Tip: Taking Advantage of Gift Card Bonuses During the Holidays

To incentivize buying gift cards in larger quantities and amounts, many retailers will offer bonuses to the buyer. For example, I recently bought $200 in gift cards for personal use and gifts that I got $35 in bonuses from. This post is about some best practices I take advantage of that you can use to get the most out of these deals.

1) Buy Gift Cards You'd Use Yourself

I'm not saying you should always buy gift cards that you'd use yourself, but I think it's a strategy that can give you options throughout the gifting season. I generally try not to buy gift cards as presents because I think they're a little impersonal. If I see that a retailer that both me and the potential gift receiver both like which offers an attractive bonus, I'll spring for it. In the event I can't find a better gift for them by the holidays I'll give them the gift card. Either way, I've given a gift to somebody I like and gotten a little bonus for myself.

2) Read the Fine Print

Of the two retailers I got bonuses from this year ($5 for $50 gift cards at DSW and $20 store credit for $100 at Banana Republic), both can be used for only a limited period of time. When you're shopping around for gift cards, be sure to read the fine print for the bonuses. If you're unsure of anything, ask somebody at the store. It's not uncommon for the bonuses to be available only for a limited period of time, on select products or for large purchases. If the restrictions are more trouble than they're worth, I'll usually pass on the offer.

3) Keep Track of Your Cards

This may sound obvious, but if you take advantage of multiple offers you may forget which ones are available when, which can cost you quite a bit in your bonuses down the line. To make sure that I'm away of when each bonus expires, I add them to my to-do list app (Wunderlist, which I would highly recommend) with a short description of when they're valid. Since I check my to-do list fairly frequently, I rarely miss out on using my bonuses. I also don't buy more cards that I can't carry on my person at all times. Going all the way to the store and forgetting your bonus gift cards is one of the worst feelings ever¹.

4) If the Gift Card is for Personal Use, Make Sure You'll Use It Naturally

I spent a decent amount of time trying to word the above, but struggled. When I say "naturally", I mean you'll use the gift card bonus to purchase something you would have purchased at some point anyways. Otherwise you're going to end up buying gift cards for yourself and others that will either go unused, or will be used to buy things you didn't want in the first place. I think a reasonable test to do is ask yourself if you think you or the gift recipient would use the store credit within a calendar year. If not, maybe get a small amount on the gift card or forego it altogether. According to this article, 6% of gift cards were unused (not sure if they mean physical cards, or balances). Don't be part of the 6%!

Have you found any great bonus deals this year? Share them in the comments! Extra CuttingEdgePersonalFinance karma² goes to those who share ones that avoid the pitfalls above (e.g. no redemption limit, usable on a wide variety of products and no minimum purchase required).

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1. Way worse than say, having your heart broken or taking a beloved pet to the vet (sarcasm intended). Remember, it may be gifting season but it's gratitude season above all! A missed bonus is, in the grand scheme of things, inconsequential.
2. Karma has no dollar value.

Review: Getting Rewards through Web Searches (Bing Rewards)

If you're anything like me, you search for things on the web a lot. It's almost always the first place I go for information. When I found out that I could earn rewards by changing my web searching behavior slightly, I signed up immediately.

Bing Rewards, the search engine that rewards you for your web searches has a pretty simple format. After signing up through Facebook or a Microsoft Account, you start earning rewards for all regular web searches that you do on Bing when you're logged in. You can earn up to 15 credits per day with one credit per 2 unique searches, which prevents users from searching the same thing over and over just to get points. You can also earn extra points through Bing's themed searches, for example, a recent one is about A Christmas Carol. If you use Bing enough, you can move up in status which gives extra benefits like additional credits and discounts on rewards.

So what's Bing got to offer in the rewards department? The current complete list can be found here, but some notable ones are sweepstakes entries, gift cards (e.g. GameStop, Sephora, Starbucks, Amazon etc.) and various donation credits. The rate at which you can earn credits is pretty fast. Assuming you earn the minimum 15 credits through web searches every day, you can have enough for a $5 Tango Card (credit redeemable for various gift cards, 520 credits) in 35 days. Keep in mind, 15 credits a day is a minimum, as Bing usually has additional credit earning opportunities through themed searches. This can come out to around $5 in gift card credit a month! If you haven't already signed up, here's the obligatory pro con list, with a tips section that has information on how to get the most from the program.

