Tips for choosing a Bank

Tips for choosing a Bank that's Right for you:

Shop around -- Shop around for a bank that offers the services that you want and whose fees are competitive. Choose a bank that is FDIC insured. This means that your bank account is insured up to $100,000.



Bank Fees - Look very closely at the fees associated with bank accounts. You will find the fees in the fine print. This is where banks make a lot of money these days. Fees you should look out for: ATM Fees, balance inquiries, flat monthly fees, per-check fees, overdraft protection fees, fees for going below the minimum balance, bounced check fees, fees for using ATM's that aren't associated with you bank, placing stop payments on checks, providing canceled checks with monthly statements and closing your account fees.

Retail Locations - If you are going to do most of your banking face-to-face with a teller, make sure that your bank has retail locations that are convenient.

Online Banking - If you are an avid user of the Internet, you may want to check if your bank offers an online banking center to pay bills online, check balances, transfer funds, and link to other financial institutions such as brokerage houses.

Account Details - Most banks offer several types of checking accounts and several types of savings accounts. Choose the bank that offers accounts that fill your needs. If you write a lot of checks, find a bank that offers a low or no fees to write checks. If you are a saver, find a bank with a high yielding savings account.

Types of Bank Accounts you will encounter when Choosing a Bank:

Checking Accounts- This account allows you to write checks against the balance you hold in your account. It also allows access to your money through an automatic teller machine(ATM) and is often attached to a debit card. It is used for everyday expenses and not generally used for savings. Most banks offer a number of checking account options. When deciding on a checking account, it is most important to understand the fees associated with the account. You should choose the account that works best for your financial needs and try to minimize fees.

Some common fees associated with checking accounts:

•  Monthly maintenance
•  Balances below the required minimum
•  Bounced checks
•  Stop payments
•  ATM or teller use
•  Debit card use
•  Photocopies of checks or share drafts
•  Cancelled check receipt

Savings Accounts -Savings accounts are generally used for short-term savings needs. Interest rates vary and are generally less than other savings vehicles available. Be sure to make sure that the savings account that you choose is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Company (FDIC).

Money Market Accounts - Money market accounts earn a higher rate of return than most savings accounts. There is generally a minimum balance that generally ranges from $500 to $2,500. There are sometimes withdrawal restrictions associated with these accounts.

Certificates of Deposit (CD) -CDs generally offer higher interest rates than general checking, savings, and money market accounts. However, they have higher minimums and often have strict withdrawal restrictions.

Debit Cards - Debit cards are tied to your checking account. They act as an electronic version of a paper check and are accepted at an increasing number of locations every day.

Read more »

Save Bank for Your Money

With all of the banks going under in these times this is how you can be sure that your money is in the right place so that you will have it once the economic downturn is over.

Instructions

1. Do your research on a stock market website. Etrade is one that yiou can use to see how the earnings have been for the company and what the estimated are for the future. Go to the accounts webpage and simply search for a banking company and see what their future is.

2. Go with a bank that is stable and has been for a long time. You never really know which bank will be the next to go under, but chances are that if you pick one that has been around for awhile they are good money managers and have a good track record. These are the ones I recommend.

3. Follow talented managers. Managers are the centerpiece for a company and you will be able to follow them with an online trading site and you can always count on managers that have had success in other companies, they usually continue this elsewhere also.

Read more »

Essential Money Saving Tips

Wonder how you could spend all your money without you noticing? Ever thought of why you can’t save even if your salary is quite reasonable for your position in the job market? You could always blame the economy, and you could smite your employers for not giving you the raise. But you have to deal with the realities and find some way to save money with what you have.



Here’s a few money saving tips that you could use:

Treat savings as expenses. Usually, people treat savings as the amount left when the total expenses are deducted from the salary. But when you treat savings as expenses as part of your money saving tips for yourself, this means when you plan out how you would spend your money, you take out the amount of money that you want to save. In that way, you secure your savings even before you start spending. And when your savings have piled up, you could invest them into an account that piles up interests as time goes by. That could be considered as passive income on a long term basis.

Plan out your expenses. Arrange the needs from the wants, and prioritize the needs – food, bills, tuition, utilities. You do not need new shoes every week, and you definitely do not need a new phone or mp3 player every month or so. If you want to buy something out of your “need list”, separate a small amount for it every time you get money – meaning, save for it bit by bit and not just splurge on the item on one go.

Save your coins. The childhood guideline of savings your coins in a piggybank actually works. It follows the rationale that you don’t notice the small amounts you save every day until the time comes that you just realize that you have saved enough money to open another bank account. Focus on the smaller coins that you just ignore all the time. As an extra, whenever you have extra bills that, also would not hurt your budget for the following day, you could put them in the piggybank as well.

Do not spend what you still do not have. In the modern world, the curse of the credit card is making every consumer spend his money even before he actually gets some. And if you have a credit card, you would find this thinking quite familiar: “I like this item, but I don’t have the money for it. But my credit card would allow for it, and would have enough time to get money to pay for it in small amounts.” Well, that could be good if you are paying for emergencies and actual needs, but piling up on luxuries simply means spending money you have not earned and received yet for items that you could survive without.

