Costco Membership Changes (Extended Hours, Self-Checkout Improvements, New Credits) Costco has been making several changes recently, and it’s not just the new hours. As someone who has recently joined Sam’s Club, it is interesting to see how the competition between them has actually made them both better. All Members Using hand scanner to quickly zap at Self-Checkout. Although Costco does not (yet?) use the […]

New Post: Costco Membership Changes (Extended Hours, Self-Checkout Improvements, New Credits)

Self-Paced CFP: Insurance Planning Highlights and Self-Paced Study Experiences Finally… I passed the “Insurance Planning” course for my University of Georgia Self-Paced CFP class. That’s only #2 out of the 7 topics, but here are a few quick observations so far: After trying a couple of times… 😅 I was not able to pass the course exams without studying the course materials first. You […]

New Post: Self-Paced CFP: Insurance Planning Highlights and Self-Paced Study Experiences

CIT Bank eChecking Promo: $100 Bonus (New and Existing Customers) CIT Bank has a new promo for their eChecking account. Their eChecking has a minimum opening deposit of $100, no minimum balance, and no monthly service fee. The interest rate is low (0.10% on balances under $25,000), but a checking account can be a handy addition to savings accounts as they offer unlimited withdrawals and/or […]

New Post: CIT Bank eChecking Promo: $100 Bonus (New and Existing Customers)

Buy $100 Apple Gift Card, Get $10 Target Gift Card Free Deal is back again through 6/15. Get a $10 Target GiftCard with $100 Apple Gift Card purchase. A simple deal if you plan to buy any Apple products/services in the future (and have a free Target Circle membership). While supplies last. May be able to get more in-store. Stack with the 5% back via Target […]

New Post: Buy $100 Apple Gift Card, Get $10 Target Gift Card Free

Top 10 Best Credit Card Bonus Offers – June 2025 (Updated) Updated June 2025. That space in your wallet or purse is valuable, and you should be the one to get that value. By being smart and picky, you can find offers worth $500+ for a single card, all to encourage you to apply and try it out. This adds up to thousands of dollars in […]

New Post: Top 10 Best Credit Card Bonus Offers – June 2025 (Updated)

New Post: Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card Review: 5 Free Nights (50k Points Each)

New Post: IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card Review: 5 Free Nights (60k Points Each)

Best Interest Rates Survey: Savings Accounts, Treasuries, CDs, Money Markets, ETFs – June 2025 Here’s my monthly survey of the best interest rates on cash as of June 2025, roughly sorted from shortest to longest maturities. Banks and brokerages love taking advantage of our idle cash, and you can often earning more money while keeping the same level of safety by moving to another FDIC-insured bank or NCUA-insured credit […]

New Post: Best Interest Rates Survey: Savings Accounts, Treasuries, CDs, Money Markets, ETFs – June 2025

Summer Reading Programs for Kids 2025: Book It, Barnes & Noble, and More Help encourage your kids to read this summer with the following free programs that offer some small incentives if they complete a reading goal and/or challenge: Book It! Summer (Free Personal Pizza) – “Use the BOOK IT!® Mobile App to set goals, track progress, and redeem rewards. During the summer months of June, July, and […]

New Post: Summer Reading Programs for Kids 2025: Book It, Barnes & Noble, and More

YMCA Free Summer Memberships For Teens (Nationwide but Targeted) Parent of a teen? It can be tricky to find a place for your young teens in the summer time. Check your local YMCA chapter as many are offering free summer YMCA membership for teens. Some are for specific grades, like entering 7th or 8th graders. Here are some example locations: YMCA Dayton (Ohio) YMCA […]

New Post: YMCA Free Summer Memberships For Teens (Nationwide but Targeted)

Planet Fitness High School Summer Pass 2025: Free Gym Membership For Teens Planet Fitness is running the High School Summer Pass again in 2025, which is a free gym membership for teens ages 14-19 to work out at any of its more than 2,500+ locations throughout the US and Canada. Valid from Saturday, June 1 through Saturday, August 31. Participants must work out at the location they […]

New Post: Planet Fitness High School Summer Pass 2025: Free Gym Membership For Teens

Bilt Mastercard: Rent Rewards w/ Any Landlord (June 1st Rent Day / Accor Hotels Transfer Bonus) Update for Rent Day 6/1. For Rent Day on 5/1, Bilt Rewards is offering the following additional perks. If you are a renter, this program offers steady stream of free monthly points and a variety of promotional perks. They also recently announced a change to their rent payment system that adds a pre-approval step in […]