Pros:

• Rate at Which you Earn Rewards: $5 a month in gift card credit is pretty great for doing what most people already do, a bunch of web searches every day online.
• Reward Options: Again, the full list can be found here. I generally get Tango cards, which I'll explain in more detail in the tips section below but I've found there's usually something for everybody. Some of the rewards can be redeemed online, which is great if you don't like waiting for the mail like me.

Cons:

• Sharing Search Information: By signing up for the service, you allow Bing to give information on your searches to Facebook to provide you with more targeted ads. Personally I don't mind receiving better tailored ads on my Facebook page, however, I would be pretty upset if their database were to get hacked and my web search information to be in somebody else's hands or made public.
• Can Only Open Accounts with Facebook or Microsoft Accounts: I list this as a con, but the rewards system would not work well without this. Without Facebook or Microsoft integration, Bing would not be able to offer such great rewards because they make money off of using your search data to create more targeted ads.

I'd keep in mind that in my opinion, the cons aren't actually cons. Without being able to share your search information with other sites to better target ads, Bing wouldn't be able to offer as generous rewards.

Tips:

• Tango Cards are Flexible and Offer a a Great Redemption Rate: Tango cards can currently be redeemed for fewer credits than other gift cards, but offer some flexibility in how you redeem them. The full list can be found here but includes Amazon.com, Gap, Home Depot, Groupon and more!
• Make Bing your Homepage/Default Search: By making Bing my homepage and default search option, I never have to remember to go to Bing.com and then do my searches, I can just type into the search bar and earn credits quickly and easily.
• Stay Logged Into Your Accounts: As long as you're logged into your Facebook or Microsoft accounts you'll be able to earn credits. I would recommend staying logged in if you're on your personal computer so you don't accidentally miss out on getting credits for searches.
• Be Patient: Although there are some rewards that can be redeemed almost immediately, many of them will take some time to earn. Hang in there and remember that good things come to those who wait!

If getting rewards for web searches seems like your cup of tea¹, be sure to sign up here. My experience has been very positive so far. I've gotten around $50 worth of credits from regular web searches, themed searches, referring friends and because I'm such an active user, providing independent feedback and filling out a survey. Have you used Bing Rewards? Got any helpful advice or criticism? Please share in the comments!

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1. This is a rhetorical question. Who doesn't like getting rewards for web searches?

Education: Personal Finance Lessons vs. Heuristics

I've made a recent decision about the direction of this blog that I want to take. I'm not going to limit myself to product reviews and personal finance tips. I'll instead write about anything that I find interesting related to the personal finance space. To make this policy work for me and you, I'm going to try my hardest to properly label posts and introduce them in such a way that you can easily figure out what they're about and continue reading or skip them if they're not your cup of tea.

Richard Thaler, a professor of economics and behavioral science at the University of Chicago, wrote an Op-Ed for the New York Times earlier this month about the surprising lack of effectiveness in improving people's finances through financial literacy programs. However, he does reference a study that found that teaching people heuristics, or simple rules of thumb, can make a significant positive difference with their financial situation. This really forces me and other personal finance bloggers to reflect on how they choose to present information. Generally I try to provide my reader with as much information as possible when I give advice or review products, as I think heuristics are overly simplified. For example, on my Smartypig review, I give my reader information about ease of use, interest rates on the savings accounts and even the referral system. I could have just said, "Use this service, it's better than the bank account you currently have" without actually knowing anything about your personal situation, which is an approach that some other blogs take.

Personally, I think a program that starts with heuristics and then transitions into targeted financial literacy could be more effective than either one alone for those experiencing financial distress. The simple rules people learn help them improve their financial situations to the point where more advanced financial literacy skills (e.g. interest rate calculations, understanding risk in investments and using the tax code to their advantage) are relevant and useful. You can imagine if you're in a lot of debt, somebody telling you to "pay off all your debt and then start saving" is a lot more useful than doing compound interest calculations.

