It’s easy to find free financial information on the internet. Whether it’s reading blogs, scrolling social media, or listening to podcasts, free financial information is abundant.

Free financial advice, however, is much harder to find.

Financial advice is financial information tailored to your situation. While it’s useful to understand tax brackets and tax credits, it’s only actionable if you take into account your tax situation.

Fortunately, there are still places you can get free financial advice. None of these will replace what a financial advisor can do for you, but they can help answer some of your questions.

💡 If you want to speak with a FINRA/SEC Registered advisor for an initial consultation with no obligation to hire them, take a look at Wiser Advisor. They can match you with someone who meets your specific needs.

1. Your Bank or Credit Union

Your local bank or credit union (I’d try credit union first) can work with you to discuss the options available to you.

You’ve likely experience some of this before if you carry a large balance. The teller may suggest putting it in a certificate of deposit. If you’re working with a banker, they suggest opening a brokerage account.

If you have questions related to banking, this can be a good resource. If you have other questions, like when to take Social Security, they are unlikely to be as helpful as it’s not their expertise.

Also, they have an interest in getting you to use more of their products. So they’re more likely to steer you in certain directions.

2. Your Local Library

Your local library may offer classes or host events in which you can get financial advice. This won’t be available all the time, so I’d ask a library or check your library’s website for a schedule of events.

You’re more likely to see these events in April, which is Financial Literacy Month. My local library in Howard County has a whole series of workshops and events (here is the 2024 calendar).

For younger kids, the American Library Association has a Thinking Money for Kids series co-created by the FINRA Investor Education Foundation. This is more financial information but good for help your kids better understand their money.

3. HUD-Counselors

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will offer free housing advice for free (or for a low cost), so if you need that type of advice then it’s a good option. It’s not just for home buying advice, it’s also rental housing, foreclosure assistance, credit and more.

If it’s housing related, you could find help with a counselor approved by HUD. To find them, you can search this database of HUD-approved counseling agencies. (though I wish the search tool would list the website of the agency)

4. Financial Planning Association

The Financial Planning Association (FPA) offers pro bono financial planning services for “low-income individuals and families, military personnel/veterans, domestic violence survivors; people affected by natural disasters, serious medical crises, bankruptcy, etc.” The FPA is the trade association for Certified Financial Planner professionals.

There are 77 chapters across the country (there is not one in every state, unfortunately) and you can find them using this tool. If you think you qualify, reach out to the chapter near you for help.

5. Foundation for Financial Planning

The Foundation for Financial Planning is another trade group for financial planning that puts people in need with volunteer financial planners. You can learn more from their website.

6. IRS Tax Preparation Programs

If you just need tax assistance, the IRS offers two free tax preparation programs:

• The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program is for folks who generally make $67,000 or less and/or is a person with disabilities and/or limited English-speaking taxpayers.
• The Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) program is for those age 60 and older.

If you need tax assistance and don’t qualify for either of those programs, search to see if your state has a similar program. Maryland has a few and your state may do too.

7. AARP Foundation Tax-Aide

For those 50 and older, who perhaps don’t qualify for the IRS TCE program (which is 60 and older), you could get tax assistance from the AARP Foundation.

The AARP Foundation Tax-Aide program provides free tax assistance to anyone 50 and older – you do not need to be an AARP member. There are no income restrictions. The volunteers are IRS-certified and worked with 1.7 million people last year.

Use their Tax-Aide locator to find one near you.

If you are looking for free or pro bono financial advice, one of these resources could be helpful!

The post 7 ways to get free financial advice appeared first on Best Wallet Hacks.

Launched in 2011, Wealthfront is a robo-advisor with $75+ billion in assets under management as of January 2025. A robo-advisor is an investment advisory service that uses an algorithm instead of people to help you invest.

Wealthfront is a tax-efficient and low-cost way to invest. Its offering is compelling. For just 0.25%, they do all the heavy lifting using a computer algorithm.

I think robo-advisors are great because they offer professional advisory services, at least a vanilla version (or cosmopolitan, to keep the ice cream analogy as accurate as possible), to the masses by relying on algorithms rather than an advisor-heavy approach. 

Many investment advisers won’t meet someone without at least six figures to invest since they get paid as a percentage of assets under management. Robo-advisors can do this because robots don’t need anything but hugs.

Their investment team is impressive, featuring names like their Chief Investment Officer, Dr. Burton Malkiel (A Random Walk Down Wall Street), and Charles Ellis (Winning the Loser’s Game), founder of Greenwich Associates.

At a Glance

• $500 minimum starting balance
• 0.25% annual fee
• Customizable premade portfolios
• Tax loss harvesting
• AI-powered financial advice

Who Should Use Wealthfront

Wealthfront is good for those who want a robo-advisor with tax loss harvesting and don’t care about receiving personalized financial advice. It has three premade portfolios that can be customized with a variety of other investments.

If you want to be able to speak to a human advisor, Wealthfront may not be for you.

Wealthfront Alternatives

Pricing	$4 a month or 0.25%	0.25%	$3 a month or free
Minimum balance	$10	$50	$100
Access to personalized advice	Yes, with a balance of at least $100,000	Yes	No
	Learn more	Learn more	Learn more

What Wealthfront Offers

Simplicity and optimization.

All robo-advisors promise investment returns without as much maintenance. With an account minimum of just $500, Wealthfront offers an investment advisory service to the masses. 

It took me many years to amass $5,000 in investable assets, and it sat in an index fund at Vanguard while it grew. I didn’t pay much in fees, but I also didn’t get tax loss harvest either (heck, I didn’t even learn about it until many years later!).

I saw my job as an investor as being two primary tasks:

1. Determine and establish an asset allocation and,
2. Rebalance their portfolio periodically.

Wealthfront does the first task by having you answer a questionnaire about your risk tolerance to establish your asset allocation. Then, its robots do their magic to accumulate the right assets to get the allocation that best fits your risk tolerance.

As an ongoing service, they handle rebalancing, tax loss harvesting, dividend reinvestment, and all the other smaller tasks that can add to your returns but that we often forget to do. That’s where the optimization comes in.

Go to Wealthfront

About the “Robots”

Computers are only as good as the people who design and program them, so while I say “robots” a lot in this post (it is a “robo-advisor”), the folks who built the robots and give them the insight to do their automated magic – they’re not robots.

They’re PhDs led by Dr. Burton Malkiel. They hire only PhDs to work on the investment team.

How Wealthfront Invests

Wealthfront has three premade portfolios to choose from, but each can be easily customized. In total, it offers 239 investments, 17 asset classes, and two cryptocurrency trusts.

The three premade portfolios are:

Classic: This is a portfolio of index funds that is globally diversified. Its main holdings as of January 2025 are 45% in US stock via Vanguard’s Total Stock Market Fund, 18% foreign stocks via Vanguard’s FTSE Developed Markets ETF, and 16% emerging market stocks via Vanguard’s FTSE Emerging Markets ETF.

Socially Responsible: This portfolio focuses on sustainability, diversity, and equity. Its main holdings as of January 2025 are 60% US stocks via iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF, 12% foreign developed stocks via iShares ESG Aware MSCI EAFE ETF, and 11% corporate bonds via iShares ESG Aware USD Corporate Bond ETF

Direct indexing: This portfolio invests in individual stocks and is designed for portfolios over $100K. Your portfolio allocation will be determined by your risk tolerance.

In addition to the premade portfolios, there are several investment categories you can invest in. They are:

• US stock ETFs
• Bond ETFs
• Foreign/ emerging markets ETFs
• Global stock ETFs
• Socially responsible ETFs
• Tech/ innovation ETFs
• Cryptocurrency trusts
• Wealthfront exclusive offerings
• Investing strategy ETFs
• Sector ETFs Commodity ETFs

Tax Loss Harvesting

To save money on taxes, Wealthfront uses tax loss harvesting. If an asset drops in value, Wealthfront will sell it and buy a different, yet similar, stock. You can then use that loss to offset any investment gains you have.

Go to Wealthfront

Risk Tolerance & Asset Allocation Tool

Your risk tolerance plays a large part in your asset allocation. Wealthfront helps you determine your risk tolerance through a quiz on the website.

