The last you heard from me, I was renting an apartment, having come a long way from my humble origins as a graduate teaching assistant in the upper Midwest. It is my duty to inform you that much has changed once again. A few months ago, my wife and I packed our belongings, including our rabbit, and moved five hours away to drought-stricken south Texas. Why did we move? I ended up changing jobs – I’m still a professor, but I landed a job at a different university, and I feel damn lucky to have done so. My previous job was tolerable, but not great, but I’m much happier with where I have landed. Most of all, I simply feel lucky to have a job at all, and I feel great sympathy for those who are looking for work. My wife has found nothing but occasional part-time for for over two years now, so we know how hard the search process can be. My best wishes to all those seeking employment….

Back to the topic at hand: we left our old apartment at the end of July 2011 and moved into our new house in south Texas. Yes, we bought a house. Interest rates and housing prices have trended downward so much this year that we decided it prudent to go ahead and buy a house. This is on top of the house that we still own in the Midwest (which I may refinance soon – stay tuned for details). In any case, I locked in a 15-year fixed mortgage at 3.625% back in early August with Pentagon Federal Credit Union. Between locking the rate and actually closing on the house, rates continued to trend downward, but what can you do? I’m still pretty happy with the rate we got, and I have no plans to refinance our current mortgage unless I can find a no-closing-cost loan. To be continued…..

Lifestyle Inflation?

So, here I am in a major city, in a new job, and marveling at how much time has passed since I finished graduate school. I remember the promise that I made to myself that I would try my best to continue living like a poor graduate student. So, how’s that promise holding up? Not too bad, actually. My wife and I did have to buy a second car – that’s the reality of living in a major city; I can’t walk or bike to work anymore. To our credit, it is a used car with low mileage. And…. we did have to buy a bunch of stuff related to moving into our house, but in our day-to-day lives, I’d say we’re doing pretty well. We rarely go out to eat and we tend to buy things in bulk at Costco, but we still enjoy some of the finer things in life, such as good cheese, whole-bean coffee, and an occasional glass of good wine.

Yes, I’d say we spend more than we did as graduate students, but only to the point that’s reflective of climbing out of poverty. I’m a tightwad in general, but I don’t mind spending money on travel and good food, as we find these items and experiences worthwhile. On the other hand, we still have most of the same furniture that we did in graduate school, and we still don’t own a television, and we still have our old Sprint SERO cell phone plans (though our contract is coming up for renewal soon and I have to decide how to proceed from here). Overall, I’d say we’re earning a B+ with regard to my original promise: there’s room for improvement, but we’re doing alright.

Future Plans

Where to go from here? I plan to stay in my current job for as long as I can. My wife is still seeking employment, and there’s talk of having a child in the near future. We’ll see how that goes. I DO plan to take a more active role in updating this site, dear reader, and I apologize for my neglect.

Much has changed in the political and investment landscapes in the last few years, and I have much to say in that regard, but will save it for future posts. For the time being, I’ll just say that Mr. B is back, and I’ll have a few things to say about these matters soon enough.

As always, thanks for reading.

~ Mr. B

(This is a guest article by Alban Guillemot.)

A favorite point of contention with voters the world over is to chastise their governments for their spending and inevitable budget deficits. However, before we start throwing stones at government spending, it is worth taking a look at the glass houses many nations have built around themselves with personal, household debts.

Some nations have always been leaders in personal debt thanks to a consumerist society while others have powered ahead in recent years, having been lulled into larger mortgages by lower interest rates and by forgetting to control their credit cards as well. Of particular note are the nations whose household debts exceed GDP, as nations who as a whole spend more than they earn are on track for internal financial crises, just as the effects of the global crisis subside. To this end, some of the world’s worst debts include Britain, Australia and Switzerland, countries which touted their survival of the GFC, exemplify their low government debts and yet can’t stick to a budget of their own.

