My Money Map

I wanted to share with you a comprehensive list of all the real products & finance accounts I use on my own personal finance journey. Everything listed below I truly believe in 💯% and I’ll remove or add things I use. Let’s all become financially independent! 🔥😊

⚠️ Disclaimer: These accounts are what work best for me, please invest and save at your own risk. To be radically transparent, I’ve listed the incentives of using these links, which are mutually beneficial and help support this blog. I truly appreciate your support!

Pre-Tax Investment accounts

401K: Fidelity

A 401K is only available through your employer so you don’t really get to chose where it’s at. 401Ks are so great because it reduces your taxable income by up to $19,500. Often times employers incentivize you by giving you a match. I currently only get a 1% match from employer hey, but free money is free money!

Rollover Traditional IRA: Charles Schwab

We both earn $100 for funding a $1,000 account

After I finish a job I rollover my 401K into this Rollover Traditional IRA account. I keep it separate from my other IRAs in the event I’d want to move it back into a current 401K. In the meantime, I have more control over my investments here. All of it is invested in a Target Date Fund for 2055. Although I’m planning on retiring earlier than that, I’m not going to draw down on these retirement accounts until I reach my actual retirement age.

HSA: Fidelity

An HSA is only available if you have a qualified High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP). Typically if it’s qualified, they’ll automatically open an account for you and if you’re fortunate sometimes employers will just give you money toward it. HSAs are legit my fave investment accounts for all of its tax benefits. You can only contribute up to $3,500 for 2020 but absolutely max it out if you can. Unfortunately I am not on a qualified health insurance plan right now, but I consolidated all of my old HSAs to Fidelity since they don’t have any fees.

Checking accounts

High Yield Cash Account/Checking: Wealthfront

We both get $10!

I used to use a Bank of America Checking account but ever since Wealthfront started offering checking features on their high yield cash accounts, I moved everything over here. Although their APY fluctuates, it’s consistently higher than BofA’s 0.01%. Direct deposit also hits a day earlier giving me a little more time to grow my money!

Credit Card: CitiBank – 2x Cash Back

I don’t think there’s any reward 🤷‍♀️. It says I’ll get 10K points, but it’s not a points card…

Caveat—please, I beg of you, don’t spend money you don’t have. I know I have this credit card under “checking accounts.” To be clear, it’s not, but I truly use it like a debit card spending only what I have and paying it back straight away. It’s essentially “free” money since I get a consistent 2% back on everything, no fees. When looking for a credit card I didn’t want a category card because I don’t spend that much.

Savings accounts

High-Yield Cash Account #1: Ally

No reward bonus, just the knowledge of knowing you’re banking with an awesome bank and getting SO much interest!

Ally has these awesome “buckets” and a great APY. You can compartmentalize different savings goals you’re working toward without actually having a different account. I made that mistake last year by opening 3 wealthfront cash accounts and then had to file taxes on all of them. (Annoying, don’t recommend!) I alternate sending my Emergency money between Wealthfront and Ally depending on which one has a better interest rate. Downside is you can only withdrawal like 6x a month like a typical savings account.

High-Yield Cash Account #2/Checking Account: Wealthfront

We both get $10!

Wealthfront has a great APY (aka lots of compound interest money!) plus no minimum fees plus you can withdrawal as often as you need, unlike regular savings accounts. I alternate between Wealthfront and Ally depending on who has a better APY. As noted above, I also started using this as my checking account (over Bank of America) since it is better to get that little bit of interest money!

Also as Wealthfront’s unofficial hype-girl, their financial goal tools are amazing. Based on your inputs, it tells you when you can retire (read: FIRE), how much to save for kids’ colleges, if/when you can afford a home with Redfin integration, and if you want to take time off to travel 🧳.

Post-Tax Investment accounts

Taxable Brokerage/Roth IRA Account: Charles Schwab

We both earn $100 for funding a $1,000 account

Now that I know more about what I’m doing, I manage my own index fund portfolio and I LOVE Schwab. They don’t have any trade fees and have a bunch of low cost index funds.
For my Roth IRA, I have been able to max it out for the past 3 years. There are no immediate tax benefits, but the money will grow and when I finally am able to draw down on it, I won’t pay any taxes on the amount it has grown! I hold my US Bond Index Fund (SWAGX) in here since those dividends are not tax-free.

Robo-advisor Taxable Brokerage Account: Wealthfront

We both get $5,000 managed free

This account is amazing for new investors and how I started my own investing journey. You just take a quiz regarding how risky or risk-averse you are and deposit some money and BOOM it does all the investments and allocations for you. If you are waiting until you learn more about money and investing, don’t walk, run on this. It’s been 3 years since I officially started investing through Wealthfront and I’m so glad that I didn’t wait until I know what I know now to start. You can always evolve how you invest, but the most important thing is getting started. I’ve since stop contributing, but Wealthfront is my one true love and I still use all of their AMAZING financial planning tools.