SmartyPig

Hi everyone, this is Marcie here guest blogging today. Part of my position here at Stewart Financial Services is connecting new technology and social media trends with the sector of finance and financial planning. We are always on the look out for innovative ideas to find holistic and safe finance advice, relationships, and technology that our clients can use.

Today, I wanted to talk about a really neat organization we found that utilizes social media, teaches good saving practices, and is a safe institution to use (and free!). It's called SmartyPig.

SmartyPig is a organization that allows anyone to open up a savings account for free. Straight from their FAQ page: SmartyPig is a unique savings program that was designed to help people save for specific goals. Goals may be funded with a monthly recurring contribution from your existing checking or savings account. You can also make one-time additions of money toward your goals and receive contributions from your friends and family members. 


What's great about this is that it's, wait for it... FREE. There are no monthly fees. Every account is FDIC insured for balances under $250,000. The initial deposit is only $25.00 and account holders earn 2.15% APY on balances under $50,000, which American Consumer News states, "one of the best rates available for FDIC insured savings accounts."


You can also use social media applications like Facebook and Twitter to help your family and friends fund your stated savings goal. Tired of receiving shirts from Aunt Susan that you don't like? A simple fix is sending Aunt Susan a link to your SmartyPig account and let her deposit the money into your account for your stated goal. Goals can be anything you want: a trip, a shopping spree, or a night on the town. Plus, if you use one of their retail partners, you can boost your money by up to 12%: places like Amazon.com, Macy's, or Travelocity.


As great as SmartyPig is for adults (and for me, I signed up to fund a trip to Hawaii), this is a great tool teaching children how to save. American Consumer News blogs about how to use SmartyPig as a tool to teach children how to save:


"Watching a saving account grow via compound interest can help teach a child the importance and benefits of savings and investing at an early age.


Perhaps the most important lesson that your child will learn with a SmartyPig account is the power of setting and achieving goals. They will see the direct correlation between the amount of effort that they put in and the results of their success."


For accounts for children under 18, SmartyPig says this, "Anyone may have a SmartyPig account. But customers under 18 years of age must be invited to become co-owners by parents or legal guardians who have first opened their own SmartyPig accounts."


To test out SmartyPig, I went ahead and opened an account. Here's a list of things I needed to begin:

I found setting up an account easy and intuitive. After 10 minutes, I had validated my information, set up my security questions and answers, and finished registration with a working account. The next step is setting up routing and bank information in which you want to transfer from. Remember: your first transfer only has to be $25.00 and $10.00 monthly after that. 


And, dare I say that setting up an account with my goal was actually fun?! Now instead of getting that t-shirt from Aunt Susan, all I need to do is to send my link around for my birthday and imagine sitting in Hawaii two years from now. Yeah!


If you have any questions about this post, saving accounts, or any other things, feel free to contact Stewart Financial Services at our email or give us a call at 888.891.9709. We'd be happy to help. Happy Saving!