The United Kingdom

The picture of household debt in Britain has not been looking good for some time. In 2007, Britons had already accumulated so much debt that it exceeded the value of the country’s economy. With gross domestic product only reaching £1.33 trillion and £1.35 trillion outstanding on mortgages, credit cards and personal loans, this was the first time the citizens of the UK owed more to their banks and creditors, than the value of everything produced by the country. Consumer debt accounted for £1.131 trillion and personal loan and credit card debt was £214 billion.

In 2007, this meant that each individual owed £1,344,721,000,000, however the independent financial analyst Datamonitor has predicted that the total number of Britons who are blacklisted will jump by 20% by 2011 to 8.6 million people.

In 2008, families in the UK owed 173% of their incomes in debts which put the UK debt to income ratio higher than any other country in the Group of Seven leading industrialized economies. Five years earlier Britons had owed just 129% of their incomes.

These figures were the precursor to show an economic slowdown for the UK as a debt burden of 173% of household income even exceeded Japan’s figures at the 1990 peak, which was before what has now been a decade of deflation. The outlook for GDP in 2009 expected it to slow to just 0.5% increasing the chances of a technical recession.

In June 2010, Britain was just one of two countries whose household debt exceeds its GDP, coming in second place behind Switzerland.

Australia

The Australian Government did not have to bail out any of its banks, and there are fewer job losses and foreclosures in Australia after the Global Financial Crisis, leading its leaders to constantly remind the world how they avoided the brunt of the GFC and now have a healthy and growing economy.

However, Australians have the highest personal debt levels in relation to their disposable income, compared to anywhere in the world. In January 2010, each Australian adult was in debt to the value of approximately USD $56,000, where American adults had just USD $44,000 of personal debts each. Mortgage, credit card, and personal loan debts in Australia totals more than AU $1.2 trillion, which is a 71% increase from the previous five years.

This is also the first time for Australians that personal debt has exceeded GDP where debt has risen to 100.04% of the annual gross domestic product. Australians enjoyed emergency level interest rates for some time, and at the same time were encouraged by government stimulus packages to get into the property market, and keep spending – which they did, meaning many families are now heavily indebted and are going to struggle to make it out as their repayments and interest rates rise. Unfortunately, they have a poor example set by the government whose stimulus packages were some of the biggest in relation to the population at AU $42 billion, but have left the government with a large deficit.

While 2008 may have begun to show debt levels and disposable income levels coming closer, the ratio of debt to income is around 156% in Australia today, mainly due to the mortgage and housing boom encouraged by significant first home owner grants. In April 2010 the Reserve Bank of Australia revealed that the total outstanding mortgage debt in Australia was $1.1 trillion and personal debt was around $141 billion.

However, the levels of personal debt in Australia will not go unnoticed and could not only lead to a personal credit crisis for many families but a national one as well. Almost 30% of the funding for Australian banks comes from the global markets. Therefore, if investors become overly concerned about the debt levels, Australians could see credit tighten as funds are harder to come by.

Switzerland

Switzerland are in the unique and somewhat hypocritical position of having the highest level of personal debt in relation to GDP, but one of the lowest government debts. As a member of the European Union, Switzerland is part of the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact, which is designed to enforce fiscal discipline by setting deficit ceilings for members, where Brussels has the right to warn and sanction countries who violate these limits.

For the past decade the Pact has been able to strengthen the financial markets of the euro area, and as a result convinced markets that the bloc could manage fiscal and economic differences amongst its members. However, the GFC shook up this stability and single currency members such as Greece, Portugal and Spain are now under pressure due to increased deficits, leading economists to look for new ways to strengthen or replace the pact.

The Swiss President, Doris Leuthard, has been able to keep her country’s economy in line with the bloc’s Maastricht Treaty which requires countries to keep total debt under 60% of GDP and the public deficit below 3% and even though Switzerland is not a part of the European Union, Leuthard wants the bloc to succeed by taking a lesson from her figures.

Switzerland has a debt level of 39% of GDP and is doing its part to foster an economically credible Europe. However, 24 of the 27 EU member states are under the European Commission’s excessive deficit procedure, after exceeding budget limits under the Stability and Growth Pact. As a result, the value of the euro has been shaken, and for the EU to bail out Greece, a 750 billion euro safety net has been set up with the IMF to help any other member state who needs it.