This all sounds peachy until I thought about what the set of heuristics should be. "Pay down all your debt as quickly as possible" is simple advice, certainly applicable for many people but not necessarily correct for everybody even if the goal is savings maximization controlling for a given level of consumption. Additionally, a heuristic like that leaves a lot of room for interpretation, what I interpret "as quickly as possible" for me may be a radically different pace than what the advice giver has in mind.

So, where does this leave us? I think certainly one thing people can do is seek out the type of information that they think will be the most useful to them. One of the major pitfalls of these financial literacy courses is that they don't seem to particularly tailor the program to those taking it. If you like getting simple, actionable guidelines, seek those out from reputable websites and financially savvy friends. If you require more in depth information, use more technical resources and consider getting a good financial advisor.

Frankly, I think the current situation we're in leaves a lot of room for innovation. I imagine a world in which people have savvy financial advisors who can access much of their financial information online and offer real time advice. The price of this service depends on its effectiveness of helping people reach their goals. As far as I know, this doesn't exist yet. Who knows, maybe I'll be the one to create it?

Free Entertainment: Reading the Classics

"And now for my next number, I'd like to return to the classics." -Often Used Rap Sample of Unknown Origin¹

I was recently given an Amazon Kindle for my birthday, which was great because it was exactly what I wanted. I figured I'd use some of the store credit that I've gotten up to this point to buy a few books and start reading. While searching around, I found out that there is an expansive group of books that are downloadable free to your Kindle device because they are currently in the public domain. That's not all though, here's the best part: Even if you don't own a Kindle don't worry, you can read all the classics I mention and many more for free on your computer as well using Amazon's cloud reader, which is free to download. This is all excellent news, because that means I can use my Amazon gift balance for more important things like dress socks.

It's fairly complicated to figure out when a literary work will enter the public domain, but a general rule of thumb to use is 50–70 years after the author's death. You'd probably be surprised how many works are actually available for free. Here's a list of a few I've read:

• The Great Gatsby (Amazon seems to be charging for it now. Sadface.)
• The Jungle Book
• The Art of War
• The Three Musketeers
• The Jungle² (not for the faint of heart)
• Heart of Darkness³
• Treasure Island

and a few more I've put on my list but haven't gotten to yet:

• Alice in Wonderland
• Don Quixote
• The Importance of Being Earnest
• and many many many many more...

Another excellent place to find ebooks that you can read on your computer or download to an e-reader is Project Gutenberg which has over 42,000 ebooks. If you do check them out and find them useful, I highly encourage you to donate to sustain the project here. As an added plus, Project Gutenberg is a 501(c)(3) organization so your donation is tax deductible. Another free source of ebooks is the Nook store by Barnes and Noble which can be read on any Nook, most tablets/phones and computers.

One last thing, I would advise staying away from sites that offer free books but then request credit card information, sign you up for some subscription or ask you to provide lots of personal information, there are much safer (and cheaper) ways of getting ebooks. Happy reading!

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1. Unless you, dear reader, know the origin, in which case let me know in the comments because I spent 20 minutes searching for it on the internet instead of writing this post.
2. What's with old books and always starting with "The", same thing goes for classic rock bands. Like seriously.
3. Thank god that mondo-"The" list is over.

Review: Quizzle (Free Credit Score and Report Service)

Is it just me, or have people got far more interested in their credit scores as of late? Perhaps I was oblivious before, but I feel like we're being bombarded with information (and misinformation) on how important credit scores are nowadays. And maybe that just means they're getting their due. To affecting our interest rates on loans, abilities to open new lines of credit, getting a job and dating prospects, credit scores can have a pretty major impact on your finances...and uh...love life as well apparently. So, a natural question to ask would be: How do I get my credit score and report, preferably for free?

Before you stop reading this post and go to that website that heavily advertised free credit reports but actually charged $14.95 monthly fees, bear with me for a few more minutes. Optimally, we would want a service that does the following:

1. Provides a free credit score and report for free, which means no hidden fees down the road.
2. Updates us at regular intervals with our report and score that are given to us without having to lift a finger.
3. Does not prevent us from getting a free score or report immediately from a credit reporting company.