It’s pretty simple. It takes a few seconds to through the questionnaire and get your recommended investment plan: (you can do this yourself without putting any personal information, they don’t ask for or require an email to play with this tool)

Scroll down to see the breakdown:

Under each category, they list the three leading ETFs. In theory, you could go and buy these allocations directly. If you click on each of the bars, you’ll see a breakdown.

You can play around with the Risk Tolerance slider to see how the allocations change (the portfolio is 7.5, the max is 10), plus see the difference between a Taxable Investment Mix and a Retirement Investment Mix. I like that the Projected Performance is a spread versus a single line as it’s often depicted because it more accurately reflects the data.

As you can see, the investment options for the taxable account consist of the Vanguard Total Stock Market Fund and Schwab US Broad Market ETF. If you want to invest in a socially responsible fund, it suggestsiShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF.

Go to Wealthfront

Wealthfront Cash Account

Finally, sometimes you’ll have cash not invested in the markets, and Wealthfront has a cash account that currently pays 4.00% with FDIC insurance up to $8,000,000.

There are no monthly fees and no minimum balance requirements.

Wealthfront Free Financial Planning

Wealthfront offers a free automated financial planning experience that is available to everyone.

It is an automated financial advice engine that takes your individual data, like income, spending, and investing, to protect your financial assets and ability to meet future goals. 

It considers life events, like buying a house and having children, and adjusts your plan accordingly. And it does this regularly, rather than once a year or once a quarter, as you would with a human advisor.

You will link all of your accounts so the software can see your current standings. It will calculate your networth and give you a plan to meet your goals. You can get a snapshot of your finances, explore various scenarios, and then look at different tradeoffs. If you’ve never built a plan, they have an interactive Financial Health Guide that helps you get started.

Go to Wealthfront

Portfolio Line of Credit

If you have an individual or joint account with a balance of at least $25,000, a Portfolio Line of Credit lets you request cash up to 30% of the current value of your account, and they’ll send it over as quickly as one business day.

Your portfolio becomes a line of credit. (hence the name!)

The interest rate is variable and depends on the effective funds rate, plus 1.08% (rate schedule & definitions):

Their interest rate could beat a home equity line of credit (since it’s technically a margin lending product and not a traditional loan), and since there are no fees, it’s even cheaper. And unlike a regular loan product, there is no credit check, no minimum monthly payments, and the loan is secured by the assets in your portfolio.

How much does Wealthfront cost?

Wealthfront doesn’t charge a commission or account maintenance fees; instead, it relies on an account management fee. The account management fee is 0.25% of assets. This is on top of the fees charged by the underlying ETFs, which average 0.12%.

Wealthfront Alternatives

There’s a lot to like about Wealthfront, but it’s always a good idea to comparison shop before signing on to any investment account. It is your hard-earned money, after all. Here are a few Wealthfront alternatives to consider.

Betterment

Betterment is another robo-advisor that offers tax loss harvesting. You can get started for $10, and it charges either $4 a month or 0.25%. You will be charged the 0.25% if you set up recurring monthly deposits of at least $250 or you have a balance of at least $20,000.

It also has a cash reserve account that earns 4.00% APY and has a $0 minimum balance requirement. FDIC insurance goes up to $2 million.

If you have a balance of at least $100,000, you can get personalized one-on-one advice from a CFP®. There is an annual management fee of 0.65% for this service.

Here’s our full Betterment review for more information.

Go to Betterment

SoFi® Investing

Loan giant SoFi also offers robo-advisor services. You can start with $50 and it charges 0.25%, the same as Wealthfront. It doesn’t have a cash reserve account exactly, but it does offer bank accounts, including a high-yield savings account that earns up to 3.80% APY (unlocked with direct deposit or by depositing $5,000+ every 30 days, otherwise 1.00% APY).

One big benefit of SoFi Investing is that it offers human financial advisors to all clients at no additional costs. But it does not provide tax loss harvesting.

Here’s our full review of SoFi Investing for more information.

Go to Sofi Invest

M1 Finance

With M1 Finance, your portfolio is called a “pie,” and within this pie, you can add as many “slices” as you wish. These slices can be individual stocks, ETFs, or expert pies. It does not provide tax loss harvesting.

You can get started for $100 and the first 90 days are free. After that, the fee is $3 a month, unless you have a balance of at least $10,000 or an active personal loan.

It has a high-yield savings account to serve as your cash reserve account that earns 4.00% APY.

Here’s our full review of M1 Finance for more information.

Go to M1 Finance

Wealthfront Review: Final Thoughts

Wealthfront has top-notch software and automation, a stunning Ph.D. investment team led by one of the greats, and is low-cost. You’ll pay 0.25% no matter what your balance is, which is a deal when your balance is small but could get pricey as your balance grows.

They also offer tax loss harvesting, which not every robo-advisor does. So, if that’s something you are looking for, Wealthfront is worth considering.

Regarding advice, they only offer automated advice, and there is no option to speak to a human advisor.

If you’re using Wealthfront, I’d love to hear about your experience!

The post Wealthfront Review 2025: Low-cost Roboadvisor with Loss Harvesting, Rebalancing appeared first on Best Wallet Hacks.

When it comes time to pay your tax bill, we’ve all been tempted with the idea of paying with a credit card.

With a large bill, there’s the potential to earn rewards, right?

This is the tradeoff:

• You can earn rewards paying with a credit card, but,
• You will pay a percentage fee when paying taxes with a credit.

Your decision is this – are the rewards greater than the fees?

Let’s dig in.

How Much Does It Cost to Pay Taxes With A Credit Card?

To pay the least in fees, you need to make a direct payment using Pay1040 or ACI Payments. If you make a direct payment, you will pay:

This fee is far lower than if you pay your taxes through a tax preparation service or software, as you’ll next.

The IRS lists the convenience fees for each of the IRS e-file and e-pay service providers:

The minimum fee is 2.49% with PAY1040 and HRBlock and the highest fees are clocking in 2.95% with TaxBandits, Taxhawk, and TurboTax. The minimum fees are listed too but if you’re considering paying with a credit card for rewards, the minimum is unlikely to impact your decision.

As you can see, using an e-file or e-pay provider increases the cost.

Should I Pay With a Credit Card?

Next, you have to identify a credit card that will give you more rewards than what you pay in fees.

If we assume you are paying the minimum, which is 1.75% when you use PAY1040 directly, there are only a handful of cards that work.

Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature Credit Card

The Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature Credit Card is an unlimited 2% cash back card when you get the cash back deposited into a Fidelity account. It has no annual fee or caps and limits on the cashback, so this is a card that could work.

The challenge here is that the fee is 1.75% and the cashback is 2.00% – that leaves you just 0.25% in rewards for your effort. That’s 25 cents for every $100 of taxes paid – is that worth your time?

U.S. Bank Smartly Visa Signature Card

The U.S. Bank Smartly Visa Signature Card is another option as it lets you earn up to 4% cash back on every purchase. The base earning is 2% but if you have a large qualifying balance, the cash back rewards increases up to 4%.

• With a $5,000 – $49,999 balance, the card earns 2.50% cashback.
• With a $50,000 – $99,999 balance, the card earns 3.00% cashback.
• With a $100,000+, the card earns 4.00% cashback.

A good way to achieve this, assuming you have $100,000 to move around, is to open an investment account and put it into a low cost index fund. This gets you 4% cash back on the card without a significant change to your situation.

This could be significant enough to be worth your time setting up, especially since you could use the card for other purchases and get 4% cashback – which is significantly higher than many other cards.

High Welcome Reward Credit Cards

If you had your eyes on a credit card with a significant welcome bonus and high initial spend requirement, paying your taxes (even with the fee) could put you over the top. With many of these cards offering at least 1% cash back, it helps soften the fees.

Here are a few cards worth considering:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
• Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
• American Express Gold Card
• Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express

Reality: It’s Rarely Worth It

It’s rarely worth it to pay your taxes with a credit card.

First, it depends on how much you expect your bill to be. If it’s a few hundred dollars, the return is not going to be worth your time. Even at $1,000 – 1% is only ten dollars.

Next, even if it’s sizable, there are very few cards that exceed the near-2% fee hurdle. And the ones that do, barely clear it. The U.S. Bank Smartly card is the rare exception but you have to move $100,000 to U.S. Bank – only you know if it’s worth your time.

