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Apache is functioning normally

May 1, 2023 by Brett Tams

As the number of peer-to-peer lending sites has grown in the past few years, the loan types being offered are also expanding.

These sites are now providing the types of peer-to-peer loans that were once available only through traditional banks and loan sharks.

Find out more information here on “how do I get a loan?”, to help you with your decision making process!

What’s more, peer-to-peer lending is quickly democratizing the whole loan process. Borrowers come to borrow money, and investors come to lend it to those borrowers, each looking for an interest rate advantage that they cannot get with the banks and other sources. This is creating a growing interest in peer-to-peer lending for both groups.

This is the major advantage to borrowers, since the types of loans available, as well as the loan terms and amounts, are growing as the industry expands.

Here are the major loan types currently available from popular peer-to-peer lending sites.

Personal Loans

Personal loans are probably the most common loans provided by peer-to-peer lending sites. Flexibility is a major reason for this. Peer-to-peer lenders have fewer restrictions on loan funds than traditional banks do.

Credit quality is another factor. While banks tend to lend within very narrow credit score ranges, peer-to-peer sites will often extend loans to people with fair credit.

If you have excellent credit, you can typically borrow up to $35,000 on an unsecured loan with a term of anywhere from two years to five years. Interest rates start in the mid-single digits, which is a lot lower than what you’ll pay on credit cards.

Unlike lines of credit that are typically offered by traditional banks, peer-to-peer sites offer fixed-rate loans that will be completely paid in full within not more than five years. This will allow you to get out of debt faster than if you work out payoff strategies with individual revolving lines of credit.

Most peer-to-peer platforms will do personal loans. Lending Club is the largest peer-to-peer lending site, and they will do personal loans for debt consolidation, credit card balances, home improvement, car loans, and even loans for swimming pools (imagine a bank making a loan on that last one!).

The second largest lender is Prosper and they are highly competitive with Lending club.

If you are looking for a lending platform that will be able to fund your loan quickly, consider Avant. Through Avant, if your loan application is approved, you could get funds into your account as soon as the next business day if approved by 4:30 pm CST Monday – Friday.

Debt consolidation is one of the most common reasons people seek peer-to-peer loans. Such loans enable people who are struggling with high-interest rate credit card debt to consolidate several credit lines into a single fixed rate loan, that will be paid off in five years or less. That offers borrowers a real opportunity to finally get out of debt completely.

Credit cards are revolving debt arrangements, where it’s possible that the borrower will never get out of debt since the monthly payments will always drop along with the lower loan balance.

If you’re looking for consolidation here, you may want to check into SoFi, as that’s one thing they’re really good at.

There’s yet another reason why peer-to-peer debt consolidation loans are beneficial to borrowers. One of the biggest factors affecting credit scores is debt utilization on credit cards.

If the utilization rate is high, which is defined as anything more than 30% of your total available credit, then paying off your credit lines can be a way to improve your credit score within a few short months.

Several credit lines, some approaching the credit limits, can be replaced with a single term loan. That seems to please the credit scoring algorithms!

Auto Loans

Auto loans are something of an unofficial loan type on peer-to-peer sites. You can borrow money to purchase or refinance a car, but the loan may not be officially a car loan.

For example, with Lending Club, you can borrow up to $35,000 on a personal loan, which you can use either to buy or refinance a car.

The rates being offered on car loans (or more specifically, on personal loans) may be higher than what you can get through your bank, but peer-to-peer sites have one advantage that bank auto loans don’t have: the loans will not actually be secured by your car.

That can be an important advantage too. As you almost certainly use your car in the production of income – either to commute to your job or to use for your business – it’s better to own the vehicle on a debt-free basis.

Still another advantage is that peer-to-peer loans generally extend to terms of not more than 60 months, or five years. Bank provided auto loans are now running as long as 84 months, or seven years.

Though the monthly payment on a five-year peer-to-peer loan will be higher than it will be for a seven bank auto loan, it will be far less likely that you will end up owing more on the loan than the car is worth at any time during the loan term.

Business Loans

Peer-to-peer lenders are rapidly filling the business loans niche. That’s a good thing too. While hundreds of banks advertise that they provide business loans, they tend to have tough lending criteria, require unimaginable amounts of documentation, and don’t make nearly as many loans as they say they do.

Peer-to-peer lenders are bringing all of the same advantages to businesses that they are bringing to other types of loans. That includes low-interest rates, a simple application process, quick turnaround time, and greater credit flexibility.

It is often possible to get business loans on peer-to-peer sites that are completely unavailable from traditional banks.

Four of the more popular peer-to-peer sites that provide business loans include Lending Club, Prosper, Upstart and Funding Circle. Each offers different parameters for the loans that they will make to your business.

For example, Upstart requires only that you have been in business for six months. Most banks will require that you are in business for a minimum of two years, and generally supported by income tax returns as proof.

Loan amounts are another advantage, in that they are often higher than the amount you can get through a bank. For example, Funding Circle provides business loans for up to $500,000.

Most peer-to-peer lenders will also make loans that require no collateral. For example, Lending Club will loan as much as $100,000, while Prosper and Upstart will go to $35,000 – all requiring that no collateral be pledged as security for the loan. And when collateral is required, it is usually in the form of either a general lien on the business or on the business invoices.

Business loans are close to impossible to get from banks if you are a small business owner. Banks typically make loans available to large business enterprises, such as well-established publicly traded companies.

If you are a small, independent business, you may not have access to business loans from banks at all. For this reason, peer-to-peer business loans figure to grow steadily in the future.

Mortgages and Refinances

Mortgage lending has always been a complicated process. Still, peer-to-peer lending is moving into this type of financing, on both purchases and refinances.

Even though it specializes in student loan refinances, SoFi also makes mortgage loans available. They currently provide mortgages in 23 states, including the District of Columbia.

They will do mortgages on owner-occupied primary residences and second homes, including single-family homes, condos, townhomes, and planned unit developments (PUDs). Financing, however, is not available for rental properties or for co-ops.

You are generally required to make a down payment of at least 10% of the purchase price, however, mortgage insurance is not required, the way it typically is anytime you purchase a home with a down payment of less than 20%.

They do not charge origination fees on their mortgages, and you can generally close the loan within 30 days of application. All loans come with no prepayment penalty, and you can borrow as much as $3 million.

Mortgage lending is extremely competitive, and peer-to-peer sites are not yet as aggressive on pricing and terms as the industry standard. However, since P2P is a relatively new enterprise, it’s all in a state of flux, and if mortgage lending progresses the way other types of loans on the web, good things are coming!

