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Hi, I'm Kevin and I'm an attorney, writer, gig economy expert, side hustler, and the blogger behind Financial Panther. I paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer. I started this blog to share all I know about personal finance, travel hacking, and making more money by side hustling. Click here to learn more about me.
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The Financial Panther Money System (The Accounts, Tools, and Apps I Use In My Financial Life)

Last Updated on November 11, 2021March 20, 2021 27 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links.Financial Panther has partnered with AwardWallet and CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Financial Panther, AwardWallet, and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

If you want to be successful with money, you need to have a good money system in place. Your money system consists of all of the financial accounts and tools you use to keep your financial life in order – things like your checking accounts, savings accounts, and any fintech apps you might use. Once you have your money system set up, you’ll find that everything just sort of runs on its own. Money gets saved and invested automatically. Bills get paid. And really, you just sit back and relax while your money system does its thing.

Over the years, I’ve fine-tuned and tweaked my money system to the point where I’m pretty happy with how it works. Of course, this isn’t to say that there’s only one right way to set up your money system. Your money system is like a fingerprint – it’s unique to you. Still, with all of the financial options out there, it helps to see how others have things set up.

In this post, I’ll share all of the accounts, tools, and apps I use for my own money. My hope with this post is that it gives you ideas for how you can set things up with your own money system. Feel free to pick and choose bits and pieces from my system that works for you. If nothing else, it should at least be interesting to see how I do things. 

Note that I first wrote this post in 2018. Since then, some things have changed. I’ve now updated this post for 2021 and beyond.

The Financial Panther Money System

The base of my money system consists of four layers – a primary checking account, various savings accounts, microsavings apps, and my business bank accounts. Here’s how it works:

1. Checking Account

The first line of my money system is my checking account. My checking account serves as my financial inbox. All of my base income goes into my checking account first, then automatically gets shuffled off to different parts of my money system. Because my checking account is the starting point of my money system, it’s super important that I use a good one. 

For a long time, I used a free online-bank called Simple, which was one of the first fintech banks out there. Unfortunately, they were purchased by BBVA a few years ago and then shut down in 2021. I wrote about my decision to switch banks after I received this news. 

After some thought, I decided to go with Ally as my primary checking account. Ally is an online-only bank with no fees, no minimum balance requirement, good customer service, and an easy-to-use app and website. I think Ally combines a nice mix of an established bank with the fintech features of a newer, cutting-edge bank. 

Ultimately, you can use any checking account that makes sense for you. The main thing is to pick a checking account that is 100% free and does not require any minimum balance. Ally is the bank that makes the most sense for me.

2. Savings Accounts

While you really only need one checking account, I think it makes a lot of sense to utilize multiple savings accounts. That’s because there are a lot of things that we need to save for and creating multiple savings accounts, rather than utilizing one savings account, makes it easier for us to earmark our money for our specific goals. 

My savings accounts generally consist of two types. The first are accounts that I use for my emergency fund. The second are accounts that I use for short-term and medium-term goals. Here’s how they work. 

Emergency Fund. I have a two-step system when it comes to my emergency fund. First, I like to keep a small buffer emergency fund of around $500 in an Ally savings account. I think Ally is a good savings account because it has a solid interest rate, no fees, and no minimum balance requirement. Plus, it’s where I have my checking account, so it’s easy for me to also have an Ally savings account for this purpose.

After my buffer emergency fund, I store the rest of it in what you could call “mega high-yield savings accounts.” These are FDIC-insured savings accounts that earn 3-5% interest. The catch is that these accounts have limits on how much you can put in them and typically require some initial setup work. However, once set up, these accounts can run themselves. If you take the time to set up all of these mega high-yield savings accounts in advance, you can put away a good amount earning much more than your typical savings account. 

