Welcome to 2020! 

A major financial goal for most of us is to save and invest. Over the past few days, I’ve been receiving some questions about the savings and investing accounts I’d personally recommend. Not much has changed since 2019. Check out my top recs below 🙂

Savings accounts:

First of all, let’s get this clear: I am not a fan of brick and mortar banks for saving goals of any kind. It has been my personal opinion for many years that brick and mortar banks are only good for the following:

1. To collect your direct deposit check from your job
2. To hold the money that you need to pay your bills each month

Quite honestly, any additional funds that you don’t need to have “at hand” in the short term should not be sitting at a regular brick and mortar bank.

Let’s read that again:

Any additional funds that you don’t need to have “at hand” in the short term, should not be sitting at a regular brick and mortar bank.

Why do I feel this way? Because in addition to nonsense fees to hold YOUR money, most regular banks will ALSO only pay you pennies on your savings when you could be getting actual DOLLARS elsewhere.

The national average on most brick and mortar banks under savings is about 0.09% APY, which is quite an insult on our hard-earned money!

The higher the APY you can get at a bank, the better because your money will be growing faster and more efficiently.

In this day and age, the banks that pay the highest interest rates are online banks.

Many people still fear online banks and miss out on a whole lot of money, thanks to that fear. That’s VERY unfortunate.

Know this:

Online banks are regulated by the same standards as regular banks. That means they are FDIC insured (your money is protected up to $250,000 per account) and they must hold themselves to VERY high-security standards.

The fact that a bank has “physical offices” does not make them any safer than an online bank. All of your information is still kept on a computer.

Ok, without further ‘ado, below are my favorite savings accounts at this time*.

*Rates are accurate as of 2/12/20

C.I.T Savings Builders Program

APY (interest) paid on savings: 1.75%

Learn More | Open Account

Goldman Sachs Marcus Savings

APY (interest) paid on savings: 1.70%

Investment Accounts:

I have been using the same investing accounts for about 11 years. Thankfully, in this day and age, most investment accounts do not have any minimum dollar amount requirements to get started. Plus – most allow you to invest at $0 fees! I’ve said it many times, and I’ll repeat it: There has never been a better time to be an investor!

Below I share the investments account I know very well and have used myself. 

Ally Invest

The amount required to start/open an account: $0

Fees to buy stocks and ETFs: $0

Learn more | Open Account

Bonus: In addition to a regular investment account (which is what I have experience with), Ally allows individuals to open IRAs, custodial accounts, trust accounts, managed accounts. In addition, they offer additional features that go beyond stock and ETF investing such as options investing as well as additional tools and resources. This is a full-fledged online brokerage account.

M1 Finance

The amount required to start/open an account: $0

Fees to buy stocks and ETFs: $0

Learn more | Open Account

Bonus: In addition to a regular investment account (which is what I have experience with), M1 finance allows individuals to buy partial shares of stock. This is something that is not yet standard with most online brokers/investment accounts but might be in the near future. 

NOTE: For a limited time, M1 Finance is awarding a $20 bonus on new accounts. Make sure you read the site’s instructions on how to qualify.

 

And that’s all folks :). I hope this article helps you narrow down your choices when it comes to savings and investment accounts. May this new year be filled with health, love, prosperity and that you accomplish all of your goals.

If you have ANY questions about anything above, comment below or send us an email at Hello@girlsonthemoney.com

Cheers to Health & Profits,

Mabel

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Ready to learn HOW to invest, make educated decisions, and start your investment portfolio in 2020? Check out the resources below:

Understanding Your Investing Options: Starter Guide for Beginner Investors, check it out here.

Stock Market Investing Bootcamp for Beginners: This is our flagship course all about individual stock investing. To get on the waiting list for the Spring 2020 edition, click here.