Federal funds rate: 5.25 last month, 4.75 this month

Discount Rate: 5.75 last month, 5.25 this month

Prime Rate: 8.25 last month, 7.75 this month

Basically, interest rates are going down. This is bad news for high-yield savers like myself, because I can kiss my liquid 5 percent APY online banking accounts goodbye now.

ING Direct has already dropped their online savings rate from 4.5%-4.3%, and other high-yield accounts are soon to follow, since banks tend to look at and react to each others’ rates. Savers are lucky if the rates stay above 4 percent.

Since I’ve become obsessed with getting the best rates a few months ago, I never understood why anyone would choose a CD over a nice liquid online savings account. Now, I see why and have officially locked a nice portion of my money into a 5.1% APY Certificate of Deposits.

If I were a financial advisor, then I would recommend locking into a CD with at least 5% yieldfor any term 6-12 months at this point in time. In the near future, these rates will be much higher than variable rate accounts due to the federal rates cuts.

Recommended accounts (I am in no way affiliated with these banks):
I recommend opening two accounts with different terms, because I can’t be sure exactly when the rates will bounce back up.
Washington Mutual’s 12 Month 5.10% APY CD.
This CD is binding for 12 months, but it will guarantee an interest rate of over 5% after the variable rates drop. I’ve invested a good amount into this CD, because I feel like 12 months is a reasonable term. Anything longer than that, and you can’t be sure how rates will change.

Bank of America’s 5.10% 4 month CD
I had a personal dislike for Bank of America, because my parents used to put my money there for 0.20% interest when I was younger. Thinking about how much potential interest I lost there, I hesitated to invest more in their bank, but this CD was too good of a deal to resist. The term is only four months long, which could be good or bad. If the interest rates bounce back up soon, then this CD would be a much better deal than the 12-month WaMu one. Otherwise, not. Since I’m not sure, I split my money up.

No, I didn’t die. Sorry to disappoint you, enemies;) I just get bored of things fairly easily and took a break from blogging.

So, why am I updating now? I got bored of my other pointless activities and decided to return to blogging again.

About the site: I cleaned up my link exchanges. Sadly, many people don’t live up to them, so all the sites that have removed me and have gotten free links from me for the past couple months are history now. If you’re interested in a link exchange, then use my contact form. Google PR 3 or higher pages only, please.

About my life: Well, now that I’m in college at St. John’s, I’m living it up. Not really living it up, but compared to how I used to live, yes. Since I’m in New York City now, it’s hard not to have fun. I’m having a little fun here, but staying out of trouble…for the most part.