I currently keep over $40,000 in my emergency fund, with $17,000 earning 5% or more interest and the remaining amount earning 3% interest. I use the following savings accounts for my emergency fund, with my wife and I each having an account for each: 

  • Netspend
  • Ace Elite
  • Western Union
  • H-E-B Prepaid
  • Brinks
  • Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU)
  • H-E-B Debit
  • Service Credit Union
  • HMBradley 

If you’re interested in utilizing this strategy, you’ll need to read the following posts, which will give you an overview and guide you through how to set these accounts up. These are not accounts that you’ll want to set up without a thorough understanding of how they work.

  • Where To Get 5% Interest Savings Accounts Now That Insight Is Gone
  • Getting More From My Emergency Fund With 3% and 5% Interest Savings Accounts
  • Netspend Account: The Ultimate Guide to a 5% Interest Savings Account

In addition to these accounts, I generally keep a chunk of money that I use for bank account bonuses. It’s a complicated topic that is beyond the scope of this post, but here’s a guide to bank account bonuses I wrote. A few of the easier bank bonuses you can earn include Chime, SoFi Money, WeBull, and M1 Finance. 

Short-Term/Medium-Term Savings. For short-term and medium-term savings goals, I recommend using a high-yield, online savings account that allows you to create multiple sub-savings accounts. The four options that I recommend are Ally, Capital One 360, Discover Bank, and Marcus by Goldman Sachs. All of these banks allow you to create multiple sub-savings accounts, have no fees or minimum balance requirement, and offer a good interest rate for this type of account. 

Capital One 360 used to be my primary online savings account (I signed up for it back when it was ING and online banking was still fairly novel). Unfortunately, it has gone through some changes over the last few years that I think have made the website and app worse. At the moment, my favorite of these four options is Marcus by Goldman Sachs and it’s the bank I’m currently using for my short-term and medium-term goals.

As for how I set things up, I create different savings accounts for all of my short-term and medium-term goals. Some are more concrete goals – I know Christmas is coming every year, so I’ve set it up so that my savings account automatically sets aside a set amount for Christmas each month. Other goals are less concrete. My stupid mistakes fund, for example, is a savings account where I put away a small amount of money each month to help me pay for dumb mistakes I might make in any given year.

In short, I use mega high-yield savings accounts for my emergency fund and I use Marcus by Goldman Sachs for my short-term and medium-term goals. I then automate everything so that I don’t have to actively manage my savings.

3. Microsavings Apps

After my basic checking and savings accounts, I like to also add a third layer to my money system by using apps that you could call “microsavings apps.” These are fintech apps that run in the background and monitor my financial accounts. They then save small amounts of money for me each day that I typically won’t even notice. It’s not a ton of money, but these small savings do add up. It’s important to know that these microsavings apps aren’t enough to serve as your sole form of savings, but it is a nice way to squeeze a little bit more savings from your budget without even noticing it,

There are two types of microsavings apps that I utilize: (1) a “round-up” app; and (2) a “sweep” app. Here’s what they mean and how they work:

  • Peak Money. Peak serves as my round-up app. To use Peak, you link your credit cards to the app. The app will then monitor all of the transactions that you put on your credit cards. Whenever you buy something, Peak will round up that transaction to the nearest dollar, then save the spare change into a separate savings account. I like to think of it as an online piggy bank. These are small amounts, so I don’t notice the money being saved, but over time, the spare change that I save does add up. Check out my Peak Money Review for more information about how this app works.
  • Albert. I use Albert as my sweep app. Albert works by analyzing the cash flow in my checking account. It then saves small amounts of money for me each week that it thinks I won’t notice. Using an app like Albert is a great way to “sweep” out some of that excess money from your checking account and force yourself to save just a little bit more. You can check out my Albert review for more info about how it works. I also have a step-by-step guide I wrote about how to earn the Albert referral bonus.

4. Business Accounts

In addition to my personal accounts, I also have two business checking accounts that I use for my blog business and my gig economy work. If you have any business – whether it’s a side hustle or your main business – it’s important to set up a separate business bank account that all of your business revenue goes into.

