I finally took the plunge. After 8 years I’m walking away from the iPhone and as a result breaking the shackles that tied me to AT&T. I was planning to wait until my contract with AT&T is complete in October 2016 before breaking my contract with them to avoid any early termination fee, but as I mentioned my phone bill recently doubled from $45 a month to $90 a month without even having unlimited data. And that is a straight up ridiculous amount to pay for a phone service I barely use (I’m mostly on WiFi). So I started thinking about breaking the contract early when something wonderful happened. I received the impetus I needed. Continue reading “Republic Wireless”
Category: Personal Finance Reviews
Finance Tracker Review: Personal Capital
Learning about Personal Capital was another result of reading the amazing Mr. Money Mustache blog. Personal Capital, which I’d never heard of, is basically Mint.com but for investments. It also includes features similar to Mint.com that allow you to review your spending and income, but it is actually more difficult to add accounts to Personal Capital than to Mint.com and for that reason I haven’t added all of mine. In fact originally I only tried Personal Capital for a grand total of five minutes before closing my account because it was so unnecessarily difficult to add my accounts. Continue reading “Finance Tracker Review: Personal Capital”
Finance Tracker Review: Mint.com
Mint.com has been a lifesaver. For what it is, I completely love it. However, it does not deliver on its product promise, which is to help you understand where your money is going and as a result save money. Mint.com is wonderful for learning where your money is going. It makes it very easy to track every digital dollar and provides a colorful and clear explanation of your spending month to month and year to year. It’s seamless in that it draws information directly from your accounts like Personal Capital instead of you inputting it like in YNAB. Continue reading “Finance Tracker Review: Mint.com”
Finance Tracker Review: YNAB
I originally turned away from YNAB (You Need A Budget) during my time using Simple (before the dark days) for a few reasons when I compared it to Simple:1. YNAB costs money ($60 one time fee per household) while Simple is free (outside of holding your money like a bank)
2. YNAB requires that I input all of my transactions manually which takes a fair amount of time while Simple aggregates all my transaction information when I use their debt card
3. YNAB seems complicated and forces me to constantly reconcile and check my different bank accounts while Simple and even Mint.com compiles that information without my involvement
Continue reading “Finance Tracker Review: YNAB”
Bad Bank Review: Simple
Speaking of simple, this new age bank is unfortunately everything but. The original idea was a wonderful one: to do away with the old banks that we all have to deal with and replace them with one that puts customer service first and has no overdraft fees or minimum balances. I loved the concept and once I had heard from a few early adopters that their experience had been almost seamless decided to dive in. Continue reading “Bad Bank Review: Simple”
Good Bank Review: TD Bank
I originally became a member of TD Bank because it was one of two banks in my college town and the only bank that also had locations in other parts of the country. So when leaving college I moved all my money to TD Bank and never looked back. And I believe I lucked out enormously. When compared to all the other banks in NYC TD Bank is consistently wonderful whether I’m visiting a location or calling customer service they are always there for me. In NYC at least they are also always building new stores – they seem to be taking over. And they even built one directly in front of my apartment in what seemed like weeks.The only complaint would be the annual fee on their introductory credit cards. For that reason I did move my credit card use elsewhere. The only area that could use improvement is their online experience. It’s a little archaic, but still light-years ahead of a lot of banks that seem to be stuck in the past. Unfortunately I am planning to leave TD Bank simply because they do not have a presence on the West Coast.