Here I go with my first post to my brand new personal finance blog. At least I think it’ll be a “personal finance” blog. This site could eventually be categorized as a stock blog, a savings site, or even a how to make money website. However, my main idea is that you’ll visit this site for ideas and tips on life and money. Please join me in living life.
It’s crazy to think that I’m now approaching my mid 30s. Where did all that time go? However, I’ve been very lucky in life. I have a wonderful wife, and family. I was lucky enough to have my parents pay for my college education which allowed me to get a degree in Business Administration from the College of Charleston.
Wow was I stupid with money in college… Spending money on everything. That’s one of the things that I don’t understand. Why wasn’t I taught about more personal finance in college? Here I was with a college degree at my first job out of college as a website manager, and I had to be forced by my wife to use their 401K program. They were matching me with free money, and I refused to use their retirement program. At the time I thought it was dumb to tie up all that money. Why would I do that? I’m not retiring anytime soon.
Thankfully I was also very lucky to find my sweetheart in life at a very early stage of my life. We were only 21 when we met. At the time of my first job she was still my girlfriend, but I was very reluctant to take her advice and put money towards my 401K, however I eventually caved and followed her advice.
Thank goodness for that. It’s without a doubt that my wife is brilliant with financial advice. It’s no surprise that she works in the financial industry. She loves financial planning, and has a knack for it. Together we’re a good match. She’s more conservative while I like to take on more risk. Together we even each other out.
A funny thing happened after my initial reluctance to save. Once I started doing it instead of being a chore it became an addiction. I love to save money. It used to be that if I wanted new clothes I would just go to the store and buy it, usually at full price. These days I would not be happy making the purchase unless I knew I was getting some sort of deal.
It didn’t take long for me to catch on and see all the benefits of my 401K. It was basically free money. Why wouldn’t you take free money? So I quickly went off looking for other ways to save more money. I was working hard making it (money) so it made sense to make sure it was working hard for me.
I have a bank account but my savings account doesn’t make that much interest
The first thing I looked at was my bank account. I had an account with Bank Of America at the time (I still do) but my savings account was making less than 1% at the time. This was back in 2004ish. So I went online to research options. What I found was that I could open an “online only” bank account with select banks where I could make a whopping 7% interest on my money. Can you believe that?
It seems crazy now, but I simply opened up a bank account with Emigrant Direct and linked it to my BofA account so I could transfer money back and forth. I got my jobs check sent to my BofA checking account, and then I would just transfer the money over to my Emigrant Direct online account. Everything was for free, and it still is. Now, instead of my money sitting there making less than 1% it was making over 7 times as much money in my online savings account. That made sense.
Finally I had something that I could share with my wife (girlfriend) that she didn’t know about at the time. Yes! How can that be? It didn’t take long for her to open her own online only bank account too.
How else can you stock your money?
My 401K and my online savings account are just the tip of the iceberg for money stocking. Over the years I’ve found many ways to save and stock away money. I want to share everything with you here at Stock My Money. I hope that you’ll find my experiences useful. My wish is that it helps you achieve all your financial goals.
Cheers,
Stock aka Money