We Warckens don’t believe in keeping all our eggs in one basket. These are the companies we use to keep and make money, and to help organize our finances. And by ‘we’ I mean ‘me’, ‘Jamie’. We also both contribute to our employer-sponsored retirement plans, of course. All of these products and companies are totally free to join and use.

 

American Express Personal Savings – Travel savings account. We’ve had this account for years- it’s easy to use and has a competitive interest rate.

 

 

Capital One 360 – Primary checking, four savings, one money market. These accounts make up the backbone of the conservative Warcken finances. We love the high rates and the ease of transferring money between these and outside accounts, plus they offer free withdrawals from Allpoint ATMs.

 

Credit Sesame – I use this free site to keep tabs on our credit scores. They also provide free identity theft protection insurance for members, up to $50,000.

 

 

Google Drive – I use these spreadsheets for everything- the budget, my exercise routine, financial goals- and I love being able to access and edit them from my phone as well as the computer. We never use cash so it’s easy to manually track all our spending by entering everything into a spreadsheet, and categorizing said spending so I know just what we spend every month on gas, groceries, travel, etc.

 

Mint – I don’t personally care for the budgeting feature of Mint, but I use this to quickly assess our situation, and to see if any credit cards have balances that need paid off. I like being able to see all our accounts at once.

 

Personal Capital – I use this specifically to track our net worth. Its charts and grafts are very pretty, they send me notifications to let me know our portfolio has increased, even though I’m not working. Mmm, I love it.

 

USAA – Checking and savings accounts, auto and renters insurance. We each have an allowance checking account and keep the savings open just for extra allowance money. While their interest rates pale in comparison, their insurance is consistently the cheapest and they offer free worldwide ATM withdrawals.

 

 

 

Vanguard – Both our Roth and Traditional IRAs, and all our taxable investments. It seems every financial advisor on the planet loves to recommend Vanguard for their low-cost investing opportunities. Those low fees allow more money to stay in our accounts, rather than in some fund manager’s pocket, and over time can compound into mega dough. Don’t believe me? Ask Mr. Buffett. Their site is easy to use, and I’ve always received great help from customer service. We use these accounts to save for both real and early retirement.