Personal Development » financial advice

Where to Find the Best CD Rates

Shaun — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:30:51 +0000

With the stock market showing it’s adventurous side, and its obvious fondness for doing jig-jags and riding roller coasters, many people are looking to find a new way to put their money to work without needing to buy stock. Have no fear, the CD rates are here.

A CD is an FDIC insured place to put your money. You can put the money in a CD for a set period of time, and collect it with the interest (usually pretty high) at the end of the agreed period.

So you want to find the best CD rates out there? Me too. The best I’ve found are:

BankRate.com
MoneyAisle.com
MonitorBankRates.com
Bankaholic.com

There are, of course, dozens of websites that provide similar services. Even mine that I linked to above explains how you can find the best CD rates. Just keep looking, and you’ll be sure to find them — no need to worry about your credit.

Online savings is fantastic for people who have found one of the many real online jobs. In that case, you can make all of your banking completely automatic and electronic.

Three Problems With an Online Savings Account

Shaun — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:20:48 +0000

Do you remember the traditional bank down the street that you put your savings into for years? The women behind the customer service desk wore dark blue skirts and jackets and the men had on gray flannel suits. Behind them was a counter with tellers who would take your deposits and hand you your withdrawals. And everything was done with a smile.

That bank with its solid oak doors was as solid as a rock. Your deposits cleared into your account the very next business day.

Then one day in 2009, you were on the Internet and you saw something called, “Online Savings Accounts.” All you had to do was have your paycheck directly deposited into a virtual bank and everything would be taken care of. Your account statement appeared instantly on your monitor with a click of your mouse.

Better yet, that online savings account offered you interest that you couldn’t find at your bank down the corner; sometimes the rates were as high as 2.5 % for this online savings account, and you could actually do your banking in your pajamas and slippers. It all seemed so simple and efficient.

But problems began to occur. As you started to put money into your online savings account and take money out, things you never thought of happened. This online account was not as wonderful as it seemed.

For one, there was no customer service when you had a question. If there was a toll free number listed on the website, it was shown way down at the bottom of the page, as if this online bank were trying to hide it from you. That sent you a bad message to begin with.

When you dialed the number there was only an automated menu and maybe a number to hit to get to a real live human being. If a choice was given for person to person service, it was the last choice on the menu and most of the time an automated voice told you there was a fifteen minute wait or the system was overloaded and asked you to call back. When a voice did pick up on the other end, they couldn’t access your account without a pin number that you lost a long time ago.

You had checks to deposit other then payroll checks. There were days when you wondered what happened to the check that you mailed in for deposit into your online savings account. Why was it taking so long to clear? The FAQ’s section on the online bank’s website did mention that checks had to be received in a mail room, processed, deposited into your account and then it took a day if deposited before two in the afternoon for money to be cleared through the Federal Reserve Clearing House. Who was getting the interest on that money while you waited to see if it showed up on your online statement?

Sometimes, you needed to pull money out of your savings account and you were set up with a checking account that also worked online. But once again, the high-yield online savings account reviews took another two to three days to make the transfer from your savings account to your checking account. In the meantime, your mother had advanced you the money until you had access. This was not good every time an emergency arose.

One day your PC pulled the online savings account website up, and the biggest problem of all occurred. The screen told you that the webpage could not be accessed and one of the reasons noted was that the site was having technical difficulties and was down. There was no mention of when it would come back up.It appeared that getting your hands on your money was not so easy at times.

This online bank was sure saving a lot of money by not having a real office with real people. And the extra point or two in interest amounted to very little because you weren’t Donald Trump and your account was not earning interest on a whole lot of money to begin with. Then there was the time the realtor would only take a cashier’s check. How were you supposed to get a cashier’s check delivered into your dining room over the Internet? Bill Gates hadn’t figured that out yet.

Everyday the three big problems seemed to outweigh the advantages. You missed those oak doors and those people with papers and pens, didn’t you?

Well, if not, then check out my article about finding the best online savings account. =p

The Creator Personality

Shaun — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 04:00:46 +0000

When it comes to productivity and success, there’s one common character trait that literally screams of future success: the Creator Personality.

The creator is someone who always adds value. Always. The creator is constantly putting something valuable together, whether it’s a product, a job or a plan.

Creators can’t help but succeed because our economy rewards value; if one makes something valuable then people will want it. When people want it, they’ll pay. Value and profit go hand-in-hand.

Building wealth requires having the mindset of a creator.

This isn’t just about starting a business. This article will focus on how to be a creator in the “everyday” workplace. No product-line required.

Value Creates Profit

Our economic system rewards value. A product will not exist if no one purchases it and no one will purchase a product if they don’t believe it has value.

