Tag: life-planning

Setting High-Yield Savings Goals

Last time I updated you on my high-yield savings accounts, interest rates were going up and so were my savings. Since then, my LendingClub account has increased the interest rate on my savings three more times!

Back in June, LendingClub raised my rate to a 1.05% annual percentage yield (APY). By the end of June, it was 1.26%, and at the start of August it went up to 2.07%. A few days ago on September 21, it went up to 2.25%. According to LendingClub, this is 13 times the national average savings account yield. When the interest rate was 2.07% at the beginning of August, I decided to transfer more money into the account. Through the end of August (September’s interest doesn’t hit until the end of the month), I had made almost $30 on my savings since I opened the account in March 2022!

My LendingClub account is designated for a future down payment on a house, so it’s a longer-term goal that I have more funds allocated to. My other high-yield savings account with SmartyPig is for saving money before it is invested.

Though I haven’t been contacted about the interest rate going up on my SmartyPig account, it has increased from 0.75% in June to 2.05% in September. Not too shabby! When I signed up for SmartyPig, one of its offerings was the ability to set savings goals. What I didn’t realize is that the interest rate is higher when I designate funds for a specific goal—2.25% (same as my LendingClub account)!

So, I set up my first official savings goal with SmartyPig, which is to have $2,000 ready to invest by the start of 2023. When I began investing in March 2022, that was my Schwab account’s starting balance. At that point, it was all I was willing to part with; I knew I should only be investing money I was comfortable losing. Since then, my threshold for losing money has increased (since the market has been down for most of this year). However, I also know that I’m in my investments for the long term, so the short-term ups and downs aren’t crucial to my end goal. Maybe 2023 will be a better year if people stop saying the world “recession”—don’t let the market hear you!

I’ll keep you updated on how this savings goal goes and when I solidify a better plan for transferring my savings to all of their different homes on a more regular basis. Half the battle is just figuring out what works for me and my money, the rest should be relatively easy (fingers crossed!).

The Carrie Finances: A Budget to Battle Inflation

I’ll be honest, me and my budget have not been friends recently. We’ve been struggling to communicate, and when we do it always ends in confusion and despair! Some months I save the right amount according to my budget, and other months I fear I will never save a penny again.

Inflation is affecting everything I touch recently, including my apartment. My rent is going up in September, and over the summer I spend about double on electricity with the luxury of air conditioning, so it’s time to revisit my budget.

Last time we talked budgeting, I was using the percentage budget outlined in Erin Lowry’s “Broke Millennial.” I’m going to stick with it for now so that I can make sense of how much I really have to spend after these changes take effect. The percentage budget allocates 50% of monthly income to fixed expenses, 20% to savings or financial goals and 30% to wants and flexible spending. My rent went up from $1,085 to $1,200 (yes, I tried to negotiate with my landlord, but he said they were already eating part of the cost with that increase—oof!), and with double the electricity my utilities are $110.


I’m relieved that my total fixed expenses are still under 50%, though just barely! I decided to break down my leftover money (after savings are accounted for) on a weekly basis to see how much I can really spend per week. This encompasses groceries, going out to dinner with friends, etc. Though I probably won’t track everything down to the cent, I will keep in mind what I can actually spend instead of just guessing and hoping I’ll have enough along the way.

Now that I’m contributing to my retirement account, just a reminder that the monthly savings percentage doesn’t include retirement savings. This is because the percentage budget should be performed using your aftertax income and retirement contributions will come from pretax income—unless you’re fancy and have a Roth 401(k) or similar account.

We’ll see how this budget works out, and I’ll check in with you all when the leaves start falling and everything starts dying around us—my favorite time of year!.

High-Yield Savings Accounts: Where Are They Now?

While I may not be making money in my investments right now, my high-yield savings accounts are making me more than I’ve made in years on my savings!

The market is down. Even if you’re not in the market, I’m sure you heard. But I’ve been trained well by AAII; I’m not scared by the red numbers on my Schwab account. In fact, I’ve made friends with them! We’re getting brunch on Sunday since the market is closed.

You might also be hearing about interest rates lately, and the possibility of them being raised. One of my savings accounts just raised my interest rate! It was an email I actually wanted to see from an institution I keep my money with. My high-yield savings account with LendingClub is now yielding 1.05% per year, up from 0.65% when I opened my account. LendingClub also noted that there is no minimum balance for my account (before it was $2,500). This makes me excited to see what this account can do for me; it’s already made a whopping $6.44 since the end of March (compared to $0.13 a month on my regular savings account, we’re living like kings).

I recall Erin Lowry saying 1.05% is the best rate on the market in “Broke Millennial,” so I feel like I lucked out with LendingClub. But Lowry also says, “Online banks will routinely fiddle around with the APY on savings accounts. One month it’s 1.05 percent APY, and two months later it drops to 0.75 percent. It’s actually within the bank’s right to do this—but that doesn’t mean you should hang tight at your measly 0.01 percent rate with your current bank because another bank might change from 1.00 percent APY to something a little bit lower. Because 0.75 percent still crushes 0.01 percent.” It’s good to know that my interest rate might not stay at 1.05% forever, especially since interest rates are fluctuating in other areas of the economy.