Student Loans

Peer-to-peer lenders are perhaps more important when it comes to student loan refinances then for any other loan type. While you can get student loans from hundreds of sources, including banks and the federal government, finding lenders who will do a student loan refinance is tough. You can probably count the number of lenders who do on two hands.

Two of the most prominent lenders that provide student loan refinances are SoFi and CommonBond, and they’re both peer-to-peer lenders. In fact, both platforms specialize in providing student loan refinances.

Even if you have little interest in getting a loan from a peer-to-peer site, you will almost certainly come across these two platforms in your search for a lender who does student loan refinances.

One of the complications with student loan refinances is that while getting the original loans may not have required you to qualify, you will be required to be both credit– and income-qualified in order to do a student loan refinance. That’s where peer-to-peer sites can have a big advantage over traditional banks.

Not only does SoFi specialize in student loan refinances, but the entire platform has been set up specifically for that purpose. And this is where the peer-to-peer factor becomes even bigger.

SoFi was founded by people who are closely associated with the college community and have created the site to go beyond traditional lending. This is evident with the platforms underwriting criteria.

They don’t just look at income and credit, but also consider your career experience (some fields and jobs are viewed more favorably than others) and your education (your major field of study and education history).

You can refinance up to the full balance of your qualified education loans outstanding, and often do so at rates that are lower than what is offered by the banks. The site claims that their members save an average of $14,000 by doing a student loan refinance through the site.

CommonBond also specializes in student loan refinances and claims similar savings to what you can get with SoFi. You can refinance up to $500,000 in student loans, but again you must be credit- and income-qualified.

They charge no fees in connection to your refinance, except the interest that you pay on your loan. And again, that rate is often lower than what you can get from traditional banks.

Both SoFi and CommonBond offer unemployment protection. In the event that you become unemployed, they will suspend payments for up to 12 months.

SoFi will also provide job placement assistance, but you must provide evidence that the job loss was caused by no fault of your own.

With student loans growing exponentially in recent years, peer-to-peer sources should only increase in the years ahead.

Bad Debt Loans

It’s probably an exaggeration to say that peer-to-peer lending had moved into subprime loans. However, the industry is gradually making progress into making credit available to borrowers that banks might consider as having either fair or poor credit.

PeerForm is an example of such a P2P site. They will make loans of up to $25,000 available for borrowers with credit scores as low as 600. Loan APR’s range from 7.12% to as high as 28.09% for the lowest low grades.

High as that rate may be, credit may not be available for people in that situation from any other source.

What’s more, PeerForm makes its loans available on an unsecured basis. This gives you a source of credit that could conceivably replace high-interest credit cards.

In that same regard, PeerForm also makes installment loans available to replace your line of credit, making it easier and faster to get out of debt.

In addition, by using a single loan to pay off several credit cards, you can potentially increase your credit score almost immediately, which in itself will improve your situation considerably.

Medical Loans

Like student debt refinances, medical financing is becoming more important all the time. As deductibles and copayments rise, and as certain treatments and procedures are disallowed by traditional health insurance policies, the need for medical financing is growing.

Generally speaking, medical financing is available on peer-to-peer sites to cover the growing list of expenses that health insurance doesn’t cover.

Lending Club is one peer-to-peer site that is providing medical financing under their Patient Solutions program. The loan program is available to cover expenses for dental, fertility treatments, hair restoration, and weight loss surgery – procedures and treatments that are not normally covered by most health insurance policies.

Lending Club offers two plans, the Extended Plan and the True No-Interest Plan.

Under the Extended Plan, you can borrow between $2,000 and $50,000, at terms ranging from 24 months to 84 months. Loan APR’s are between 3.99% and 24.99%, based on the amount financed and your credit history.

Under the True No-Interest Plan, you can borrow between $499 and $32,000, but the loan purpose is limited to dental and hair restoration. The interest-free period ranges from six months to 24 months.

If you pay off the balance within the term, you will pay no interest. However, any balance remaining after the expiration of the promotional term will have a variable APR of 22.98%.

Peer-to-peer lending is growing in leaps and bounds, and as it does, there are more types of loans available than ever before. If you’re looking for a loan of any type, be sure to check out popular peer-to-peer lending sites to see what they have available.

Not only may you find a loan that you didn’t think was available anywhere, but you may find that you can get a lower interest rate for it than at any bank in town.

Source: goodfinancialcents.com

Apache is functioning normally

April 30, 2023 by Brett Tams

Last Friday, I attended a workshop put on by Pamela Slim, who writes about entrepreneurship at Escape from Cubicle Nation. Before this meeting, I didn’t know much about Slim or her message, but her work came highly recommended from my friend, Chris Guillebeau. “Pam is the real deal,” he told me. “Her book is what a lot other books have tried to be.”

Based on this recommendation, I drove to hear Slim speak. I was impressed. Chris is right: She’s the real deal. I was so impressed, in fact, that I spent the weekend reading her book, which is also called Escape from Cubicle Nation.

Opening Up to Opportunities

Escape from Cubicle Nation starts at the beginning of the entrepreneurial journey: deciding what to do with your life. Slim spends several chapters discussing how to get in touch with what’s important to you. At times, this almost seems touchy-feely. Almost.

Even if you currently have no intentions to quit your job, Slim’s advice can help you protect yourself from future layoffs. She recommends:

Developing a wide social network
Investing in personal development
Pursuing a small business on the side

Slim advocates a philosophy of “life first, business second”. By becoming clear about what you want from life, what your ideal life contains, you can craft an entrepreneurial vision that helps you to pursue this goal.

Slim says that it’s important to choose work you’re passionate about. She cites the “sweet spot” described by Jim Collins, which is the place these three sets of skills overlap:

What people will pay you to do
That for which you have great passion
That which you are “genetically encoded” to do

In my case, that seems to be blogging. For you, it’s going to be something else. It may take time to find that “something else”, but when you do, you’ll be ready to create a business plan.

The Reality of Entrepreneurship

“Hating your job intensely is not a business plan,” Slim writes in the book’s introduction.

Although I think it is a tremendous idea to work for yourself and live a life of happiness and financial success, I don’t believe that is possible to become an overnight sensation with a few magic techniques or systems.

Slim doesn’t candy coat things. While she encourages readers to pursue their dreams, she admits that the path is often difficult. She also offers “a few horror stories for good measure”, real-life examples of how things can go wrong. She wants her readers to escape from corporate environments, but she wants them to have realistic expectations.

Escape from Cubicle Nation also covers topics like:

Drafting a business plan
Building and using a social network
Lifestyle design
Developing a personal brand

There are a lot of buzzwords in that list, but Slim handles each topic thoughtfully, with examples that readers can relate to. (Rachael Ray, for example, is a perfect example of personal branding.)