Finally, you could use it to get the welcome bonus on a new credit card. Getting a new card can be fairly quick so if that’s the route you wish to pursue, I’d get it now so you have it ready for when you pay your taxes in April.

The post Should You Pay Taxes With a Credit Card? appeared first on Best Wallet Hacks.

The scenes of the wildfires in Los Angeles, California are scary. I can’t imagine experiencing them first hand.

But this is a good reminder, for those of us not directly impacted, that sometimes you may need to evacuate your home in a moment’s notice.

In those times, it’s important for you to have a Go Bag. A bag you can just grab out the door when it’s time to GO.

Right now, when you aren’t facing that dilemma, now’s the time to prepare the Go Bag (or Bug Out Bag).

For your general Go Bag, Ready.gov has a useful list for what to include. This list from 5.11 Tactical is comprehensive too.

But, what “financial” items should you take with you?

1. Cash

Cash is king.

I assume you’ll have your wallet or purse, which includes your identification, credit cards, and some spending money. But your Go Bag should have additional cash in it. There may be power outages and so credit cards may not be accepted. Cash is always useful.

How much? That depends on your finances. If you have an emergency fund, it’s not unreasonable to keep some of it in cash in your Go Bag. I’d have at least $250, preferably closer to $1,000. You want small bills too, it’s fine if it’s all $20s but you don’t want $50s and $100s. Ideally a bunch of $10s, $5s, and $1s.

For extra preparation, you could always add in some silver or gold. Ounce bars are fine, smaller coins are better. Again, you want it easy to spend and smaller is easier.

2. Important Documents

All of our important documents are in a red accordion file folder that we can grab and take with us.

They fit into two main categories:

• Personal identification documents
• Legal and financial documents

My general rule for what’s important is:

• Documents that, when needed, usually require originals (such as titles)
• Documents that are difficult to get again (such as birth certificates)

If a digital version is generally accepted, it’s not “important” for this purpose. That said, this folder doubles as our “safe folder” so we include documents that aren’t technically “important” by the two above rules but are important to us.

Ultimately, it’s a folder, so you can add whatever you think is important.

Here’s what’s in our Go accordion folder:

• House title
• Car titles
• Marriage certificate
• Birth certificates
• Social security cards
• Passports
• Most recent insurance documents (car, house, medical)

2a. Portable Hard Drive

I have a portable hard drive that contains all of our digital documents, years and years of scanned documents that I will 99.99999% never need. These are tax forms from 10+ years ago but they take up no space and sit on a portable drive.

It also includes the foundations of our financial system:

1. Treasure Map – a Word document that explains our financial situation, points of contact on accounts and investments, a digital dump of everything I keep in my head (in case I can’t remember or explain myself).
2. Net Worth Spreadsheet – where I track our net worth and assets
3. Financial Network Map – a visual drawing of all of our accounts and how they are interconnected

I periodically back this data up to a thumb drive and put it in the folder.

3. Emergency Contact Information

You likely have a lot of emergency contact information stored in your phone, but what if you lose it or lose access to it? It’s nice to have that information printed out and included in the Go Bag.

Include:

• Family and friends
• Insurance agents
• Legal advisors / lawyers
• Financial advisors

Include anyone you even think you might want to reach, it never hurts to have more information.

4. Financial Emergency Plan

I’ve talked about having a financial emergency plan, in addition to an emergency fund, make sure you keep a copy of this plan in your Go Bag too. This may include some duplicate information, such as emergency contact information, but that’s OK. More is better than less.

We never know when disaster could strike and being prepared is the only thing we can do. By preparing a proper Go Bag, including your financial information, you will be better prepared to handle life’s emergencies.

What are you packing in your go bag?

The post What to Pack in a Financial Go Bag appeared first on Best Wallet Hacks.

Now that I'm in my forties, with twenty-plus years of work behind me, I have several streams of income. Most of them are passive but none of them are special.

And on the internet, there are thousands of “charlatans “experts” who will want to “teach” you about passive income. There is no course on passive income, it's these three steps:

1. The only way to get passive income is to invest in assets that produce cashflow.
2. The only way to get cash to invest is to save your money.
3. And the only way to save money is if you spend less than you earn.

And so if you work backwards, the goal is to save your first $1,000. Then $10,000. Then $100,000.

Check out this brilliant Charlie Munger quote:

The first $100,000 is a bitch, but you gotta do it. I don’t care what you have to do – if it means walking everywhere and not eating anything that wasn’t purchased with a coupon, find a way to get your hands on $100,000. After that, you can ease off the gas a little bit.

If you don't have $100,000 sitting in a brokerage account, your entire goal (financially) is to get to $100,000.

If you have no savings, $100,000 can seem unattainable. It's a HUGE number.

So let's break it down.

Your first goal is to save up $1,000. Scratch and claw your way to $1,000.

Then, set your sights on $10,000. $10,000 is far but within reach. It's also a sum that can be attained through the cutting of expenses and budgeting. You can save your way to $10,000.

Then, invest that $10,000.

If you get an 8% return each year, that first $10,000 will get you $800.

$800 sounds OK but not world changing, right?

But as you grow your assets more and more, compounding will be working on a larger number.

This is why it's so important to save and invest. If you don't, you will forever be trading your time for money.

At $50,000 and 8%, your money is earning $4,000 a year. $50,000 becomes $54,000, which now gets you $4,320 a year. The interest keeps going up each year because your balance goes up.

If you start with $10,000 earning 8% a year, it takes about 10 years to get over $20,000.

But then only another 5 years to get over $30,000.

Then only 4 to get over $40,000.

The time it takes to add $10,000 gets shorter and shorter.

That's the power of compounding and eventually your money starts to earn more than you do. This can be both scary and exciting.

When it grows at 8%, over 30 years you'll have 10x'd your money.

$10,000 becomes $100,000 – and that's with no additional contributions and no extra work by you.

That's why saving your first $10,000 is critical. You want to get that compounding clock started as soon as possible. The longer it works for you, the more your portfolio will grow.

How do you save $10,000?

One dollar at a time.

It's not sexy. It's not exciting.

But it's necessary if you want to retire one day. Claw and fight your way to $10k.

Need some ideas of where to start? Check out this list of 105 easy ways to save money.

And if those are not big enough for you, consider switching banks to get a bank bonus and you could earn hundreds of dollars each time.

Where do you put it?

First, make sure it's in a high yield savings account so you're earning interest. It won't be a ton but it's better than 0.01%, which is garbage.

Then, you want to put it in a brokerage account and invest it in a three fund portfolio:

• Domestic stock “total market” index fund
• International stock “total market” index fund
• Bond “total market” index fund

These are Vanguard's versions but you can use anything low cost (Fidelity, Charles Schwab, etc.):

• Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSAX)
• Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund (VTIAX)
• Vanguard Total Bond Market Fund (VBTLX)

Then, get out of the way.

The post Why Saving The First $10,000 Is Critical appeared first on Best Wallet Hacks.

TurboTax is one of the most trusted tax prep software available. It’s priced based on how much assistance you need and how complicated your taxes are. They have a Do-It-Yourself plan, a Live Assistance plan (that lets you ask a tax pro questions), and a Live Full Support plan where a tax expert will do your taxes for you and file on your behalf. 

How much you’ll pay for each plan depends on how complicated your taxes are. They also have a full suite of guarantees, such as an accuracy guarantee and a maximum refund guarantee. 

Every return comes with audit assistance, which lets you ask questions if you get audited, but the tax expert will not represent you to the IRS. You can add on full audit assistance for an additional fee.

How Much Does TurboTax Cost

TurboTax is one of the more expensive tax software available, but for good reason. It is the gold standard when it comes to online tax prep and has all the features you could need in an easy-to-use package. They also lowered their prices again this year, so it’s actually getting more affordable.

The TurboTax versions available are based on how much assistance you’ll receive. The Do It Yourself version doesn’t come with any tax assistance, Live Assisted allows you to ask a tax expert tax questions, and Full Service lets you hand off the entire task to a tax pro who will file it on your behalf.

How much you’ll pay for each version depends on how complicated your taxes are. You can start for free and upgrade as needed; you’ll only pay when you actually file your taxes.

