FDIC Deposit Insurance: An Introduction

The FDIC created the video below as a guide to their deposit insurance. We thought it was pretty informative so we thought we'd share.

Interview with FDIC Head Sheila Bair

CNN Money spoke with FDIC head Sheila Bair. Video embedded below:

Savings in the News: Overdraft Fees and New Money Mindset

Two great news articles appeared recently about Americans and saving:

Philly.com:

Americans learning their lessons on overdraft fees


In a recent survey by economic researcher Moebs Services Inc. some 45 percent of banks, savings institutions and credit unions acknowledged that their overdraft fee income was greater than net income.

This year alone, Moebs said, banks are looking at cashing in a record $38.5 billion in overdraft fees.

The Associated Press:

Meltdown gives consumers a new money mindset

While personal income is down slightly since the recession officially began in late 2007, the personal savings rate is rising. In 2007 the savings rate stood at 1.7 percent of after-tax income. That climbed to 2.7 percent in 2008, and in July — the most recent data available — hit 4.2 percent. As people fear losing their jobs, they will save more: Economists expect the savings rate to top 6 percent in coming months if unemployment — which was 9.7 percent in August — continues to rise.

Save for College or Retirement?

In a blog post earlier this week, we linked to some blogs about saving for college. There's another side to the issue of saving for your kids' college education, and I thought you'd all be interested to see that presented as well (special thanks and shout-out to my officemate Joe for suggesting this topic.)

Personal finance guru Clark Howard, who has also featured MoneyAisle both on his radio show and CNN show, lays his opinion on the matter out pretty clearly:

Save for retirement before funding a child's education

Just remember that there are no scholarships for retirement.

But for college, there are grants, work-study, regular jobs, scholarships, loans, reducing your educational costs by going into public service or the military, going the community college route, etc.

U.S. News and World Report asks the same question:

Should You Save For College or Retirement?

How should you prioritize saving for your children's college education and funding your own retirement?

The prioritization is a very personal thing. Typically retirement comes first and education is a close second. There is only one way to save for retirement and that's for you to do it. There aren't many pensions left out there. Never leave 401(k) matching money on the table. That's free money. Fully save for retirement and if there is money left over, then save for education. There are a lot of ways to pay for education. There are loans. There are scholarships. There are grants. There are also so many ways students can keep costs down. Students can go in state and live at home. Too often we see people who haven't saved for education and use their retirement accounts. If you do that you may end up having to delay your retirement.

What do you think? Do you agree with Mr. Howard and the U.S. News and World Report financial advisor?

MoneyAisle Auction

We've got an announcement for everyone today concerning a change in a MoneyAisle policy. This will not affect how users are able to use MoneyAisle to find rates on CDs or High-Yield Savings accounts, but in the interest of full transparency we wanted to announce it to all of you.

Beginning soon, MoneyAisle is going to host some advertisements on our site. When we initially launched, we told all of you that MoneyAisle was completely ad-free. Please be aware that our change in this matter will not affect the rates you see when you run a MoneyAisle reverse auction and will not affect which banks win an auction. We are committed as strongly as ever to fair competition, and to getting our customers the best rates possible in the MoneyAisle network.

So what does this mean for you, the MoneyAisle consumer? Because we're allowing banks to add some messaging, you'll be aware of some deals or promotions they may be running if you open an account with them - higher APYs for multiple accounts, bonuses for opening checking accounts - that sort of thing. Again, none of this will affect the rate you see at the auction end or how our innovative reverse auction process works. We believe as firmly as when we launched that when banks compete with each other in live competition, the consumer ultimately wins.

Savings in the News: Youth Edition

It's never too young to start saving, and with college tuition costs continually increasing it's never too early to start setting aside some money for that expense. Below are some excerpts from some recent online articles about youth and savings:

The News and Sentinel talks about encouraging kids to save:

Starting to teach young people now about the importance of saving helps them establish a foundation for making better financial decisions in the future, local banking officials said.

''The current economic situation has shown that individuals have relied too much on credit,'' said Larry Johnson, market president for WesBanco. ''When people are able to save, they are usually better off.''

BND.com brings saving for college, and all the issues that may bring with it, into the conversation:

Financial experts - and experienced parents - say it's best to be clear about who pays for what. Don't wait till that first sky-high cell-phone bill to discuss spending limits.

Talk about money - what parents will pay for (tuition, rent, etc.) and what the student will pay for (social life, Starbucks, etc.). Also talk about what happens, and who pays, when mistakes occur, like overdrafts, bounced checks or late payment fees.

Meanwhile, Kansas City.com highlights some online resources you can use to increase your college saving:


September — which is National College Savings Month — is the ideal time to be focusing on college affordability. According to a recent study by educational lender Sallie Mae and the Gallup organization, nine out of 10 parents of children under age 18 say their students will likely pursue higher education. That’s good. Now the bad: Four out of 10 have not started saving for that education.

Georgia fourth behind Calif., Fla., in bank failure costs

Atlanta Business News writes that although Georgia has the highest number of bank closures in the nation, the state ranks fourth in how much these failures have cost the FDIC’s insurance fund.

The FDIC has been forced to pay out $3.9 billion in order to cover the costs of the state’s bank failures. The states that have cost more are California, Florida, and Texas, which have required fund to dwindle by $15.3 billion, $6.4 billion, and $4.4 billion, respectively.

While Georgia has seen a large number of banks shut down, most have been small lenders with relatively shallow pools of troubled loans that need to be covered by FDIC funds.

Read the full story here.

CD Rates in the News: September 3, 2009

Here are some of the more interesting recent articles and blogs to pop up regarding cd rates:

Hoboken411 asks: Is CD Laddering Right for you?

For instance, let’s say you have $15,000 to invest. Rather than investing the $15,000 in one CD that maturates at a designated time, by laddering CDs, you may choose to invest $5,000 in each of three separate CDs. In this example, you would then purchase a 90-day, 180-day and a 1-year CD in equal amounts of $5,000. After 90 days, when your first CD matures, you would invest in a new 1- year CD. Every 90 days, a CD will expire and, if the funds are not needed, they will be reinvested in a new CD to take advantage of the higher interest rate.

Mainstreet asks: Have certificates of deposit finally stabilized – and will interest rates bounce back up now that their downward slide seems to be abating?

But below the surface, we’re seeing rates this month pretty much where they were last month – a signal that the month-to-month declines we saw earlier in 2009 may finally be ending. Of course, one month doesn’t a trend make. But, as the old Chinese proverb goes, "every journey begins with a single step."

And, always, you can get clued into what the most recent hot CD Rate is on MoneyAisle by following our rates on Twitter.