How many of you have lived in the middle of nowhere?

[Xist]

I want to get a drone or take high-quality panoramic pictures of the Page area and environs. I have taken a few dozen pictures and three 360° ones, but I have hardly uploaded anything because we do not have the Internet yet. Supposedly we used our data with a couple of days left, although my sister says we have 9GB rollover from last month.

There was a big eclipse when I was a kid and we took a box left over from Dad's latest bookcase and made a pinhole camera. The local news station showed people that made much bigger ones.

[Xist]

I have been here for five or six months. My coworkers are nice, although I have not made any friends. I absolutely love the kids and it is always sad when my students meet their goals and I need to stop wasting their time. Let it go and all of that. I have visited zero parks, monuments, or anything, I drive to Mom's house after work on Friday, and I drive home Sunday afternoon. Mom always acts happy to have me around. I spent my entire Christmas break there. We hardly did anything, but I spent the first week studying for the GRE. I still wished I could stay longer. I keep hoping that an SLPA job opens up near Mom because I am tired of driving ten hours each weekend! That really only leaves Saturday to do projects, and I could never maintain this if I get into grad school.

Yeah, about that...

I submitted everything before the deadline for the program I wanted, but they did not acknowledge some of it until it was too late. If I did not get in this year, I would start retaking speech classes through them, but school started the next day. I will take classes this summer and in the fall.

This job pays great, but it seems that I cannot afford the full student loan payment, around $500. With deductions my paychecks are the same as my old job, where I averaged thirteen hours a week, but I see about four times as many kids, and have all of the time I need at my desk to work on activities and paperwork and I just walk back and forth inside the school, instead of fighting traffic for two hours a day, dealing with cancellations, no-shows, and attempting to make up lost sessions.

I think I was waiting for my cash to flow in the right direction before signing up for NorthPointe Bank's Ultimate Checking Account (which paid 5% interest on up to $10,000). Unfortunately, they stopped offering that back in November.

I transferred my credit card to one with a 0% introductory rate and I have been using that while accumulating money in my checking account. I could have made about $60.86 in interest!

It looks like Consumers Credit Union is the next best, they offer 4.59% on up to $20,000! The interest is actually tiered based on your activity. You can earn 3.09% for

Complete at least 12 Debit/Check Card point-of-sale purchases (transactions must be made without using your personal identification number (PIN) to count toward the minimum of 12 and must post and clear your account as a credit transaction on or before the last day of the calendar month)

You use your debit card as credit? If you spend at least $500 each month in any number of transactions they give you 3.59% and the 4.59% requires $1,000 a month (in any number of transactions).

$500 student loans, $395 rent, $80 car insurance, and $25 food?

Hey, if I can find enough 0% introductory balance transfers and I keep up this for twenty months, I will make an extra $918 a year! :P

Somehow I feel like I need an alternative long-term plan. Once I took the GRE I talked to the SLP that works for the only speech agency in the area. I applied and tried to follow up through e-mail. Whenever I go to call something comes up, but that would pay better than anything else I could do. If I picked up five clients a week I could finally start paying off my credit card (or at least have enough money available to do so, but earning 4.59%), purchase groceries besides oatmeal and beans, and maybe start fixing up my cars.

You guys have a great night!

[freebeard]

I'd go with a credit union over a bank on principle.

[Xist]

It seems like credit unions actually want to help people, instead of only wanting to make money off of them.

[Xist]

I am finally signing up for the checking account with the highest interest rate I can find. Apparently Mango has been around for at least a couple of years, but I just found them. They have some complicated setup where if you create an account, set up direct deposit, and then spend at least $800 a month, not counting transfers, they give you 6% interest on up to $5,000. The blog where I found it did not seem impressed. You can try to make sense of it here: https://www.mangomoney.com/what-is-mango/ This sounds similar, but I do not understand either, just that if you play your cards right this place promises 5% on up to $5,000, but redditors claim to receive 5% on balances over $5,000. It sounds too complicated to be worthwhile, but you can dive in here: https://www.insightcards.com

[jamesqf]

I wouldn't use an online-only account. When there's a problem, it's nice to be able to go to their office and talk to actual humans. As happened to me yesterday: tried to activate the new ATM card by phone, which failed with no indication why. Stopped by the office, and they fixed it in a couple of minutes.

[Xist]

Bank of America tried pushing me into an on-line only account. I forget how I avoided that, but now I live two and a half hours from the nearest branch, and the only time I could stop by would be on vacation. Bank of the West is the biggest bank in town. I am not familiar with it, but it has more than 600 branches and offices in the Midwest and West. There is a Wells Fargo ATM, a National Bank of Arizona branch (more than 50 locations! All in Arizona!), an Altier Credit Union (with four other locations, including near my old house), and a Coconino Federal Credit Union, with three whole locations!

I was looking at Consumers Credit Union last night, but do I spend $1,000 in purchases each month? That is 40% of my take home pay, so around 40% of what I spend. I mentioned student loans and rent, but neither of those would count. I need to look at my expenditures and see if I can maintain that.

Altier Credit Union has a Cassava account, or something. I kept seeing that name when I was looking for the best-paying checking account, but none of the Cassavas were the best. Altier offers 2% on up to $5,000 as long as you make you make fifteen debit transactions a month that settle.

They are smart, though!

Altier CU reserves the right to disqualify multiple small-dollar POS transactions made in sequence during the qualification cycle for the sole intent to qualify for the rewards.

Do I want more interest on a larger possible balance or do I want the convenience of following the employees home and mowing their lawns?

Decisions decisions!

[jamesqf]

Personally, I think interest on a checking account is irrelevant. I only keep enough in mine to cover the month's bills, moving it as needed to/from savings and/or investments.

[Xist]

How much do you earn in savings?

[jamesqf]

Savings? A few dollars a year. Mostly I keep money in savings so I don't have to take it out of stocks if the market takes a dip - as it did the last week or two. Investments - things I actually expect to make money on, over time, are low-cost mutual funds, mostly index funds. I use Vanguard for IRA money, T. Rowe Price for stuff that's not tax-sheltered, but there are other good companies. Average return, over decades, is around 7.5% per year, but you have to be prepared to weather bad years, like '08-09, and let good years like the last couple even things out.