Years ago, I created this website with the tagline, “Making my money work, so I don’t have to.” I noticed that due to compound interest and living below my means, the choices I made in my early 20s had paid off handsomely by the time I turned 30. Those choices weren’t anything special, just basic ones such as maxing out my Roth IRA and 401k.
This idea of working smarter instead of working harder that lead me to create the “Lazy Man and Money” website. I wanted to show people that you don’t have to work hard to manage your money. If you do it right you can even retire early. What’s so hard about writing those annual Roth IRA checks? It took me all of a few minutes. Setting up the 401k was even faster than that.
Nearly ten years of blogging later, I’ve come to realize that there is a finite number of items that fit this criteria. Nowadays I assume most readers have this basic information and are looking to dig deeper. Today, I’ve got something new that should change how people manage their money.
Before I get to that though, let me talk about one of the biggest problems of managing money the “Lazy” way. It’s the old checking account/saving account conundrum. I need to write checks (even if they are automatic bill pay) via my bank account. The money in that account earns no interest. Alternatively, I can earn interest in my savings account, but I can’t easily pay people from it.
Thus, I’m left doing a money shuffle. The idea is to keep as much money in the savings as possible to maximize interest, while keeping just enough money in the checking so that I don’t bounce any checks.
Today, I learned that I don’t have to do the money dance. I found out that Radius Bank’s Hybrid Account acts as both a savings and checking account. It’s one banking account to rule them all.
Here’s how it works… You can use Radius Bank’s Hybrid Account just like any checking account. You can pay people from it just as you’d expect. The big difference is that account balances over $2500 earn an interest rate that is extremely competitive with the top high-interest savings accounts. How competitive? Radius Bank’s current 1% interest rate is actually better than Capitial One 360, Ally Bank, Everbank, and Bank of Internet.
So you get the best of both worlds… convenience of writing checks with an impressive interest rate.
If you are looking for gotchas, you are a smart consumer. I wish you luck, because I couldn’t find any. There are no monthly fees or minimum balance (other than the initial $10 to open to open the account). In addition, ATM fees are rebated back to your account. (That is one of my favorite features of any bank.) And of course you get typical FDIC insurance.
I think this is a game changer. Once people get a taste of this, why would anyone go back? Who wants to shift money in separate savings and checking accounts?
What do you think? Would you going to sign up for the Radius Bank’s Hybrid Account? Let me know in the comments below.