The business bank accounts I use include the following: 

  • Bank Novo. This is the business checking account I use for my blog income. Everything I earn from this blog goes directly into this account. Bank Novo is a completely free business checking account that works perfectly for what I need. Check out my Bank Novo review for more detailed information. 
  • Lili. This is the bank account I use for all of my gig economy and other side hustle income. Any money I earn from my side hustles goes directly into this bank account. Whenever I pay myself from my blog, I also send it directly into this account. I like Lili because it automatically sets aside a percentage of my income for taxes, which is very helpful when you’re self-employed. Be sure to read my Lili review for more information. You can also check out my Lili referral bonus guide for step-by-step directions on how to earn money opening this account.

Investment Accounts

After my basic banking accounts, I then have a slew of different investment accounts – both taxable and tax-advantaged. Obviously, a lot of what you use will depend on where you work, but here’s what I’ve got going on:

Pre-Tax Retirement Savings. I currently have pre-tax retirement savings in three different places.

  • 457 Plan. The bulk of my retirement savings is in a 457 plan that I have with the state of Minnesota. When I left biglaw, I rolled over my 401k into this plan since the state plan was really good. Right now, my 457 includes my 401k contributions from my first job, as well as my 457 contributions from when I worked for the state. The state plan is cheap, and these funds are all invested in low-cost, Vanguard index funds.
  • Solo 401k. Since I am self-employed and have a bunch of side hustles, I set up a Solo 401k to gain access to some extra tax-advantaged space for myself. If you’ve never heard of a Solo 401k, it’s something I like to think of as a bonus retirement account for side hustlers. I use Fidelity for my Solo 401k because it’s free, accepts rollovers from other tax-deferred accounts, is fairly easy to set up, and allows you to invest in low-cost Fidelity index funds. If you’re looking to set up a Solo 401k, here’s a step-by-step guide on how I set up my Fidelity Solo 401k.
  • Health Savings Account. I use Lively for my Health Savings Account (HSA). Lively is a good HSA company because it has no fees and allows you to invest in low-cost ETFs via TD Ameritrade. I currently have all of my HSA funds invested in Vanguard ETFs. The only downside with Lively is that I have to manually buy additional shares, so it adds another thing I have to do. I only have to do this every two weeks or so and it only takes a second, but it’s still something. You can read more about my thoughts on Lively in my Lively Review. 

Roth IRA. I currently have my Roth IRA with Vanguard. Initially, I started my Roth IRA with Betterment, then moved it over to Vanguard a few years ago. I did this because when I started my Roth IRA, I had no idea what I was doing and Betterment made things really easy for me. For many people, it can make sense to start with Betterment or Wealthfront, and then once you have a decent amount saved up in your Roth IRA, move all of it directly to Vanguard.

529 Plan (College Savings). My wife and I had a baby in 2020, which means we needed to start saving for college. We live in Minnesota, which gives a state tax deduction for contributions to any 529 plan. I opted to go with the New York 529 plan because it uses Vanguard funds and charges only 13 basis points, which is one of the lowest (if not the lowest) fees in the 529 plan world. Which 529 plan you should pick depends on where you live. If you’re in a state that offers a tax deduction for your state’s specific plan, then you should use your state’s 529 plan. If you’re like me and are either in a state that doesn’t have a tax deduction or that gives you a tax deduction for investing in any 529 plan, then consider using New York’s 529 plan.

Taxable Investments. Since I’m still early in my investing career, I don’t have much in taxable accounts yet. That said, I do have one taxable account that I regularly invest a small amount in. I currently use M1 Finance for my taxable investment accounts. I like M1 Finance because it’s a free roboadvisor and makes it very easy to automate your investments. They also offer a referral bonus – here’s my M1 referral bonus guide for instructions.

Fintech Apps That I Use

After all of the bank and investment accounts, I also have several fintech apps that I use every day. All of these apps are free and ones that I think everyone should consider using.

