By ProudMoney.com Staff

This is the cut-to-the-chase list of our Top 10 credit cards (actually 13, oops), based on overall quality, which could mean any combination of rewards, low interest rates, or other features that we choose. Which is the best credit card? We’ll give you our #1 choice, but you’ll be proud to go into financial battle with any of the others, too:

#1 PayPal Cashback Mastercard – You get 2% cash back on every purchase with this card, which is accepted anywhere that takes Mastercard, both online and offline. Your cash rebates are deposited straight to your PayPal account (you’ll need to establish a PayPal account if you don’t already have one), where you can use that cash toward online purchases or have it moved to your bank account. No annual fee and a generous, easy-to-understand rebate formula puts this newer credit card right up at the top as the everyday cash-back choice in today’s market. No foreign transaction fees, either. (The only downside is high interest rates over 20%, so don’t carry a balance!)

#2 Citi Double Cash Card – Citi unnecessarily complicates this offer, which fools some into not realizing how good it is. Bottom line: You get 2% cash back on all your purchases, provided you eventually pay them off. What that means: You get 1% cash back on the purchase as soon as you make it, then you get 1% cash back on your card balance payments. 1% + 1% = 2%. No annual fee.

Updated May 12, 2020 – Most savings accounts aren’t throwing off gobs of interest payments. But if you’re willing to look — and we are — you can find online savings accounts giving you more than the paltry rate your local bank is probably giving.

Below is our list of the best online savings accounts based on annual percentage yields (APY). Most have no monthly fee, but may limit the number of monthly withdrawals or have minimums to open or maintain an account.

• SFGI Direct — 1.56% APY, $500 minimum opening deposit, no monthly fee.
• Live Oak Bank – 1.55% APY, no minimum balance, no monthly fee.
• American Express Bank — 1.50% APY, no monthly fee, no minimum deposit
• Dollar Savings Direct – 1.50% APY, no minimum balance, no monthly fee.
• Citizens Access – Offers a 1.50% APY, but note the $5000 minimum to get and keep that rate.
• CIBC US – Earn a 1.45% Annual Percentage Yield (APY) on your savings. Requires $1000 minimum deposit to begin, but any positive balance after that will continue to earn you the 1.45% rate.
• The CIT Savings Builder Account gives you a 1.45% APY, but only if you meet one of the following two requirements: maintain at least a $25,000 balance or deposit a minimum of $100 each month. If you can’t do that, you might still consider a CIT High Yield Savings Account that gives a 1.25% APY without having to do anything more than an initial $100 deposit.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

When people find out I write about credit cards (and make videos about credit cards), they always ask, “What’s the best credit card?” And I always say (of course), “That depends.” There is no “best” credit card that fits every single person. However, there is a way to help you figure out which credit card will be best for you.

Who are you?

First you need to discover who you are as a credit card user. Specifically, how do you answer these questions:

• How is your credit history?
• Do you carry a balance on your credit cards?
• How much do you spend with your credit cards?
• What rewards fit your preferences and your lifestyle?

These questions are almost like a decision tree. Going from top to bottom in that list, the way you answer each question will tell you either what type of card to get or whether you should move on to the other questions. Let’s take them one by one and you’ll see what I mean.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

Consumer Reports has long been a respected name when it comes to reviewing consumer products and choosing the best of the options in the marketplace. Its coverage of cars & trucks is especially well respected, because it offers reviews of new vehicles as well as used vehicles, including information on which cars have the most problems (and fewest problems) and how long you can expect a certain make and model to last.

To us, it is established that Consumer Reports provides value. But the question is: how much value? Is it worth it to be a paid subscriber?

How much is a subscription?

Let’s talk first about what Consumer Reports actually costs. You can get an online subscription for $35 per year, or you can choose to get that online subscription at $10 per month if you want to test it out for a shorter term. (But note that it will automatically renew each month unless you stop it.)

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

Originally published February 21, 2018 – Kevin Costner has only spoken to me once. His words weren’t important, though.*** Instead, what I learned about value came from watching him.

In the spring of 2013, the movie Draft Day was filmed in Cleveland (where I live), and I ended up with a front row seat to much of the filming, getting to watch Kevin Costner, Denis Leary, and Jennifer Garner work (not to mention Black Panther‘s Chadwick Boseman). In an unlikely stroke of luck, I got to be Denis Leary’s stand-in during the filming, essentially pretending to be him while the crew set up cameras and lighting for each scene.

(I was also an extra in the airport scene; you won’t want to miss me driving a golf cart both forward and backward.)

Draft Day centers around the general manager of the Cleveland Browns (played by Costner) as he wheels and deals on the day of the NFL Draft. Denis Leary plays the new Browns coach who doesn’t see eye to eye with his GM. Jennifer Garner is the team’s salary cap expert and Costner love interest. Boseman is a potential draftee.