Be faithful to your budget plan. Money saving tips are useless if you won’t stick with your plans. Even if you keep part of your money as savings, but you don’t keep them untapped, then the entire idea would not make the trick work. The key idea is discipline. The best way still to save money is to be disciplined and conscious about saving money.

Read more »

How To Save Money

The common questions among people these days is how to save money in such a tough financial enviroment. If you are one of those who ask this same question, this article is for you.

Saving money is a daunting task. It is easy to say “I am going to save money from now on”. Unfortunately, not all who promised such was able to make it come true. There are challenges along the way. And such challenges had proven to be extremely tough. Hence, the issue of how to save money is a real challenge.


One of the basic ways to save money is to create a reasonable objective. Make sure you control your expenses. And make sure you get good value for your money. By getting good value of your money, it means not wasting your hard earned dollar for a low rate product.

But then, it also means that you should spend your money for items that you really need. Bear in mind that spending is not dependent on a whim. It is according to needs. Hence, when buying a product or service, ask this question to yourself. Do I need this product or service? Or do I just want it and might not get what I pay for?

If you want to save money, make sure you have a goals. You need to have both a short term and a long term goal. For instance: I want to be able to start a small business a year from now. The capital should not be a overly large amount since you will start with a small business and grow it over time.

The first step is to identify your business and compute how much is the capital that you will need in order to start with your business. The figures that you will come up with should be based on a thorough feasibility study. Avoid hunches or guessing. Once you come up with your capital, record it. That amount of your capital is going to be your target or goal.

If you want to raise your capital in one year period, compute how much you must save in 12 months. Saving on a monthly basis will be easier. You should set a realistic goal and expectation. Your current income should be able to sustain your monthly saving.

What if you can not afford the amount for the monthly savings?

You should adjust if you can not sustain the monthly target. One alternative is to lengthen your time frame. Make your target 1 ½ to 2 years if necessary.

Start to make your adjustments as well. Trace and take note of your expenses. Keep a notebook and write them down. Make a detailed notation of your every day expenses. Do not leave even the smallest detail. Most often than not, there are expenses that are not really necessary. And usually, this shabby item carries the most weight out from your expenses. You should be able to determine what is important and which are just whims.

Examine your expenses and determine those that you could possibly remove from your expenses. For instance: Do your own manicure instead of going to a salon. Check your utilities like cables or satellite TV. If you could settle for regular cable and cut the HD access, it could add a few dollars back to your pocket.

How about the paid channels that you are not really watching? Why pay for those that you are not really watching in the first place? Further, conserve energy by turning the lights off if they are not being used. Bottom line is to make sure you are really using the items and the utilities that you are paying for.

Create your budget list. Having a budget helps you to control your expenses. There is going to be lesser chance of over spending. Also, you will be mindful of what you are spending because your spending money is set at a certain limit. A budget can also make sure that what you surchase is only those things that you need.

Saving money will take a proper and accurate evaluation of your current financial capabilities versus your future aspirations. It is important that you can balance the two in order to be able to make the most out of what you have now.

Think about this, saving money can ensure that you are secure in your future. It helps you to really think about your current and future financial situation. Through this type of thinking, you will no longer find the issue on how to save money a great challenge.

Read more »

Why Investment Banking?

I looked at all the articles on your site but nothing told me WHY I want to do this. Can YOU tell me why I want to be an investment banker?“
It’s a question you’ll get in every interview.
But it’s also a question where 90% of interviewees give terrible answers, no matter what their background is.
I can’t tell you exactly why you want to do investment banking… but I can tell you what to say in interviews.
So, why investment banking?
The Conventional “Wisdom” – Saying the Generic
Most websites, books, and other resources recommend generic answers:

• You want to learn a lot.
• You’re interested in corporate finance.
• You like a fast-paced environment.
• You’ve always done well in finance/accounting classes.
• You want to work with smart and motivated people.

These answers aren’t “wrong.”
But there is a problem: interviewers have heard them thousands of times and will start dozing off if yours resembles one of the above.
A friend at a bulge bracket bank in Asia said one recent interviewee gave the following answer for his “Why Investment Banking?” question:

“I… just want to learn. Nowhere else would give me the learning opportunity, and I want to learn so much… I’m really interested in learning and investment banking is the best place to learn.”

Uh, so why don’t you just stay in school then?

The Real Way to Answer the Question

It’s not about “honesty.”
It’s about being personal.
You can include some of the “generic” points above in your answer, but you shouldn’t limit your answer to those.
Instead, you need to mention something from your background or interests that NOT everyone else can just look up online and regurgitate in interviews.
We’re going to look at 2 ways you can do this: the “Big Picture” method and the “Slice of Life” method.
The Big Picture
With this one, you talk about how you started out on another path but shifted your interest to finance over time.