At the same time, the Swiss have the greatest percentage of household debt to GDP across Europe, Asia and the Americas at almost 120%, as illustrated by the first chart in this article.

If there was ever a time for a reality check on debt levels, it is now, as families and individuals are still picking up the pieces of their lives and their finances after realizing they can’t live week to week, paycheck to paycheck, because that does not account for emergencies like job loss or foreclosure. Therefore, every nation and every individual needs to look at their debt levels in relation to their income and find ways to be financially independent and live within their means.

About the author: Alban is a personal finance writer at Home Loans Finder, which helps people find a mortgage broker.

I wondered (since it worked so well last time) if you could put up another post on your site for me. I am looking for people who have regular consumer credits cards and have been solicited by credit card companies to open a small business or professional card. Would it be possible for you to post that? I again can be contacted via email Jessica.silver-greenberg@wsj.com or at (212) 416-2665.

The reason I am interested in this is because professional and small business cards don’t carry the same protections as individual cards. We know that banks are increasing their small business and professional card mailings to US households so if any one got these come-ons, that would be great to know!

So it appears that banks are exploiting a loophole in the regulation by increasing small-business or “professional” card upgrades. If you’ve received one of these mailings, the WSJ wants to hear from you!

Nope

There’s an investment product out there that’s far more important than any of those. In fact, it’s such a monumental investment that it makes any stock certificate look like a lifeless, meaningless piece of paper (or, um, binary code). This investment has such value that trying to put a dollar value to it only serves to degrade it. Yes, Warren Buffet owns it, but so do you. Actually, you own all the shares of it that you’re ever going to get. You can’t acquire more, but you can still make those shares increase in value.

Of course, the investment to which I’m referring is… YOU. And I’m not just referring to your future earning potential within your chosen career. You may have a career, and an earning potential, but you are far more than that. One of the most common bits of investment advice is Buy low, sell high. What that really translates to is getting a good return on your investment. How, then, can we ensure that we get a good return if our investment vehicle is, well, ourselves?

Your Body is an Investment

Unless you’re a firm believer in reincarnation, we can safely say that the body you currently possess is the only one you’ll ever have. And oh, how we as a society mistreat our bodies! How many of us have to go to work everyday and sit for hours on end, perhaps staring into a computer monitor, or perhaps staring at the road from behind the wheel of a vehicle?

And how many more of us come home from a day of work at a sedentary job and spend more hours sitting in front of a television? Human beings were not designed to be sedentary, and even if your work life is prohibitive to physical activity, one of the best ways to improve your bodily investment is to get moving. There’s no absolute need to run out (pun intended?) and join a gym. If your life is pretty sedentary right now, just try this simple activity: turn off the TV and take a 30-minute walk. Start doing that a few times a week or more, and you’re already on your way to getting a better return out of the investment that IS you. Increased physical activity will lead to better health, higher mental clarity, and potentially a longer life. Oh, and an improved sex life. Yeah, I said it.

Ever since the end of elementary school, I’ve always had a few extra pounds. My weight has always been – for lack of a better word – manageable, though my smaller frame tends to hide the extra pounds well. My colleagues and my old friends from grad school have called me skinny (among other less-flattering names), but they haven’t seen me naked! Thank heavens for that.

As it so often happens, after I got married a few years ago, the needle on the scale started a slow-but-steady trend northward. I was up to 188 earlier this summer, which is the most I’ve ever weighed. This is despite the fact that I already walk and bike on an almost-daily basis. I guess the food that my wife cooks is just too tasty!

Back in early June, I decided the time had come for me to take the investment that is my body more seriously. I joined the fitness center at my university for $20 a month, and because I’m such a cheapskate, I’ve been going to the gym three days a week consistently and won’t allow myself to quit. It helps that my wife goes too, so I have an accountability partner. At the gym, I’ve been utilizing mostly the ski-machines and the cycling machines for aerobic exercise. So far, I’ve solidly lost 10 pounds, and I feel physically and mentally healthier than I did six weeks ago. In other words, I’m getting a better return out of my body-investment than I had been before summer started.