Note: Did you know that if you rented your home out for 14 or fewer days, you can exclude that rental income from your tax return because of the Augusta Rule. If you would otherwise have a very simple tax situation, except for rental income of 14 or fewer days, you could still use the free editions.

TurboTax for Free Edition

Best for: Simple tax returns

Audit assistance included: Informational only | Accuracy guarantee: Yes | Maximum return guarantee: Yes

File for free with TurboTax Free Edition. ~37% of taxpayers qualify and it includes Form 1040 + limited credits only. File for free with TurboTax Free Edition. For simple tax returns only. Not all taxpayers qualify. 

TurboTax Free Edition is technically part of the Do It Yourself version, but it’s good to break it out of the list so we can discuss it in full. 

Simple tax returns can qualify for free services. This includes:

• W-2 income
• Interest income
• Dividend income
• Retirement income
• Standard deduction
• Earned income tax credit
• Child tax credit
• Tuition
• Student loan interest deduction
• Marketplace health insurance

It’s important to note that the free plan includes your federal return and one free state. Additional states are $39 each.

This plan doesn’t come with any tax assistance.

Do It Yourself

Best For: Returns with simple or moderate complexity

Audit assistance included: Informational only | Accuracy guarantee: Yes | Maximum return guarantee: Yes

The Do It Yourself plan does not come with any live tax assistance. There is tech support if you have questions about the software, but you will not have access to a tax pro. 

Simple returns: This plan may be free if you have a simple return. For example, only having W-2 income and taking the standard deduction. 

Moderate or complex returns: If you have a more complicated return, such as being a freelancer or wanting to itemize, you’ll pay up to $89 for your federal return and $39 for each state you need to file in. It may be less, depending on your specific return.

Live Assisted

Best For: Speaking with a tax expert

Audit assistance included: Informational only | Accuracy guarantee: Yes | Maximum return guarantee: Yes

The Live Assisted version gives you access to a tax professional who can answer tax questions specific to your situation. Tax experts are available starting in January until April 15th, 7 days a week, from 5 AM to 9 PM, Pacific time.

As you file, if you find you have a questions, you can click the “Live Help” button to be connected to a tax expert. You can connect with them via phone, chat, or one-way video call (you can see them, but they can’t see you.) If you choose video call, you can share your screen, and the agent can ensure you input the information correctly.

Depending on the complexity of your taxes, you’ll pay between $49 and $169 for your federal return and between $39 and $49 for each state return.

Live Full Service

Best For: Having your taxes done for you

Audit assistance included: Informational only | Accuracy guarantee: Yes | Maximum return guarantee: Yes

With this version, you will simply hand your taxes over to a tax expert, and they will file your return for you. This plan starts at $89 for federal returns for the simplest of returns and goes up from there, depending on the complexity.  

You will be matched with a dedicated tax pro, and they will share their specific hours with you. You can reach them via phone call or one-way video chat. If you need help outside those hours, other experts are available 7 days a week from 5 AM to 9 PM Pacific time.

You can work with the same expert year after year if you want, assuming they are still with TurboTax next year.

Business Taxes

If you have a business, you may be interested in Turbo Tax for your business taxes. Turbo Tax covers S-corps, LLCs, partnerships, and sole proprietors.

Pricing starts at $489 for Live Assisted and $1,169 for Live Full Service. You’ll also get year-round support, which means you can connect with a tax pro any time you have tax questions, even if it’s not tax time.

You’ll also get Audit Defense included, which means a tax pro will assist you if your return is audited, including representation with the IRS.

Audit Support

Informational audit support is included in every individual plan, and Live Assisted Business and Full Service Business. In other words, you get audit support unless you did a business return without assistance. 

The included audit support allows you to call TurboTax and speak to a tax professional who will answer questions about any letters you received or the audit process.  They will not write letters or speak to the IRS on your behalf. 

If you want full audit defense, you’ll have to upgrade. The price is not disclosed, but Turbo Tax uses the company “Tax Audit” to provide the audit defense and you can get a personal plan for $49.99 directly from them. Last year it was $39.99 through Turbo Tax. So I’d expect the price to be between $40 and $50.

If your return is audited, they will handle every aspect of your audit for you – including representing you with the IRS – at no additional cost. Think of it like audit insurance. 

Accuracy Guarantee

TurboTax’s calculations are guaranteed accurate. If you are charged a penalty or interest due to a calculation error (ie, you put in the right information but the software made a mistake) TurboTax will pay the penalties and interest. 

They will not pay the extra taxes that you legitimately owe. 

Maximum Refund Guarantee

If you file your individual return with TurboTax and then redo your taxes with another company and get a bigger return (or smaller tax liability), you can get a refund of the fees you paid to TurboTax. 

This does not apply to business taxes. 

Free Refund Advance

If you can’t wait for your refund to show up you can get a refund advance up to $4,000, for free. 

It won’t cost you any fees or interest, but you do have to open a checking account with Credit Karma Money. Your advance will be deposited into the Credit Karma Money checking account within a few minutes. 

Who Should use TurboTax

Anyone who qualifies for the free version of TurboTax should go ahead.

Also, if you are nervous about doing your taxes yourself, TurboTax is a great place to begin filing because you can upgrade to tax assistance, and if you still want more help, you can upgrade again to the full-service plan. TurboTax is the only tax software that has all three options. 

Most tax software will allow you to add on the ability to speak to a tax expert and ask questions, but few have the option to just hand them over completely and have the expert file on your behalf. 

Who Shouldn’t use TurboTax

If you are confident in your ability to do your own taxes, you may not need all the support that TurboTax offers. If this is the case, you are paying for features you probably don’t need, and you would be just fine using a less expensive service. 

Also, if you have very complicated business taxes, you might be better off having your taxes done by an accountant and skipping tax software altogether. 

How TurboTax Works 

TurboTax will walk you through the process of doing your taxes by asking simple, plain English, questions that will guide the software to understand what forms and information you’ll need to submit. 

For example, it will ask you if you have dependents. If you say yes, you’ll be guided to enter their information. If you say no, the software will skip all things related to dependents. 

If it asks for information that you need to track down, or haven’t received yet, you can skip the question and come back to it later. It’s very easy to navigate around to different sections and add in forms and documents as they come in. 

TurboTax Download

TurboTax does have downloadable software if you don’t want to file online. It is a bit more expensive if you are only doing one return, but the real benefit is that you can file multiple federal returns with the download version. 

For example, the basic version is $40, but you can e-file five federal returns and state returns are $20 each. So, if you are doing taxes for several people, this could save some money. 

TurboTax Alternatives

TurboTax isn’t the only place to get your taxes done. 

H&R Block

H&R Block is a strong competitor to TurboTax. They’ve been doing taxes since 1955, and you probably have a local office near you. 

The main difference is that with H&R Block, you don’t have the option to ask questions to a tax pro on any plan. Tax questions are answered by an AI chatbot, and if you want to speak to a human, you have to upgrade all the way to a full-service plan, where they file on your behalf. 

However, the free version of their online software is more comprehensive than TurboTax’s version. For example, it includes unemployment income. So, if you don’t qualify for the free version of TurboTax, check out H&R Block.

Here’s our full review of H&R Block.

Visit H&R Block

TaxSlayer

TaxSlayer’s free version is fairly comprehensive and includes one state return, but you have to have under $100,000 in taxable income to qualify.

However, the next level up, the Classic plan, is reasonably priced and covers almost all individual tax situations. If you want to add on tax assistance, you’ll need to upgrade to the Premium plan, but it’s only an additional $20, which is not a bad price for tax assistance. 

Here’s our full review of TaxSlayer. 

Visit TaxSlayer

FreeTaxUSA

FreeTaxUSA includes just about every tax situation in its free plan. It doesn’t include a state, but the state returns are only $14.99. You can add on tax assistance for $39.99 and full audit defense for $19.99.

Here’s our full review of FreeTaxUSA.

Visit FreeTax USA

The post Which TurboTax Version Should I Use in 2025? appeared first on Best Wallet Hacks.

If you’ve been thinking about opening an account with Ally Invest, this review is for you.

I’ve been using Ally Invest as my primary stock brokerage for years. I started with TradeKing, stayed on during the acquisition, and have held a sizable portion of my investments with Ally Invest.

