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I know that we are all trying to save money thru many different means (couponing, cutting back, paying off credit cards, getting out of debt,etc...which are all good ideas). But I am curious about how you are actually doing about investing your money thru your bank.
Reason why?
By my nature, I am not a person that puts my money at risks and I have learned to conservatively invest my money and let it slowly grow. This way my investmentis not at a high risk-which is good. But the downfall is that your money grows more slowly and you have to diversify it in many different ways to conservatively do that.
Well, CD interest rates are down. If you can find a rate at over 2% or 3% (which in my opinion, 3% kinda stinks to begin with) its rare.
Yesterday at the bank, the teller was trying to intice me to purchase a CD at 2% interest rate. Which I kinda laughed at. I do not feel that its worth tying up my money for a 2% interest rate. Dont get me wrong, I do buy CD's but I try not to unless I can get a 5% interest rate on my return. Which in this economy, is hard to find right now. A few years ago, it was quite common.
I have several accounts at several banks because I was enticed thru promotions to open those accounts (by a higher interest rate for a year or two) if I open a new account with so much money in it. At the bank that I do my main banking thru (which is a Credit Union) I get the best rates. I keep the majority of my money in a Money Market account (because the interest rates are better in that instead of a Savings Account) and I transfer money into the Checking Account as needed for checks that I write.
I do this because there isnt a good interest rate on checking accounts (and lots of times there is not an interest rate at all in checking accounts)....and we all do need to have a checking account. So basically, I keep NO money in the checking account until I need to transfer money into it. And I do not write that many checks these days so it works well for me.
I personally predict that the nations economy is not going to be a quick fix and we may be in this boat for at least 2 more years with the current interest rates. There are things that I do purchase annually. Like my IRA's and I purchase those primarily for tax related reasons. **Iam sure that members of this group that are tax-preparers (like Rosie) would understand this. And I do highly recommend purchasing your annual IRA's if you can afford to do so.
When the economy tanked, I will admit (embarrasingly) that I am one of the many Americans that lost money in Mutual Funds. I lost at least 1/5th of my investment. And that is a BIG loss for me. However because of the loss, I have no choice but to leave the money in those funds and I have to sit back and wait for those Mutual Funds to slowly come back up. To say the least, I will not be buying any more Mutual Funds in my immediate future. But I do currently have money in these funds so I have to sit on them for a while.
If you personally know me, you will know that I am not a very patient person. But when it comes to money, I have learned to be patient with my investments. Otherwise, there is no reason to even invest.
I tell you all of that, to ask you this:
What are you currently doing with your money??
Are you putting money into your 401K? If so, what percentage?
Are you avoiding financially investing thru banks (with CD's ect) and deciding to invest thru real estate or land purchases instead? '
And how is that working out for you?
I have friends that invested in real estate and some of them are doing great...others are taking a hit and needing to get out from under their properties and cannot sell them even tho they are on the market.
Please share your 2 cents with the rest of this group...
Thanks, Rochelle
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