The Food You Eat is an Investment

Perhaps you’ve heard the old adage that you are what you eat. I used to not believe it or think much about it at all. I feel differently now.

Along with increased physical activity, one of the best investments you can make in your body is to pay a little more attention to what you eat. Exactly how nutritious is that double-whopper you had for lunch? I’m not dietician, but I don’t suspect it did your body any favors. I think some good advice here is: eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

Some religions teach that the body is a temple. Religious issues aside, I agree with that teaching. The problem is that I’ve heard this teaching used before to justify why drinking any alcohol is a bad thing. Excuse me? I enjoy a good craft beer or a glass of wine in moderation, but I’ve literally been engaged in a conversation before in which my interlocutor warned me against the perils of alcohol using a body-is-a-temple rationale, all while munching on a Big Mac and washing it down with Cola. When I pointed out his current temple defilement-in-progress, he didn’t like it very much. Anyway, back to the point at hand.

My father has Type 2 diabetes. So did his father, and so do three of his four siblings. My mother is (thankfully) a cancer survivor. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but sometimes I wonder if any of their ailments could have been negated, or at least delayed, by a better lifestyle. Both of them lead sedentary lives, and both are overweight. Their diet isn’t so great. They do eat a lot of fresh fruit, but almost everything else they eat comes directly from a can or a box. They eat fast food regularly.

I used to not care at all about what I ate or drank, especially back in my teenage years and into my twenties. I engulfed fast food and guzzled soda pop. Everyone is a moron when they’re teenagers, so that much can be forgiven, but this behavior continued for me right until I started graduate school. Twenty-five was a turning-point age for me. It was then that I realized that I’m not invincible (anymore), and (oh sh*t) my dad is a diabetic, so maybe I should be careful about how much sugar I suck into my body. It was as if a light switch flipped in my mind, and I immediately cut out all soda pop from my diet. The amount of soda that I’ve consumed since then can be measured in ounces, and most of that was the kind that uses actual sugar as a sweetener instead of high-fructose corn syrup.

Eventually, I decided to eliminate all HFCS from my diet, and the amount of meat and dairy that I consumed (especially red meat) began to shrink, being replaced by more fruit, vegetables, and whole-grains. At this point, I like to say that I’m a vegan, but I’m not very good at it. I eat some meat two or three times a month. Whereas a decade ago I lived on fast food, it’s inedible to me now. It smells like plastic.

Some people may think I’m a radical because I eat lots of produce and read labels at the grocery store. Maybe I am, but I’m determined to avoid – or at least postpone – the diabetes that has taken most of my father’s eyesight and may soon take his legs. If my desire to avoid that same fate makes me a radical, then so be it. Plus, I fail to see why it’s considered normal or medically conservative to treat certain issues (such as heart disease) with prescription drugs and surgery, whereas it’s considered weird or radical to adopt a mostly vegan diet.

No matter your current age or condition, you can improve the investment that is your body by taking steps to improve your diet. You can start simply: try drinking water instead of sugary drinks, for starters. If you’re craving a snack, try some fruit instead of a cookie. Buy wheat or whole-grain bread instead of white marshmallow bread. Little changes like that can make a big difference in the long run.

When it comes to ingredients, I like to think of the tiny little quote by Thoreau (from Walden): “Simplify, simplify.” I like to buy food that comes with short ingredient lists. In this case, less is more. If I’m reading a label, and I don’t know what some of the ingredients are – if I can’t even pronounce them – why on earth would I want to suck it into my body?

This is the only body you have, so think of it like an investment. Come to think of it, it’s the only investment you have that the fat cats on Wall Street can’t diminish. The Bernie Madoffs of the world can’t lie, cheat, or steal it from you. The government can’t inflate away its value (though perhaps time still retains that ability). It should be a comforting thought that your body is the only investment vehicle for which you are directly responsible. Treat it well, and its share value increases. Treat it poorly, and it slips into recession. Providing it with regular physical activity and healthy, nutritious food is like buying low, and my hope is that your body will pay rich dividends for the rest of your life.