Make the Money Work

“Nothing will cause you more pain than ignoring the financial side of your business,” Slim writes. “Not horrible sales calls, crashed laptops, surly employees, or even bad press. When the financial side of your business is not working, life is miserable.”

To begin, however, your personal finances must be in order. Slim offers solid advice (the sort you’re used to seeing on Get Rich Slowly), and encourages readers to have realistic expectations about their financial situations. (This section even excerpts an underrated GRS post about facing and fighting financial trolls.)

There’s also a chapter on benefits for the self-employed, including health insurance.

Making the Leap

It’s one thing to draw up a business plan and to embrace the idea of entrepreneurship, but it’s another thing to actually make the leap. It can be scary to quit a safe job to pursue the unknown. In the final section of her book, Slim offers advice for smoothing the transition.

First, she tells readers to expect resistance from the people they know. “You are crazy if you think you can convince all your friends and family that starting a business is a good idea,” Slim writes. She provides techniques for handling common questions, and she stresses the importance of open communication with your spouse or partner.

Finally, Slim provides some pointers for getting organized — and deciding when it’s time to leave your job, to escape from cubicle nation.

Conclusion

I thought Slim’s workshop last Friday was great, and not just because of her content. I was impressed with the dynamic people in attendance. The flood of tips, ideas, and experiences was inspirational.

But Escape from Cubicle Nation — the book — is even better. Some people might be put off by how often she quotes from other sources. Not me. I love it. I like that she synthesizes advice from a variety of books and blogs to give the readers the best information possible. I wish more authors did this.

If you think Escape from Cubicle Nation might be useful for you but aren’t quite sure, you can give Pam Slim’s ideas a test drive at her blog. (Slim has also made the first chapter of the book available via PDF.) Based on the number of Get Rich Slowly readers at the workshop last Friday, it seems that many of you are looking to escape your corporate jobs to pursue your passions. That’s awesome.

Source: getrichslowly.org

Apache is functioning normally

April 30, 2023 by Brett Tams

This is Midjourney AI’s imagined version of my new car. I’ll update this picture once I take delivery and head out on my first real camping trip!

As I type this, I’m jumping through the various hoops involved in buying a 2023 Tesla Model Y, a spectacularly expensive, large luxury “crossover” that is absolutely loaded to the gills with excess: all wheel drive, faster acceleration than a Lamborghini, enough space for seven people and enough computer gadgetry to function as a small Google data center.

The total net cost of this thing to me after all the taxes and tax credits* will be about $52,000, which is just a stunning amount higher than the Honda van it is replacing. That old classic cost me $4500 when I bought it off of Craigslist twelve years ago, and it had served me dutifully until just last month, crisscrossing the mountains and deserts of this country and also helping to rebuild a considerable swath of houses in my neighborhood.

I’m supposed to be a frugality-oriented financial blogger, and I’m also known for hating car culture – I think most people use cars about ten times more often than they need to, and most people drive cars they can’t afford. So why the hell am I buying a new one?

From those first three paragraphs, you can see I’m feeling plenty of self-mockery and ridicule over this new purchase. If you’re also a naturally frugal person, you can surely relate to the thoughts and you probably also agree with me that I’m off my rocker.

And indeed, I’m still on-board with frugality and healthy self mockery. After all, it was this overall life philosophy that earned me an early retirement 18 years ago, which provides all of the glorious freedom I enjoy now.

It was also the philosophy that allowed me to procrastinate on buying this expensive car for the last four years, even as countless people both close to me and out on the Internet egged me on and told me I should just loosen up and treat myself.

But there’s a classic slogan that applies to many areas of life, and it is something I like to dig up and ponder every now and then:

“What got you here,

Won’t get you where you’re going.”

How does that piece of wisdom apply to frugal living and enjoying a long life of early retirement?

A quick story from a recent run to the grocery store will explain:

I was standing there in the bakery aisle, hoping to restock with a loaf of Dave’s Killer Bread for the next day’s breakfast with some visiting friends. But since this was in a standard grocery store rather than the Costco where I usually shop, the damned stuff was priced at an eye-watering $6.99 per loaf (instead the $4.50 or so I’m accustomed to paying, and even at the bulk store this stuff is about double the price of normal bread).

“DAMN YOU KING SOOPER’S!”

Was my first response.

“WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, TRYING TO SELL BREAD FOR SEVEN BUCKS!!!”

Then I went through a whole mental battle of what I call Grocery Shopping With Your Middle Finger:

“Should I just boycott this bullshit?”

“Hmm I wonder if any of the other competing brands are any good?”

“What else is a good substitute for bread for this breakfast?”

And then thankfully, after exhausting all other mental options, I settled on the correct one:

“JUST BUY THE BREAD YOU DUMBASS!”

“Because you are never going to wake up in the future and look at your bank account and think, shit, if only I had an extra $2.49 in there I would be a happier person.”

That night, I came home from the store and shared this funny tale with one of my guests. He understood perfectly because he too had earned his own retirement through a lifetime of grinding in tough jobs and disciplined frugality. And despite the fact that he has a net worth several times higher than mine, he admitted that he faces exactly the same mental battles over splurging on himself.

This same friend gives freely to charitable causes, has supported a local school for decades, and is always the first one to pull out the checkbook if a friend has hit hard times or is looking for a trusted business investor.

But he still has trouble bringing himself to take an Uber to the airport instead of riding the bus which takes an hour longer.

We both realized that we were being too cheap with ourselves, and we needed to work on it. And we came up with a set of three ideas that should hopefully work together to help us have more fun with our life savings, while we are still alive:

the Minimum Spending Budget,
the Dedicated Money Wasting Account,
and the Splurge Accountability Buddy.

Principle #1: The Minimum Spending Budget:

Suppose you’ve done well over the years and amassed a pile of productive investments worth about two million dollars. Yes, this is a lot of money for most people, and that is the point: this hypothetical person truly has it made.

But as it turns out, most Mustachians I know with this level of wealth are still living very efficient lives, usually with a spending level of under $40,000 per year. On top of that, they typically live in a mortgage-free house and still have various forms of side income from a small business or two.

The 4% rule tells us that this person should be fairly safe spending up to about $80,000 per year from that cozy nest egg, even if they never earn any other money.

If this person wanted to be ridiculously conservative and set the spending rate at 3%, that still leaves about $60,000 of fun money every single year.. Plus, again, any side income, future inheritances, and social security income only add to the surplus.

Thus, a reasonable minimum spending level for this person might be $60,000 per year.

And in most cases, they know this, but still go right on living on $40k or less and claim they have everything they could ever want.

But if you watch carefully you’ll still catch them firing up the middle finger at things like $6.99 Dave’s bread or the $14.00 Cabernet at the restaurant or driving around in a gas guzzler even when they would prefer to have a proper, modern electric car.

