I recently graduated from university. The bank I’ve been dealing with since I was a kid would start charging fees for operating my checking and savings accounts. These fees would total approximately 20$ per month. I thought this was too much considering that the bank makes money off my money and since they give meagre interest rates in the first place. So I went and looked for alternative solutions.
I decided to move my finances with Simplii Financial (affiliate link). They are the online version of CIBC. Simplii offers zero-fee accounts which are perfect for my automated financial system. There are plenty of other online banks and zero-fee accounts so make sure to shop around. I created the accounts during my last semester of school to ensure that I’d have four months to switch everything to Simplii and iron out the kinks.
Once my Simplii system was in place I decided it was time to go to my old bank to close my accounts. They had a hard time understanding why I wanted to close the accounts and why I wanted many sub-savings accounts. Fees of 20$ per month may seem insignificant but they can add up to roughly 15 000$ over my lifetime (20*12*65). The 15 000$ can be deceiving when you consider that investing 20$ each month with an interest rate of 7% over the same time period (65 years) can result in over 300 000$. Feel free to check the math with this online calculator.
You may object that the interest rate is too high or that the time period is too long. If so, then you’re missing the point.
Why pay unnecessary fees that add up to significant sums when you can solve the problem in a few hours?
Read This Next
- Automate Your Finances
- What is your Investment Goal?
- The Wealthy Barber – Book Notes
- Life is a Jar
- What is your Rich Life?
- Atomic Habits – Book Notes
- Build Wealth And Get On With Your Life
- What I Learned from Tracking my Mood for 1000 days
- My 10-day Vipassana Silent Retreat Experience
- The Parallel Universes of Time and Money
Affiliate Links
- High-interest savings account and zero-fee credit card – Neo
- Invest automatically – Wealthsimple Invest Robo-Advisor
- Build your own portfolio – Wealthsimple Trade
- Save money and make a little – EQ Bank High-Interest Savings Account
- Take effective book notes – Readwise
- I Will Teach You To Be Rich – Ramit Sethi
- Atomic Habits – James Clear
- The Wealthy Barber – David Chilton
- 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen R. Covey
- Tiny Habits – BJ Fogg