I’ve had a high yield savings account with E*TRADE since February, and it ranks as one of the best high yield savings accounts, in my opinion. At the time I opened it, they were offering a $25 bonus to go along with their 5.05% APY on the account. They’ve stopped offering that bonus to the public.

However, I got an exciting email from them. They’re offering me the opportunity to offer you the $25 bonus for opening the account, as well as giving me $10 for each one of you that signs up! Yes, this is an awful lot like the ING referrals that you see everywhere, except for a few differences:

• E*TRADE’s APY for this account is 5.05%, higher than ING’s 4.5%.
• The minimum deposit to open the account and get the bonus is $1, unlike ING’s $250 opening deposit (to get their bonus).
• This is a limited time offer. You have to get it before 10/31/2007.

There are no fees on this account, if you were wondering. No low balance fees, no annual fee – nothing like that. I’ve had just over $6 parked in it for several months, and it just sits there, racking up interest! 😉

Interested? Leave a comment on this entry, and be sure to use your first and last name and email address. I can only send invitations to this via email, so that’s why I’ll need you to leave your email address. If you’re not comfortable leaving your first and last name in the comments, you can contact me through email instead.

If you’re not comfortable giving me your first and last name, you can try using a fake name. But I am not responsible if this gives you trouble when you try to open the account – do this at your own risk!

You can check out the terms of the E*TRADE Complete Savings Account, but remember that if you apply directly on their website and not from my email, you will not receive the $25 bonus!

I’m doing something I never thought I’d do: I’m going against “The Math.” “The Math” tells me that I should aggressively pay down my credit card as quickly as I can, throwing every spare penny at it. “The Math” says that because the interest on my card is nearly 18%, and my savings accounts only earn about 5%, that my money is better spent on that credit card balance.

And for several months, I’ve been listening to “The Math.” And it has, up until now, served me well: I’ve managed to get my credit card debt down below 75% of my limit. This isn’t great, as far as my credit score is concerned, but it’s a definite improvement.

But “The Math” does not know all, and it’s time for a change. A temporary change. I’ve reduced my credit card payments to the minimum plus $1. Why the minimum plus $1?

1. It looks better on my credit report, because it doesn’t show up as “the minimum payment.”
2. It makes me feel better, because I’m not making “just the minimum payment.”
3. It brings the payment up to a nice, round $40, which appeals to my number-based brain.

And the money that was previously earmarked for my credit card is now headed for my newly formed emergency fund. I want some security. I don’t want to worry that my car is going to break down and I won’t be able to pay for it.  I don’t want to panic if my income drops one month. And I definitely don’t want to have to borrow more money if I hit a rough spot.

But “The Math” shouldn’t worry – I’ll be back for that credit card debt soon enough.

Update: It appears that Citibank has dropped this offer down to a $50 bonus instead of a $100 bonus. Everything else in this post still applies, however.

A few months ago, Citibank offered a $100 bonus for opening an “Ultimate Savings Account” with them. I snapped at the offer, even though the accounts 4.75% APY is slightly lower than many online savings accounts. And now, Citibank is handing out this $100 bonus offer once again.

If you interested in an easy $100 like I was, you might be interested in what I learned from my experience:

~ You need to have never held a bank account with Citi before in order to qualify for the bonus. As far as I know, this refers to checking and savings account, but not credit cards.

~ The account is pretty standard as far as online savings accounts go. There is no minimum balance required and no monthly fees. I used $1 as my opening deposit and just left it there.

~ They ask for an awful lot of information when you’re opening your account. It’s been a few months, but I seem to remember having to run out of the room to track down paperwork and look things up. Also, they will do a hard credit pull (a credit check that will slightly lower your credit score for about a year).

~ The offer says the bonus may take as long as 90 days to appear in your account. I recommend marking your calendar three months from the day you open it, and if you don’t receive the bonus by then, to start writing some emails or making some phone calls. My $100 took 45 days to appear in my account.

~ The current offer expires on 8/31/07, so if you’re planning to take advantage of the offer, be sure to apply for your account before that deadline (probably at least several days before, just to be sure).

Now that my $100 bonus is finally in my account, I’m going to buy a Wii! Just kidding. I’m probably going to let it sit in the account for as long as I can, let it earn a little interest, and then throw it at my debt. Yep, I’m boring and practical like that.

[Hat tip to Jonathon at My Money Blog for pointing out Citibank renewing their $100 bonus offer.] 

When I was six years old, I started my first business. My favorite book character, Karen from the Babysitter’s Little Sister series, started her own newspaper in book #40. Things went badly for Karen, but I was determined that I could do it too – and do it better.

And I did. For over six years, I ran my own newspaper. In it’s heyday, the “Kids Gazette” was sold in five stores across my town, and had three writers working under me. In addition to selling the paper in stores for 25 cents, I also sold ads in each issue. And I made $30 and issue, which was pretty much a fortune to me. I paid out 10% of each issue’s profits to each writer that contributed that month. And life was good.

But I didn’t save any of the money. And I haven’t the slightest idea what I spent it on. I didn’t even save up the money for the thing I wanted most at that age, an American Girl doll (although, now that I’m 20 years old, I realize it would have only taken me three months to do so). That money didn’t even seem to last from one issue to the next.

But what if it had? What if I’d saved all that money? Or what if my mother had matched my profits in an account somewhere? Where would I be today?

Ok, so, I wasn’t exactly consistent with my newspaper, so we can say that I probably made $30, six months out of the year, for 1993-1999. So $180 a year, for seven years.

Likely scenario:
I shoved all the money in a shoebox. In 1999, it would have totaled $1260. At that point, I had my own savings account. So let’s say I put it in there when I stopped the newspaper, and then never touched it till today. My savings account earns 0.2%. So I would have $1277.75 today, to do with as I wish.

Err… well that’s great, and I certainly would appreciate having nearly $1300 today, but only earning $17 in interest over 7 years is really kinda awful. So, what if we had done even better?

Less likely scenario:
Each year, the money was deposited in a CD or money market account, earning 5%. Again, after 1999, I contributed nothing else. Today, that would be $2062.19.

Well, now we’re getting somewhere. $800 in interest is nothing to shake a stick at. Now, I could certainly run the numbers at 8% interest, and 10%, but I think you already get my real point here: Any which way, I would have a lot more money now.

The real question, I suppose, is whether I (or my mother) would have put aside this money when I was so young, if someone had just run the numbers. Can a child (or even a parent) be persuaded to save, just by being shown how it really adds up? And why didn’t anyone run the numbers for me 14 years ago? … And what did I buy with all that money, anyway?