And whenever these people do get extra money, their first instinct is to stash it away on top of the already-too-big pile. In diagram form, their money flow looks like this:

Note that while this person is great at accumulating money through that big red arrow firing money back into the ‘stash, their “fun stuff” arrow appears quite flaccid and withered.

Which is a perfect segue to ….

Principle #2 – the Dedicated Money Wasting Account

Lifelong habits are hard to break, and it’s sometimes hard to “waste” your own hard-earned money on things that seem frivolous, even when you know intellectually that you have way more money than you’ll ever spend.

But have you ever noticed that if you are spending somebody else’s money, preferably an anonymous corporation, it feels different?

For example, when you’re on a business trip and you just show up at the dining table to eat and drink and you never see the bill, you probably don’t fret about the prices, right?

The key is to make your own money feel like somebody else’s, and you can do it like this:

Re-brand your main bank account – henceforth it is the FREE FUN MONEY account.
Set up an auto-deposit of your minimum spending budget that drops in each month (if you suspect that you might currently be too frugal, make this at least $1000 per month higher than your current spending level)
The only way you are allowed to use the money in this new account is to spend it on anything and everything, or give it away. It can be used for both necessities like groceries and your utility bill, but also your luxuries like travel and dining and generosity.
But the key rule is this: You are not allowed to follow your old habit of sweeping out the surplus each month to buy more and more index funds as you’ve been doing your whole life.

If the free fun money starts building up, which it probably will because you are way out of spending practice, it will stare you in the face and tell you to do a better job.

And this can and should be FUN! Now you can get the best organic groceries even when the price seems exorbitant. Go out for dinner or order delivery whenever you like. Surprise your loved ones with concert tickets, join your friends on snowboarding or beach trips, or even pay for an entire group vacation, allowing people to go who couldn’t normally afford it so easily.
Technical Note: Some people have income or wealth levels are so high that it would be insane to spend at a 3% rate. For example, a $10M fortune would lead to a $25,000 monthly spending rate, which is obviously ridiculous.
In this situation, you can still leave your dividends reinvesting but still give yourself a bigger, no-saving-allowed budget to get some practice being more relaxed and generous. The real point here is to just stop sweating the details so you can have more fun.

Principle #3 – The Splurge Accountability Buddy

Many of us frugal people tend to stick together. And most of us have different versions of the same problem: we know logically that money is plentiful these days, but our emotions keep us stuck in our old ways of optimizing too much.

But I find that when I team up with local friends who are actually trying to battle these same habits, we can question each other’s decisions, call out cheapness when we see it, and cheer on splurges when we know the other guy would enjoy it.

My super wealthy friend from above has become much better about treating himself (and his family) to quality goods for the home, amazing trips together, and just a general reduction in his stress over being “efficient with money”

My friend and HQ co-owner Carl (Mr. 1500 Days) has finally replaced his beaten-down minivan with a spiffy new Chevrolet Bolt electric car, and is loving that leap into the future.

And of course Mr. Money Mustache, after squeezing one final mountain road trip out of his 23-year-old Honda van, is finally allowing himself to get the Tesla he has been talking about for half a decade.

An early spring Sunrise at our new “Friends Mountain Resort”

A recent life change (becoming a co-owner of a fixer-upper vacation rental compound in beautiful Salida Colorado) has reignited the travel fire in my heart and made me realize how much I do love getting out to distant places for visiting, mountain biking, gathering with groups of friends and my favorite activity of all: Carpentourism.

Running the Numbers: how ridiculously expensive is this car?

This is the perfect start to my experiment in spending more. Realistically, a $50,000 car is going to cost me about $10,000 more per year than my old van was burning. With the biggest costs being these:

Foregoing roughly 8% annual investment returns on the 50 grand: $4000
Depreciation on the car: an average of $3000 per year over the first 10 years
Higher insurance premiums: $1000 more per year
Replacing those exorbitantly huge performance tires when they wear out, and probably things like repairing the all-glass roof someday when it meets Colorado’s pebble-strewn mountain roads: the remaining $2000 or so.

Since I personally had a spending deficit of several times more than $10k per year, I figure this is a solid first step. And, since the car’s primary purpose is things like epic camping trips, dream dates, and long adventures around the country, it will definitely help me spend more on experiences, hotels, and go out to dinner a bit more often as well.

“This Privileged Rich Folk Talk is Making Me Sick, why don’t you give your money away to charity, or to me?”

In general, I agree: the world has problems and the richer you are, the more you should consider giving generously.

But also, to be honest, the whiny people who constantly send complaints like this out to strangers on the Internet really need to get a life. It’s great to encourage philanthropy through positive examples, but completely unproductive to send negativity to shame people you don’t even know for not following your own personal value system. The world has seen more than enough of this.

On top of that, this one-sided thinking can be counterproductive. Both of my friends have given generously throughout their lifetimes. In my own case, I have donated over $500,000 to the best causes I could find during the years I’ve been writing this blog, but I was still refusing to let myself replace that 23-year-old van.

And that overthinking was leading to even more of a scarcity mentality, as I compared my own meager spending to these bigger numbers of my donations, and found myself thinking things like,

“Damn, I’m spending $100 on this dinner date which sounds like a lot, but I also spent ONE THOUSAND TIMES more on donations last year, which sounds like even more. Maybe I am spending too much and need to cut back on EVERYTHING!”

And then the fear side of my brain would illogically chime in: “Yeah and you’re going to make us run out of money and be poor forever! waaaah waaaah! Cut back and optimize and conserve!”

I think there is a happy medium here.

Yes – be a super, duper responsible steward of your life savings.

And yes, give generously with all your heart to charity.

But yes, it’s also okay to set aside a portion of the money you’ve earned, for frivolous spending on yourself and those closest to you. You’re not a bad person for having a few nice things.

It’s okay to pay that extra hundred bucks to sit in the front of the airplane instead of the back if it helps you enjoy your vacation and spend a joyful half hour walking FREE at your destination while the 49 rows of people behind you fuss infuriatingly with their shit in the overhead bins.

It’s okay to buy the frozen berries at Whole Foods even though they cost eight times more than Costco charges, if it spares you from making a second unpleasant trip through parking lot hell.

And as for me, I am calling it okay to, at last, double flip the Autopilot stalk in my new Tesla and lean back as it it shoots me gracefully through even the highest mountain passes, forever leaving the desperately underpowered wheezing and gear shifting and noise* of the gasoline era behind, forever.

Rest in Peace, Vanna – 1999-2023

* A useful tip for more effective splurging:

Try to find the truly negative aspects of your life and focus any additional spending on improving those things. But it’s a subtle art so you have to get it right if you want lasting results in happiness.