What you realize when you’re on the set of a film starring Kevin Costner is how much pressure is on Kevin Costner. He is in almost every scene, filming is virtually non-stop for 6 weeks or so, and he has to deliver over and over again. Almost every eye is on him no matter where he goes on the set. It’s not far-fetched to say the movie only exists because Kevin Costner was willing to do it, so in many ways he was like the film’s CEO, with the responsibility of making it work so everyone else can get paid. That’s a lot to take on. (For those under 30, Kevin Costner may just seem like an older actor, but he was THE movie star of the late 1980s and ’90s.)

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

You’ve got money to invest but you’re not sure how much to put in stocks vs. bonds. Plus, how much to keep in cash? Or, maybe you’ve been investing for a long time but you’re not exactly young anymore. Should you be lowering the amount of stocks you own?

The best asset allocation at any age is going to strike a balance between being aggressive enough to get the upside of the stock market while also protecting some of your money through bonds or other fixed-income assets. The more risk tolerance you have, the more you should put in stocks. If you are leery of putting too much in stocks, you can dial back a bit on those and still have a portfolio that performs well.

Common Asset Allocation Formulas

The 100 Minus

In the past, a suggested formula for how much of your investing dollars to put into the stock market was this:

100 – your current age = % in stocks

In other words, if you were 25:

100 – 25 = 75% of your portfolio in stocks

If you were 55:

100 – 55 = 45% of your portfolio in stocks

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

Chase has added the Chase Freedom Student credit card to its credit cards site, allowing you to apply online for the first time at https://creditcards.chase.com/cash-back-credit-cards/freedom/student.

The Chase Freedom Student credit card was introduced in early 2019, but until now had only been available to students who visited a Chase bank branch.

In terms of features, the Chase Freedom Student is a no-annual-fee credit card that offers a modest 1% reward on all card purchases. New cardholders as well as long-term cardholders do get a chance to boost that reward a bit:

• New cardholders get a $50 bonus as long as they actually use the card at least once in the first three months after approval.
• Existing cardholders earn an extra $20 “Good Standing” reward at each card anniversary, for up to five years.

What movies make you want to get out there and make something happen? We’re not just talking about great stories of overcoming long odds, but instead movies that make YOU want to do something NOW! Below we offer our list of the 7 best motivational movies of all time:

Rocky – There’s a reason people are still running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, pretending to be Rocky 40+ years later. Even if you hate boxing, the idea of working your butt off to contend on a level where no one believes you have a chance is super motivating. When you are done with Rocky, you are ready to get outside and start being GREAT.

The Shawshank Redemption – Even when you are literally trapped, never stop looking for a way out. Tim Robbins stars as a man sent to jail for a crime he didn’t commit, who then becomes rather valuable to a corrupt warden. Morgan Freeman is Robbins’ jailhouse friend (and movie narrator) in a memorable role.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

Work is work. But a career is not just a job. And if you think of your job as “just a job,” you probably won’t have much of a career. Not to get all mystical about it, but if your long-term goal is to make more money, thinking of the work you’re doing today as part of a “career” is going to take you much further than if you think of it only as a job.

Careers Grow

The key to having a career is growth. Growth in skills, definitely. Growth in responsibility, probably. When you have a career, your co-workers will expect more from you over time. A new hire will be expected not only to “learn the ropes” in terms of how a company operates, but also to increase his or her skills to provide greater value than when s/he first came on board. In most companies or industries, a career will entail a series of positions that escalate in terms of skills required, responsibility given, and pay received.

No CEO got to the top unless he/she continually improved his/her skills and took on more and more responsibility. This is true even if your company’s CEO started the company from scratch and appointed herself CEO before she had any employees. You can’t found and/or lead a successful company unless you’ve somehow built up the skills necessary to be in charge.

That doesn’t mean you have to be “in charge” in order to have a career. And it doesn’t mean a career is always a steady climb up the ladder at one particular company. A career may involve many different companies in the same industry. It may involve companies in different industries, but positions with a similar skill set. For example, you might work in operations with several different companies in the airline industry, or you might be a marketing professional who works in all different industries but has a wide-ranging knowledge of techniques that apply no matter where you go.

Any work you pursue that allows you to deepen your skills over time so that they can be used for a higher level of accomplishment is part of creating a career.

If you’ve recently found out your credit score, you’re one step closer to understanding how potential lenders judge you when you apply for credit cards or loans. But what does your specific credit score actually mean? Is your score good or bad? We’re here to help!

Choose the range below into which your score falls to see exactly what your score means in the real world:

• Over 760. That’s excellent!
• Between 700 – 759. That’s still good.
• Between 650 – 699. Only average.
• Under 650. That’s bad.

Credit Score Over 760? That’s Excellent!

If you have a credit score over 760 (out of a possible 850), congratulations! You have excellent credit!

What does excellent credit get me?

Excellent credit gets you the best of the best when you’re applying for a credit card, mortgage loan, or other financing. You do not have to worry about whether or not your application will get approved, because lenders are hungry for borrowers like you! That means they will give you their lowest interest rates and possibly other perks, too, such as richer credit card rewards or waived fees that those with worse credit might have to pay.

Your long history of paying your bills on time and not piling up too much debt shows that you can handle credit. Strangely enough, once you show you can handle credit, lenders start falling over themselves to give you more and more credit, even when you no longer need it. For you, that’s a good problem to have.