Six ways you can be smarter about money starting today

At LendingPoint, we’re all about practical advice on how to be smart about money. That’s why we share great articles and blog posts that get right to the point and offer serious and actionable advice.

Today’s example: Be Better With Money Today By Doing These 6 Things, by Dani Pascarella. Dani speaks truth here:

If you want to be better with money, do something today to start changing your behavior and shifting your money mindset. Not sure where to start? Here are six things you can do today that will improve your financial situation and the way you think about money.

Here’s item #1 of 6:

If you could pay $144/year or make $21/year, which would you choose? You’d want to earn that $21, right?

So ditch that mainstream bank and switch to an Internet-based bank instead. Big banks have to pay rent for all of their physical locations, which means they have less money to pay you in interest and they typically charge you more fees. Internet-based banks, on the flipside, don’t have to pay for brick and mortar locations and are able to pass those savings along to you. On top of that, FDIC insurance makes both types of banks equally safe for deposits up to $250k.

Back to our example, one of my clients had a savings account with a $2,000 balance. She was being charged a monthly maintenance fee of $12 ($144/year) just to keep the account open and was only making a pathetic 0.01% APY in interest.

We switched her account to an Internet-based bank that doesn’t charge any monthly fees and has an interest rate of 1.05% APY. So instead of paying $144/year just to have a savings account, she is now pocketing $21/year in interest.

If you’re interested in making the switch, two of my favorites are Ally Bank and Synchrony Bank. Both currently have an interest rate of 1.05% APY and don’t charge any monthly maintenance fees for savings accounts.

There are five more where that came from. What are you waiting for?