You don’t want to just reduce hardship or challenge like hiring someone to take care of every aspect of your house, because overcoming daily hardships and having significant accomplishments provides the very core of our life satisfaction.

You also don’t want to just upgrade the things that are already good in your life. For example, a friend of mine is a gourmet coffee expert, and he suggested that I upgrade my setup at home to include on-the-spot roasting, and fancy grinding and brewing equipment. But I already love the good quality coffee I buy off the shelf from Costco, so it would be counterproductive to invest time or money into changing this part of my life.

But when you have something that causes you regular angst and stress, whether it’s a leaky roof that makes you dread rain, or a long commute that makes you dread the daily traffic jam, or a body that is giving you trouble due to not being in the best of shape – those types of things are probably a good target for improvement.

In the case of my car situation, I had a Nissan Leaf which is wonderful to drive, but doesn’t have the range to travel anywhere outside of the Denver metro area. Then I had the van which is a clunky beast to drive, but is otherwise an amazing road tripper because I could bring along whatever and whoever I wanted. But the van was getting increasingly unreliable in several hard-to-fix ways which was making me nervous every time I thought about long distance travel. Which was causing me to avoid certain trips and miss positive lifetime experiences.

In other words, my lack of a reliable long-range car was a small but consistent source of negative stress.

Finally, Vanna gave me the gift of a final hot and smelly transmission failure on a mountain pass on the way home from my new project in Salida. It was just the nudge that I needed. And now I already feel excitement rather than dread at the prospect of all the road trips in the coming decades!

* Total cost of this Tesla:

Model Y plus options and Tesla fees: $53,630
Subtract $7500 federal EV tax credit
Subtract $2000 Colorado EV tax credit
(Note: this is equivalent to a $44,150 list price if you are cross shopping with other cars)
Add back in $4674 of sales tax
Add in first 3 years of Colorado new-car registration fees: $3000
Net cost: about $52,000

New Tracker Page!

To go along with this article, I started a new page called “The Model Y Experiment” where I can share ongoing findings and Q&A about the ownership experience. I’ve driven and rented Teslas quite a bit in the past, so most of it will be pretty familiar. But as an owner I’ll get to verify the reliability and the quality of customer service, as well as any quirks and modifications and upgrades I do.

Source: mrmoneymustache.com

Apache is functioning normally

April 29, 2023 by Brett Tams

How Often Should You Rebalance Your Portfolio? – SmartAsset

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Choosing the right asset allocation matters for achieving your investment goals. But it isn’t just set-it-and-forget-it. Rebalancing your portfolio from time to time is necessary to ensure that you have the right mix of investments, based on your goals and risk tolerance. The question is, when do you need to rebalance? Knowing how often to rebalance portfolio allocation is a basic – yet important – investing lesson to learn. A financial advisor can offer valuable insights as you rebalance your portfolio.

What Is Portfolio Rebalancing and Why Is It Important?

Portfolio rebalancing simply means adjusting the weightings of different assets in your portfolio. This is achieved by buying and/or selling securities to bring your asset allocation back in line with your goals.

For example, say you prefer to hold 80% of your investments in stocks and 20% in bonds. But higher-than-expected returns have pushed the stock portion of your portfolio to 90%. To get back to your ideal 80/20 mix, you’d have to sell off some of your stocks or purchase more bonds to act as a counterweight.

Portfolio rebalancing matters for maintaining the appropriate level of risk in your portfolio. Say you’re more risk-averse and prefer to hold a higher proportion of bonds. If you don’t rebalance, you could expose yourself to more risk than you’re comfortable with if the stock portion of your portfolio grows.

On the other hand, failing to rebalance could mean you’re not taking enough risk to achieve your investment goals. You could end up with too much of your money in bonds or fixed-income investments, which could limit your portfolio’s growth potential.

Rebalancing regularly can help with maintaining a diversified portfolio. It’s also an opportunity to take a closer look at what you own to decide if those investments still match up with your needs and objectives.

How Often to Rebalance Portfolio?

Deciding how often to rebalance your portfolio is entirely a personal decision. You could do it monthly, quarterly, biannually or once a year. The advantage of using a time-based approach is that it’s easier to get into a habit of rebalancing, so you don’t forget to do it. And while you’re rebalancing, you may tackle other tasks as well, such as reviewing expense ratios for the mutual funds or exchange-traded funds you hold or commissions you’re paying to your brokerage.

You can also choose to rebalance once your asset allocation reaches a specific tipping point. So again, say you’re focused on investing 80% of your portfolio in stocks and 20% in bonds. You may set a rule for yourself to rebalance any time the stock portion of your portfolio grows to 85%. This is a fairly standard rule of thumb to follow, though you may choose a different percentage instead. For example, you may decide to rebalance if your asset allocation changes by 10% or 15%.

The advantage of rebalancing this way is that it allows you to avoid having your portfolio allocation be off-kilter for extended periods of time. If you were to only rebalance once a year, for example, it’s possible that you could go most or all of the year with an asset allocation that doesn’t match up to your goals or risk tolerance.

The key with either approach is to avoid overdoing it. Say you follow a set calendar for rebalancing quarterly. Rebalancing just because it’s time to rebalance may be counterproductive if your asset allocation hasn’t shifted course in a major way. Likewise, rebalancing once your asset allocation moves beyond a set percentage range could be problematic if it means paying more fees to your brokerage.

While many brokerages have adopted $0 commission trades for U.S. stocks and ETFs, fees may still apply to trade mutual funds or bonds. So even though rebalancing could help you to keep your portfolio in line, it may mean paying higher fees.

How to Rebalance Your Portfolio

If you want to rebalance your portfolio, the first step is to take an inventory of your current holdings. Specifically, you’ll want to break down what percentage of your portfolio is dedicated to different asset classes, i.e. stocks, bonds, cash and cash equivalents, real estate, etc. You can also drill down even further by looking at your allocation to domestic versus international investments and by market sector.

So if 80% of your portfolio is made up of stocks, for example, consider:

How much of that is U.S. stocks
How much is international stocks
Which stock sectors you own (i.e. healthcare, financials, utilities, etc.)
Whether you own more large-caps, mid-caps or small-caps
How much of your investments are in growth vs. value stocks

Digging deeper into your holdings can help you quantify which type of investments you need and want to have in your portfolio, based on your preferred investing strategy. If you set your asset allocation by age, for example, then your ideal allocation should reflect the level of risk that a person in your age range would typically be comfortable with.

Once you know what you own and what your ideal asset allocation should be, you can rebalance by buying or selling securities as needed. You may also want to consider asset location along with allocation. Asset location means where you keep your investments.