You probably guessed it by now, Quizzle can do all those things. Let's break them down:

1. Provides a free credit score and report for free.

After signing up, Quizzle will do a soft pull of your credit report. This means that the request for information will not have an effect on your credit score. In this report, you'll get a summary of your open credit accounts (e.g. credit cards, loans), credit inquiries you've made recently¹ and any public records. Although the layout of the report may not be in a way that you're used to, Quizzle assures you that all the information provided is everything that's include in your credit report.

The best part, this is all free! Unlike other sites that provide you a credit report without a fee initially and then enroll you in a program where they charge you to monitor your credit, Quizzle won't charge you ever to use their most basic package. In fact, they don't even ask for any credit card information from you.

2. Updates us at regular intervals with our report and score.
Every 6 months, Quizzle will do another soft pull on your credit report and update your information and e-mail you an update. Excellent for people who want to stay on top of their score and report but can't remember to check themselves.

3. Does not prevent us from getting a free score or report immediately from a credit reporting company.
You may have heard that each credit reporting agency is required to provide a free credit report every 12 months. Not only are these reports important for informational reasons, they are also frequently requested for by people renting apartments.

One of my initial concerns with Quizzle was that signing up for their service would mean I wouldn't be able to request Experian reports independently. However, a very customer service representative at Quizzle informed me that being signed up for the Quizzle service does not exclude me from receiving credit reports through Experian. Excellent!

Bonus: Tools to Improve your Credit Score.
In addition to Quizzle's free plan where you get a free report and score every sixth months, you can also sign up for their more premium packages, that contain tools such as a credit analysis, timeline, comparison, monitoring and $1 million of identity theft protection. These plans vary in cost, from $7-25 a month. I haven't signed up for any of these yet as I don't think I need them at this point in my life, but they could definitely be useful down the road, for example, helping me improve my credit before I buy my first house. Have you used any of Quizzle's premium plans? Leave your thoughts and experiences in the comments.

Overall
Quizzle's free plan is a great improvement on other methods of monitoring your credit report and score. It provides all the information for free without impacting your credit score and automatically updates your information every six months. Additionally, you don't have to worry about requesting your free score through Experian itself if you're signed up for Quizzle because you can do that through them as well whenever you want.

I've decided that my green thumbs are kind of tacky, but know if I were will still handing them out willy nilly, Quizzle would certainly get one!

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1. I think it displays credit inquiries you've made in the past two years but I'm not completely sure as it isn't specified on the site.

Review: Venmo

For those moments Ven Mo people owe you money than they should:

Say you need to pay your friend back for that Netsky concert ticket that she got you. How are you going to do it? Pay in cash? You don't have the exact amount so that's not going to fly¹. Check? What is this, the 9th century? Unfortunately these days, it seems like there's a tradeoff between being able to conveniently send your friends money and to do it without having to pay steep fees.

Enter Venmo. A popular web and mobile app (iPhone and Android) that allows you to send money to your friends. Since the selling point is pretty short (unlike in my SmartyPig post), let's get our pros and cons on.

Pros:

• Low fee structure. Don't just take it from me. See for yourself. For those of you allergic to link clicking, it's free if you pay using a Venmo balance, debit card or bank transfer and 3% if you pay with a credit card. So far these are the lowest fees I've found for companies that offer a similar service.
• Social network connectivity. Tired of texting your friends to get their account names for random apps² which they've inevitably forgotten immediately after signing up. Well you don't have to deal with that ruckus when you're using Venmo. Connect your account to Facebook or Twitter to quickly find your friends.
• Signing/Referral bonus. Sign up using this link and get $1 when you create a Venmo account.
• "Trusted friend" capability. Do your friends always forget to pay you back for things³? Have them join Venmo and make you a trusted friend. Then you can charge them for expenses instead of waiting for them to pay you.
• Bank grade security. More here.
• Easy to use mobile app. Always forget to pay people back for things. With Venmo's mobile apps you can do it on the spot.

Check out this smooth mobile interface.

That's quite the pro list. Even better, the cons are pretty minor.