The iPod, best-seller books, designer clothes and other products only exist because people will purchase them. Make a cruddy product that simply doesn’t work to any extent and you won’t do as well as you would if you offered value.

Coca-Cola got where it’s at today because of a consistent taste and because of incredibly creative marketing towards the start of the mega-company’s existence. Value created profit.

The Internet was a mess before Google decided that a search-engine based on rewarding “popular” content would be valuable. Value created profit. A lot of profit.

When it comes to business, there’s an entire branch dedicated toward convincing people that the product is valuable. Marketing is founded on this premise: you should spend money (give us profit) because we’ll give you value. And it works.

People like value. People flock to value. People pay for value.

This isn’t just for business owners. The principle is much, much more basic than that. Understanding and emphasizing value is the crux of all achievement by anyone, not just for a business operator.

Creators Eventually Succeed

A creator who works as a webmaster who has a website is constantly adding valuable content to his website. This in turn will cause other webmasters to link to his website, which generates traffic, which causes more links — you see the point. Considering traffic means money, that’s success.

A creator who works as a grocery stocker is constantly analyzing how the organization of the store-rooms is done, looking for ways to add value to the system. The stocker will be promoted because people who promote value help the company. The higher he goes, the more profit the company makes.

A creator who works in an office discovers more efficient ways to use the technology and actually “get things done”…within reason.* With such efficiency more opportunities and resume’ builders will come along. Remember, the more you get accomplished while at work, the more responsibility you can take on. This is long-term prep for a job transfer.

Creators can’t help but succeed. If they’re workers, they’ll become managers. If they’re managers, they’ll become owners. If they’re associates, they’ll become partners.

Become a Creator

Want to do well? Become a creator. Becoming a creator is outlandishly difficult; it requires completely throwing off the typical “worker mentality” and replacing it with the philosophy of achievement. Read below for tips on how you can start looking at the world through the eyes of a creator.

Don’t Watch the Clock. Have you ever been to a store that closed a few minutes early, because the manager stepped out and the employees wanted to quit a bit early? The employees might think they are acting selfishly and are getting what they want. They aren’t.

The “clock-watcher” mentality is the anti-thesis of the creator. The creator goes to work for the ability to add value as habit, not to work just long enough to run out the door the moment the clock strikes five.

Keep Your Eyes Open. There are always dozens of ways that we end up wasting time and doing thing inefficiently. The key to creating a more productive workplace in order to free up time and get noticed by superiors is to constantly look for those flaws. You know they’re there; what are they?

Do Something Weird. Weird things can save time and create “something from nothing.” I once found out a friend wanted a website designed, so I volunteered to do it for $250, about half of what she was prepared to pay. She was delighted, of course, and I promised to have it done within 24 hours.

One small glitch: I don’t know how to design websites. So I Googled “outsource web design” and found an incredibly professional firm that agreed to do it for $75. Within 24 hours I made $175 because of 3 emails. In a few days I’ll be talking about outsourcing, so make sure to subscribe so you can read it; outsourcing can literally change your life.

Be the Best. Nearly every work-force has different levels of workers. The better and more knowledgeable the worker, the more likely that worker will be seen as the leader. Be the best, get the best.

Give Up Lunch Hour. If you spend an hour every single day brainstorming how you can find away to build a passive income source (I’ll be writing more about this as time goes on) you’ll find one eventually. If you spend an hour every single day in conversation with your significant other, you’ll build an incredibly stronger relationship.

Want to learn the guitar? An hour a day is more than enough time. Want to build a high-traffic website? Five hours per week is more than enough time as long as you don’t hurry. (I’ll be writing more about building a high-traffic website business later on!)

An hour every day is a lot of time. Over a year, it’s hundreds of hours. Over a lifetime, it’s literally months of potentially pure productive action. Don’t waste your lunch hour just mindlessly munching; find a way to turn that hour into something productive. The results will be nearly instantaneous.

You can eat and achieve at the same time.

The Results of Productivity

My father is one of the greatest success inspirations I ever hope to have. He’s been the master of getting “little things” constantly done so he has time for the “big things.” He married my mother when he was 19 and broke. They worked on discovering productive ways to get things done ever since.

I didn’t come up with the above ideas; my father lived them. He moved from the DJ of a small AM radio station to the manager of all of the radio stations in the area in just a few years. He now owns his own radio incorporation known by nearly everyone as being the most professional “get it done” business in the state.

There are literally millions of individuals who have done the same. I have yet to meet a self-made millionaire who didn’t succeed in the same manner. Learn to be a creator and create your own success.