Banking/Financial tips?

a_day_at_a_timee · 2025-02-22T21:46:16+00:00

Check out who is offering the best deal for new accounts right now…

Chase has been sending me advertisements offering $900 to move my checking and savings over to them.

However, currently I have a platinum account at BofA because they count my investments with Merrill Lynch towards the rewards tier. The platinum level gets me a bunch of free shit and increases the rewards on my credit card by like 1.5%.

So it’s not quite worth the hassle to get that $900 for me.

If you have under $50,000 it doesn’t really matter who you bank with. Just find one with no monthly fees.

ExaminationKlutzy194 · 2025-02-22T13:40:44+00:00

An internet search for high yield savings account will help you.

Create a budget. Dave Ramsey has a free model to work off of and there are many others.

Spend 5-10 minutes each morning looking at your bank account and your budget and seeing where you are at. Look specifically at yesterday’s spending.

Work to save $2000 into an emergency fund. Like if the tires blow on the car kind of thing.

Automate as much of your monthly bill payment as possible, or at least use a bank sponsored bill pay system to make it easier. Especially if they offer bills as part of bill pay. Then you’ll get a notice of when each bill is due. I know for instance that my cell phone always automatically comes on the 6th of the month, and my electric/gas bill on the 17th.

Once you hit that $2000, move to get 3, then 6 months of your new household expenses, in cash into that high yield savings account. Some will say you are better off investing it, and as someone that works in finance I think they are missing the point that having the money rapidly liquid, (like an internal transfer away from checking) is better than putting down a sell order, waiting for settlement, and then transferring the cash.

Always contribute enough to any company sponsored retirement to get their max matching if they offer that. So if you have to do 6% to get a 4% match, do the 6%.

After all that, you can start to do other stuff, talk with a financial planner and start to rebuild your life.

GenX_Flex · 2025-02-22T00:00:12+00:00

Any bank where she doesn’t have a password would be a great start. Don’t overthink it.

OctinoxateAndZinc · 2025-02-21T05:20:21+00:00

I know everything will be split

I was told the same thing and Im down SUV (court said sign it over, lost 1/2 the value) and I'm eating a TON of money that the stbx used from joint checking as well as unrecouped medical costs (insurance premiums/copays/out of pocket costs) from 18mo of separation.

Separate your income if you can and if you're carrying her on insurance ask she start paying her portion.

Tip from my stbx (lol) If you're going to file joint in 2025 (and share the tax liability) consider changing your withholdings on take home pay! They changed withholdings to zero in 2023 and "we" had a massive tax bill.

domo_roboto · 2025-02-21T02:19:26+00:00

I gotchu bro. You're right to think about money and where to store it. Given this tumultuous time, you'll want it to be liquid and accessible, so banks with high yield savings (HSY) is the right place to go. Nerdwallet publishes top HSY banks and reviews them (just google it). You'll want to read through and pick one that's reputable. Pay attention to the conditions to get that APY rate. Personally I went with CIT Bank, pretty decent interest rate. Keep in mind though that the rates can change at anytime, most banks will adjust it throughout the year. Good luck my man.

Helpful-Paramedic463 · 2025-02-21T01:55:16+00:00

Go to the local bank and setup a checking account. Unless you have a shit ton of cash, interest will not make you any extra money. If you have $5-10k that you're fine with investing, just put in a high yield savings account.

JD-Anderson · 2025-02-21T01:42:59+00:00

I am absolutely not giving you advise. But during and several years after my divorce I had cash stored in a safe deposit box that wasn’t in my name. Worked fine for me.

deweys · 2025-02-21T01:34:38+00:00

A financial advisor might be worth considering.

Title	Banking/Financial tips?
Author	Uhh--wait_what
Upvotes	3
Comments	12
Date	February 21, 2025 1:28 AM UTC (1 year ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/Divorce_Men
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/Divorce_Men/comments/1iuey6j/bankingfinancial_tips/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/Divorce_Men/bankingfinancial-tips.1544461 https://theredarchive.com/post/1544461

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