Mint & Personal Capital. I use both Mint and Personal Capital to monitor all of my financial accounts. Mint is better for keeping track of transactions and balances in all of your accounts. Personal Capital is better for analyzing your investment accounts. I think it’s best to use both apps together (they’re both free, so you have no reason not to use them both).

Prism. I use Prism to keep track of and pay all of my bills. This is especially useful for someone like me since I like to manually pay my bills and see all of my bills in one spot. Even if you have all of your bills set to auto-pay, I think it still makes sense to link them so you have them in one app. For more info about Prism, be sure to check out my Prism review.

Credit Karma + Credit Sesame + Wallethub + Experian App. It’s important to keep tabs on your credit report and credit score. I have multiple apps that monitor my credit report so I can make sure that nothing bad happens to it. Anytime I open a new line of credit or have a hard inquiry on my credit report, I get multiple notifications from all of my credit monitoring apps. Credit Karma monitors my credit reports for TransUnion and Equifax. Credit Sesame and Wallethub both monitor my Transunion credit report. The Experian app monitors my Experian credit report. Anytime there’s a hard pull or a new account appears on my credit report, I get a notification immediately through all of these apps.  

Takeaways

There’s no one right way to set up your money system, but hopefully, this post can give you some ideas of how you can set things up. Your money system can change of course – I’ve switched over time between a traditional brick and mortar bank account and online-only bank accounts. Fintech apps like Albert, Peak, and M1 Finance didn’t even exist a few years ago.

Really, the important thing is to figure out what tools and systems work for you. It’ll be an evolving process. But once it’s set up, things will just run themselves and you’ll find that you keep ending up with more money, without even realizing it. That’s the power of having a smooth, running money system. 

To wrap it up, here are all the bank accounts and investment accounts I use: 

  • Checking Account: Ally Bank
  • Savings Accounts: 3-5% interest accounts for my emergency fund; Marcus by Goldman Sachs for my short-term and medium-term goals
  • Microsavings Apps: Albert; Peak 
  • Business Checking Accounts: Bank Novo; Lili
  • Retirement Accounts:
    • 457 Plan: Minnesota Deferred Compensation Plan
    • Roth IRA: Vanguard
    • Solo 401k: Fidelity
    • Health Savings Account: Lively
  • Other Investment Accounts:
    • Taxable Accounts: M1 Finance
    • 529 Plan: New York 529 Plan

How’s your money system set up? Let me know if you have any accounts or tools you use that I should be incorporating into my money system.

More Recommended Ebike/Scooters

Check out these other ebikes/scooters I've had the chance to do a review for:

  • GEN3 Outcross Bike – The GEN3 Outcross is a solid, affordable fat tire ebike that does a good job of doing what I need it to do. It works great for city riding, giving me a smooth ride in all conditions. It’s works really well as a winter ebike since the fat tires give it good traction over snow and ice. Check out my GEN3 Outcross Review.
  • Himiway Escape Bike – The Himiway Escape is an interesting bike for anyone looking for a moped-style ebike. If you’re a gig economy worker, the Himiway Escape is particularly interesting and it’s possible to think of it as an investment, especially if you can opt to do deliveries with the Himiway versus using a car. It’s not cheap, but you can definitely make your money back when you compare the mileage you’ll put on your car versus using an ebike. Check out my Himiway Escape Bike Review.
  • Espin Sport Bike – The Espin Sport is a good ebike for someone who is looking for an ebike that feels and rides more like a regular bike. There are many ebikes that are really only bikes in name. In reality, they’re basically electric mopeds. The Espin Sport, by contrast, is a bike you could probably ride without the battery and you’d feel like you’re just riding a regular bike. Check out my Espin Sport Review.
  • Varla Eagle One Scooter – The Varla Eagle One is an excellent scooter that can make sense for a lot of people. It can work as a primary mode of transportation. You can use it to work on gig economy apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. And it can also be a recreational vehicle if you’d prefer to use it for that. Check out my Varla Eagle One Review.
  • Fucare H3 Scooter – The Fucare H3 is a fun scooter and I’ve enjoyed testing it out. For a daily commuter or quick trips or errands, the Fucare H3 is probably the scooter I’ll use. It’s portable and easy to maneuver, so it’s just easier to take on the road when I need it. Check out my Fucare H3 Scooter Review.