WTDirect Savings

Link to Promotional Offer

Earning the bonus is simple – for each $10,000 that you deposit, WTDirect will give you a $100 bonus, up to the total bonus of $500. You need to open and fund the account by June 15 and maintain the initial deposit(s) for three months in order to fulfill the requirements.

The fine print:

This offer is available to new WTDirect clients only. Primary account holder must NOT have held a WTDirect account in the past 12 months. WTDirect account must be opened and funded via electronic (ACH) transfer received by 6/15/10. Bonus is based upon the lowest daily balance during the promotional period of 6/15/10 – 9/15/10. Bonuses will be paid approximately 2 weeks after the end of the promotional period to clients whose accounts are open and in good standing. Wilmington Trust employees and their family members are not eligible. WTDirect reserves the right to cancel or modify this promotion at any time without notice.

That last line is troublesome, and in the past WTDirect cancelled a similar promotion after only a few days. So, if you’re interested in taking advantage of this offer, do it quickly. I opened an account this morning, though I will have to settle for a lower-tier bonus since I don’t have that much cash lying around.

Keep in mind that the bonus is on top of the existing savings rate, which is currently 1.16%. If you deposit $50k and earn the full bonus, this works out to just over a 5% savings rate over a three-month period. Not bad! Their application implies that they do not do a hard credit inquiry.

I’m not sure if I’ll keep my account open after the bonus is fulfilled, but I definitely enjoy offers like this!

I was writing to ask your advice on Credit Cards. I know that you are a credit master, and I’m finally looking at getting my first card. I’ve been searching around, but so far I’m still totally overwhelmed. Do you have any suggestions for a first, easy to handle card? I’ll just get getting it to establish my credit line and using more like a Debit card (only buying things I can already pay off)… Any advice would be much appreciated. I don’t wanna end up with credit issues like Greece…

Mr. B replies:

Hi Spencer! No, you definitely don’t want to end up with debt issues like Greece, but if you’re fiscally responsible, you will avoid it.

First of all, I’m glad that you already plan to treat the credit card like a debit card – that’s the golden rule of CC usage. Too many believe believe the credit line granted to them by a credit card company is somehow their money. Nothing could be farther from the truth. A credit line is borrowed money, money that will accrue interest if not paid back in full within the grace period. Never buy anything on credit that you cannot afford to pay in full. Keep that motto in mind and you will never have credit problems.

So that’s the first rule of thumb. Here are some other thoughts:

1) Just say NO to annual fees. Ignore all cards that come with an annual fee just for using the %@# card!

2) Ignore the APR. It’s used to calculate how much interest you will pay each month if you don’t pay the card in full by the due date. Paying interest is for suckers. I don’t care if my APR is 400%, I’ll never have to pay it. Credit card companies hate you if you pay your bill in full by the due date – you’re considered a deadbeat to them because you’re not profitable.

3) DO care about rewards. As an incentive to get you to use your card (and hopefully rack up debt), many companies use loss-leaders in the form of CC rewards. Essentially, they end up paying YOU to use their card. Reward systems vary: sometimes they’re in the form of airline miles, straight-up cash, or some other arbitrary point system. I prefer simple reward systems above anything else, and therefore suggest finding a card that will give you at least 1% cashback on all purchases. CC rewards are nice, but don’t let them manipulate you into inadvertently spending more money on the card just to build rewards (as in: I only need to spend another $300 before I can cash in my rewards!). Again, keep the golden rule in mind, and always ask yourself, if I were spending cash for this purchase, would I still buy it?

4) Forget about balance transfers. This is a major way CC companies earn fees. In essence, it’s how people end up paying one credit card with another. They’re loaded with fees. Just follow the golden rule, and you’ll never need to worry about it.

5) Ditto on cash advances. Just forget they exist. NEVER use an ATM to pull money from a credit card. This is called a cash advance, and your CC company will charge you an arm and a leg for it. That’s what debit/ATM cards are for.

