I got a statement in the mail today from Bank of America indicating I have made too many withdrawals from a money market account.

I am allowed 6 transfers out of the account, of which only three may be made by check, draft, or CheckCard. Evidently, when I set up my Emigrant Direct account, the account verification process made two individual withdrawals to remove the verification deposits from the account.

So now I will get dinged $10 for each additional withdrawal I make from the account.

The way I see it, Bank of America doesn’t pay enough interest to keep …

I’ve leaped into the world of online savings accounts by opening an account with Emigrant Direct.

About a week ago, I got online and went through the process of opening an account. I filled out all the forms, and indicated I’d want to initially transfer $500 from my savings account to the online account, earning 5.05% compounded daily, and paid monthly.

Sure enough, one business day later, I had the two verification deposits in my Bank of America account required to verify that the banking information I provided was correct.

I started with $500 just to see how the system worked, but I’ll start …

I am still in the process of researching online high-interest savings accounts in which to put emergency funds.

Coincidentally I got an offer through the mail from GE Money yesterday, offering 5.05% annual percentage yield, FDIC insurance comfort up to $100,000 and no fees or startup costs.

But wait! There’s a catch!

You only garner the 5.05% on balances of $15,000 or more. Under $15k, there is a rate scale which is much less attractive. For balances between $4k and $14,999, you only earn 4.5%. For balances under $4,000, you only earn 1.75%.

While this still beats out …

A couple weeks ago a post about the new dollar coins sparked some debate on whether the coins will ever replace the paper currency equivalent.

EmptySpaces at “Adventures In Money Making” came across a few golden Georgie’s and kind of liked the “In God We Trust” engraved around the outside edge of the coin.  He also mentioned that he couldn’t understand why people were selling them on eBay for more than $1.  After all, you can go to the bank and “pay” a single dollar for each coin they give you, and they don’t even make a profit on the transaction! 

…

A study by the Consumer Federation of America shows that a mere 40% of Americans have a separate ”emergency” savings account.  Are you part of that 40%?

While my wife and I do have some money stashed away for a rainy day, it’s not in a garunteed investment like a money-market savings account.  While I’m not making excuses, it seems like a run of the mill money market savings account is a terrible place to put your money to work.  Lousy interest rates, well below 1% in most cases, just doesn’t seem like an appealing place to put a stash of cash.

How much you need to put away …

Dubya is made of Gold, and according to the U.S. treasury will have free reign of your bank accounts and finances.  On top of that, you can’t stop him!
For those of you who have been politically stimulated by the opening sentence of this post, I have bad news.  You’re thinking if the wrong Dubya.
I’m referring to the new “Golden” George Washington dollar coin that will hit circulation on Thursday.  The first of a new series of dollar coins, George Washington will face the initial release, and much like the state quarters, the coins will take on a new face every 3 months or so, paying tribute to United States Presidents….

An interesting revolution is upon us that may just make credit cards a thing of the past.  PayPal has launched their mobile payment system, allowing PayPal members to make payments, transfers and donations from their cell phone.

After registering your cell phone number with PayPal, and thereby linking your phone with your PayPal account, you can wire money from your credit card or checking account to any existing PayPal account. 

Just text “Send 20 to [friends cell phone number]” to 729725 and you transfer $20 to that friend.

After you send the transaction, PayPal will call …

I had a meeting with my small town banker friend yesterday to discuss some future investment avenues.

He has a lot of experience in oil and gas investments and operations, and suggested that oil and gas has more upside than real estate, at least in the short term. Of course, he is a bit biased, as he has extensive experience in the oil and gas business, and very limited experience in real estate.

However he did say he would be willing to write loans for real estate ventures, as their bank does it all the time.

Yesterday I started investigating different financing opportunities for both my oil company and my real estate ventures. Effectively, I want to buy another rental property, but I want to look at some more financing opportunities that might cover the rehab costs as well, without using hard money.

My online research led me to iBank.com which is an online financing outfit out of California. They seem to specialize in business loans, commercial property loans, equipment leasing packages, etc.

From what I can tell, you put together your business plan, including past tax returns and other due diligence on your proposed acquisition and then upload it to their Finance$uite. You then put out a request for financing, and qualified lenders develop proposals to meet your needs. They submit their proposals and you then make a decision on which lender best meets your needs. A fairly novel idea, if I may say.

About a week ago I wrote about how I finally paid off my initial business loan for the oil company.  Well, after talking to the banker and the loan officer, I got them to convert the loan into a line of credit, using the assets I bought with the loan as collateral.

That way, when I find another interest to buy I don’t have to go through the loan process and pay mortgage filing fees all over again.  Additionally, it’s nice to know that I have quick access to capital whenever I need it.

There are some oil and gas auctions coming up in my area in …