I’m a fan because they offer free trades, a rich suite of research tools, and an interface that is intuitive and easy to navigate. They don’t offer free trades of mutual funds but I invest in mutual funds directly with Vanguard so this isn’t an issue for me. (Ally Invest offers free trades on ETFs, though)

At a Glance

• Ally Invest offers automated investing, self-directed investing, and managed accounts.
• No minimum to get started with self-directed investing and $100 minimum for automated investing.
• Managed accounts require a $100,000 minimum investment.
• Low fees and an easy to use service.

Who Should Use Ally Invest

Ally Invest is best for beginner to intermediate investors who are comfortable managing a self-directed investment account. The low minimums and free trades make it very accessible to someone who doesn’t have a lot to invest but the tools and features of the account still support someone who needs more.

If you just want mutual funds, skip Ally Invest and go with the company offering the funds directly. If that’s Vanguard, open a Vanguard account. If it’s Fidelity, open a Fidelity account.

If you want a hands-off managed fund like a robo-advisor, Ally Invest offers a pretty good product, but compare it with the leading robo-advisors currently available.

It’s not ideal for advanced investors, day traders, technical traders, or someone who needs a lot of market data (Level 2) to make decisions. If that describes you, there are other brokerages that will give you that level of detail into the market.

Ally Invest Alternatives

Tradable securities	Stocks, ETFs, options	Stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, options, and futures	Stocks (including OTC), ETFs, options, and futures
Crypto	Yes	No	No
Robo-advisor available	No	Yes	Yes
	Learn more	Learn more	Learn more

🔃 Updated December 2024 to add the personal advice features and double-check for any other changes to the service.

Who is Ally Invest?

Ally Bank got into the brokerage game through acquisition in 2016 and renamed it Ally Invest Securities, or Ally Invest for short. They’re regulated by FINRA, you can look up their listing on BrokerCheck, and they’re licensed to operate in all 50 states plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.

Ally Invest has self-directed trading accounts (taxable brokerage, IRA) as well as “Robo Portfolios,” which is their term for their robo-advisory-like automated investing services. We will dig more into both of those account types.

Go to Ally Invest

Self-Directed Trading Accounts

Ally Invest has no minimum to get started, and you can trade most U.S.-listed stocks, ETFs, and options with no commissions.

It supports taxable brokerage accounts as well as individual retirement accounts with no minimum. You can trade practically everything – stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, options, and even forex. The only asset not on that list is cryptocurrencies but I don’t invest in cryptocurrencies – and here’s why.

Best of all, all those trades are commission-free. Options have a $0.50 per contract fee, but no base commission is charged.

The platform is pretty sophisticated and offers everything you could need from your basic brokerage account. There are real-time quotes, research, a customizable dashboard, and it is all accessible online. You don’t get Level 2 market data, though.

Ally uses TipRanks “Smart Score,” which rates stocks on a scale of one to ten and helps you make quicker and more informed decisions. It also has stock screeners and data such as news, metrics, pricing info, dividend rates, etc. You can also access expert analysis about individual stocks from TipRanks.

Once you are logged in, you’ll see the default dashboard. They call it Ally Invest Live.

You can customize it, but the default shows you a lot of data very quickly, with threads you can pull for additional research. The best way to use this is as a snapshot into your account to see how your portfolio is performing.

The Dashboard is very well-designed and intuitive to use. When you click on a stock in your Holdings, all the other panels update to that stock – the Chart automatically updates to show you the trailing three months, Options Chains updates to show you all the call and put contracts (the option chains), etc. You don’t have to manually enter it into each panel each time. When you enter a ticker into the search box within any panel, it updates every other panel too. That’s smart.

For customization, you can change what’s shown within each panel. You can also move the panels around but you can’t add or remove panels – though I’m not sure if there is a panel that I’d add that isn’t already here.

Ally Invest has good options forecasting and pricing tools. Within the Option Chains panel, you can dive into the chain of a stock and build an options strategy using their workbench (here I am buying out-of-the-money calls on AAPL):

✨ Related: What is Options Trading

Fee Structure

The fee structure on the self-direct account is pretty much as low as you can get:

• $0 commission-free trades on stocks, mutual funds, options, and ETFs. Options have a $0.50 per contract fee.
• $0 account minimum
• No inactivity fee
• $50 ACAT fee

Personally, if you want to trade mutual funds, the best way to do that is to open an account with the company that offers the funds. For example, if you want a Vanguard fund, open a Vanguard account because you can buy and sell shares for free. And if you want a Vanguard ETF, you can buy and sell those for free on Ally Invest or Vanguard.

Go to Ally Invest

Ally Invest Automated Investing

Automated investing is Ally’s robo advisor. You can get started with $100, and you have two portfolio choices; Cash-enhanced and Market-focused.

Cash-enhanced portfolio: With this portfolio, there are no advisory fees, but you’ll have to keep 30% of your portfolio in cash. The cash balance earns a competitive interest rate, but is not FDIC-insured and isn’t as easy to access as a typical savings account.

Market-focused portfolio: With this portfolio, you pay a 0.30% annual advisory fee, and you have to keep about 2% of your portfolio as cash.

With robo advisors, you answer some questions about your goals, and they’ll build a mix of ETFs that meet your goals. Then, you can tweak it as you wish.

Additionally, you can pick from four portfolio options:

If you are having trouble reading the screenshot, it is as follows:

• Core: “Highly diversified across domestic, international, and fixed-income assets. You can choose the amount of risk you are comfortable with, from conservative to aggressive. If you’re more of a hands-off investor, consider this portfolio type.”
• Income: “This portfolio type offers higher dividend yields while maintaining a more conservative risk profile. Consider this portfolio type if you’re most focused on yield and income.”
• Tax-Optimized: “If you make after-tax contributions to an investment account, this type of IRA may help maximize your investments. If you’re looking to invest using a diverse mix of tax-advantaged, low-cost Exchange Traded Funds, consider this portfolio type.”
• Socially Responsible: “Shaped by companies with ethical track records, you’ll only invest in businesses that actively practice sustainability, energy efficiency, or other environmentally friendly initiatives. Consider this portfolio type if eco-friendly practices are important to you.”

Then, their systems (and people) monitor your portfolio and rebalance as needed. It’s similar to the robo-advisory services of other companies (in theory).

Personal Advice

If you don’t want to invest on your own, you can get a dedicated advisor to discuss your goals and risk tolerance, and they will put together a personalized plan for you. You’ll meet for a 15 minute consultation to make sure you are a good fit and to have all your questions answered.

Then, you’ll have two or three meetings to get to know you and create your plan. Once you have approved the plan, your advisor will implement the plan. You’ll then meet quarterly to review and maintain the investments.

You’ll need at least $100,000 to invest, and there is an 0.85% annual fee.

Go to Ally Invest

Mobile App

Ally Invest’s mobile app has all the features you’d expect in a brokerage’s mobile app – including the ability to complete any transaction on the app that you’d be able to do on the website. I don’t use the mobile app because I don’t like making major money decisions (like buying and selling shares of stock) on my phone. I prefer to sit at a desk, look at a computer screen, and “get into work mode.”

It’s a little harder to do research on the phone as the only place where “news” is pulled into the app is on the research page, and the only source appears to be from MT Newswires.

But if there was some kind of emergency or urgent need, I could do it.

Ally Invest Alternatives

Ally Invest has carved out a nice spot as a discount brokerage that does everything well, but how does it compare with some others?

Robinhood

At Robinhood, you can buy stocks, ETFs, and options. You can also trade fractional shares and cryptocurrency, which you can’t do at Ally.

When it comes to tools, Robinhood doesn’t have the analysis tools that Ally Invest offers. While they give you access to the same tradable securities, Ally Invest’s options tools far exceed those offered by Robinhood. Robinhood doesn’t have the breadth and depth of research either – they keep costs low so they’ve opted not to offer any research from other firms. You can still get publicly available news, conference calls, etc. – but anything extra is unavailable.

Robinhood’s claim to fame was a slick mobile application with free trades. While not every other brokerage has a great mobile experience, many of them have matched them where it counts the most – free trades. Ally Invest offers free trades, too, and Ally Invest’s mobile app does everything Robinhood’s app does, but it just doesn’t look as slick.

