OMG my work life is nutzo. I promised myself I’d take a vacation day to recuperate, yet I don’t even have time to go to the bathroom. Even then, I’m reading and responding to emails while I’m on the potty. Can mama get a sticker?
Insanity. Anything non-work-related, I shrug and say, “Sorry I can’t deal right now.”
When Franco sees me, he waves good-bye and says, “Mama go work.”
Onto the blog. Let’s talk about money!
Here’s how I maximize my finances.
I do all the sensible things:
- Pay off our credit cards in full.
- Max out our 401ks.
- Ensure we’re properly insured.
- Refinance whenever possible and if it makes sense.
Savings
Recently I moved our savings into the Capital One 360 Money Market paying 1% for balances above $10k, and 0.60% for balances below $10k. You won’t find that rate anywhere. You’re welcome.
Credit Cards
My go-to card is the Citi Double Cash Card. No annual fee. You get 2% cash back for everything that you can put on the card and I put everything I possibly can on it. If I could put my mortgage on this card, I would!
I also do the bulk of our shopping on Amazon, which calls for the Amazon Store Prime Card offering 5% cash back on purchases.
What am I missing? Do you have any slam-dunk financial advice?
What great advice and going to have to look into that money market that you mentioned, because you are so right about the 1% not being found anywhere else!
Open an IRA too! Also, make sure you’re really maxing the 401k. Some people consider that maxing their percentage contributions at work, when it really should be putting in the max amount the govt allows, which is 18k.
I think we need to receive financial advice, rather than get it! I don’t have any credit cards, which I don’t necessarily think is smart. Wait – does my Victoria’s Secret charge card count? I do pay that in full. Not that I need underwear all the time. So it’s never scary.
Live below your means and fund your savings like it’s a bill is my mantra. Hope life calms down a bit for you soon. Yeah you can take a vacation…but boy do you end up paying for it!
I do all the sensible things too! Our financial advisor just told us that we are doing a great job saving for retirement, so that made me feel good about our finances.
We get cash back on our Amex (5% food and gas, 1.5% everything else), but I’ve been considering the Amazon card since we do purchase a lot there. I’ll have to pull up our purchase history and see if it makes sense.