So you might have money invested in a taxable brokerage account, a 401(k) plan at work and an individual retirement account (IRA). All three have different tax profiles and all three may offer a different range of investments or charge different fees. When rebalancing, it’s important to consider the entirety of your portfolio across all investment accounts to decide where to keep which assets.

For example, your 401(k) may include target-date funds. These funds base their asset allocation on your target retirement date, then rebalance themselves automatically as you get nearer to that date. If the majority of your 401(k) is invested in a target-date fund then you may not need to do much to rebalance. But you’d still want to look at the fund’s underlying holdings and compare them to the funds you hold in your IRA or brokerage account. This way, you can avoid becoming accidentally overweighted.

Also, consider whether it makes sense to let an algorithm rebalance for you if you’re investing with a robo-advisor. Some, though not all, robo-advisory platforms include automatic rebalancing as an account feature. The pro is that you don’t have to do any heavy lifting to rebalance. The con, of course, is that rebalancing decisions are guided by an algorithm rather than a human perspective. So that’s one reason you may still want to talk to a financial advisor about the right way to rebalance.

The Bottom Line

There’s no single answer for how often to rebalance a portfolio. At a minimum, it can be helpful to review your portfolio and rebalance as needed at least once a year. The important thing when deciding how often to rebalance is to choose a frequency that fits your overall investing style.

Tips for Investing

If you’re considering a robo-advisor for automatic rebalancing, remember to weigh the costs as well as the other features that may be included. Robo-advisors typically charge an annual management fee which may or may not be tiered based on your account balance. So you might pay a management fee of 0.25% or 0.30%, which is lower than the 1% typically charged by human advisors. But think about what you’re getting in return, aside from automatic rebalancing. Is tax-loss harvesting included? Do you have the opportunity to speak to a human advisor if needed? Asking those kinds of questions can help you decide if a robo-advisor is right for you.
Consider talking to a financial advisor about the ins and outs of portfolio rebalancing and why it’s important. Finding a qualified financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with up to three financial advisors in your area, and you can interview your advisor matches at no cost to decide which one is right for you. If you’re ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.

Photo credit: ©iStock.com/fotofrog, ©iStock.com/Dishant_S, ©iStock.com/BernardaSv

Rebecca Lake, CEPF®
Rebecca Lake is a retirement, investing and estate planning expert who has been writing about personal finance for a decade. Her expertise in the finance niche also extends to home buying, credit cards, banking and small business. She’s worked directly with several major financial and insurance brands, including Citibank, Discover and AIG and her writing has appeared online at U.S. News and World Report, CreditCards.com and Investopedia. Rebecca is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and she also attended Charleston Southern University as a graduate student. Originally from central Virginia, she now lives on the North Carolina coast along with her two children.

About Our Investing Expert

Have a question? Ask our Investing expert.

Source: smartasset.com

Apache is functioning normally

April 29, 2023 by Brett Tams

Life insurance can be an integral part of most any complete financial plan. The takings from life insurance coverage can be used in a wide variety of ways, such as for paying off debt, continuing to pay everyday expenses, ensuring that a child or grandchild has funds to attend college in the future, paying estate taxes, and/or ensuring that one’s funeral and other final expenses are taken care of.

When looking for the best life insurance policy, it is imperative to make sure that you have the right type and amount of coverage. That way, your survivors won’t need to worry about financial hardship at an already difficult time in their lives.

It is also essential to ensure that the life insurance carrier you are planning to purchase the coverage through is secure and stable from a fiscal standpoint and that it has a positive reputation for quickly paying out its policy holder claims. One insurance carrier that meets these criteria is The Hartford.

History of The Hartford Life Insurance Company

The Hartford has been in the business of providing life insurance coverage for more than two centuries. The company had its beginning back in the year 1810 when it was formed as a fire insurance carrier. The Hartford quickly differentiated itself from other insurance companies at that time, when in 1835, a fire destroyed New York’s fire insurance district and the leaders of the company pledged their fortunes to help with paying the claims.

Throughout the years, the company grew and expanded, adding some insurance products along the way. Hartford continues its path of excellence today. In addition to offering financial protection through insurance coverage, the company helps in the communities in which it serves and promotes volunteerism and charitable donations. The Hartford also became a founding partner in the U.S. Paralympics in 2003, and it has been named as one of the world’s most ethical companies nine times.

The Hartford Life Insurance Review

Today, The Hartford offers an extensive list of insurance and other financial products, which can help its clients to customize their wealth enhancement and protection essentially. The company has a key focus on property and casualty insurance, as well as mutual funds and group benefits. It also offers life insurance and retirement annuities.

In the year 2016, Hartford had a net written premium of more than $10.5 billion just in personal lines insurance. In fact, Hartford is a leading direct personal lines insurance carrier, with a 30+ year partnership with AARP. The insurer has a leading share in P&C small commercial, and it is rated as the number two provider of workers’ compensation insurance. The Hartford is also ranked as the number four insurer in the group disability market, and number seven position in group life insurance coverage.

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Hartford Life is also a primary provider of group life insurance and in voluntary life insurance benefits. It serves more than one million small business customers with its coverage products. In 2016, the company had revenues of more than $18.3 billion. The Hartford is headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut.

Ratings and BBB Grade

Due to its strong financial position, The Hartford has high ratings from the insurer rating agencies. These include an:

A+ from A.M. Best Company
A+ from Standard & Poor’s
A1 from Moody’s Investor Services

Also, while The Hartford is not an accredited company through the Better Business Bureau (BBB), it has been given a rating of A- from the BBB, based on an overall grade scale of A+ to F. Over the past three years, The Hartford has closed out a total of 293 customer complaints – of which 13 were closed out over the past year.

Of these total 293 customer complaints, 202 had to do with problems with the company’s products and/or services, 71 were related to billing and/or collection issues, 12 were in relation to advertising and/or sales issues, 6 were delivery related, and the remaining 2 had to do with guarantee and/or warranty issues.

Life Insurance Policy Options Offered by The Hartford

The Hartford provides several options in terms of life insurance coverage. These come primarily by way of group life insurance coverage, as well as in voluntary life insurance plans that are offered through the employer-sponsored market.

Helping to protect employees against the unexpected is a key focus for many employers. Knowing that employees and their loved ones are covered financially can contribute to enhancing peace of mind, and in turn, employer productivity.

The Hartford offers industry leading group life insurance that includes features such as the following:

Enhanced Continuity of Coverage
Living Benefit Option
No Interruption in Premium Waiver Elimination Period
Portability and Conversion

In addition, there are also a variety of other programs that can provide employees with access to online tools and services that can help with guiding them through major life decisions, such as funeral planning and / or the creation of a will.

