000 or so. I hate the idea of keeping money tied up for 5 years when I don't have that much, just in case I need it.

One option I thought of was to set up a 2 year CD, 3 year, 4 year and then the 5 year. This way I would have access to my cash sooner, and then continue to set up 5 year CD's so that I will have a 5 year CD closing yearly and get the higher rates. This is all unless/until I decide to put money in a mutual fund where I would (hopefully) earn more interest.

Seems I have a lot to learn.

Still on track...

Two things I'm on track with...savings and going to the gym.

The month of October I was able to transfer $1,630.00 to my savings account! Yipee!!

Also, I've gone to the gym as planned, three times a week for a total of 10 times now! This is my fourth week of going and I do feel like it's becoming a habit.

This month I don't think I'll be able to save as much, but should still be able to reach my monthly goal of $1,000.00.

Confession...

In my last post I stated that I wanted to let my Branch Manager know that I would not be saving money in the Credit Union because American Express was offering a higher rate at 1.30%.

Yesterday I went to her branch and got to sit and chat. Talking with her is enjoyable and I found it interesting when she told me she learned a lot about finances by hearing other people's stories over the years. She would think, I want to have that, or, I'll never do that.

So, I told her about the Amex deal and that I took all the funds except $1,000 out of my savings account and made the transfer to the new account. She understood and said, "So you're here for confession?" I thought that was really funny :) and told her that it sure seemed that way!

I had to explain to her that the reason I wanted to let her know is to avoid thoughts of me falling off the wagon and using up my savings when this isn't the case.

No big deal, but I feel better :) I guess it was confession! LOL!

Children and Savings

When I was a young girl, I liked selling things and making money. I would be out with a typical lemonade stand, pushing a cart around and selling candy to the neighborhood kids, selling different beverages which parents thought was coffee (it wasn't)...anything to make money. The problem is...I never saved it. Most likely it was spent on penny candy from the corner market! Oh, which by the way, I always counted the pieces I received...if I paid 50 cents, I wanted 50 pieces, or whatever it came to before tax.

Seems like I always knew I wanted to make and save money but didn't have any teachers or role models to follow or look up to in this regard. However, when I was about 10 years old, I asked my mom to take me to the bank because I wanted my own savings account. She took me, and I got one. Unfortunately I never had more than about $10 in it and eventually closed it.

If I had proper direction, I could have had a LOT more saved! My mom is not a saver, and my dad isn't either although I thought he was. I wanted it, I craved it, but didn't know how.

When I was 15 years old I went out and looked for a job because of wanting to buy my own things, and got hired making $4.25/hr. Unfortunately I didn't save money then either, but I sure did have the coolest clothes I could afford!

The savings only started a few years ago and I emptied it when I did the Dave Ramsey thing and got out of debt. It was around $1k. So, now, I start again.

All this brings me to the reason I even posted this. Today I visited a branch of a bank I have an account with, not my primary credit union. While there I heard a lady behind me ask who to talk to about setting up a savings account. The teller told her where to go, and shortly after I heard someone ask how old he was, and a boy's voice said, "Twelve."

This made me remember wanting to set up an account when I was so young. It made me smile and feel really good that this boy was getting a savings account at a young age. My only hope is that someone teaches him how to save and it benefits him in the future.

Hindsight is 20/20

Savings Interest Rates

You know what really irks me? Current interest rates on savings accounts. My basic savings account is only at .25%! Yes, a quarter percent! I have another "special"savings account which is fluid, but if I take money out then I don't get interest on the remaining amount for a quarter, or something like that. Anyhow, that savings account gives me 1%, and with the small amount of just over $400 in that account, I earned a whopping 89 cents this quarter.

On the other hand, my basic savings account has close to $6,000 and this quarter I earned $2.76 at a .25% interest rate.

This "special" savings account requires a set amount to be transferred into it on a monthly basis from my checking account. Besides this, I am only allowed to change this set amount and add money to it once a year. When it was "open" this year, I kept the transfer amount at a measly $30 per month because it was so close to my debt free date and I didn't want to take any chances.

I'm thinking that at my next opportunity I will transfer a chunk of my savings to this "special" account and increase the transfer amount to at least $100 per month.

Oh, how I wish the rates would go up. Yes, I know I need to put money in other places, like maybe a CD or Money Market account, but feel like I have lots to learn before I can do this.