A certificate of deposit (CD) is offered by financial institutions. It is like a savings account that pays a certain interest rate on an amount of money. Generally, institutions offer several time periods for the same ranging from 3 to 60 months. Interest rates go higher when you choose a longer time period.
The best CD rates are those which give the customer a higher annual percentage yield (APY), require a minimum deposit, have low monthly fees, and fewer penalties to pay for early withdrawals.
The highest CD rates offered by popular financial institutions in the country are given below:
Goldman Sachs (0.60% to 3.10%)
The bank pretty much ticks all the boxes, courtesy its online consumer bank, Marcus. It gives customers the highest APY within just 10 days of opening an account if they make a deposit of $500. Funds in the bank are also Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-insured. 0.60% for 6 months while 3.10% for 60 months are amongst the 10 best CD rates in the market.
Synchrony Bank (0.75% to 2.85%)
The bank’s CD rates go as low as 0.75% for 3 months, while its highest rate of 2.85% is for 60 months. With a minimum deposit of $2000, it gives customers the option to not commit to a long-term and yet receives the maximum interest in a market with surging interest rates.
Barclays Bank (2.40% to 3%)
The biggest advantage of Barclays is that it offers CD rates on a yearly basis and its APY of 2.40% is amongst the highest 1-year CD rates in the country, with no minimum deposit to be paid. The interest will be accumulated within 14 days of opening the account. It offers one of the best 5-year CD rates of 3%, which is quite competitive in the market and has an added advantage.
Capital One Bank (0.60% to 2.90%)
From 0.60% in 6 months to 2.90% in 60 months, Capital One also ensures that customers do not need to pay any minimum deposit to open as many as 50 accounts. With no market risk, since the rates remain the same and a high APY, they are guaranteed to get returns with each deposit being FDIC-insured. The CDs are available for purchase on its official website.
Before investing, it is important to note that the CD rates offered by these financial institutions are approximate and subject to change. One may also consider investing in 1-year jumbo CDs. Jumbo CDs have higher denominations than the regular CDs. These enable one to deposit a certain amount of money and earn interest in return.
-
Budget-Friendly Apparel Accessories For Babies
Read moreHaving a budget is really essential to attain financial stability. However, when it comes to your baby’s apparel and accessories, most of the baby apparel and accessories are really cheap and therefore, parents feel that they can buy a lot. However, in the long run all these small costs add up as one can expect a baby to approximately triple its birthweight by the time it reaches one year. There are easy and convenient ways to cut back on the costs of baby’s apparel and accessories. Any of these following tips will help you save chunks:
Buy used apparel and accessories.
Just because you are purchasing used apparel and accessories, it doesn’t mean that the stuff will be soiled and torn. Just like one purchases great things from thrift stores, similarly, you can purchase used apparel and accessories for your baby as well. You can contact your local stores as well as websites like thredUP, StorkBrokers, Baby Outfitter, and Rascals. These sites offer tons of well-cared and good quality used baby clothes with a large variety to choose from including well-known brands like Baby Gap, Gymboree, and Carter’s, among others.
Coupons is the key.
Consumers are totally in power these days. It is advised that one should never shop without comparing the prices of local dealers and on various websites. Also, never shop without checking sites like Coupon Sherpa and Retail Me for coupons that you can avail while buying baby’s apparel and accessories. Even smartphone apps like Red Laser and Shop Savvy are of great use to find out where there are best deals and sales on baby’s apparel and accessories.
Create a wishlist of baby’s apparel and accessories.
Just write a wishlist of baby’s apparel and accessories on your phone or notebook. Even when you use apps and websites where you shop for baby’s clothes and other stuffs, first just save it in your wishlist unless and until it’s a product that is urgently needed, then of course purchase it. Otherwise, when you save the product in your wishlist, evaluate if you really need it. Its it essential and important for your baby. Keep it saved in the wishlist for a week. Later, after a week if you still feel you need it, then purchase it. You may realise that you don’t need most of the products that you saved and that will save you some money.
Swapping is a great choice.
Next time when you hang out with your friends and family for brunches and dinners, you might as well consider baby clothes swap. Swapping of not only clothes but baby’s apparel and accessories works the best if the kids are of different ages. In that case, it’s more likely that everyone has something to take home. There are many families and friends who pass on their kids apparel and accessories to the ones having kids that are younger than their kids.
Rental can be your call too!
Lets face it, your baby is never going to wear that adorable little Easter dress again even though you spend tons of money on it. With the assumption that you don’t plan to keep some clothes for another child in future, which by the way is a great way to save some cash, renting apparel and accessories would be worth looking for things as your child is never going to use again and it will turn useless in a short span of time. There are many websites that offer apparel and accessories on rent with great variety and lots of style.
-
Characteristics of a good business system
Read moreA business system is the framework of principles and practices in place within an organization to minimize inefficiencies, improve operations and increase revenues. Since business systems play such a crucial role in the functioning of an organization, it is important to recognize the characteristics of a good one, so that you can get the right one in place for your needs. Listed below are the characteristics of a good business system:
Having a simple system that is easy to implement and modify is paramount to empowering the organization. A complex system may account for more minute events, but it would also require more time and money in execution and maintenance.
Next, the business systems of an organization should provide the optimal procedure for the functioning of the people, technology, and strategies. The optimal procedure would be one which presents the organization with a great way of handling the components of the system.
Just as an organization has a management hierarchy in place, it must also have a hierarchy of accountability associated with the business systems to ensure that there are multiple people involved in each strategy formulation and policy implementation.
Each business system must also be focused to achieve not only the objectives and goals of the system itself, but it should also contribute towards the business objectives.
All business system objectives should integrate and form the basis for the achievement of the business objectives.Business systems must ensure that the organization’s objectives are customer-centric so that the procedures facilitate increasing revenues and profits. Modern business systems also account for employee-centric objectives to also form part of the procedures. All procedures that are part of the business system should be recorded so that they can be used for analysis, and aid in future decision making. The records will allow the organization to understand real-world implications of the policies and decisions made.
The evaluation and updating of a business system must form part of it so that the system can fix problems that might occur in the procedures. This will allow the system to function more efficiently with minimal interference, except where required.
Thus, a good business system should aim to evaluate how successful the business procedures are so that the policy and decision makers in the organization will be able to modify their strategies based on the data. More efficient strategy formulation can play a crucial role in improving the operations of the organization, and by extension the satisfaction of all parties involved.