More Recommended Investing App Bonuses

For additional investing app bonuses, be sure to check out the ones below:

  • M1 Finance ($100) – This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account. Check out my M1 Finance Referral Bonus – Step-By-Step Guide.
  • SoFi Invest ($25) – SoFi Invest is an easy brokerage account bonus that you can earn with just a few minutes of work. Use my SoFi Invest referral link, fund your SoFi Invest brokerage account with $100 and you’ll get $25 of free stock. I also have a step-by-step guide for the SoFi Invest referral bonus.
  • Moomoo (5 free stocks) – Moomoo is a free investing app currently offering 5 free stocks (usually worth around $75-$100) if you open an account using a referral link and deposit $2,000. Read my Moomoo referral bonus guide for more information.
  • Webull (5 free stocks) – Webull also gives you 5 free stock valued between $3-$3,000 each if you open an account using my referral link. Here’s a guide I wrote about how to earn your free stocks using Webull.
  • Robinhood (1 free stock) – Robinhood gives you a free stock valued between $2.50-$225 if you open an account using my referral link.
  • Public (1 free stock) - Public gives you a free stock valued between $3-$70 if you open an account using my referral link.

More Recommended Bank Account Bonuses

If you’re looking for more easy bank bonuses, check out the below options. These bonuses are all easy to earn and have no fees or minimum balance requirements to worry about.

  • Chime ($100) - Chime is a free bank account that offers a referral bonus if you use a referral link and complete a direct deposit of $200 or more. In practice, any ACH transfer into this account triggers the bonus. This bonus is easy to earn and posts instantly, so you’ll know if you met the requirements as soon as you move money into the account. I wrote a step-by-step guide on how to earn your Chime referral bonus that I recommend you check out.
  • US Bank Business ($500) – This offer is limited to customers in the following states: AZ, AR, CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NM, NC, ND, OH, OR, SD, TN, UT, WA, WI, WY. This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, since there are no direct deposit requirements. In addition, you can open the Silver Business Checking account, which comes with no monthly fees. Check out how to earn this big bonus here.
  • SoFi Money ($275) – SoFi Money is a free checking account from SoFi. They’re currently offering a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi account with a referral link and deposit $10. You can also make an additional $250 as well if you complete a direct deposit. This is a good bank that is also 100% free, so you won’t have to worry about managing this account. Here’s a post I wrote with instructions on how to earn your SoFi Money bonus: SoFi Money Referral Bonus: Step By Step Guide.
  • Fairwinds Credit Union ($100) – Fairwinds Credit Union is offering a referral bonus for users that sign up using a referral link. Fairwinds has no fees or minimum balance, so this is a particularly easy bonus to earn. Since this is a smaller credit union, my gut instinct tells me this offer won’t be around long, so if you’re in a position to meet the bonus requirements, grab this bonus before it’s gone. Here is my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Fairwinds Credit Union bonus.
  • Upgrade ($50) – Upgrade is a free checking account that’s currently offering a $50 referral bonus if you open an account and complete three debit card transactions. These bonus terms are easy to meet, so it’s well worth doing this bonus as soon as you can. Importantly, this bonus says that it’s now scheduled to end on April 15, 2023. As long as you get your account opened before April 15th, you should be eligible. Here’s a post I wrote with more details: Upgrade $50 Referral Bonus – Step By Step Directions.
  • Current ($50) – Current is a free fintech bank that’s offering new users a $50 referral bonus after signing up for an account using a referral link.Current is an easy bonus to earn and also gives you access to three savings accounts that pay you 4% interest on up to $2,000. That means you can put away up to $6,000 earning 4% interest. That’s very good and makes Current an account I recommend to everyone. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Current Bank bonus.
  • Digital Federal Credit Union ($20) – Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) is a free, nationwide credit union that I recommend to readers for two reasons. First, DCU has a $20 referral bonus if you open a free DCU checking account with a referral link. Second, DCU has a saving account that gives you 6.17% interest on your first $1,000. Check out my in-depth post on how to set this account up.
  • Netspend ($20 + 5% Interest Savings Account) – Netspend is a company that provides 5% interest savings accounts. If you sign up using my referral link, you’ll get a $20 signup bonus once you make your first deposit into your Netspend account of $40 or more. That means you get a 5% interest savings account and a free $20 to start! Make sure to check out my in-depth guide on how to set up these accounts.
  • Novo Bank ($40) - Novo bank is a free business checking account that’s currently offering a $40 bonus if you open a Novo business checking account using a referral link. In addition to being a good bank bonus, Novo is also a good business checking account. It has no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements and operates a good app and website. Indeed, it’s the business checking account I currently use for this blog. Check out my post on how to easily open a Novo account.
  • Varo ($30) – Varo is a free fintech banking app similar to Chime or Current. It’s currently offering a $30 bonus to new users that open a new Varo account with a referral link. The bonus for this bank is very easy to meet, all you need to do is spend $20 within 30 days of opening your Varo account. Check out my step-by-step guide to learn how to earn this bonus.
financial panther

Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.

Kevin is passionate about earning money using the gig economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.

Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:

  • SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi Money account with a referral link, and an additional $250 if you complete a direct deposit.
  • US Bank Business. US Bank is currently offering new business customers a $500 signup bonus after opening a new account and meeting certain requirements.
  • M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account.
  • DCU. Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) is a free, nationwide credit union that I recommend to readers for two reasons. First, DCU has a $20 referral bonus if you open a free DCU checking account with a referral link. Second, DCU has a savings account that gives you 6.17% interest on your first $1,000.
  • Personal Capital. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth. This is one of the apps I use to track my financial accounts.

Feel free to send Kevin a message here.

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Filed Under: fintech, Money System, My Story, S/I, Top Posts

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Comments

  1. freddy smidlap says

    May 9, 2018 at 8:22 am

    we switched to online checking/saving at ally a few years ago. they’re just great and they raise the interest rate without you having to ask. the one thing about not having a local bank is that we feel better keeping a slug of cash in the house above the amount you can get from an ATM. we keep a thousand bucks around in case of emergency where the power might be out and you can’t get any from an ATM. that’s just food for thought.

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      May 9, 2018 at 8:47 am

      Yep, Ally is a good one and is what my wife uses as her primary bank account for both checking and savings. She used to have a traditional brick and mortar bank (lame).

      I keep no significant cash around my house, but really, I can’t think of too many situations where I need to pull out cash immediately. I suppose it can happen in a natural disaster situation or something, but yeah, I just hate carrying cash…

      Reply
    • Samar says

      June 14, 2018 at 2:34 am

      Will Ally offer any cash back for signing up with them?

      Can one open a CapitalOne card with even as little as $5 and get $200 cash from then for opening?

      Reply
      • Financial Panther says

        June 15, 2018 at 4:16 pm

        As far as I’m aware, there’s no sign up bonuses for Ally. It’s still worth having an account with them, so I recommend it.

        The Capital One 360 bonus is targeted, so you have to figure out a way to get that offer. I randomly got a mailer that offered me the $200 bonus, so that’s how I got it. I’m not sure what the secret is to get targeted.

        Reply
  2. Erik @ The Mastermind Within says

    May 9, 2018 at 9:05 am

    Thanks for the post! 🙂 I’m glad we could hear from you 😉

    My money system is pretty simple – close to 0 apps, Mint and my spreadsheet 🙂

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      May 9, 2018 at 2:42 pm

      zzz…boring. Haha, but yeah, you seem like a streamlined dude. You know me – I like to use weird stuff and make it more complicated.

