Your Money

A Day to Tackle the Financial To-Do List

By RON LIEBER

Published: July 4, 2009

• HIGH-YIELD SAVINGS ACCOUNT Though Internet savings accounts that pay above-average rates have been around for some time, I haven’t needed one. Now that we’re keeping more cash around in case we want to buy a new place to live, however, it makes sense to enroll.I put our money in an account via SmartyPig, a Web-based savings program. It pays an industry-beating 2.75 percent, though it comes with certain restrictions, like the requirement that you put at least $10 in your account each month.

• INSURANCE PAPERWORK If you’re lucky enough to have health insurance, you’re probably constantly adrift in a sea of forms that make no sense. We’re no different, but a major snafu caused us to have to switch plans a few months into 2009, throwing everything into utter disarray.

On fiscal health day, I got all of the paperwork divided into about a dozen piles to begin our assault on the benefits office and the various insurance companies involved.

• CASH-BACK CREDIT CARD The new Charles Schwab Bank Invest First Visa pays a straight 2 percent back into our Schwab brokerage account. That’s 0.75 percentage points better than we were earning with our Capital One card. The Schwab card also levies no foreign exchange fees for use outside the United States.

SHOPPING SPREE Yes, you get to have fun on fiscal health day. Gather up all of your gift cards and spend the money that’s left on them. The longer they sit, the more interest Apple or Borders or the department store will earn from your money and bigger the chance you’ll misplace the card.