6) Read the paperwork. You’ll get a bundle of paperwork with your card. Read it all, or at least scan for the F-word (fee, of course!). You will also occasionally receive notifications of policy changes in the mail. Again, look for that F-word. It’s pretty rare for them to suddenly spring something like an annual fee on you, but it could happen. I have about 20 credit cards (ya really), and I’ve only had them introduce an annual fee once. I immediately canceled the card. The moral of the story is: don’t just throw away notices from the CC company in the mail.

7) If you’ve read this far, by now you’re surely looking for specific recommendations. Okay, okay, I’ll give you a few. First, though, allow me to say that I hate Chase. Those a$$holes change their terms all the time, always in their favor. I’ve seen them kill reward systems for my favorite cards. Just avoid them!

You are a student, but I recommend staying away from student cards unless you don’t get approved for others. Student cards usually are pretty stingy with their credit lines, thereby making it easier to go over your limit (and get charged fees, of course). If you have to get a student card, then one of the Dividend Platinum Select cards from Citi on this page would be alright. This one from Capital One would be okay, too.

For non-student cards, here is one that is worth a look. It’s from Associated Bank (look for the Rewards card), and it has a $25 bonus (statement credit) the first time you use it. However, it looks as it you also must have a banking relationship with them in order to apply for the card. Oh, and here is one from Dollar Bank that offers 1.25% rewards. Again, the only catch is that you also have to have a regular bank account with them to be eligible. It might be too much hassle for the little extra rewards amount.

One final thing: almost all CC applications ask for annual or monthly household income, not just your personal income. This is used to help determine your credit limit, and many people think of it as a commonly exploited loophole. What is a household anyway? Everyone in your dorm or apartment? If you live at home, it could be your parents’ and other siblings’ income! I don’t suggest outright lying, but unless they ask directly for your personal income, just know that certain liberties are available. Again, follow the golden rule, and you’ll avoid trouble.

Hope that gets you started! Feel free to ask more questions, and let me know the results!

(NB: no affiliate links are used in the above message.)

If you want to close your account online, all you have to do is log in and look for the BankMail option. Send them a secure message with the following information:

1. That you want to close the account (naturally).
2. Your reason for closing (I cited that the interest rate was too low and that I could get better rates elsewhere).
3. How you want them to disburse your remaining balance to you, if any (such as a cashier’s check or wire transfer).

In my case, I ended up closing both a savings and a checking account, and I transferred my entire balance out via ACH before I submitted the closing requests. I did not receive any confirmation message, but when I logged into HSBC the next day, I saw this:

The “Account Unavailable” notice was enough to tell me that HSBC was out of my life. To be clear, I had no qualms with my HSBC accounts, other than the ubiquitous interest rate sucking issue that currently plagues most other banks. Shedding unused accounts is increasing the simplicity of my financial life, and that’s music to my ears.

Many of them I opened for some promotional reason, such as a high teaser rate. When the rate languished, so did my interest in the account. This happened for me at FNBO, HSBC, E*Trade, Washington Mutual (now Chase), and a few others. When my interest in the account waned, I usually just siphoned my balance elsewhere, save perhaps a dollar to keep the account open. Such is the life of a rate chaser.

My thought at the time was that it was better to keep the newly abandoned savings account open, just in case the bank in question decided to offer higher rates at a later point. If this were to happen, I could easily transfer some money back without going through any account opening process. It seemed, I thought, a convenience to keep these husks of accounts. Perhaps they would be useful later?

Maybe so, and I’ve written about this topic before, but I’m giving up on them and starting a spree of account closings. My reasons are threefold: First, savings interest rates have suffered more drastically and for a longer period than I thought they would. Even now, in 2010, it’s difficult to imagine rates rising anytime soon. Most people are lucky if they earn more than 1% in a savings account at present. Some of the popular money market mutual funds, such as the Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund, are paying a miserly 0.01%. That’s one one-hundredth of a percent! Pitiful. I’m tired of waiting for Godot.