      Reply
  3. JUNE says

    May 9, 2018 at 10:49 am

    Thank you so much for your post! My money system is currently very similar to yours except I do keep two brick and mortor Bank of America checking accounts (a joint with my spouse and a personal) for the event that we need to have face to face teller assistance. I have not been inside a branch for the last five years though–(ATM banking only). Our Bank of America accounts are free so long as we commit to a direct deposit of $250.00 or more. Until literally this morning, I was using the Digit APP but found out about the new administrative fee that will be applicable after my 100 day introductory period expires (No Thank You). Thanks for the insight on other similar FREE (for now) apps on the market. I am going to look into Qapital and Albert and will likely just roll the funds that had saved in Digit right over to each of those! Your blog is awesome and I am glad that I found it.
    Thanks again,

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      May 10, 2018 at 8:44 am

      Glad the post was helpful! I used Digit for about 2 years before they switched over to the fee model, then started using Dobot before, of course, they went to a fee model. Luckily, since these types of apps are just saving money for us, it really takes no work to just get rid of them and move onto another version that does the same thing for free (I think it took me 5 minutes to switch over to Albert).

      Reply
  4. gofi says

    May 9, 2018 at 12:51 pm

    I didn’t know that I could have a 529 plan, and then transfer that to my future children. Do you know what happens to the plan if I never have any children?

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      May 10, 2018 at 8:47 am

      Yep, you can always change your beneficiary designation on your 529 plan. I have one for myself, and my wife has one for herself (she was paying tuition for her residency, so we were running her tuition bills through her 529 plan in order to generate some credit card spend (a little extra money hack there), and to get a tax deduction too).

      If you never have kids, you can always use it on yourself if you ever want to go back to school. Otherwise, transfer it over to a niece or nephew and be the best uncle or aunt ever (you can change the beneficiary to anyone, not just immediate family).

      Reply
  5. Ashish says

    May 9, 2018 at 2:14 pm

    Good to see someone organizing it the way i would, actually i was glad after each section revealed that my system was similar to yours. I had started thinking that i have spread it out too much but now i have and expert’s confirmation.
    I just yesterday signed up for Acorn and its charged, so i will checkout Qapital and Albert.
    I do have multiple Roth Fidelity, Schwab and Vanguard.
    Also i like Robinhood to play a little in individual stocks, very small part of my investments but it doesn’t charge you for Equity trades so i like it.
    Someone looking to diversify into Real Estate should try Fundrise.
    And i recently put in the work as advised by you in setting up the Insight and Netspend cards- thanks for that tip.

    Whats your view on P2P lending, who is the best player as per you?
    Also what’s your view on Whole Life Insurance ?

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      May 10, 2018 at 8:54 am

      Haha, great minds think alike! I have Robinhood too, but I don’t really mess with individual stocks – it was just a sort of test thing and I use it for triggering bank account bonuses (more on that in another post someday). If you’re going to buy individual stocks, I think Robinhood makes sense, although I really hate how they treat investing like its a game and I also do not like how they’re pushing crypto on people now.

      For P2P lending – I’m anti-P2P lending now unless you just have so much money that you don’t know what to do with it. My rationale is that P2P lending is tax inefficient, has a capped return, is still correlated with general market conditions, and has a weird all-or-nothing aspect where one bad investment can wipe out the rest of your good investments. I’m too poor to mess with P2P lending, but my brother plays around with it some and it’s fine, but ultimately, a pretty meaningless part of his portfolio.

      Whole life insurance is bad for 99% of people, and probably 100% bad for people who are in the Financial Independence space.

      Reply
  6. Mr. MFC @ Morning Fresh Cent says

    May 9, 2018 at 7:56 pm

    Thanks for the post. I have always had Capital One 360 savings and only recently switched to their money market account, which gives a slightly higher rate if you maintain a 10k minimum. The 5 percent return is a good hack but way too much work. Lol

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      May 10, 2018 at 8:55 am

      Haha, yeah, the 5% accounts aren’t for everyone. Set up your system your way is what I say.

