What Happens To Bank CD Rates In A Bank Takeover

I read an interesting article today in USA Today September 29, 2008. It was titled Whats next for failed WaMu's customers? Several interesting points were made in the Q and A style article. First point as you know qualifying accounts under the $ 100K FDIC limit are federally insured. What you may not know is the point made later in the article by Charlie Scharf JPMorgan Chase Bank's head of retail business was quoted as saying Cd rates for WaMu products will remain the same "as we figure out how to merge the companies". The article goes on to state "But it is unlikely that Chase will honor the rate on WaMu's 5%CD rate through maturity" said Bankrate.com senior analyst Greg McBride. The key point here is that although the principal is guaranteed the INTEREST RATE PAID IS NOT GUARANTEED!!! OUCH!! not only do banks not pay the best rates available but if they screw up you may not even get the promised rate.

If you are thinking about buying a Bank CD or facing a rollover date now might be a very good time to consider non bank alternatives. If you are looking at 1-5 year terms guaranteed rates of close to or over 5% are available and if you are over 40 years old we can offer products with a superior guaranteed yield of 6-7.2% in a five year, a ten year or longer timeframe with the additional benefit of a 5% initial bonus credited to the principal on day one if you choose the 10 year product. These interest rates are the contractually guaranteed minimum rates and the rates can be as much as two or three times as high in good years. A percentage of the funds are available annually without penalty. At any time you can convert the account balance into a lifetime income stream you cannot outlive. In effect you can convert this into a personal pension plan at your option any time you wish. No bank CD offers you these three things Competitive minimum interest rates, significant upside potential earning and a lifetime income stream. Does this make sense for some percentage of your assets?

This product should be in your portfolio for some portion of your assets if you are qualified to purchase these products. You have to meet suitability and minimum initial contribution limits. It is not necessarily available in all 50 states. Contact us if interested.

How can we help you prepare for difficult financial times or for retirement?

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com
polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

5 Year Rate 5.10% Guaranteed

new higher rate on 5 yr MYGA

brand new higher rate has been released for 5 year single premium deferred annuity. Current best rate available. Year one to year five guarantee rate 5.10 %. This is a tax deferred product so you get no 1099 form until you begin to withdraw money.

Understand that the rate is subject to change until policy is written. Rate usually change once a month but may occasionally change more often.

How does this compare to national bank CD rates. I checked Bankrate.com today and found the national overnight rate on a 5 yr CD was 4.16% and for a 5 Year IRA CD the rate is 3.91%. The 5 year CD non IRA rates are taxable rates and you get a 1099 form for this years taxes. The annuity rates are almost 20% higher than the regular Bank CD rate and 30% higher than the Bank IRA CD rate. Why would anyone ever go to the bank for one??? We can get you the same rate on qualified (IRA money) and non qualified money.

How can we help you?

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

College financing and Keno Cartoon

I like Stahler the cartoonist from the Columbus Dispatch. On August 5 his cartoon dealt with several financial issues. College finance, gambling, and the new KENO game from the lottery.
This cartoon has two college students looking at KENO Tickets. One asks the other how did you pick your 10 numbers. The second replied its how much he owed on one college semesters tuition. Very funny and scary too!

I am not a big fan of Lottery programs. They promise great things for education but the states schools have not gotten significantly better. Any of the lottery funded education $ have been counter balanced with a reduction in state funding from general revenues or at least thats how it looks to me. Net benefit is almost $0. A couple of people get instantly rich and often end up almost broke within 2-3 years. The companies and departments that run the Lotteries are the biggest beneficiaries. Many people who can not really afford to play spend way too much money on lottery tickets. It is different if someone with significant cash flow decides to spend $5 on lottery tickets for entertainment value.

College funding is really important and many people need some help with it.
We put together college saving strategies that work. It is a combination strategy, save more tax defer the interest earned, guarantee a reasonable rate of return on the funds committed.
Many times, we can also improve a families eligibility for college financial aid.
We can help!


www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Loans Without Banks

There are several internet site that help structture small to medium sized loans with the use of a bank. The concept is called "Peer to Peer Lending" This can be used for family loans or other network members to loan you money. Its an interesting concept! Some people can not get a bank loan and sometimes the bank rates are just too high to be realistic. These Peer to Peer loans can have competitive rates for the borrowers and improve on the money earned by the lender on the loan. There are almost certainly some risks as well that need to be taken into account. I do not know anyone who has ever tried these programs. I do know of business funding that has been done by Angel Investors. From a business standpoint I do know businesses that have used this informal Angel network to get operating funding or cash to expand when banks will not write the loans. I even used one almost 10 years ago when we were working to acquire a business.
You can learn more about the program through any of these three websites.
US.ZOPA.COM
PROSPER.COM
VIRGINMONEYUS.COM

Our website is
www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

401 K Cartoon

Stahler is a great cartoonist who draws on life events for the Columbus Dispatch. This one appeard on July 29th 2008. Like the Doonsbury cartoon strip and the Dilbert cartoon strip they all draw on the corporate quirks, and political mismanagement in wonderful satire. I keep particularly pointed cartoons to remember painful or very funny life lessons. This is a painful life lesson! Painful lessons repeat themselves until you learn from them and CHANGE something. Id like to share this one.

First lets set the stage. Scene one Cinderella was riding to the
ball with her glass slippers beautiful retirement ball gown, riding in a golden horse drawn carraige. You all get the picture. It was not that long ago.
Now to the present!
The retirement is a mess the clothes are in tatters, Cinderella is dizzy and has lost her shoes . The golden carriage has turned into a very small pumpkin called 401K. If that is your Cinderella story we should talk!!

Business and individual plan help is available. Growth without risk is a possible option. How can we help you???

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

Bank Instability and Your Alternatives

Recently in the news from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) Thairman was quoed as saying They do not expect any more large bank failure on the magnitude of IndyMac Bank. IndyMac Bank was a top ten mortgage lender in the USA. The FDIC at the same time said they do expect numerous smaller bank failure in the short term.

If I kept a significant amount of money in a bank what message would I take from this announcement. I should add that the bulk of our assets are never in a bank. The take away message is that you should never have money in a bank in excess of FDIC insurance limits. Perhaps the prudent will actually deal with lower personal limits than the FDIC limits. There are Bank alternatives that can do the following things. Earn a higher interest rate than banks will pay. This is usually easy to do. Find a financial product with a very high degree of safety. There are financial products available with no risk to principal due to market risk. There are even products available that do all of these things and can providetax deferred growth if you don't need the income immediately. Utilizing the tax deferred benefit may even reduce your current tax bill or if you are on social security may even reduce or eliminate taxes on your social security benefits.

Wee can help you achieve these goals with safety of your principal. Will Rogers once said "I am much more interested in the safety of my money than I am in the interest on my money". Long term financial products that protect your money.

How can we help you?

polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com
www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com