This one works best if you’re:

• A Career Changer (at any level).
• A Non-Finance/Accounting Major.
• Interviewing with an Industry Group.
• Struggling to think of a specific incident that made you interested.

The strategy is simple: Background in One Field +Experience in Finance = Long-Term Success.
This is not the “Tell me about yourself” question, so you need to get your points across quickly – take any longer than 30 seconds and you’ll bore the interviewer, unless you were a male escort in a former life.
Example for MBA-Level Career Changer:
Let’s say you worked at a healthcare policy think tank, started to learn more about the business of healthcare, and then decided to go to business school to re-brand yourself and get into finance.
You would start by mentioning how you were interested in biology/medicine/healthcare originally, and enjoyed the work at the institute at first. But then you had to do a lot of research into healthcare M&A deals, you learned more about business/finance, met a lot of bankers, and you realized you were more interested in that side – in the future you want to advise healthcare companies on business decisions, so healthcare investment banking is the perfect match.

Example for Former Engineer at Undergraduate Level:

Let’s say you’re coming from a technical background, did a few internships, but then realized you were more interested in business.
Talk about how you did well in your internships, but became more interested in business after speaking with friends in different departments, and how you started following startup news, technology M&A news, and recent deals. You’re interested in being an investor in tech companies one day, so combining your previous background with banking experience would let you do this.
I used a similar story in multiple interviews and it always worked.
You need to modify these examples based on what you’ve done, but the basic formula is simple: Background in One Field + Finance Experience = Success in Achieving Long-Term Goals.
If you don’t know what your “long-term goals” are, just make them up to fit the situation.
The Slice of Life
With this method, you talk about how an event early in your life made you interested in business/finance and how your interest developed after that experience.

This one works best if you’re:

• A Finance/Accounting/Business Major.
• Coming in with previous finance/banking full-time or internship experience.
• A “Career Changer” but you can point to something specific that prompted the change.

So let’s say you’ve been a finance major since you started university and you don’t have a “career change” to point to. In that case, you need to think about your family, experiences growing up, school, summer camps, and anything else you can think of that can explain how you became interested:

• You saw your parents day-trading when you were younger and started following the markets.
• You went to an event for women in business and met some MDs at banks there, which got you interested.
• Your friend started working at a bank and you toured his office one day and met lots of people there.
• You were in an investment club and won 1st place in a competition by picking stocks no one else even considered.

It doesn’t need to be a unique story: it just needs to be something that not everyone else will say.
And don’t overestimate the competition: I know from interviewing people at “top” schools that 99% of interviewees don’t even get the basics right.
Once you figure out what your “event that made you interested in finance” is, start your answer by stating what it is and then how it led you into your major, internships, and jobs, and how you see banking as your next step to achieve whatever you’re thinking about doing in the long-term, which is hopefully related to business.
There’s nothing “wrong” with saying you want to learn or that you’re interested in corporate finance – but you shouldn’t stop there.
You need to set yourself apart by thinking about your Slice of Life or your Big Picture.
And Not Just for “Why Investment Banking”
You need to use this answer for more than just the “Why investment banking?” questions: you have to use it in your “story” and also when you’re networking, because anyone you contact will ask why you’re interested.
Especially if you’re coming from a non-finance background, figuring out your “reason why” is critical because most peoples’ rationale consists of “I want to make more money!”

Other Possibilities
You can combine these two methods as well – just make sure your answer is short, because there’s nothing worse than asking this question and having someone ramble for 5 minutes after you’ve lost interest within 30 seconds.
Keep it to a few sentences and explain how your own background or some specific experience makes you a good match for the group you’re interviewing with.
Whatever you do, avoid stating the generic and talking about how you “want to learn.” You need to tie your “reason why” to what you’ve done in the past and what you want to do in the future.



Complications
There are a few situations where you may need to modify or add to your strategy:

1. You’re coming in from an extremely non-traditional background and have changed your career so many times you don’t know where to start.
2. You interviewed for banking positions before, but didn’t get any offers and ended up at a bank in a non-investment-banking position – and now you’re interviewing again.
3. You did an internship but didn’t get a return offer and now you’re interviewing for full-time positions.

For #1, avoid the temptation to make your story “complicated.” Skip less relevant details and simplify your background so that it’s understandable in 30 seconds.
For #2, if you’re speaking with a bank you’ve interviewed at before, you should emphasize how you’ve learned / improved a lot since your initial interviews and have realized you’re even more interested now after completing your internship.
If it’s a bank you haven’t interviewed with before, say that you only became seriously interested over the summer and don’t mention your previous interviews.
For #3, say that you did well but didn’t like your group and didn’t fit in with the culture. You can’t lie about receiving an offer – but you can position it as being a “lack of cultural fit” rather than you not performing well.

Why Investment Banking?
That’s your homework: go and spend 30 minutes planning out what you’re going to say and which approach you’ll use.
And whatever you do, please don’t use the word “learn” 10 times in your response.

Read more »