      Reply
  7. Brian Mason says

    May 16, 2018 at 11:52 am

    Why do you recommend moving all your retirement funds to Vanguard after betterment/wealthfront?

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      May 16, 2018 at 2:53 pm

      The common criticisms of robo-advisors is that you’re paying for a service that you can do yourself for free – i.e. just investing directly with Vanguard. I use Betterment for my Roth IRA, which many would say is not necessary, but I find its good for the early stage investor who just needs to figure out how to get started. At this point, I’ve learned enough that I can pretty much just invest it directly with the Vanguard funds I want. There’s no problem with going Robo forever – it’s just a decision I’ve made.

      Reply
      • Brian Mason says

        May 17, 2018 at 7:32 am

        Right now I have both of our IRA’s with betterment. It seems to do a good job of taking care of my needs and will hopefully do so in the future. Do you just have a IRA with vanguard and then purchase low expense ETFs that meet your needs and risk level?
        Are there any other fees that would be incurred that would not make that switch valuable?(ie, fund purchase fees, account creation fees)

        Reply
  8. Steven says

    April 9, 2020 at 6:41 am

    Hi Kevin, do you still use Astra & can you do a review on it?
    Thank you,
    Steven

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      April 9, 2020 at 11:58 am

      Hey Steven. I’ve had an on-again/off-again relationship with Astra. I’ve spoken to the CEO of the company before and they are definitely a small team. For the most part, it did what I needed it to do, but I had a few glitches where I would schedule a transfer, then nothing would happen. They are very responsive when you contact them and it seems like they’ve continued to improve.

      I’m going to get back to using it again some more because I do see promise in it and they’ve definitely improved since I first discovered it a year (or was it more than a year?) ago.

      Long story short, if you have a use case for it, then I think there’s value in it, especially since they seem to keep improving it.

      Reply
  9. Steven says

    April 10, 2020 at 3:07 am

    Thank you for your response Kevin. This was very helpful. Be safe and well.

    Thanks again,
    Steven

    Reply
  10. Debbie says

    August 19, 2020 at 10:28 pm

    You have a lot of moving parts to your system and I’m glad it works for you and it’s nice to have all these options. I’ve simplified my finances in the last few years and I really like that my money is in one easy to manage place.

    Reply
  11. Aaron says

    March 20, 2021 at 5:04 pm

    Question. If you have a mortgage, is an offset account where you should put all your money until it’s paid off? Aaron

    Reply
  12. Steveark says

    March 21, 2021 at 9:58 am

    We have 18 different financial accounts including some web bank accounts but in our small rural area it pays to also have accounts at the local banks. The CEO’s of these banks are personal friends and that kind of local network is worth far more than the meager interest on the best high yield savings accounts, at least to me it is. Plus it earned me five figures in free stock due being on a local bank board. We have regular monthly deposits from investment accounts into our checking account to serve as our income stream.

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      March 22, 2021 at 3:23 pm

      Sounds like an interesting spot to be in. If you have bank CEO friends, definitely work those connections!

      Reply
  13. Spanks says

    July 8, 2021 at 12:10 pm

    Hey Financial Panther! Is there a reason you use so many different credit monitoring apps that have so much overlap? If you’re using Credit Karma and the Experian app, why use credit sesame and wallethub at all if credit karma already does transunion? Thank you!

    Reply
    • Financial Panther says

      July 9, 2021 at 9:42 am

      Hey, there’s no real reason I need all of them. I just like to. One thing is whenever I get a hard pull, all of my monitoring apps buzz at the same time. I sort of like that – makes it really hard for me to not notice a new line of credit and I guess it makes me feel more secure.

      Using just Credit Karma + Experian is perfectly fine.

      Reply
  14. Oliver says

    March 9, 2023 at 1:50 am

    Very informative and well-articulated post. Thank you.

    Reply

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