New Post: Bilt Mastercard: Rent Rewards w/ Any Landlord (June 1st Rent Day / Accor Hotels Transfer Bonus)

Groupon: Costco New Membership $65 w/ $50 Costco Shop Gift Card Groupon has a limited-time deal on new Costco Gold Star or Executive Memberships. There are two options. Offer expires June 22, 2025. $65 for Gold Star Membership Package 1-year Gold Star Membership (normally $65 by itself) Membership card for the Primary Cardholder and one additional Household Card for anyone living at the same address, over […]

New Post: Groupon: Costco New Membership $65 w/ $50 Costco Shop Gift Card

Merrill Edge + BofA Preferred Rewards = Up to $1,000 ACAT Transfer Bonus, Improved Credit Card Rewards Updated May 2025. Merrill Edge is the self-directed brokerage arm formed after Bank of America and Merrill Lynch merged together. They are currently offering an increased cash bonus of up to $1,000 for moving “new money” or assets over to them from another brokerage firm. The offer code is 1000PR. Offer valid for both new […]

New Post: Merrill Edge + BofA Preferred Rewards = Up to $1,000 ACAT Transfer Bonus, Improved Credit Card Rewards

Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards Card Review: 2% Cash Back for First Year (Up to 3.12% With Preferred Rewards) New limited-time offer. The Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards Card is the most simple, straightforward, no-annual-fee credit card in the Bank of America line-up. If you are a Preferred Rewards client, you can increase the cash back earned by 25% to 75%. Right, they are also offering a special offer during the first year. […]

New Post: Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards Card Review: 2% Cash Back for First Year (Up to 3.12% With Preferred Rewards)

Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards Card Review: 6% Cash Back in One Category for First Year (Up to 8.25% with Preferred Rewards) New limited-time offer. The Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards Credit Card is the “3-2-1” cash back rewards credit card in the Bank of America line-up. If you are a Preferred Rewards client, you can increase the cash back earned by 25% to 75%. Right, they are also offering a special offer during the first […]

New Post: Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards Card Review: 6% Cash Back in One Category for First Year (Up to 8.25% with Preferred Rewards)

CIT Bank Platinum Savings $225/$300 Bonus + 4.10% APY (New and Existing Customers) Last call: This offer will end 5/27/2025. Update 5/5/25: I successfully received my $300 deposit bonus on top of the normal interest within the 60 days of deposit (actually 56 calendar days). I held for 60 days for simplicity, but other readers have confirmed the bonus arrived after only the stated 30-day minimum hold. This […]

New Post: CIT Bank Platinum Savings $225/$300 Bonus + 4.10% APY (New and Existing Customers)

More Details on Warren Buffett Stepping Back I’m not sure how many of you follow Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway closely, but here are a couple of significant updates as a follow-up to the 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting where he announced that he was stepping down as CEO at the end of 2025: WSJ: Warren Buffett Reveals He Stepped Down After Finally […]

New Post: More Details on Warren Buffett Stepping Back

Aeroplan® Credit Card Review: 75,000 Bonus Points (Worth $937 in Travel) Improved offer. The Aeroplan® Card is the Air Canada co-branded credit card for US customers, issued by Chase. If you fly Air Canada regularly, this card makes the experience better in many different ways. If you don’t fly Air Canada regularly, you can still use the new Pay Yourself Back feature where Aeroplan points can […]

New Post: Aeroplan® Credit Card Review: 75,000 Bonus Points (Worth $937 in Travel)

Big List of 529 College Savings Plan Promotions: 529 Day 5/29 2025 College savings plans that are looking to grow assets tend to have promotions on May 29th, aka “529 Day”. I started gathering up these bonuses from various plans even before having kids, and eventually consolidated them into one single plan. The bonus amounts tend to be pretty modest, and transfers do involve extra legwork, so […]

New Post: Big List of 529 College Savings Plan Promotions: 529 Day 5/29 2025

Webull Brokerage: Deposit Promos, Free WSJ Subscription, 3.5% IRA Match w/ Premium Brokerage app Webull is running a “7 Years of Webull” anniversary promo (full terms) that includes some decent bonuses that are stackable. This offer is targeted at selected existing customers who have a funded account as of 5/20/25. Check your app or desktop account if you didn’t get a notification. Offer #1: 30 Days of […]