Secondly, I confess that I’ve become angered and embittered by the actions of the too-big-to-fail banks. Watching them get rescued from their own greed and stupidity, and getting wrenched back from the brink of outright destruction by the hands of the taxpayers was bad enough. Watching them then raise fees, jack up credit card interest rates, foreclose on an untold number of homes, and fight tooth-and-nail against any financial regulation that could help prevent history from repeating itself was beyond all rational comprehension. There should be taxpayer outrage in this country, and to be clear, there is some. However, I believe it has largely manifested itself in the wrong way and in the wrong direction. There has been a backlash against big government, when in fact it should be against big financial corporations. I believe strongly in the power of individuals voting with their wallets, and that brings me to point three.

Thirdly, I discovered Alliant Credit Union back in 2009. Their savings account has held steadily at 2% for eight months now, and their regular checking account pays 1.75%, which is an excellent rate for a non-rewards-based checking account. Anyone can join with a membership in their local PTA, which was a one-time $6 fee in my former state of residence. Since joining, I have moved my primary checking and savings accounts to Alliant, as well as my tiny health savings account (HSA). I’m happy with Alliant so far, and since I’m the primary money manager in my household, my wife is comforted knowing that the bulk of our savings is stashed in a single location instead of being spread across ten accounts. Morbid as it sounds, if I were to meet an untimely demise, having our funds in a single location is preferable to her going on a wild goose chase.

Based on point two above, the appeal of smaller local banks and credit unions has grown on me. I love the idea of simplification as well – the thought of purging myself from all those empty account husks feels like a type of spring cleaning to me. It’s refreshing.

From this point forward, I choose not to keep my savings at a too-big-to-fail bank, and I’m going to begin a spree of account closings to simplify my financial life. I’ll still keep liquid accounts at two or three places, but the bulk of my savings will be with a local bank or credit union. Any accounts that I keep with a megabank will be entirely unprofitable for them. For example, I’ll keep a checking account that I opened (for a $75 bonus) with Bank of America, but I’ll keep it just for the ability to occasionally deposit a check while on the road, and then immediately siphon all the money elsewhere.

Maybe my plan is drastic or unreasonable, but gosh, it feels right from both an organizational and a moral perspective.

I opened an account with FNBO Direct back when they were paying a glorious 6% on their online savings account. Those days have long past, and once their rate started plummeting, I siphoned out all but a single penny. Yesterday, it dawned on me that I have not touched that account since mid-2008. I wondered about my lone penny and whether or not FNBO had claimed it and closed my account for inactivity.

Nope. My penny was still there, lonely as ever. I decided to go ahead and close the account.

Fortunately, FNBO Direct makes it simple to close an account online. Once you have logged in, look for the Contact Us link (currently near the bottom left of your account).

On the page that loads, you should then see a link for Account Closing Request. Follow that link, and then you will have to complete a short questionnaire that includes an address verification, your reason for closing the account, and how you would like FNBO to disburse any remaining funds to you.

They didn’t have a field in which I could manually tell them to keep my blasted penny. Ridiculous as it may be, I opted for a cashier’s check. Believe me, I’m going to chuckle pretty hard when I see a cashier’s check for $0.01.

Here’s a screenshot of the closing questionnaire:

For the record, I chose Interest Rate as my primary reason for closing. If enough people do that, maybe the plight of the savers will be clear.

That’s all there is to it, and I appreciate how easy FNBO makes it to close an account.

The following article is a guest post by Kris of Credit Card Compare.

Sometimes it seems incredible to me that with the wealth of financial information out there, and all the forms in which it is available, that many people still can’t manage their money. With such a variety of television shows, radio shows, video blogs, websites, and podcasts, all devoted to personal finance and investing, you’d think that anyone with cable television, a computer, or a cell phone would be a veritable spring of information, burbling forth their knowledge to everyone and anyone who would listen. Sadly, this isn’t the case.

I can’t necessarily blame the average investor though when it comes to what they learn regarding their money and how they learn it. I think many people fall prey to what I call the overload syndrome. With all the information out there from which to choose, they just don’t know where to begin and where the reliable sources of financial knowledge are to be found.