Cons:

• Their slogan isn't Ven-Mo Money Mo Problems.
• Balance are not FDIC insured⁴. Your Venmo balance is not FDIC insured. If you're concerned about this, just cash out your any balance you may have to your checking account as soon as possible.
• Uncertainty over whether low rates are here to stay. Mind you, this is purely speculative because I don't work for Venmo and they haven't released information of this nature, but I believe it's possible their rates may increase in the future. Why? By offering some of their services for free they're operating at a loss. You may say that Venmo is trying to become profitable through their business partnerships. Here's an informative Quora post on whether Venmo will be viable in the long term⁵. For now though, know that you're getting the best rates out there.

Conclusion:
Whether you're frequently in debt to your friends or the other way around, Venmo is a great tool to transfer money conveniently. Use online, or on your phone to get some of the best rates available. Don't forget, sign up here to get a $1 bonus!

And yes, you guessed it, this sparkling review results in Venmo earning a green thumb of their own.

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1. Unless you're one of those people who just suggests the amount of money you have on you at that very moment even though you owe your friend more. Don't be that person.
2. I make it easy on my friends by always snagging "DoglvrXOXOXO".
3. If they do, download Venmo to make your life easier instead of say, flushing them down a toilet. Warning: Link has profanity.
4. Covered in user agreement.
5. Also speculative.

Critique: Giving Up Your Daily Coffee (The Latte Method of Saving)

A Latte. Courtesy of Nuchylee, FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Giving up Your Daily Coffee (aka The Latte Method)
Some blogs will have you think that if you give up your daily coffee (or a soy half-caff cappuccino), you'll save far more money than you could ever imagine. This blog suggests savings of $200k in 25 years if both you and your spouse¹ give up your daily cup of premium joe. Sounds simple. Unfortunately, there are a lot of issues with this line of reasoning. This post seeks to bring some of those issues to light, and as a result, how to get the latte method to work for you. But first, some definitions. The latte method describes, more generally, any method of cutting back on small expenditures that you make often to save money. For this post I'm going to critique the conventionally used daily coffee example, however, you should be able to apply the reasoning to any area of spending that the latte method can be used.

Assumption #1.1 and #1.2: You get premium coffee from a coffeeshop every day (1.1), and that by no longer buying it you've cut it out completely or switched to a free alternative (1.2)
A lot of the savings numbers that are quoted online assume that you order coffee from a relatively expensive coffeeshop on the daily. They also assume that you've stopped drinking your daily coffee completely. I confess, I have a cup of coffee or two every day, and know that if I go without it I feel like this. A more reasonable course of action would be to cut down on the amount of coffee you buy from coffeeshops, perhaps by drinking less, making your own, or both. It won't lead to huge savings, but it will result in moderate savings with a minimal change in lifestyle. More generally, the latte method only works if you are indeed making these small expenditures regularly enough to make cutting down on them worth it.

Assumption #2.1 and #2.2: The money you save isn't spent elsewhere (2.1), and is immediately invested (2.2)
Another issue with the latte method is the assumption that whatever money you do save from switching to cheaper alternatives you don't end up spending elsewhere. The whole point of saving money in the first place is to use it for some other purpose which you value more, like a vacation with your family², buying a new set of speakers or buying gold, piling it up and in a fantastically garish display, and slaloming down it. Although sitting on those coffee funds for 25 years is possible, not only is it unlikely, it's pretty absurd. If you have effectively saved using the latte method, you should use those funds for something you care about instead of letting them sit in a bank account for an entire generation.

Say you've addressed assumptions 1.1, 2.1 and 2.2. Congratulations! But before you start counting the theoretical millions you'll have in 50 years, you need to ask yourself where you're saving the money. The $200k number provided above assumes that you're getting 8% returns annually for 25 years. In addition, it assumes that you're investing whatever savings you get as soon as you get them. Turns out the latter is actually doable with some personal finance savvy. Most savings and investment accounts allow you to set up recurring contributions. You pick a time interval and an amount, and presto transferro!, funds are moved from your checking account to these accounts automatically. I'd highly recommend this as a way of getting yourself to commit to saving. Calculate the amount you'll save from giving up coffee each month and have that amount automatically transferred.