So with this higher interest rate, I should probably add more money to my LendingClub savings account to take advantage of it! My other high-yield savings account with SmartyPig is also doing well, and I’ll be adding more money to it soon to make the most of the 0.75% yield.

If you want to know more about interest rates, AAII’s financial writers and guest writers all have much smarter things to say than I do—I’m still recovering from high school trigonometry.

Opening High-Yield Savings Accounts

Last time I wrote about savings accounts, I asked my Instagram followers if they knew the interest rate on their savings accounts. I gave them four options: 1) Yes, but it sucks; 2) Yes, it’s actually making me money!; 3) No; and 4) I don’t have a savings account.

I got 15 responses: Three of my friends said they know their interest rate, but it sucks; six said they don’t know the interest rate; and six don’t have a savings account. I would say most of my followers fall between the ages of 20 and 40, and some of those without savings accounts are either younger than me or not working full-time yet.

However, no one selected, “Yes, it’s actually making me money!” This didn’t surprise me, but it motivated me to continue my research and finally open some high-yield savings accounts.

First, I revisited SmartyPig, which still offers a 0.70% annual percentage yield (APY), or interest rate, on my savings. This account will let me save up to $10,000 at this high interest rate, but once I have more than that the APY drops to 0.45%. I decided to call this my “grower not shower” savings account, where I’ll put money before investing it so that I can make the most of it before its intended purpose.

Signing up for a SmartyPig account was easy, it just required my name, address, Social Security number and creating some security questions. At some point I was asked if I had lived at my current address for more than two years. When I said no, I was asked to also enter my previous address. Once I read the disclaimers, I was able to manually connect my current bank savings account to make a transfer.

Then I wanted to look at some high-yield options that gave me more flexibility with my savings. LendingClub now offers a 0.65% APY, higher than it was when I last looked into it! The only restriction is that I must have at least $2,500 in the account. I’m calling this one my “movin’ on up” savings account where I’ll be putting funds to save up for buying a place in the future!

Opening an account with LendingClub was slightly different than SmartyPig. I was asked to create a security phrase, and I was able to connect my bank automatically using Plaid. From there, I could designate which account I wanted to connect and choose the amount I wanted to transfer. There were many disclosures to read, but most didn’t apply to the high-yield savings account I was opening and were instead about LendingClub’s other banking and card offers.

I decided to open two different high-yield savings accounts so that I can maximize the yields across both, and because I want to keep my savings goals separate as Bola Sokunbi explained in “Clever Girl Finance.” For now I’m keeping my regular savings account with my bank, designating it for emergency savings.

I’ll keep you updated on how my plan goes, and as it changes along the way!

The Carrie Finances: Building a Budget That Doesn’t Leave You Broke

OK Anine, it’s been six days. Are you going to keep thinking about that guy who called you corazón and then said he didn’t want to date anyone? No, you’re going to build yourself a budget because he wants to “get his life together” and you already have!

In Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw was notorious for relying on the men in her life for money and housing, to the point that it made me a bit sick to watch. She goes to Big when she needs money and she lets her ex-fiancé Aidan buy her apartment (which, unsurprisingly, doesn’t turn out well). When things backfire and she’s nearly homeless, she has no backup funds to bail herself out.

Ever since I was told at age 15 that to be a writer in any capacity I’d have to “get myself a rich boyfriend,” I’ve loathed the idea of relying on a man (or anyone) for anything. It also helped that I listened to Deap Vally’s song “Gonna Make My Own Money” hundreds of times!

Like investing, in dating past performance is not indicative of future returns. For now, I’ve given up on a future reduction in rent were I to move in with someone. (As Whoopi Goldberg said, “I don’t want somebody in my house!”) Instead, I’ve made a life for myself on my own terms.

This also means that I’m a one-income-stream household, and that me, myself and I have to cover the entire rent payment, utilities and other monthly expenses. I live in a one-bedroom apartment in Chicago, and I pay for electricity and internet, but I don’t have to pay for water or gas/heat. I’ve cut back on my monthly subscriptions, so those only cost about $13. My monthly fixed expenses are $1,188. So, what do I do with the rest of my monthly income to ensure my financial stability?

Remember when I read “Broke Millennial” and Erin Lowry introduced me to the percentage budget? It’s time for that budget to shine. First things first: Let’s spreadsheet it!

The percentage budget outlined in “Broke Millennial” designates 50% of monthly income for fixed expenses, 20% for savings or financial goals and 30% for wants or flexible spending. The first thing I wanted to see was the true percentage of my monthly fixed expenses. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was under 50%. This gives me even more flexibility in this budget, especially if some months I want to save more than 20% of my income, or I need to spend a little more on dental costs—or fancy cheese!

I tried out this budget for the month of February this year and it worked out well for me, even when it came to paying off my credit card! I haven’t set a specific food budget yet, but for now I’m including it in my 30% for flexible spending and will determine it in future months. I’ll also be looking into some other budgeting methods, including trying out a budgeting app or two, so stay tuned for more of the Carrie Finances series!

Have you tried a budgeting method? Did it work, or did you have to create your own?