If you are one of those people who just isn’t sure where to start when it comes to money-related podcasts and video blogs, here are a few options you will find useful in kick-starting or furthering your financial education.

1. The Dave Ramsey Show

It seems like Dave Ramsey is everywhere these days – internet, radio, television, he just does it all. Among his many communication vehicles, Dave Ramsey now also offers a podcast of his show. Maybe it’s Dave’s down-to-earth advice or his ability to focus on topics that span a broad spectrum of financial situations that appeals to so many. Whatever it is, Dave is listened to by millions as he spreads the word about a variety of financial and investment topics each weekday.

2. Feed The Pig

Remember those commercials with that guy in the pig costume that showed up a few years back? Yep, the same FeedThePig. You can listen to informative podcasts related to financial subject matter like preventing fraud, investing for beginners, teaching kids about money, budgeting, and others. If you’re just dipping your toe into the investing waters, these podcasts might be a good way to get yourself in tune with your finances before you take the plunge.

3. The Wall Street Journal

There is hardly a better-known source for business and investing information than the The Wall Street Journal. On their website, you can find podcasts such as Wall Street Journal’s Your Money Matters and Wall Street Journal on Small Business as well as podcasts from MarketWatch, and Barron’s. You can from pick from a number of related podcasts and even choose to follow them on Twitter or over your phone.

4. Wall Street Unspun (Peter Schiff)

Subscribe to Wall Street Unspun with Peter Schiff of Euro Pacific Capital for a mid-week dose of hard-hitting Wall Street/Political/Economics news and commentary. Schiff is the investor who warned people ahead of time on network television, print and the Internet about the impending 2008 subprime meltdown and credit crisis while his critics were drunk on cheap credit.

5. Crown Financial Ministries

If you’re of the religious persuasion, don’t overlook the podcast from Crown Financial Ministries (crown.org). The advice and teaching is in a similar vein to Dave Ramsey but they make more references to the Bible than Dave Ramsey would do. Crown is dedicated to teaching people God’s financial principles so that they can learn to live in God’s Economy.

6. Planet Money

As hard as it might be to believe, even National Public Radio has gotten into the podcast market these days. To me this is kind of like PBS getting into the pay-per-view market, but hey, whatever works. Offering up financially related podcasts on a number of topics, Planet Money takes a more global approach to economic issues. You can visit their blog site to read articles and watch videos or sign up for their podcast.

7. Marketplace Money

The Marketplace Money podcast offers a broad category of topics ranging from Books and Business to Economy and Health, and can also be found on NPR.org. You can mix your own customized podcast on the main page of their podcast directory or just focus on the business side of things with the Marketplace Money podcasts hosted weekly by Kai Ryssdal.

8. Financial Aid News

This podcast might not be for everyone, but if you are a parent with kids in or preparing for college, or are in school yourself, Financial Aid News could be your dream podcast. An education can be pricey, and educating yourself to the financial responsibilities of paying for school is important. Discussing topics related to yep, you guessed it, financial aid, the Financial Aid podcast digs into subjects like FAFSA, scholarships, student loans, and other financial aid related topics.

9. Wells Fargo

If you dislike big banks as much as I do, you may not be into this pick. With some of the larger financial institutions now getting into the podcast game though, I thought I’d give them a fair shake. You can choose from Wells Fargo’s Small Business Podcast Series or take a stab at the On the Trading Desk podcast to find out the latest happenings on Wall Street.

10. The Disciplined Investor

The Disciplined Investor’s weekly podcasts provide insight to a variety of investing topics. Host Andrew Horowitz invites various views and years of investing knowledge to the table. Guests like Jon Markman, Jon Najarian, Frank Curzio, and others, voice their opinions on a number of investing and market topics.

As a freelance writer, Kris spends much of his time writing about money saving techniques for Credit Card Compare, an entirely free-to-use comparison website offering the best credit cards for Aussies including frequent flyer credit cards that give you travel perks and benefits.