savings accounts Archives - Empathic Finance

The 1% Rule: How to know when to move your money

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on April 22, 2024 | Featured

Not every deal necessitates the hassle of moving your money or accounts around, but the 1% Rule is a good threshold to keep in mind. … Read More

Tags: Ally, credit card, credit cards, interest rates, mortgage, mortgages, savings accounts

Should you move your emergency fund to an interest-earning account?

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on June 19, 2023 | Featured

It’s not important to earn interest on your emergency fund, but if there is no downside, then why not do so, now that rates are so high? … Read More

Tags: emergency fund, savings, savings accounts

Your funds are safe: Why the FDIC is amazing

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on March 13, 2023 | Featured

A bank run and collapse just reaffirms why the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is an amazing benefit to consumers. … Read More

Tags: savings, savings accounts

Why Ally’s Surprise Savings is terrifying

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on February 21, 2022 | Featured

I explore the Surprise Savings product from Ally and suggest a different way to achieve the exact same results. Last night, I was logging on to Ally to adjust some of my automatic transfers between my checking account and my … Read More … Read More

Tags: Ally, float, savings, savings accounts

Why a terrible savings account rate is actually just fine

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on September 28, 2020 | Featured

Falling interest rates may seem like a concern, but it helps to illustrate what savings accounts are really for. I’ve also long talked about how you can use an online savings bank to get much higher interest rates than with … Read More … Read More

Tags: insurance, savings, savings accounts

How to create buckets in an Ally savings account

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on February 10, 2020 | Featured

Ally has just added the ability to create Buckets, flexible sub-accounts that allow you to save for particular goals. Here’s how to use them. I guess you could say that I’m a pretty big fan of Ally. Maybe it’s that … Read More … Read More

Tags: Ally, buckets, savings, savings accounts, Slowdive

Ally now makes it easier to set up multiple savings accounts

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on November 19, 2018 | Featured

Ally has changed the way that you can create multiple savings accounts. This can make your savings plans much easier to implement. Update (February 2020): Ally now allows actual buckets! Read my review here. I’m a big fan of Ally. … Read More … Read More

Tags: Ally, buckets, how-to, savings, savings accounts

When savings rates change, is it time to switch banks?

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on July 5, 2018 | Featured

So we all now know to not keep our savings in a big bank, or other entity that clearly doesn’t care about keeping your business. But what if you’ve already done this? What if you have your savings accounts in … Read More … Read More

Tags: Ally, Capital One, savings, savings accounts

Why you don’t want a savings account at a big bank

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on July 2, 2018 | Featured

I talk about investments a lot, but there there’s a lot more to saving money than investing. Investments are “illiquid”, meaning you can’t just get at the money if you decide you want it. There are tax and penalty consequences … Read More … Read More

Tags: Bank of America, Chase, savings, savings accounts, Wells Fargo

How to open a savings account with Ally

Posted by Mike Pumphrey on November 2, 2017 | Featured

(Note that I don’t receive any commissions for posts like this. This is just, like, my opinion, man. Nevertheless, please read my disclosure policy.) For the longest time, the standard for an online savings account was a bank called ING Direct. … Read More … Read More

Tags: Ally, buckets, ING Direct, savings, savings accounts

savings accounts