Are you earning 0.01% interest on your savings account?  Thanks to historically low interest rates, you are probably earning near zero interest on the money you worked hard to earn.  Have you looked into online savings accounts?  I’ve noticed more and more online savings accounts popping up lately and I think you may like the extra interest it can earn you.

I joined ING Direct several years ago and have loved it since joining.  It has earned more money in interest than any of my other bank accounts.  They have great customer service, and they have nearly all the services a physical bank has, though you may have to get the services in a more creative way.

So what kind of interest can you earn with Online savings accounts?  Recently I saw these rates:

• ING Direct 1.25% APY
• Ally 1.49% APY
• HSBC 1.35% APY

These three are some of the highest paying accounts I’ve seen.  Compare this to the 0.01% you are getting from Chase, yes that’s 1% of a percent.  Just by opening an online bank account, you’ll be earning 100x more interest!  I also noticed CapitalOne Direct Banking, which offers Business and personal accounts at over 1% APY

OK, I admit there are reasons for not using online bank accounts.  In fact About.com lists 3 reasons not to use online bank accounts.  The reasons are: bad customer service, speed of clearing, and not being able to spend it from your online bank account.

These are good reasons, though I find them all to be false, at least for ING Direct…

Read More

If you’re contemplating a career move from finance to non profit you have chosen a perfect complement to one another on the giant chess board of work. What interesting bedfellows the world of finance and do-good cause endeavors are! No doubt the finance arenas are “gotta-get” while non profit charitable circle are give.

They seem to be two different worlds. Can East meet West? Will the lion lay with the lamb? Can you serve two masters?

You bet you can. In fact, you can probably do it exceptionally well. Think about it. On the surface the two worlds seem so different as if they would collide. But look closer and you’ll see that non profit has business elements and deadlines. Non profit needs grants as much as Wall Street needs its stock market. And sometimes the pressures are the same, despite the different tactics to achieve their goals.

It is common among laid off financial professionals to feel that other industries, especially the world of non profit, have common fears, misconceptions and prejudices about how personalities honed in one will bode in the other. At first glance, non profit seems laid back and things are slower. Grants take a while to be granted after a lengthy proposal process. If the non profit is government-funded, procedures take even longer. But you’re no stranger to following up and keeping after money matters to survive. If non profits do not fundraise, they do not receive enough donations to survive. If they do not meet proposal and grant writing deadlines and compete for them, they do not survive. Really then, how different are the two fields? Who knows that better than a finance tycoon? Ironically, in many ways, they both speak the same language. And whether you like the idea or not, they are both businesses subject to the same struggles to survive and economic downturns simultaneously.

Read More