As I mentioned a few months ago, I have a Feeds page which is very handy. It aggregates more than a dozen resources related to the bank bonus hunting game — blog, vlog & podcast feeds. The Feeds page also includes some handy links — at the top of the page — to various resources I check each day in addition to what is presented to me in the feeds list. Please click on the aforementioned link for more details about what the Feeds page is.
Here’s what I do each day.
I added an Organization category to this Cashback Cow blog. I have several articles I’ve written related to various organizational aspects, such as diagramming bank accounts, journaling, bookkeeping, using spreadsheets for tracking and monthly bill payment checklist / cash flow, probate, monitoring cd maturity dates etc.
The Wednesday Morning Weekly — September 18, 2024
Disclaimer: I am not an estate planner. These are my personal opinions/ideas in this article, and was just wanting to share them with the community. Please consult with an estate planner for your personal needs.
In the bank account bonus hunting hobby, we open up many accounts. Sometimes we have large amounts of money in a few of these accounts to meet the requirements of the bonus. Or we have utility accounts, such as hubs, which we never plan to close; these accounts can have significant amounts in at any given time. Or we might have retirement accounts, both tax-sheltered and non-tax sheltered with large amounts in them as well.
I personally feel it is important to setup designated beneficiary/beneficiaries for every account possible if the accounts hold a significant amount of money. If you don’t set it up or the bank doesn’t offer it, when you die, it then goes to probate and the courts can decide when your beneficiary/beneficiaries get the money — which could take months or years, instead of a couple weeks.
Update 9/5/2024. I am now listing multiple accounts within a bank object rectangle in my diagram — for a few accounts. E.g. a line for checking and a line for savings. I put the approximate balances in K dollars on each line. Sometimes I might have to make the rectangle larger to accommodate three accounts within the same bank. For CD account dollar amounts I use a very faint orange instead of the typical orange font color, since this money isn’t as liquid. See towards end of document for screenshot of what I am talking about.
In this bank account bonus hunting hobby, I found by having a large number of bank & brokerage accounts open at any given time it can become quite unmanageable unless I have a few things in place. However with all the above, one thing I was missing was a diagram of how all the bank accounts are linked together.
I never saw this before. A friend pointed out to me Amazon now offers a Frequency Auto-Reload option. For example you can have it auto-reload $5 weekly or even daily.
I have several CD’s open as you may guess, since many banks all you to fund them with credit cards. Often after maturity date, the banks automatically renew the CD and usually at a much lower rate. For example, I opened up a CD with BluPeak Credit Union just over 6 months ago and I got over 4.5% for that six months. However it just matured a few days ago and automatically renewed at only 1%.
The Wednesday Morning Weekly.
Until now, when transferring money from another bank to Fidelity, I typically logged into the Fidelity portal and initiated an ACH Pull. This always resulted in a 7 to 10 day hold on the cash before I could transfer it out again.
I just learned about this today — the news is a couple months old. This is amazing, you click the three dots and a menu pops up with an option to view the transcript. This way you can later search the podcast if you forget where something is. The following is a link to the March 2024 news article:
Note: In addition to details about this bank account in this article, I also share a lot of organizational details how I manage bank account bonus hunting.
I very recently applied for a U.S. Bank Smartly Checking personal checking account for a $500 sign up bonus. I was approved with no problems.
I just read from DoC that the minimum Amazon gift card reloads have increased from $1 to $5. Less than one year ago the minimum was only 50 cents. This is annoying.
