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Thursday, October 16, 2014

Money Saving Ideas for the Week

A few tips for saving money this week.


  1. If you have credit cards with a yearly fee (airline miles cards) that you do not use often, phone the credit card company and ask to cancel them.  They will generally waive the fee or offer a credit equal  to the fee if you make 5 or 10 purchases.  At worst they will cancel the card and refund the fee.
  2. Close your low interest savings accounts at your bank and open higher interest accounts at "Internet Banks".  My local bank savings rate is 0.01% and the rate at Ally Bank is 0.90% (90X better), 
  3. If you have a traditional brokerage account where they charge you 1 or 2% of assets per year ("wrap account") or $15 a trade (regular account), close it immediately.  Discount brokerages will charge $2 to $8 a trade for a regular account with no yearly fee.  If you are buying and holding index funds as the majority of your investments as you should, the 1% wrap account fee is buying you nothing - you don't need investment advice, you are not trading frequently, and all you are getting is the fancy newsletter and a nice Christmas card from the broker.
  4. If you are going South for a month or two during the Winter, you can usually ask your cable or satellite TV company to hold your service for the time you are away so you are not paying for service you do not use.  This could save you $100 to $200.

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