The concept of Velocity Banking revolves around paying off your loans in large chunks using borrowed money from a line of credit, allowing you to save thousands in interest and many years off in paying your amortized loans. As a Velocity Banker, you take what is left over in your account each week or each month and use it to pay down your Line of Credit. When you have a bill to pay, borrow money from your low interest line…
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…
No parent is perfect. Even I admit making some of these mistakes when teaching my daughter about money. Here are 9 mistakes that parents make when teaching their children about finance. 1. Keeping Quiet The biggest financial mistake a parent can make is not teaching their children about money at all. If you want to give your children the tools to understand the concepts of money and grow their savings, you need to have frequent conversations with them. One way…
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…
IRS Section 1031 is a code that allows you to swap one of your investment properties for another, as many times as you want, allowing capital gains taxes to be deferred. It is called a 1031 exchange and it is only applicable to investment properties of like-kind. You can do a 1031 exchange on an investment property that used to be your primary residence, but it must be classified as an investment property for at least 1 year at 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…
Dave Ramsey created the 7 Baby Steps back in the early 1990's. If you are unfamiliar with Dave Ramsey or his 7 Baby Steps, read about them here. He touted how his process was the best way to become debt free and achieve financial peace. This was almost 30 years ago, and in that time, he continued to research and study millionairres. Today, he still promotes his baby steps. While his baby steps are very effective and successful, I am…
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…