The bottom line is that Ally Invest offers everything Robinhood does (except crypto and fractional shares), plus you can tack on a solid online banking experience all in one spot.

Here’s our full Robinhood review for more information.

Go to Robinhood

ETrade

ETrade and Ally Invest are very similar in that they’ve been competing in the discount broker category for ages. You can trade stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, options, and futures. ETrade also has a robo-advisor service for 0.30% annually.

While they’re very similar, ETrade’s big differentiator is that it lets you create paper trading portfolios to help you dip your toe into investing. With a wealth of educational tools, you can study stocks and use their portfolios to see how you’re doing with a “practice” account.

ETrade has a $500 account minimum on their brokerage accounts band while trades of options are free; there is a $0.65 per contract fee at ETrade unless you make 30 trades per quarter, then it drops to $0.50. Options are always $0.50 at Ally Invest.

Here’s our full ETrade review for more information.

Go to ETrade

✨ Related: Best Stock Brokers that Offer Free Trades

Webull

At Webull, you can trade stocks, ETFs, options, and futures. You can also trade fractional shares, which you can’t do at Ally Invest. They also offer over-the-counter securities, including ADRs and derivatives. It also has overnight trading, which allows you to trade 24 hours a day, five days a week.

Webull also offers a robo-advisor service if you don’t want to manage your own portfolio.

For research, Webull gives you access to the fundamentals, such as income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements. You can also get real-time insights to understand what has been happening recently to the investment. For example, you can see if a stock has had an uptick in shorting activity. You can also easily add events to your calendar, such as company earnings calls, so you can stay updated.

Here’s our full review of Webull for more information.

Go to Webull

Final Verdict

Ally Invest is a great all-around brokerage account because of its $0 minimum and commission-free trades on stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, and ETFs. I’ve been using them for years and have never had any issues. With no minimum, association with a great bank in Ally Bank, it’s a good place for any investor looking to start investing.

I first fell in love with them because they offered inexpensive trades, but now that so many brokerages are offering free trades, I’ve stayed for the ease and simplicity of the platform.

The post Ally Invest Review: Why I Use Them And You Should Too appeared first on Best Wallet Hacks.

FamZoo is a prepaid card that can help you teach your kids about managing money responsibly. Teaching children about money can get complicated. You don’t always have the cash to pay for chores when you need it, and having your kids walk around with cash isn’t always safe.

With FamZoo, you can give your children prepaid cards, completely control how they are used, and be able to monitor every transaction on the card.

Parents can send and receive money from each child’s card through prepaid cards. This lets parents teach good money habits by controlling the flow of money to and from their children.

At a Glance

• $5.99 a month (or less if you prepay) for unlimited debit cards
• You don’t have to link the parent card to a checking account.
• Automatically pay for completed chores or an allowance; or both
• Family loan tracking features, which can include interest

Who Should Use FamZoo

FamZoo is great for larger families since you can have unlimited debit cards on your account. You can create recurring or one-time chores and you can assign the chores to specific kids, or have them on a first-dibs basis. You can also set up recurring transfers to pay an automatic allowance.

This is a great way to give your kids money, without having to always have cash on hand. Plus it teaches kids about financial management in a modern way.

FamZoo Alternatives

Price	$5.99 to $14.98 for up to five kids	$5 per month for one child, or $10 for up to five kids	$4 per month for up to five kids
Automatic allowance and chores	Yes	Yes	Yes
Investing	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Learn more	Learn more	Learn more

About FamZoo

Founded in 2006 by Bill Dwight, FamZoo is a prepaid card company that teaches children the fundamental principles of good money management. The company’s team is made up of Bill and three others – a VP of Operations, a visual designer, and a cartoonist.

We asked Bill Dwight why he founded FamZoo and he said “Many years ago, I was looking for a hands-on way to teach our kids the fundamental life skill of personal finance. Schools communicated concepts, if they even offered money management at all, but couldn’t offer the day-to-day experience with real money. Financial institutions offered adult-centric products that lacked the educational component, weren’t designed for families, and relied on fees that penalized inexperienced consumers. I built FamZoo to fill those gaps for parents. Our offering has put family and youth financial literacy first from day one.”

How FamZoo Works

FamZoo turns parents into bankers for their children. Each child gets a pre-paid debit card, which the parents fund via their own FamZoo card. Everyone in the family can access FamZoo via any device, so if your youngsters don’t have a phone yet, they can use a computer or tablet to see their FamZoo account.

Your kids’ cards can also be funded from the outside world, which is handy for kids who hold down summer or part-time jobs. Each card has its routing and account number, which you can use to set up direct deposits or bank transfers.

Different rules can be set to get money onto a child’s card. Parents can move money manually or set up automatic payments to a child’s card. Manual payment from the bank might be an incentive for completing a task, whereas an automatic payment may be similar to a payroll (i.e., allowance).

Children can receive several cards each. This is similar to having several piggy banks, in which the child uses different piggy banks for different spending goals. The custom label embossed beneath the cardholder name can be used to identify the goal – like “Suzy’s Saving.” [NOTE: See here about how cardholder and label work for pre-teens]

As parents, you can also set notifications so you can see exactly when transactions occur.

IOU Accounts

If your child isn’t ready for a debit card, FamZoo allows for IOU accounts instead. It’s basically just a tracking feature, so when your child does chores or gets an allowance, you can add it to their IOU account. When you spend money on their behalf, you can subtract from what you owe them.

For example, Ben has done $10 worth of chores, creating a $10 IOU. When you are at the store, Ben sees a toy he wants for $6. After some discussion, he decided he would like to buy it with his own money. You purchase the toy and subtract $6 from his total owed, so now you only owe him $4.

Chores and Allowance

Within the FamZoo app, you can set recurring or one-time chores that will automatically pay your child when the item is complete — or you can set it up that you must approve the payment first. You can set the individual chore to a specific child, or have it be on a “first-dibs” basis, where the first child to complete the chore gets the money.

There is also a “chore fail” penalty option. This is where a child is docked if the chore is not completed. For example, a $2 fee for not making the bed.

You can also set up recurring allowances to automatically transfer periodically.

If there are not enough funds in the parent account to fund the automatic transfers, FamZoo will keep track of these and complete them as soon as more money is loaded onto the parent card.

Goals

Kids can create and track financial goals. You can use separate cards for separate goals, think of each card as it’s own account. So, if the child is saving for a specific purpose, they could have a card just for that goal. For example, if they want to save up for a new video game, they could have a card for this purchase and transfer funds to the card when they want to save towards it.

Each additional card is free, with just a one-time $3 shipping fee after the fourth card.

Family Loan Tracking

If you make a loan to a family member, you can track the loan within FamZoo. You can keep track of the amount owed and charge interest if desired.

FamZoo Pricing

Here are the per-card numbers for a family of four, each with one card:

• $5.99/month per family paid monthly. ~$1.50 per month per card.
• $4.33/month per family billed at $25.99 in advance for 6 months—$1.0825/month per card.
• $3.33/month per family billed at $39.99 in advance for 12 months—$0.8325/month per card.
• $2.50/month per family billed at $59.99 in advance for 24 months—$0.625/month per card.

The bigger your family, the bigger the savings. The first four cards are shipped for free, after that there is a one-time fee of $3.00 per card.

Reloading your card directly from your employer or government agency is free. If that is not an option, there are several other ways to get money onto your card, but at a cost.

• Bank Transfers: $0 – takes 1-3 business days.
• MasterCard rePower, GreenDot @ the Register, GreenDot MoneyPak: $4.95 – takes minutes
• Apple Pay: $0 – takes one business day in most cases
• PayPal, Square Cash App, Venmo: $0 – takes 1-3 business days
• Direct Deposit: $ – takes 1-5 business days

FamZoo Customer Service

FamZoo provides customer service through its mobile app, a contact form on its website, and a phone number: 1-412-FamZoo1 (1-412-326-9661). If you need to call after hours, there is a 24/7 800 number on the back of the card.

FamZoo Alternatives

Greenlight

Greenlight has many of the same features of FamZoo, including chore management and allowance. It’s a little more expensive, between at $5.99 per month and $14.98 per month for up to five kids.

