In my ongoing quest to simplify our personal finances, I started cleaning up some of the connections in my Financial Network Map. The target today was my ING Direct account, which played host to both my CD ladder and my bank account firewall, two financial constructs that have proved invaluable in my financial planning and protection schemes.

What I didn’t disclose to you all earlier, when talking about the bank account firewall, was that I created a firewall account for each individual external account. Creating ING Direct subaccounts is and was so easy, I created one for each external connection. I had one for Paypal, one for E*Trade, one for … the list went on to the tune of about half a dozen accounts. Along the way, I also created a checking account to take advantage of a free money promotional offer that has since expired. Between the CD ladder, the five external accounts, the checking account, and the main online savings account, I knew I had to pare it down.

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We put our emergency fund into a CD ladder and every month one of those certificates of deposit matures and is automatically renewed. As an added bonus, ING Direct, where our CDs live, gives us a CD rollover bonus whenever we renew (currently the bonus is 0.15% on CDs of at least 12-months long). For us, the decision is simple. It’s a CD ladder and you simply renew the CD each month for the 12 month term.

What if you’re money isn’t in a CD because it’s part of a CD ladder, what should you do?

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(Updated 11/6) Welcome to the self-service $25 ING Direct signup promotion center at Bargaineering. I’ve written on numerous occasions about how ING Direct will give you a $25 bonus for opening either a checking or savings account through a referral and depositing $250, so I’ve set up this page to allow readers to help themselves to the referrals (I get $10 for each referral). In the past I asked for you to contact me, then I emailed out the referrals… no more, this is far easier!

Below, you will see a series of links to ING Direct and each one is an account referral link good for one $25 bonus per new customer only. Each link will only work for one new account so if you click the link and it says “We’re sorry, but the referral link within the email you received has expired and is no longer valid. We recommend that you contact the sender and ask them to re-send the referral email. Or click ‘Continue’ to proceed with the application process without the account opening bonus.” then please move onto the next one. As links are used, I’ll clean up the page such that only the good links are left.

If you use an expired link, you will not get the bonus. Clear the cookies from your browser before you try any of the links or they may appear to have “expired” but still be valid.

If you do not deposit $250, you will not get the bonus. If you still want an account, please use this link.

ING Direct Savings Accounts

1. ING Direct $25 Savings New Account Opening Bonus
2. ING Direct $25 Savings New Account Opening Bonus
3. ING Direct $25 Savings New Account Opening Bonus
4. ING Direct $25 Savings New Account Opening Bonus
5. ING Direct $25 Savings New Account Opening Bonus

If you want to get in the queue to have your link posted, you can peruse the Bargaineering Bucks Store.

Yesterday, ING Direct announced a clever new take on CDs – it’s the Added Value CD. The idea is very simple, you can get a 12 month CD with a rate of 2.25% if you open it and fund it with “new money” from a non ING Direct account. According to their terms and conditions, the new money must increase your total deposit balance as of yesterday, October 7th, 2009. Withdrawing money and then contributing it again will not work.

The 2.25% APY rate is a 0.15% premium on ING Direct’s current CD rates and it beats the best CD rates in that maturity range. With inflation at a scant 0.19%, getting 2.25% looks pretty good.

The Added Value CD [ING Direct]

For the last ten minutes I’ve been trying to access ING Direct, to no avail (it’s now available, but it was slow for about half an hour). While I’m certain my funds are safe and nothing is wrong, it certain solidifies the notion that you should be diversifying your bank accounts.

Websites go down. In fact, websites go down pretty often and usually it’s not a big deal. However, if the website is your only interface with a bank, then it becomes a very big deal. That’s why I always recommend that you diversify your online savings accounts in the event something like this happens. I’m not a good example, because I recently told you about how I had a dozen savings accounts, but if all of your savings are in one bank, you might want to spread it out a little. (here are some high yield savings options)

If you don’t feel like dealing with more than one bank, here’s another suggestion. Make sure that you can withdraw funds from your online savings account through your main checking account. If you remember my financial network map, my main checking account has no awareness of my savings accounts.

I can’t go to my checking account and try to transfer funds from my ING Direct. That’s bad. If I could, then INGDirect.com going down wouldn’t bother me as much. Try to have that in place if you can.

Remember that nothing happens in real time with online savings accounts, so being down for an hour doesn’t really hurt anything. However, hours have a funny way of stretching into days whenever you least desire it.

Just a thought!

We have twelve bank accounts.

You read that correctly, we have twelve accounts.

Ally Bank, FNBO Direct, ING Direct, HSBC Direct, Bank of America, M&T Bank, … the list goes on.

We also have a dozen credit cards. Citi, Discover, Capital One, … again, the list goes on.

We have so many accounts because we’ve slowly acquired them over the course of the last ten years. Our financial network map is an intricated mess despite our best efforts to simplify our personal finances.

That’s why we need to hit the reset button on our financial life.

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How much money do you have sitting in a savings account? $500? $1,000?

Do you have plans for that money? If not, it should be in a certificate of deposit at your bank. If your bank doesn’t offer good CD rates, then you should open a CD with an online bank and take advantage of their better interest rates. If you don’t think you have enough money, you’re wrong. You can open a CD at an online bank with a single dollar.

One dollar.

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A few weeks ago I asked for your opinion of the best high yield savings account and the one thing I learned something very interesting. With interest rates as low as they are, with many banks offering less than 2%, it’s the other services and amenities that dictate which bank you’ll work with.

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This is comprehensive review of the best online banks, specifically those with a high interest savings account and high yield savings accounts available (high interest refers to the interest rate). Given the recent economic uncertainty, interest rates have come down from their earlier highs and so “high yield” is more a relative term than an absolute one. Gone are the days of 5% and 6% APYs, today the best ones are in the 2-3% range. While not incredible, they are certainly better than the 0% your local bank is likely giving you on your savings accounts nowadays. In this post, Everbank, Ally Bank, E*Trade, HSBC Direct and WTDirect are given brief looks to see how strong they are in the current rate environment.

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(Updated 9/1) In the world of banking products, you are always trading off interest rate for flexibility. Typically the higher the interest rate, the less flexible the account. Take CD rates for example, they are often higher than savings accounts and they are less flexible. You decide how long you’re willing to keep your money locked up and then pick a bank that offers the best rate for that term. If you wish to get your money early, you pay penalty. On the other end are checking accounts. Checking accounts have the worst interest rates but offer the most flexibility. You can get your cash whenever you want it, write as many checks as you’d like, and visit your own ATM without penalty. For that flexibility, you earn very little, if any, interest.

Where does that leave money market accounts?

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