Assumption #3: Cutting down on your daily coffee won't drive you insane
Okay, a bit sensationalist, I know, but let me convince you that I actually have a point here. There may be some areas in your life where you make lots of small expenditures and cutting down on them won't impact you adversely, but there are also areas in your life where cutting down will make you miserable. A question to ask yourself when thinking about an area where you can decrease spending is even worth it. That is, are the things that I can use the money I save for worth giving up whatever I'm giving up?

Conclusion, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Latte Method³
If you read my last post, you'll know that Cutting Edge is all about saving with purpose. To get the Latte Method to work for you, first identify what you're saving toward. Otherwise it can be difficult to motivate yourself to save. Then, go through your monthly expenditures (credit card bills are an excellent place to start) and identify areas where you make a lot of repeated small expenditures that you can cut down on without significantly decreasing your quality of life. Next, calculate how much you want to save and create a plan to do so by cutting out or minimizing spending in that category. Set up a recurring contribution to your savings or investment account for that amount. Last, wait until you've completed your goal, pop some reasonably priced bubbly or sparkling cider, and celebrate having achieved your savings goal!

Okay, you've finished this post, you're ready to make the Latte Method work for you, but you need a little inspiration. Never fear, Cutting Edge is here (and technically has been here this whole time...)! Check out this inspirational list of common areas where people make a lot of small expenditures that are easy to cut down on:

• Coffee. You've been paying attention this whole time, right?
• Eating(/Drinking) out. I'm incredibly guilty of being bad at this if it makes you feel any better.
• Entertainment. Wait for those romcoms you secretly love to be released for rental? Use the library instead of your e-reader⁴? Play a trippy screensaver with the lights off while listening to dance music in lieu of a concert⁵? Yes please.
• Clothing/Cosmetics. You look stunning right now, trust me. But actually, take the time you go between buying clothing or cosmetics and think about how much it'd change your quality of life if you doubled or tripled it.
• Any services you can easily do yourself. Iron your own clothes, clean your own place, pump your own gas⁶.

Got any areas to add? Intriguing successes or failures using the latte method? Please share in the comments!

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1. Thanks for reminding me I'm still single...jerk.
2. Now I've just reminded myself that I'm still single. Shoot.
3. I'm not just an art poser (see the links), I pretend to know about film as well.
4. Or you're reading the classics on your e-reader.
5. This is a joke. I totally haven't done this before. I swear. As a sidenote, I'm also an terrible liar.
6. Unless you're in New Jersey. New Jersey is weird.
?. There's an easter egg link on this page. Give yourself a pat on the back if you can find it.

Review: SmartyPig

Sure, it's widely reported that pigs are highly intelligent animals, but unless they're also savvy financial advisers (scientific study pending), it's unclear how exactly they're going to help you with your personal finances. Luckily for you, the website SmartyPig®, a clever play on piggy banks, has your back.

How's it work?

SmartyPig is elegantly simple. They've realized that most people don't like to save money for the sake of it, people do so to achieve different goals. Instead of creating a plain vanilla savings account with a generic name like "Day-to-Day Savings", you get to create any number of savings accounts named after your goals. I don't know about you, but "Putting the 'Fun' in Fund" blows "Day-to-Day Savings" out of the water. Whether you're saving for a well deserved vacation, your education or a rainy day¹, you get to customize the account to suit your goals.

If you complete a goal, kudos to you. You get a congratulatory message and can close that goal, which sends money back to the bank account you used to fund the goal². You can also leave your money there and accrue and compound interest as usual with a "100%+ Goal Completed" to remind you how awesome you are. If you need your money before you've completed your goal, you can still close the goal, enjoy the bitter taste of failure, and withdraw your funds with any interest you've accrued. Right now, it probably sounds like a regular savings account that you get to name for a specific purpose. Not that exciting. There is a catch though.

If you decide to withdraw your funds at any point, you must withdraw all of them. By doing this, SmartyPig protects you from yourself. Here's a quick example: Say you want to buy a new pair of shoes, but don't have any money in your checking account. You can transfer some money from your boring savings account scot-free. I mean, how much will that impact your "day-to-day" life anyways. However, say you've been saving to take a trip to Paris for a few months so you can hang out with those people I posted about above. You should be more reluctant to close that goal and transfer all of those funds to your checking account just to buy a pair of new kicks.