However, Greenlight has a few additional features, including earning interest on savings, cash back on debit card purchases, and access to investing features.

Here’s our full Greenlight review for more information.

Go to Greenlight

Acorns Early

Acorns Early is a debit card for kids from the investment app Acorns. It comes free if you have an Acorns Gold account. Otherwise, it’s $5 per month for one kid or $10 per month for up to four kids. Like FamZoo, it includes chore management and allowance features, as well as a savings account and parental control features.

Here’s our full Acorns Early review for more information.

Go to Acorns Early

BusyKid

BusyKid costs $4 per month for up to five kids. It has all the chore management and parental control features you’d expect, as well a robust investing and giving options. You can invest in over 4,000 companies and ETFs within the app and donate to over 60 charities.

Go to BusyKid

Final Thoughts

FamZoo has built out an ecosystem through prepaid cards, allowing parents to monitor and control how their children spend money. This parental oversight, coupled with education, teaches children how to develop good money habits.

It’s also a very modern method. Rather than using piggy banks and cash, children use prepaid cards. Unless there is a big change in how we pay in the near future, children using prepaid cards will be more prepared to handle financial transactions daily in the real world.

For a small monthly fee, FamZoo provides great value for those who want to instill good money habits in their children.

The post FamZoo Review: Prepaid Cards to Help Teach Kids Financial Responsibility appeared first on Best Wallet Hacks.

Ally Bank is an online bank that offers checking and savings accounts that pay competitive interest rates and have practically no fees.

Years ago, I made Ally Bank my main online bank. I still keep a Bank of America account for quick ATM access, despite Ally’s ATM reimbursement program, but I keep that around because of inertia more than any other reason. It’s the center of my financial map and one of my favorite savings accounts available.

At a Glance

• Checking, savings, money markets, and CDs available
• Competitive interest rates
• Low fees

Who Should Use Ally Bank

Ally Bank is great for someone who wants a no-nonsense online bank. There are no hoops to jump through to avoid fees or earn higher rates. It also pays competitive rates on all its accounts, although they are not usually the highest rates you can find.

Ally has everything you need for everyday banking without any hassle.

Ally Bank Alternatives

Savings APY	3.75% APY	3.70% APY
Monthly fee	$0	$0	$0
Bank account types	Checking, savings, CDs, money market	Checking, savings, CDs	Checking, savings
	Learn more	Learn more	Learn more

About Ally Bank

Ally Bank started as GMAC, the financing division of General Motors, and got into banking services in 2000 with the creation of GMAC Bank. They have almost $200B in assets and about 11 million customers.

Ally is an online-only bank with competitive interest rates and low fees. Their interest rates aren’t typically the highest you can find, but they are always competitive. You’ll likely be satisfied if you aren’t one to chase interest rates from one bank to another in search of the absolute top rates.

They were founded all the way back in 1919 and expanded their financing operations in the 1940s to include trains, then household appliances (1951), and financed their 75th millionth vehicle in 1977. In 2009, they rebranded from GMAC Bank into Ally Bank.

Ally Bank Accounts

Ally Bank offers a full suite of deposit accounts – savings, checking, and certificates of deposit.

Checking Account

The Ally checking account has no minimum balance requirements and no monthly or overdraft fees. It also earns a bit of interest. Balances under $15,000 earn 0.10% APY.

You’ll get a debit card and free standard checks. Ally is partnered with both MoneyPass and Allpoint ATMs, so you can use over 75,000 ATMs for no fees. Ally will also reimburse you for ATM fees, up to $10 per statement. You’ll also have access to bill pay and Zelle.

One feature that you don’t see often is “buckets.” Buckets allow you to section off a portion of your balance so you can stay organized. For example, maybe you have a “bills” bucket, and you can move money into that bucket so you don’t accidentally spend it. You can also get your direct deposit up to two days early.

Savings Account

The savings account has no minimum balance requirements, no maintenance fees, and earns 3.80% APY. They don’t charge a fee for excessive transactions, but if you regularly make over 10 transactions per month, Ally reserves the right to close the account. So it’s something to keep an eye on.

Like the checking account, you can also create buckets in the savings account. They also have other features to help you save more, such as round-ups and surprise savings.

Savings Buckets Feature

Buckets are ways to organize your savings without creating separate savings accounts. There are 12 pre-made buckets (Emergencies, Home, Vacations, Wedding, Retirement, Vehicles, Occasions, Tax Payments, Education, Bill Payments, Family, Pets) and a “Make Your Own.” When you pick the ones you want, you’ll get those plus one called “Core Savings.”

You can have up to 30 different buckets.

Afterward, you can distribute the amount in your savings across the various buckets to help you understand how your money is being allocated. It’s all still in your savings account, but it can help you understand how you’re saving towards each goal.

Finally, you can set how you want new money to be allocated into each bucket. You can keep it 100% Core Savings and manually distribute it or you can set percentages on each category.

Finally, you can set the bucket where interest is deposited (you can only select one category for this).

Round-ups

If you have both an Ally checking account and a savings account, you can use the round-up feature. This feature will round up the transactions in your checking account to the next dollar and transfer the change into your savings account.

The transfer is made when you have accumulated at least $5.

Surprise Savings

Surprise Savings can also be used if you have an Ally checking account. This feature monitors your checking balance and spending habits and then transfers money to savings when it feels confident you can do without those funds in checking.

The amounts it will move will be between $1 and $100. If transfers are made, they are done on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Money Market

Ally’s Money Market account has minimum balance requirements and no monthly or overdraft fees. It earns 3.80% APY.

You will receive a debit card and can use over 75,000 ATMs with no fee. Ally will also reimburse up to $10 per statement for ATM fees charged by other banks.

Certificates of Deposit

There are three types of CDs:

• High Yield CD: This is their name for a standard certificate of deposit. They have all the standard maturity periods up to 60 months (5yrs).
• Raise Your Rate CD: This type of CD allows you to raise your rate should rates increase for your term and balance tier. It’s available as a 2-year and 4-year CD. You can increase the rate once on the 2-year and twice on the 4-year. The drawback of this CD is that the rate starts lower than you’ll find on the High Yield CDs.
• No Penalty CD: You can withdraw your money anytime and pay no penalty. The only exception is that you can’t withdraw within the first six days. This is currently available for 11-month terms only. (If a no penalty CD interests you, our list of no penalty CD rates has some competitive offers.)

Ally Bank has one of the most generous CD early withdrawal penalties I’ve ever seen:

• Less than 3 months: 30 days
• Between 3 and 24 months: 60 days of interest
• 25 months – 36 months: 90 days of interest
• 37 months – 48 months: 120 days of interest
• 49 months or longer: 150 days of interest

Other Accounts

In addition to bank accounts, Ally also has lending and investing.

Credit cards: Ally offers three credit cards, two of which earn cash back.

Mortgages: You can either finance a new home or refinance your existing mortgage.

Auto loans: Ally offers several options for auto loans, including a new purchase, refinancing, lease buyout, and business vehicles.

Investing: Through Ally Invest, you can access automated or self-directed investing. It also offers personal advice from a human advisor if desired. Here’s our Ally Invest review.

Ally Bank Fees & Penalties

Ally Bank has no monthly maintenance fee, minimum account balance, or fee for incoming wires. You can get cashier’s checks for free and unlimited deposits.

You do pay a fee for:

• Stop payment: $15
• Outgoing domestic wires: $20
• International transaction fee: 1%
• Same-day bill pay: $9.95
• Overnight bill pay: $14.95

Ally Bank Alternatives

Discover

Discover Bank offers several attractive bank accounts, including a checking account that earns 1% cash back on the first $3,000 per month in debit card purchases. It has no minimum balance requirements and fees. See website for details.

Its savings account earns 3.75% APY and also has no fees or minimum balance requirements. It also offers a money market account and CDs with competitive rates.

Here’s our full review of Discover for more information.

Go to Discover

Capital One 360

Capital One 360 offers both a checking and savings account. Neither account has a monthly fee or minimum balance requirements. The savings account earns 3.70% APY. It also offers CDs with competitive rates.

One thing that Capital One has that Ally doesn’t is in-person banking. Capital One has 256 branches in the U.S.

Here’s our full review of Capital One for more information.

