Within the past decade, the concept of cash back has become the norm with almost every new credit card offering some form of cash back. Most cash back cards, like the popular Capital One Quick Silver card, offer 1.5% on all purchases. The Citi Double Cash Card offers 2% cash back on all purchases. 1% when you buy and 1% when you pay your bills. Then there are the 5% quarterly bonus cards from Discover where the limited 5% cash-back…
Credit scores are important if you ever want to get a good job, get a loan to buy a house or pay for a car, or get a new credit card. It scores your borrowing power among other things. The credit score oddly ranges from 300 to 850. The higher the score the better. Anything above 720 is considered a great credit score, giving you the best rates on loans and the best credit card offers. There are many factors…
BlockFi is a crypto company that offers Interest Accounts, Trading Accounts, and Crypto-backed Loans. If you use Coinbase or another brokerage for buying your Bitcoin, Ethereum, or other crypto, you can transfer your money to BlockFi's Interest Account and earn as high as 8.6% APY on your crypto. I started using BlockFi back in January of 2021 by transferring 2.4 ETH of my Ethereum. Within the past 2.5 months, I have earned $38.40 in interest. Starting a few weeks ago,…
Growing up you were probably taught how important it was to save your money. Maybe it was your parents or a friend or teacher who convinced you to save. Most people just use the same bank their parent's used, or they open a savings account with a local bank because of the convenience. Brick & mortar banks are often the worst banks to use for your savings. They usually charge fees, have minimum balance requirements, and have very low interest…
There are two mindsets when it comes to money. You can be someone who likes to borrow or you can be someone who likes to save. On March 19th, I received an email from Betterment explaining that my Cash Reserve APY is going down from 0.4% to 0.3%. I quickly checked some other high yield bank accounts and found that Discover just went from 0.5% to 0.4% APY. I expect more banks and brokerages to lower their rates soon. In…
I have been passively investing with Betterment since 2015, but I recently opened another brokerage account and Roth IRA with M1 Finance. I also convinced my wife to open her first Roth IRA with Wealthfront so that I can use and compare all three. I have written comprehensive reviews on all three platforms so I won't go into every feature offered by these three companies. If you want to skip the reading, scroll down to see the table comparing the…
In 2008, KaChing! was founded. Why am I talking about KaChing!? Because KaChing! changed their name to Wealthfront in 2012 and revamped their services and platform to compete with Betterment. At the time, Betterment was well known as being the best robo-advisor platform. They revolutionized and ignited the robo-advising financial services industry. Up until recently, Wealthfront's growth was slow. Within the past 2 years, they have redone their marketing and website design to target and attract Millennials and Generation Z…
Brick and mortar banks offer very low yield savings accounts. To name a few, these well known banks offer only 0.01-0.02% APY - WellsFargo, PNC, and TD Bank. If you want a high yield savings account offering 0.3% to 0.6% APY, you will have to go with an online savings account like Ally Bank, Discover, Citi Bank, Capital One, AMEX, or little known small online banks like Vio and One. As with most savings accounts, you are limited by fees…
M1 Finance is a U.S. based online financial services company offering brokerage and custodial accounts, lines of credit, checking accounts, and IRA's. They are an SEC registered broker dealer and a member of FINRA and SPIC. Like Betterment and Wealthfront, M1 Finance is a robo-advisor, offering financial advice and pre-built expert portfolio's for everyone. Want a Green energy portfolio? They have it. Want a retirement based portfolio? They have it. Want a growth based portfolio or a dividend investment portfolio?…
Betterment, a smart money manager and robo-advisor, is a brokerage that offers retirement, investment, and cash accounts. Like Mint, NerdWallet, Wealthfront, and Personal Capital, Betterment allows you to link your external accounts (Banking, Mortgage, Loans, Credit, Home Value, Other Retirement Accounts and Brokerages) so that it can offer better advice and help you track your net worth and goals. If you are interested in growing your wealth with Betterment after reading this post, join through my referral link https://financethrottle.com/go/Betterment and…
