Why I Bank Local for My Business

I don’t normally write about my business here, so you may not know that my day job is running Digital Ink, a creative and digital team that focuses on website development, graphic design and WordPress consulting. I’ve been doing it full-time for more than 4 years now, and I love it. Owning a business is […]

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Vanguard Encourages Savers to Go on Autopilot

I love when banks and financial services providers use the automatic savings angle in the marketing. It’s such a powerful tool for savers, and even though it’s obviously in the bank or investment house’s best interest to get money coming in on a regular basis, it’s also in the saver’s interest to regularly contribute to […]

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This Guy Automated His Finances. He Became a Millionaire at 35.

CNBC.com has a feature on Chris Reining, an IT worker who wanted to have a $1 million portfolio by the time he hit 35. According to the article, he was in his late 20s when he came up with the goal, and at 35, he reached his million dollar goal. How’d he do it? He automated […]

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HSBC’s SmartSave App Automates Your Savings

There’s nothing better than saving money — and not having to regularly think about it. Automating your savings makes the process of putting aside money for an emergency fund, retirement or other goals easy … and automatic. So I clearly love tools that help you automatically save, and there’s a new one that may be worth […]

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Is Apple the Company That Kills Cash?

We’ve talked a ton about spending without cash, living a paperless lifestyle, and even cashless countries. It only seems inevitable that, at some point, we’re going to be a cashless society. Now, that doesn’t mean there are no downsides to not being able to buy and spend with cold hard cash, but as more and […]

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Millennials, Money, and Social Media

When I was writing the post about how few people have $1,000 in their savings, I was struck by an observation about millennials: that their financial situation is influenced by what they see and experience on social media. It’s not like it’s an odd correlation; keeping up with the joneses has been an expression since […]

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There’s a 70% Chance You Have Less Than $1,000 in Savings

Wow. Talk about discouraging news first thing in the morning. GOBankingRates is reporting that nearly 7 in 10 Americans have less than $1,000 in savings. Recently, GOBankingRates asked the question again, this time to more than 7,000 people to see if Americans’ saving rates have improved in the last year or so. But the results […]

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The Most Annoying Online Billing I’ve Ever Experienced

Paying bills online is all part of our paperless lifestyle, where we don’t have to deal with tons of bills coming in the mail, and for the most part, it’s incredibly easy. Almost all of our bills are paid automatically, with the only exceptions when we need to move money from our once-in-a-while fund to […]

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Can Fidelity Top Vanguard’s Index Fund Dominance?

We’ve spent plenty of time talking about index funds and why they’re the best investment option for most people, and when paired with dollar cost averaging and automated investing, you’ll be in a great position when you’re ready to retire. The first index fund was created by John Bogle of Vanguard in 1975, and since […]

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Comic Books Teaching Personal Finance Says A Lot About Our Education

I love talking about money. And I’ve read comic books since I was a kid. So I was definitely interested when I saw the news that Visa is partnering with Marvel to produce personal finance educational comic books. The new comic, “Guardians of the Galaxy: Rocket’s Powerful Plan,” is meant to teach kids about “saving up for […]

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Every Mobile Banking App Needs Biometric Logins

I’ve got a bunch of mobile banking apps on my phone, and I’m starting to make them more work for me, like with daily notifications of my balance and other alerts. But there’s one thing that’s annoying about almost every single app: logging in. If you’re smart, your online banking passwords are complex, with a mix […]

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I Turned on Mobile Banking Notifications. Here’s Why I Love It.

A few weeks back, I wrote about a report that showed that nearly 90 percent of people who use mobile banking apps use notifications from those apps. It’s something I was certainly surprised about, as it seemed like an awfully high amount. As I mentioned, I tend not to have notifications turned on for apps, since they can […]

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The Psychology of How You Spend

How much does it really matter how you spend? Is there really a big difference between using cash, debit cards, credit cards, or smartphone payment apps? You know that we recommend using a debit card for purchasing, since it gives you all the convenience and almost all of the same security as a credit card, […]

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