Go to Capital One

Sofi Banking

Sofi started with student loan refinancing but has branched out into offering other types of bank accounts. It’s checking account earns with no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements. It also often runs promotions for new accounts, you can see here if there are any currently running.

The savings account earns with no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements. It also has a feature similar to Ally’s buckets, but Sofi calls them “vaults.”

Here’s our full review of Sofi for more information

Go to Sofi Bank

Final Verdict

If you’re comfortable with an online bank, I can’t think of a better one than Ally Bank. It’s the reason why I opened an account with them many years ago and the reason why I still use them today.

The post Ally Bank Review: High Interest Checking & Savings, and More appeared first on Best Wallet Hacks.

Capital One 360 is Capital One Bank’s online division. It’s a great hybrid of online and traditional brick-and-mortar banking since you get the features and interest rates of an online bank but still have access to Capital One branches and cafes.

They offer a checking account, savings account, and CDs. They also have a kid’s checking and a kid’s savings — and parents don’t have to have a Capital One checking to open a kid’s account, which is rare.

At a Glance

• Checking account has no minimum balance requirements and no monthly fees.
• Savings account earns 3.70% APY.
• CD terms between 6 months and 5 years, with competitive interest rates.

Who Should Use Capital One 360

If you like the idea of an online bank but still want the option to visit a branch, Capital One 360 might be for you. It offers accounts with competitive rates and low fees, which is exactly what you’d expect from an online bank. But, Capital One also has an extensive ATM network and physical locations.

Also, if you already have Capital One credit cards, it may be convenient to also do your banking with Capital One.

Capital One Alternatives

Monthly fees	$0	varies, but waivable	$0
Minimum balance	$0	$0	$100
Interest rate on savings	3.75% APY	4.35% APY	3.85% APY
	Learn more	Learn more	Learn more

About Capital One 360

Let’s get some paperwork out of the way. You know that I wouldn’t ever review a bank that wasn’t FDIC insured; that would be sheer insanity, but let’s make sure we have all that settled.

Capital One 360 is owned by Capital One Financial Corporation and headquartered in McLean, Virginia. When you do a search on the FDIC Bank Find tool, you’ll see several institutions named “Capital One.” This is because Capital One has brick-and-mortar locations for its bank, Capital One Bank. The Capital One 360 entity is entirely separate, it actually used to be ING Direct until Capital One bought it in 2011.

So, which one is Capital One 360?

Capital One, National Association (FDIC #4297) covers mostly deposits within branches. Capital One Bank (USA), National Association (FDIC #33954) covers mostly the deposits in the online bank.

Turns out, ING Bank (FDIC #35489) merged with Capital One Bank and on the BankFind page we learn that those accounts are covered under Capital One, NA (FDIC #4297)!

The FDIC # for Capital One 360 is, as far as I know, FDIC #4297. If you which to call them, the Capital One 360 phone number is 1-877-514-2265.

The ABA routing number is 031176110.

360 Checking

This is your standard online checking account. There is no minimum balance or minimum to open. There are also no monthly fees and no overdraft fees.

For overdraft, you’ll have two options. The default setting is to have transactions automatically decline if they overdraft your account. However, if the bank does approve a transaction that causes your balance to drop below zero, there is no fee. You can also set up a savings or money market account where funds can be automatically transferred to cover a transaction if needed.

You’ll have access to over 70,000 free ATMs. You can use Capital One, Allpoint, and MoneyPass ATMs. If you use an ATM outside of the network, Capital One 360 will not charge you a fee but they will not reimburse you any fee charged by the ATM’s bank.

You’ll have access to the Capital One branches and cafes, but you can also deposit cash at CVS, Walgreens, or Duane Reade locations. There is online bill pay and Zelle as well.

The account does earn a bit of interest. It earns 0.10% APY, which is nothing to get excited about, but it’s better than nothing at all.

Bonus offer – $250

Right now, you can get $250 for opening a new 360 Checking. To receive the bonus, you’ll need to use CHECKING250 when you open the account.

Once you open the account, you’ll need to receive two direct deposits each of $500 or more within 75 days of account opening. Direct deposits that qualify are your paycheck, regular government payment – such as Social Security, or other regular monthly income. Person-to-person payments, such as wire transfers, don’t count.

MONEY Teen Checking Account

This checking account is for those between ages 8 and 18. There are no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements.

The account can be linked to either a parent’s Capital One checking, or an external checking account. Kids will have their own login to the app and will have an age-appropriate app experience. The parent version of the app allows for parental controls and easy transfers to the child’s account.

This account also earns 0.10% APY.

✨ Related: Best Debit Card for Kids

360 Performance Savings

As you might expect, this account has no minimum balance requirements or monthly fees. The interest rate is currently 3.70% APY on any balance.

One nice feature of Capital One 360 is that you can open up to 25 savings accounts. You can use them for different savings goals, and it’s fairly simple to keep up with them. Each one will have its own account number, so they’re truly individual accounts, and you can deposit money directly into them.

Here’s our full review of the Capital One 360 Performance Savings for more information.

Bonus offer – up to up to $1,500

To receive the bonus, use the promotion codeBONUS1500. You’ll then need to deposit at least $20,000 in new funds into the account during the 15-day initial funding period and keep it there for an additional 90 days.

How much you’ll receive as a bonus depends on your deposit amount.

Kids Savings Account

The Kids Savings Account also has no minimum balance requirement or monthly fees. You can create a savings account for each of your children and link the accounts to your main checking account, even if it isn’t a Capital One checking. Each child will have their own app login and an individual app experience.

To move money in or out of the account does require the parent to log in and make the transfer themselves, but you can set up automatic transfers.

The account earns 2.50% APY.

360 CDs

The CD rates at Capital One 360 are competitive with those of other online banks. You also have some maturity options, from 6 months to 60 months (5 years). There are no minimum balance requirements.

• 6-month – 3.80% APY
• 9-month – 3.80% APY
• 12-month – 4.00% APY
• 18-month – 3.70% APY
• 24-month – 3.50% APY
• 36-month – 3.50% APY
• 48-month – 3.50% APY
• 60-month – 3.50% APY

As with most CDs, there is an early withdrawal penalty if you withdraw your funds from the CD before the term is over. For CDs with terms of 12 months or less, the penalty is three months of interest. For CDs with terms longer than 12 months, the penalty is six months of interest.

Capital One App

Most banks have an app and Capital One is no exception.

With the app, you can receive alerts, lock and unlock your card, and see your transactions and balances. You can also make mobile deposits and get a virtual card number to use online.

Capital One Alternatives

Discover

Discover is also known for its credit cards but offers a solid selection of bank accounts as well. It offers a checking account that earns cash back on debit card purchases and a savings account that earns 3.75% APY. Neither account has minimum balance requirements or monthly fees.

Discover also offers CDs and money market accounts with competitive rates.

Here’s our full review of the Discover Online Savings Account for more information.

Go to Discover

Citi

Citibank also has some competitive bank accounts. It offers several checking accounts, all of which have a monthly fee, but it is waived if you have at least $30,000 with the bank or $250 in “enhanced direct deposit.” This means that just about any electronic deposit counts, it doesn’t have to be your payroll. So a Zelle transaction, transfers, and person-to-person deposits all count.

The savings account has a $4.50 monthly fee, which is waived with a balance of at least $500. It also offers CDs and small business banking.

Citi often has promotions for new accounts. You can learn more about that here.

Go to Citi

Quontic

Quontic isn’t as well-known as the other banks on this list, but it’s worth mentioning. It has a checking account that earns 1.10% APY with a $100 minimum balance requirement but no monthly fees. It also has a savings account that earns 3.85% APY and a money market that earns 4.75% APY.

Quontic does have a minimum balance requirement of $100 but no monthly fees. If you are comfortable with online banking, it’s worth checking out.

Here’s our full review of Quontic Bank for more information.

Go to Quontic

Conclusion

I like Capital One 360 and I still have my account there. It’s a great mix of the benefits of an online bank, such as high rates and a mobile-first experience, but you also have access to an extensive ATM network and in-person branches.

If keeping all your banking in one place is important to you, Capital One will also fit the bill. They offer several popular credit cards, business accounts, and lending.

The post Capital One 360 Review appeared first on Best Wallet Hacks.