Nifty idea. Is that it though?

Nope. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Since people are more reluctant to withdraw from their savings goals until after they've finished them, SmartyPig can offer you higher interest rates. Why this is the case is a little complicated, and I may explore it in more depth in a future post. The basic idea though is that when banks³ have deposits for longer periods of time, there's more they can do with those deposits.

SmartyPig offers a 1.00% Annual Percentage Yield as of 8/15/13 on accounts of $25 and up, which is the minimum. To give you an idea of how good that is comparatively, it's better than most medium-term (12 months or less) Certificate of Deposit⁴ rates, savings accounts and of course checking accounts.

Here's a quick rundown for people who only want to read the bare minimum:

Pros:

• 1.00% Annual Percentage Yield. Better than most checking and savings accounts and medium-term certificates of deposit.
• Funds have Federal Deposit Insurance. This means the US government will back your deposits if the bank where your funds are deposited goes insolvent.
• Goals can be personalized and set up to help you achieve them. Because "Forget the club – I'd Rather Count a Million Bucks Savings Fund"⁵ is way more exciting than "Ultimate Savings".
• Interest accrues daily so you can see how much you're earning. This may sound like the tiniest of perks, but it's surprisingly motivating to see your funds grow on a daily basis, even if by only a little bit.
• You can set up your goals to take public contributions. Don't think you can afford that vacation yourself? Share your goal with friends and family to have them help pitch in.
• Redeem your goal for a gift card at select retailers and you can get an additional bonus. This is a great strategy for big purchases. Say you're saving up for a new wardrobe from Banana Republic. If you save $200 in your goal, you'll get $220 (a 10% bonus!) in gift cards to spend there.
• Sign up for a Cash Rewards Debit Card for 1% cash back. SmartyPig offers a Cash Rewards Debit Card that you can load from your SmartyPig account. Get 1% back on all purchases that you can deposit back onto your card or into a goal. This is great for people who need some extra encouragement to save.
• If you refer a friend and they set up an account and deposit money, you get $10. Only relevant if you're super popular, something I don't really have to worry about.

The cons are few and far between. Most of them are specific to the great features that SmartyPig has, but I wish were implemented differently in some small way.

Cons:

• Referral system done by e-mail and money you can make from it is capped. You're only allowed to invite people by e-mail and you get a hundred invites. If you use all your invites and all your friends sign up for accounts and deposit money you'd make a whopping $1000! However, the odds of all your friends following through like that are pretty low. If a friend ignores an invite, you can't get it back. However, a PR representative for the company informed me that they will be adding the ability to share unique links with your friends for referrals in the future. This is definitely something to look forward to.
• Cash Rewards Debit Card has a $9.95 initial fee, $1.95 domestic ATM fee etc. Even if you incur no additional fees, you'd have to spend $995 until you make back your initial fee. Here's a link detailing all the fees associated with the card. Personally I think there are better alternatives.

Conclusion:
SmartyPig has a long list of pros and few cons. If you're in the market for a high-yielding savings account that helps you achieve your financial goals, I'd highly recommend signing up. Better yet, help me out and let me refer you. E-mail me at cuttingedgepersonalfinance |at| gmail.com or direct message me on Twitter (@CuttingEdgePF) with your e-mail address for an invite. I'll do my best to refer you within 24 hours. For your convenience, the eligibility requirements have been placed at the bottom of this post.

Because of its various merits, SmartyPig will earn the highest, and only, of Cutting Edge Personal Finance accolades: a green, cartoony thumbs up. I'd take a few minutes out of your busy day if I were you to revel in its splendor.

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1. Those Parisians were hella prepared for that rainy day. We should strive to be more like them, you know, financially speaking.

2. Or other fun things. Keep reading to find out what they are.

3. Although you may think SmartyPig handles your deposits themselves, any funds you have on SmartyPig are deposited with a bank they've partnered with, BBVA Compass.

4. Also known as CDs. I'll explain what these are in the future if people are interested. The takeaway here is that for most CDs, you cannot access the funds you deposit until specific dates. Some CD issuers let you access the funds early, but if you do access them early you are penalized (bankspeak for "charged a fee" or "loss of accrued interest"). Not only does SmartyPig not penalize you for withdrawing whenever you do, you get a better rate of return on your savings.