New Post: Webull Brokerage: Deposit Promos, Free WSJ Subscription, 3.5% IRA Match w/ Premium

MYGA Fixed Annuity Warning: Choosing The Highest Rate Can Be Stressful I’ve written a little about about Multi-year guaranteed annuity (MYGA) fixed deferred annuities in the past, and I actually bought one as one of my “$10,000 Experiments” way back in 2015. I bought the MYGA with the highest available interest rate at the time from a company called Sentinel Security Life. Owning a MYGA is […]

New Post: MYGA Fixed Annuity Warning: Choosing The Highest Rate Can Be Stressful

Check the Cost Basis Tracking in Your Brokerage Account When you sell your shares of stocks/ETFs/mutual funds in a taxable brokerage account, your broker will also record the specific shares and the original value at purchase (cost basis) at which you bought them. Even if you don’t expect to sell your shares very often, it can still be important how you set the cost […]

New Post: Check the Cost Basis Tracking in Your Brokerage Account

US Bank Self-Directed Brokerage: Enabling Automatic Dividend Reinvestment For those that are newer members of the US Bank checking/savings/credit card/brokerage ecosystem, most likely for the up to 4% cash back rewards from their Smartly credit card (current terms for new applicants are poor, but the grandfathered terms are still excellent), you may choose to park some assets in their self-directed brokerage arm in […]

New Post: US Bank Self-Directed Brokerage: Enabling Automatic Dividend Reinvestment

Best Interest Rates Survey: Savings Accounts, Treasuries, CDs, Money Markets, ETFs – May 2025 Here’s my monthly survey of the best interest rates on cash as of May 2025, roughly sorted from shortest to longest maturities. Banks love taking advantage of our idle cash, and you can often earning more money while keeping the same level of safety by moving to another FDIC-insured bank or NCUA-insured credit union. Check […]

New Post: Best Interest Rates Survey: Savings Accounts, Treasuries, CDs, Money Markets, ETFs – May 2025

Apple Siri Class Action Settlement: “Lopez Voice Assistant” Email Apple has settled a class-action lawsuit that their voice-activated Siri assistant violated users’ privacy by recording conversations and sending them to third-party contractors. Eligibility includes those that “owned or purchased a Siri-enabled device and experienced an unintended Siri activation during a confidential or private communication between September 17, 2014 and December 31, 2024.” If this […]

New Post: Apple Siri Class Action Settlement: “Lopez Voice Assistant” Email

WisdomTree Prime Crypto: $100 Bonus w/ $1000 Deposit for 45 Days New crypto exchange WisdomTree Prime is offer a $100 bonus in crypto after the following: Open a new WisdomTree Prime account. Deposit $1,000 into your account and maintain an average balance of $1,000 — based on deposits and withdrawals — for a 45 day period. We’ll deposit your reward of $100 in value into your […]

New Post: WisdomTree Prime Crypto: $100 Bonus w/ $1000 Deposit for 45 Days

Gemini Crypto: $75 Bonus after Trading $100 (Referral Promo Code) Limited-time offer is back. Crypto exchange Gemini has upped their referral offer for a limited-time to a $75 bonus in crypto after you open a new account and trade $100. You should see the info on the link landing page. Above is a screenshot from my app. This is much higher than the standard offer. […]

New Post: Gemini Crypto: $75 Bonus after Trading $100 (Referral Promo Code)

Best vs. Worst Mortgage Rates: How Much Are You Overpaying If You Don’t Shop Around? If you are looking at mortgages and figure that the market must be competitive and that all lenders should offer similar interest rates, then you should check out this Axios article and Tomo Mortgage whitepaper “The Truth about Mortgages” (via Abnormal Returns). Here’s a chart comparing the best and worst mortgage rates over the past […]

New Post: Best vs. Worst Mortgage Rates: How Much Are You Overpaying If You Don’t Shop Around?

Top 10 Best Credit Card Bonus Offers – May 2025 (Updated) Updated May 2025. Some top offers are ending soon. That space in your wallet or purse is valuable, and you should be the one to get that value. By being smart and picky, you can find offers worth $500+ for a single card, all to encourage you to apply and try it out. This adds […]

New Post: Top 10 Best Credit Card Bonus Offers – May 2025 (Updated)