Month: April 2016

Learning Some Life Skills

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Frugal Boy got a doggy bank for Easter and he loves to put money into it.  He even has a couple of dollar bills from a card given to him.

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I am pretty sure that he doesn’t understand money, or the fact that it can be traded for more practical 2 year old things.  If he did understand, he’d probably be trying to get that deposited money back out, but that is a lesson for another day.  Right now, Shae and I are content to start building a habit of putting money in a ‘safe’ place.

Another life skill that we have been working on is grocery shopping.

IMG_5114He is good at not running into things or people, but we are still working on the concept of “Yours and Not Yours” or “The Stores vs Ours”.  Those red grapes are awfully tempting, and he would frequently try to dash up and grab a couple while we were busy.  He also thought that a gallon of not-butter should be placed in the cart, along with a carton of eggs.

Yesterday we went to the Peoria Zoo, Riverfront Museum, and Children’s Playhouse.  All of the Peoria museums were having a membership swap day, so it was free admittance if you had a membership at any of them.  We used our Prairie Wildlife memberships to gain access.

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It was a cold day and the indoor places were packed with people.  So instead of eating shoulder to shoulder with the crowds we employed a travel trick and went where the people weren’t.

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Packing a picnic lunch is always a good life skill to learn.

Speaking of food, Frugal Boy has started to associate running with a good thing.  About a month ago, when his aunt visited, Shae and I took our morning run with the jogging stroller as an opportunity to get donuts from our local bakery.  Ever since then, Frugal Boy asks for donuts when we go on our morning run.  We indulged him again yesterday.  Hopefully exercise is now permanently associated with good things.

 

The DIY 3 Month 5.44% CD

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What if I told you that you could make your own FDIC insured certificate of deposit, that had the following terms:

  • 3 month duration
  • 5.4% rate
  • $15,000 minimum (anything greater than 15k will not earn interest)
  • FDIC insured

Does it sound too good to be true?  Good news, it is true.  Granted this is a Do-It-Yourself package, so it lacks the convenience of ‘official’ deals.

Here is the quick and dirty on how to make up this ‘CD’ for yourself.  Note: You will need a local Chase bank branch in order to complete this.

Step 1

Obtain one of these Chase coupons.  They can often be found in the junk snail mail, your email inbox, or in a pinch eBay.

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Step 2

Open a Chase savings account in branch and fund it with $15,000 of new money.

Step 3

After the $200 bonus (aka “interest”) posts, withdrawal $14,900 to your regular accounts.

Step 4

After 6 months has passed from account opening, withdrawal the remaining $300 and close the account.  The final $300 keeps monthly fees at 0.

Step 5

Profit!  Congratulations, you made your own 3 month ‘CD’ with a rate far better than anything that you would find in pre-packaged deals.  If you have a spouse, you could effectively turn this into a 6 month CD by shuffling the original seed money around accounts.  A quick internet search showed that the best official CD rate for a 3 month term is 0.83%.

 

All of the fine print is below:

Chase SavingsSM has no Monthly Service Fee when you do at least one of the following each statement period: Option #1: Keep a minimum daily balance of $300 or more in your savings account; OR, Option #2: Have at least one repeating automatic transfer of $25 or more from your Chase personal checking account (available only through Chase OnlineSM Banking); OR, Option #3: Have a linked Chase Premier Plus CheckingSM, Chase Premier Platinum CheckingSM, or Chase Private Client CheckingSM account. Otherwise a $5 Monthly Service Fee will apply. A $5 Savings Withdrawal Limit Fee will apply for each withdrawal or transfer out of this account over six per monthly statement period.

To receive the $200 savings bonus: 1) Open a new Chase SavingsSM account, which is subject to approval; 2) Deposit a total of $15,000 or more in new money into the new savings account within 10 business days of account opening; AND 3) Maintain at least a $15,000 balance for 90 days from the date of deposit. The new money cannot be funds held by Chase or its affiliates. After you have completed all the above savings requirements, we’ll deposit the bonus in your new account within 10 business days. The Annual Percentage Yield (APY), for Chase SavingsSM effective as of 2/22/16, is 0.01% for all balances in all states. Interest rates are variable and subject to change. Additionally, fees may reduce earnings on the account. You can receive only one new checking and one savings account opening related bonus each calendar year and only one bonus per account. Bonuses are considered interest and will be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT.

**Account Closing: If either the checking or savings account is closed by the customer or Chase within six months after opening, we will deduct the bonus amount for that account at closing.