Minimum Wage Increases 70 Cents

Last year’s Fair Minimum Wage Act was passed which included three scheduled wage increases. Last week the second of the three increases took effect. The current minimum wage is currently at $6.55 an hour. The thrid and final increase of the Wage Act will bring the minimum wage up to $7.25 an hour in July of next year.

At $6.55 per hour, you can translate that into an annual salary of $13,624 based on 2080 hours per year. This is still below poverty level. However with minimum wage increases you tend to see a rise in unemployment as employers try to offset the rise in pay to all their employees by reducing the total employee count.

The Federal minimum wage is a base line and fall back for any states that do not have a minimum wage reqiurement. Many states do have a minimum wage law which is higher than the federal government’s wage. Check out your state here

It will be interesting to see how the current slowing economy will respond to the rise in wages. Paying people more when everything else is costing more may be a tough pill to swallow for companies that are experiencing the cash crunch today. However on the flip side, this increase is needed for everyone trying to deal with the skyrocketing gas and food prices. Hopefully this is a quick correction and we will be back to a rising dollar!

HSBC Extends Rate For Online Savings Account

HSBC is extending the interest rate of their Online Savings account until September 15th. The current rate 3.5% was supposed to expire in August, but from the lack of interest rate cutting by the Fed’s recently, HSBC has decided to keep the rate for another month. Hopefully we will see a trend in rising savings account rates again.

This account has one of the highest interest rates out there for a $1 minimum balance savings account. HSBC’s Online Savings account is free to open and requires only $1 for a minimum balance. There are no fees with this account. There is also an ACH transfer system that allows you to move money to and from your current checking account for free.

I currently have this account and having my emergency fund in it. Since I want my emergency fund in cash for easy access to it if I need it, I want it earning the highest rate possible, and currently this is it.

Free $50 from Chase Freedom Visa Card

Chase is offering a $50 sign up bonus for their Freedom Visa Card after your first purchase.

This card is flexible in the fact that you can switch between cash back and miles whenever you want. So if you are currently getting cash back, but then decided you want to use miles for a vacation, you can switch over to miles, use them for your trip, then switch back to cash back. Also, there is no annual fee with this card.

Here is the earnings breakdown:

• Earn 3% back at gas stations, grocery stores and quick service restaurants
• Earn 1% back everywhere else

Don’t forget that most grocery stores offer gift cards. So you can earn 3% on more than just gas stations, grocery stores and quick service restaurants. For example, the Dominick’s grocery store by me sells Home Depot gift cards, among may others. If I were to use the Chase Freedom Visa at Home Depot I would only receive the 1% back, but if I buy a $100 Home Depot Gift card from the grocery store, I would receive the 3% back. This is another little way to maximize your earnings with this card. Happy Shopping!!

What you need to do: Sign up for the Chase Freedom Visa Card
Obligation: None
Initial Reward (if any): $50 after first purchase
Money to get started: $0
Things to Note: There will be hard credit inquiry applied to your credit report when applying for the card

Another Tax Stimulus Rebate?

There are rumblings that there will be another tax rebate offered to Americans in 2009. I have heard the rumors but didn’t hear anything concrete until now. I am going to refer to this as the 2009 tax stimulus rebate as to not confuse this with the current rebate that is currently is progress.

This week, Congress will be reviewing a proposal that would inject $50 billion into the US economy. This proposal would mainly benefit middle class citizens similiar to the last rebate. According to the bill on the table, there will also be funds available for an increase in food stamps benefits, infrastructure funding, increased unemployment benefits as well as home heating old assistance for lower income familes.

As this bill is purely undergoing review there are no details on how much indivuidals and families will receive. The early rumbling that I hear is that the rebate will occur sometime in early 2009 if approved. I will be updating this site regularly with more information on the 2009 tax rebate as it comes available, so keep checking back.

High Yield Checking Account Website

In the past I have written about High Yield Checking Accounts. They are checking accounts that offer a high interest rate if you do certain things in a months time.

Most of the high yeild checking accounts I have seen offer between 4%-7% APY on money in the account if you perform 10 debit card transactions, set up direct desposit and recevie statements electronically each month. The thought behind the high interest rate is that it is cheaper for the bank if you use your debit card rather then processing checks.

These checking accounts are popping up all over the country. I just discovered this site that trys to list them all. The site is called High Yield Checking Deals. Be sure to check it out if your checking account is earning little to no interest.

I have had my high yield checking account for almost a year now and have made over $1500 in interest. Had I kept my Chase Checking account, that number would have been a big fat zero!

Free $75 From Bank of America Checking

Bank of America has a promo going on their MyAccess Checking Account where you can get $75 when signing up. The MyAccess Checking account is BofA’s free checking account. The nice thing about this account is that there are no direct deposit or minimum balance requirements.

To get the bonus do the following:

• complete the Application Page and open an MyAccess Checking Account
• enter the bonus code CH75TAD
• deposit at least $25 into the account within 30 days of account opening

The $75 bonus will be paid out within 90 days of openening the checking account. This offer expires on 11/30/2008.

Next Page »