The Hartford also offers Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance (AD&D) in the group life insurance arena. Here, protection is available to employees, as well as for spouses and / or children against losses that can stem from unforeseen covered accidents.

With this plan, there is 24-hour accident coverage that can be combined with an employee’s group life insurance offering – or alternatively, it may be purchased by the employee as stand-alone coverage. There are also various riders available with this plan that can help to better customize the insurance to fit an employee’s individual needs.

The Hartford also offers a variety of voluntary life insurance options in the employer market. The coverage amounts of this life insurance can range from a flat dollar amount to multiples of the employee’s salary. There are also additional benefits offered, such as help with the preparing of a will, funeral planning, travel assistance, and more.

The term life insurance coverage that is provided via the Hartford’s voluntary benefits can include a living benefit option / accelerated death benefit, as well as accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D), and a disability waiver of premium. As with the group life insurance coverage, the voluntary life insurance benefits offered by the Hartford are both portable and convertible.

The coverage is also quite flexible, allowing employees in many cases to choose face amounts of between $25,000 to $250,000, as well as coverage for his or her spouse – up to 100 percent of the employee’s value.

With the voluntary benefit offering, there is also children’s coverage available. This coverage can range up to $15,000 in benefit. And, the coverage for all the insureds is typically guaranteed issue. This means that the individuals will be covered, regardless of their current health condition.

In addition to life insurance protection for employees, the Hartford provides value added services that can help an employee’s recovery in the event of an unexpected situation. Just some of these services include the following:

Counseling Beneficiaries – This service offers compassionate expertise that can help employees to cope with the financial, legal, and emotional issues that come from losing a loved one.
Funeral Planning and Concierge Services – These online tools can guide employees through a loss, such as help with planning a funeral.
Will Services – The Estate Guidance Will Services that is offered through The Hartford can help with protecting a future with an online will, which is backed by support from licensed attorneys.
Travel Assistance – With travel assistance, employees can get information to help them with feeling safe and secure.
ID Theft Protection and Assistance Services – Today, the fastest growing crime is identity theft. Once an identity has been stolen, it can wreak havoc on an individual and their family for many years to come. With ID theft protection services from The Hartford, employees will have access to educational materials that can help with preventing such a crime, as well as access to case workers who can assist with resolving issues that can arise from identity theft.

Other Products and Services Available

In addition to life insurance coverage, The Hartford offers many other products and services to its customers. These include the following:

Auto Insurance

The auto insurance that is available through The Hartford includes car / vehicle coverage, as well as coverage for classic vehicles, RVs (recreational vehicles), boats, golf cards, snow mobiles, and ATV (all-terrain vehicles).

Home Owners Insurance

The home owner’s insurance offered via Hartford includes coverage for one’s primary residence and investment property, along with renter’s insurance, condo insurance, flood insurance, and overall umbrella insurance coverage.

Business Insurance

The Hartford works with businesses to protect what is important to them. The company provides a wide variety of different business insurance protection options to choose from, depending on a company’s needs. These include:

Business owner’s policies
Workers’ compensation
Commercial auto insurance
Commercial property insurance
Data breach insurance
General liability
Home based business insurance
Employment practices liability
Personal Liability Insurance

How to Find the Best Life Insurance Premium Rates Through The Hartford

If you are seeking the best rates for life insurance coverage from The Hartford – or from any highly rated life insurance carrier , it is recommended that you compare policies and the prices of multiple plans with an independent insurance agent or broker – and from there, you can choose the option that will be right for you and your precise needs.

Source: goodfinancialcents.com

Apache is functioning normally

April 29, 2023 by Brett Tams

A payable on death account or POD account allows you to transfer money to someone else when you pass away without requiring those assets to go through probate. The individual or entity who collects those assets is called a POD beneficiary.

What does POD mean in banking? Broadly speaking, there are a number of deposit accounts that can be deemed payable on death, including checking and savings accounts.

If you’re considering establishing one of these accounts, it’s important to understand how POD accounts work, and if you are a beneficiary, it’s also helpful to know when and how you’re entitled to withdraw money from a payable on death bank account. Read on to learn:

• What does POD mean in banking?

• What are POD bank account rules?

• What are the pros and cons of POD accounts?

Payable on Death Accounts Explained

A payable on death account pays out assets to a beneficiary when the account owner passes away. You may also hear POD accounts referred to by other names, including:

• Totten trust

• Tentative trust

• In trust for account

• Revocable bank account trust

• Informal trust

When you create a payable on death account you can decide how many beneficiaries to add and who to name.
Examples of POD beneficiaries can include:

• Adult children

• Siblings

• A non-profit

• A trust

Worth noting: If you co-own the account with someone else, they cannot be named as a POD beneficiary.

Payable on Death Rules

Payable on death accounts have certain rules that set them apart from other accounts. The most significant rule concerns when beneficiaries can access the money in the account. Here are some details to know:

• If you open a POD bank account, you have full control over the money in the account during your lifetime. Even if you name 10 beneficiaries to the account, those beneficiaries cannot lay claim to any of the funds in it until you’ve passed away.

• In terms of how the money in a payable on death bank account is divided, each beneficiary receives an equal share. So if you have $100,000 in a savings account when you pass away and that account has four POD beneficiaries, each one would receive $25,000.

• Note that state law may limit the number of beneficiaries you can name to a payable on death account. Your depository institution may have additional rules for POD accounts.

Types of Accounts That Can Be Payable on Death

There are a number of account types that can be established as POD accounts. Your options can include:

• Checking accounts

• Savings accounts

• Certificate of deposit (CD) accounts

• Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs)

• Investment accounts

You can make a bank account that you own by yourself or with someone else a POD account, though again note that the co-owner could not be listed as a POD beneficiary.

In terms of what accounts cannot be POD, the list includes small business and commercial bank accounts as well as safety deposit boxes.

Credit accounts are not POD accounts either, since there are no assets to leave behind. In terms of what happens to credit card debt when you die, it can become the responsibility of your spouse or your estate, depending on where you live.

Recommended: Why It’s So Hard to Save Money Today

Payable on Death vs Beneficiary

Payable on death refers to a specific type of financial account that’s used to pass assets to someone else. The term “beneficiary,” however, is used to refer to an individual or entity that’s entitled to inherit assets from someone else. POD beneficiaries fall under the larger beneficiary umbrella.

Similarities

Here are some ways in which POD accounts and beneficiaries are the same. When you name a payable on death beneficiary, you’re telling your bank that you want that person or entity to receive money from the account when you pass away. In a sense, that’s no different from naming a beneficiary to a 401(k) plan or a life insurance policy. Your life insurance beneficiary, for example, is entitled to receive a life insurance death benefit from the policy when you die.

