Today Jay and I share some of our favorite tools for banking, savings, investing, insurance, credit cards and boosting productivity.
Digit, for example, is a free service that pulls tiny amounts of money from your checking account — $2 here, $4 here. You don’t notice the missing money.
But after a few months, you log into your Digit account and notice that you’ve “accidentally” saved several hundred dollars.
Digit is free, automatic, and guarantees against overdrafts. It’s practically a no-brainer.
Find more awesome financial tools in today’s episode.
Roy Lagro @ Band of Savers
When talking about whole life insurance scam is definitely the right word to use. While working as an actuary for a life insurance company I was taught the inside world of how to make bank off of people’s deaths. But I’ve repented and left the insurance industry. If a life insurance salesman every tries to sell you a whole life policy ask him how much he makes off of the commission for selling that policy versus a term policy, guarantee he won’t tell you because he’s embarrassed that it’s 10-20 times the commission, that’s why they’ll push whole life at you so hard.
The first time that I heard about and started following J. Money was because of the DoughRoller.net podcast that you referenced 🙂
J. Money
Yikes!!! The whole insurance/banking world is just nuts to me and I don’t think any of us will ever fully understand just how corrupt parts of it are. Good thing we have people like you and Paula spreading the word!
Funny about Dough Roller too… I remember that interview so well and how I just flat out said I had no idea what I was doing really with investing, haha… I need to have him invite me back so I can gush all about Vanguard now! 🙂
Shayna
Great episode! I’m a fan of Capital One:
– their Spark Business Cash offers unlimited 2% cash back + $500 bonus for spending $4500 in first 3 months – I just scored this 🙂
– I also have their Venture Miles (personal) card – unlimited 2 miles/dollar + there’s a $400 bonus for spending $3000. Except I don’t use the miles to book flights; instead I just redeem travel purchases
– their 360 savings account lets you open “sub-accounts” with names, like Paula mentioned in the episode. I have auto-transfers set up so that I don’t have to remember to fund them.
J. Money
Oh, nice! I use them for my business stuff only, but didn’t realize you could do sub-accounts like that… ING really popularized that back in the day – so smart for people!
Whitney
For insurance, seriously, get an independent agent. Let them do the shopping around for you. I spent two weeks (yes, TWO WEEKS) contacting various insurance companies and getting quotes for our personal home and auto policies. Then I went back to my independent agent and they were able to provide the best price. Additionally, they are good about watching out for gaps in coverage (e.g. they ALWAYS quote policies with an additional rider for sewer backup, since they believe it is so important). I have 3 auto policies, 3 home (2 rental) policies, a personal umbrella, business liability and business worker’s comp so trying to shop all of that every year on my own would be torture.
J. Money
I didn’t even know that was a thing! Fabulous!
Whitney
I forgot to mention, whenever my insurance goes up by more than a little, I tell my agent that I’m unhappy and have them shop it for me again. I sit back and do nothing and THEY look for better prices. Can’t beat that.
Shawn
I love that fact that Paula and J finally got The Money podcast running. Been waiting for a while. I am the type of person who like to play “What Ifs” and likes having all bases covered. I know most people advice to have term for all of their life insurance needs. But isn’t alright to have some whole life to cover end expenses. I have see people who have term coverage but then get cancer or something else that makes then either uninsurable or harder to insure. If they had a whole life policy it would be enforce till the end right? Also one could be self-insured at the end by investments and saving accounts, but insurance is paid out tax free. It would be a form of liquid cash that wouldn’t be tied up. For it to right beneficiary forms do have to be kept up to date. I have term policy through my employer but also have both a term and whole life policy outside of work. My whole life makes up less than a tenth(0.10) of my total life insurance coverage.
J. Money
Thanks for listening Shawn! I personally don’t know too much about Whole and when it’s better vs not, but if it’s working for you and you’ve done the research/etc, then more power to ya. Always smart to do your own homework than just jumping in when others recommend things. Even us! 🙂
JAKE
you forgot to mention capital one360 checking and savings formerly ING direct orange banking I use it its awesome you get 1 checking acct and you can add up to 25 sub saving accounts with automatic deposits and goals
J. Money
Agreed – great way to split up the savings and stay motivated!
Diana L.
Hi guys!
I listened to every single podcast and now I need more! Anyway I loved this episode but I was hoping for a small business checking account recommendation. I recently started a side hustle with animals. (training and boarding)
As of now I am the only employee. The company is an LLC and I am not sure how I should go about declaring taxes and my own pay once I get to that point.
Do either of you have any links or recommendations for this?
J. Money
Awesome hustle – congrats!
I use Capital One for all my business stuff and it’s pretty decent. Not anything too awesome, but gets the trick done especially as they now have an app so you can deposit checks without having to go into the bank 🙂
Definitely a good idea to keep all biz $$$ separate from all personal money though, so you’re on the right track! I’d ask around for a recommendation on a good accountant that can help you walk through all the tax stuff and reporting and what not. One of the best things I’ve done ‘cuz I can pick up the phone anytime to ask questions and they’re always saving me money in areas I didn’t know about! Also good to know if you’ll need to pay taxes quarterly or not – you don’t want to be fined or get any nasty surprises later 🙁
Thanks for listening to the show! 🙂
Diana L.
Thanks for the quick reply and good advice!
Ann
Where is the affiliate link for smartypig? I’m excited about the good info in this episode.
Paula Pant
Thanks Ann! I don’t think SmartyPig has an affiliate program, but I’m grateful that you asked! That’s so nice!
Just head to SmartyPig.com to set something up. Hope you like it!
Celina
I was also looking for the SmartyPig affiliate link! Glad someone else asked and the answer is here.
Joe
Going back and re-listening to every episode, so, sorry for the random comment on the 3 year old episode… My question is about the travel credit cards. After you open the card and reap the benefit of spending 5k in 3 months (or whatever the perk du jour is) how do you manage all of the annual fees? Can you call and suspend the account so you dont have to close it, but dont have to pay?
Also, theres only so many travel perk cards out there, I hear about people opening several every year. Won’t they have everyone out there after a couple years? Is there a way to get the ‘new account bonus’ more than once, like close the account and open a new one a year later?
Hope the question makes sense… Thanks!