Step #1: Maximising Your Interest Income

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Step One:

I was going through my box of accounts for the home, and I was surprised just how many useless bank accounts my wife and I had. Here, every employer seems to require a different bank account to pay salaries. This is fine, if you are still working there, but it’s lousy if:

  • 1. the bank is bad
  • 2. you no longer work there
  • 3. you no longer live nearby
  • 4. the interest rate is crap

The last few months I have worked hard to close many of the extra accounts. We’ve closed three in the last few months, but I think there are at least another three that need either to be closed or at least to have the money withdrawn.

I’m planning to bring the money into only one of several accounts, and open a CD at a more attractive interest rate. The money was earning something like 0.4% per year in the old account. I’m hoping I can boost that to over 2.0% in the longer term. It won’t make a great difference in the short term, but it will help to control the expenses of accounts that don’t meet the minimum requirements (e.g. my hsbc account, which I let slip and ended up forking out nearly $100US penalties over the last six months!) and generate a little extra.

Kenneth

Blog Your Way to $$$

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You should try Payperpost as a way to raise money for your blogging expenses! It costs a lot of money to blog, why not find a useful way to earn a little more through actually writing! It’s got to be a more fun way to make money than the daily grind!

Well, I’m trying this website as a way to generate some revenue. I don’t think I’ll earn much money in the long term from this, but a $100 would go a long way to help pay for my other Internet related ventures, Pleiades Journal of TYLE. That website and publication costs quite a bit to fund, and I’m stretched a little thin these days… So… I will let you know how it goes with this. And I’m creating a new section on money making opportunities online. I’ll be giving feedback from them time to time to let you know which are real time wasters and which are not. Please do visit my ‘other’ blog above and check out the link.
Kenneth

Personal Accounts Software: Acemoney

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I have been using AceMoney for keeping my home accounts and my business accounts for the past few months. I’m going to write about my limited experiences with this software.

I did think about trying more ambitious software to do this, but I shyed away from MSN Money and Quickbooks. I’ve tried a bunch of other stuff, too, but the Accounting side didn’t appeal to me so much. My personal life and my business aren’t so complicated that AceMoney would pose problems. My business accounts are handled formally by the accountant, but I keep a track of things, most importantly, cash flow, and cash positions using this software.

I originally bought the license ages ago for AceMoney, it appealed to me because of its simplicity and flexibility. So I tried it. Since I don’t have a good accounting background, I was initially confused by it, but then I began to see how it was similar to what I had been doing with Excel anyway.

It is easy to set up numerous accounts, types of accounts and transactions. It is able to import and export data easily, a big plus in my book, should I ever decide to migrate to something more formal. I like the export in QIF format.

It also can handle stock transactions, credit cards and so on. It can handle a bunch of stuff that I throw at it, including Forex transactions.

Is it suitable for you? I can’t tell you. Is it useful for you? More than likely, as it can help you transition from Excel or paper systems to a more formal system.

Kenneth