5. For those of you who didn't get the reference here's a Cutting Edge CliffsNote.

Eligibility for SmartyPig Accounts: In order to establish a SmartyPig account, you must be a U.S citizen or U.S. permanent resident alien with a green card and social security number and U.S. residence address. If you are under the age of 18, please have your parent or legal guardian open a SmartyPig account first. Once the account has been created, your parent or legal guardian will be able to add you as a Limited Access User and give you view-only access to the account.

Introduction: Why Personal Finance?

I know what you’re thinking: Riddle me this anonymous blog author, Why is personal finance even important? Because let’s be honest, it’s up there with ironing pants, returning library books and going to the DMV as one of the least sexy things ever. Fair question reader, fair question. From a personal standpoint, I work hard for my money, so I'm all for simple and effective ways of ensuring I have more and not less of it. More generally though, I have certain life goals that I want to achieve, and I want to make sure I'm capable of achieving the ones that require money. If you're astute you've probably realized that I haven't actually proven that personal finance is sexy. If it's really that important to you then you can read this blog in your underpants for all I care...as long as you keep doing the reading part.

I'm going to keep this introduction short because nobody reads introductions. There are a few things I hope to do in this blog, and a few things I hope not to do. I detailed them out below not only for you to see, but to also make me more accountable to them. Let's hope that strategy works.

What this blog hopes to do:

• Provide original, high-impact personal finance advice. The first part is pretty simple. If I wrote stuff here that you've read elsewhere, it wouldn't be very useful to you. So what constitutes high-impact advice? Some personal finance blogs fall into the trap of posting about every possible savings opportunity possible. While saving money is great, a lot of the advice, when implemented, results in relatively small savings. I don't play that game here. Although not all my posts will be relevant to all my readers, rest assured I'll try my best to make sure that my recommendations are useful for a good number of people.
• Review innovative personal finance products. There are a lot of new products that have sprung up recently to help people track their finances, find savings and maximize returns. Although there is some coverage of these on other blogs and newspapers, many of these reviews have some serious flaws. Some reviewers have not tried the product they're reviewing. Others explain how it works without actually assessing its usefulness. Here at Cutting Edge, I plan to review products that I have used personally, and if I don't use them myself, be upfront about it and say why. Additionally, I promise to roll up my sleeves, crunch a few numbers and actually show how useful (or useless) these products are.
• Organize posts in such a way for the information you want to be easily accessible. Not everything I post will be relevant to everybody. Here on this blog, I'll do my best to tag articles so that you can find the type of advice you want. That said, I hope you'll explore around and find useful information everywhere! And if you want to stay current, you can check out and follow my twitter account @CuttingEdgePF.

What this blog hopes not to do:

• Repeated hackneyed budgeting advice. How many times have you seen that giving up your daily Starbucks will make you rich? Look, I'm not disputing that if you stop dropping $3.90 on a latte you'll save a lot of money, but I'm pretty sure that's common knowledge at this point. I'll discuss The Latte Method (making cuts to little expenditures that add up over time) in a later post, but with a little more finesse than other sites.
• Tout get rich quick schemes. I'm not going to teach you how to make $90k working from home, pick penny stocks or sign up for pyramid schemes. That's what the rest of the internet is for.
• Make unfounded claims about what products are best for you. Even though there are a select few blogs that don't engage in the top two bulleted behaviors, they are prone to this one. Everybody has a unique financial situation. I'm not going to pretend that I know what products and strategies are best for you, but I am going to give you the tools and information to figure it out yourself. Trust me, the minimal effort on your part will be worth it.

Sounds like a plan, right? Before you traipse around the rest of this blog (or YouTube, let's be realistic) there are a few things you can do for me. Follow the blog on twitter (@CuttingEdgePF), post comments and questions, share with your friends and feel free to e-mail me with feedback or requests at cuttingedgepersonalfinance |at| gmail.com. If at the end of the day, one of my articles has helped at least one person, I'll consider my mission accomplished.

EDIT: I changed some small parts to make them funnier and less repetitive. I hope I succeeded...