Payable on death beneficiaries and life insurance or retirement plan beneficiaries are not entitled to any money during your lifetime. They can’t access your bank account, withdraw money from your 401(k), or cash in your life insurance. But they all stand to benefit financially from your passing in some way.

Additionally, assets that have a named beneficiary are not subject to probate. So, if you open a Roth IRA and name your spouse as the beneficiary, they’d have access to the money in the account when you pass away. The same is true with regard to life insurance.

Differences

The main difference between payable on death accounts and other beneficiary accounts lies in what’s being passed on. With POD accounts, you’re typically talking about bank accounts. So you might leave your checking account or savings account to your children after you’re gone.

As mentioned, you can name beneficiaries for other types of assets such as a 401(k), IRA, investment account, or life insurance policy.

There can also be differences between payable on death accounts and other beneficiary accounts with regard to taxation. Someone who inherits a POD account may owe estate taxes, for instance, whereas life insurance proceeds are typically income and estate tax-free. (Determining how to allocate one’s funds and the tax burden that will result can be an important part of estate planning.)

Recommended: Tips to Improve Your Money Mindset

Pros and Cons of POD Accounts

Payable on death accounts can offer advantages and disadvantages. It’s helpful to weigh both sides before opening one.

Here’s an overview of the main pros and cons of POD accounts.

Benefits	Drawbacks
You retain control of the account and the assets in it during your lifetime.	Beneficiaries would not be able to access funds if you were to become incapacitated.
Payable on death accounts are not subject to the probate process.	Your bank may require you to close a POD account in order to choose a new beneficiary.
Depending on state law, you may be able to name multiple beneficiaries.	State law may restrict the number of POD beneficiaries you can name.
Removing POD accounts from probate can allow beneficiaries to access funds quicker.	It can be complicated for estate executors to access funds to settle a larger estate using POD deposits.

Payable on Death Account vs Trust

A POD bank account differs from a trust in a couple of key ways.

• In a typical trust arrangement, the trust creator or grantor transfers assets to the control of a trustee. The trustee manages those assets on behalf of one or more named beneficiaries. Assets held in trust are not subject to probate when the trust grantor passes away.

Probate is a legal process in which someone’s assets are inventoried, outstanding debts are paid, and remaining assets are distributed according to the terms of the decedent’s will. Dying without a will in place means assets would be distributed according to state inheritance laws.

• In a Totten trust or POD bank account, there’s no trustee. However, by designating an account as payable on death you can still remove the assets in the account from probate. That’s an advantage, as probate can be both lengthy and time-consuming.

The Takeaway

You might consider a payable on death account if you’d like to pass assets on to loved ones with minimal fuss. That could be helpful if you’d like to make sure they have easy access to cash to cover funeral and burial expenses or any basic living expenses after you’re gone.

Regardless of whether you opt for a POD account or not, choosing the right bank matters. With a SoFi Checking and Savings account, you’ll spend and save in one convenient place. You’ll earn a competitive annual percentage yield (APY) and pay no account fees, which can help your money grow faster.

Better banking is here with up to 4.20% APY on SoFi Checking and Savings.

FAQ

What does payable on death mean?

Payable on death means that money in account is payable to one or more beneficiaries when the original account owner passes away. A payable on death bank account allows beneficiaries to receive funds without having to go through the probate process.

Is a POD on a bank account a good idea?

Adding POD beneficiaries to a bank account could be a good idea if you’d like to make sure the money in the account goes to whom you want it to after you pass away. You could also choose to set up a payable on death bank account simply to allow those assets to bypass the probate process after you’re gone.

What is the difference between a pay on death and a beneficiary?

Payable on death is a designation that applies to bank accounts and other financial accounts. A beneficiary is someone who’s named to receive money from a bank account, retirement account, or other asset, such as a life insurance policy. A POD account can have one or more beneficiary designations.

Photo credit: iStock/bob_bosewell

SoFi® Checking and Savings is offered through SoFi Bank, N.A. ©2023 SoFi Bank, N.A. All rights reserved. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.

The SoFi Bank Debit Mastercard® is issued by SoFi Bank, N.A., pursuant to license by Mastercard International Incorporated and can be used everywhere Mastercard is accepted. Mastercard is a registered trademark, and the circles design is a trademark of Mastercard International Incorporated.

Financial Tips & Strategies: The tips provided on this website are of a general nature and do not take into account your specific objectives, financial situation, and needs. You should always consider their appropriateness given your own circumstances.
SoFi members with direct deposit can earn up to 4.20% annual percentage yield (APY) interest on Savings account balances (including Vaults) and up to 1.20% APY on Checking account balances. There is no minimum direct deposit amount required to qualify for these rates. Members without direct deposit will earn 1.20% APY on all account balances in Checking and Savings (including Vaults). Interest rates are variable and subject to change at any time. These rates are current as of 4/25/2023. Additional information can be found at http://www.sofi.com/legal/banking-rate-sheet.
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Source: sofi.com

The History of Nationwide Life Insurance Company

Nationwide Life Insurance Review

Insurer Ratings and Better Business Bureau (BBB) Grade

Life Insurance Coverage Offered Through Nationwide Life Insurance Company

Other Products and Services Available

How to Get the Best Premium Rates on Life Insurance Coverage

What Is Key Man Life Insurance?

Does The Company Have One Or Two People Who Are Highly Important?

How Does Key Man Insurance Work?

What Can the Company Do with the Death Benefits?

Who Actually Owns the Policy?

Getting Better Key Man Life Insurance Rates

The Offer

The Fine Print

Our Verdict

Personal Loans

Auto Loans

Business Loans

Mortgages and Refinances

Student Loans

Bad Debt Loans

Medical Loans

Opening Up to Opportunities

The Reality of Entrepreneurship

Make the Money Work

Making the Leap

Conclusion

What Is Portfolio Rebalancing and Why Is It Important?

How Often to Rebalance Portfolio?

How to Rebalance Your Portfolio

The Bottom Line

Tips for Investing

About Our Investing Expert

Categories

History of The Hartford Life Insurance Company

The Hartford Life Insurance Review

Ratings and BBB Grade

Life Insurance Policy Options Offered by The Hartford

Other Products and Services Available

Auto Insurance

Home Owners Insurance

Business Insurance

How to Find the Best Life Insurance Premium Rates Through The Hartford

Payable on Death Accounts Explained

Payable on Death Rules

Types of Accounts That Can Be Payable on Death

Payable on Death vs Beneficiary

Similarities

Differences

Pros and Cons of POD Accounts

Payable on Death Account vs Trust

The Takeaway

FAQ

What does payable on death mean?

Is a POD on a bank account a good idea?

What is the difference between a pay on death and a beneficiary?