In this video, I'm going to share why I switched from using Ally to Wealthfront with my savings. I am currently saving up for a home down payment, so I'm trying to save up as much money as possible and to do that I want to have every advantage possible to me. So I did decide to switch from Ally and Capital One to Wealthfront. I still love those other banks and I think they're great high yield savings accounts, but there's a few reasons why I decided that Wealthfront was worth trying out this year. So this video will share those reasons and give you my initial review of Wealthfront as a to save your money and how it stacks up compared to other banks and apps that I've used.
So first let's talk about why I'm using Wealthfront. The first reason is that they have a great rate. It's higher than the other accounts that I had. It is a 5% currently and the other high yield savings accounts I was using only had a 4.35% rate. So just switching over, I'm immediately getting a little bit more money on my cash that I'm putting in here.
And if I refer people, which I often do to accounts that I'm using because other people like to try them out as well, I'll get a boost on that. So I'll get a 0.5 boost on my rate. So I could potentially have a rate right now of 5.5% versus the 4.35 that I currently had at my other.
bank. Sounds good to me. That just means I'll automatically be earning more money on the money that I put in here, which gets me to my goal faster. So that's definitely the main reason why I switched over. So at Wealthfront, I'm using their cash account.
I'm not currently using any of their actual investment accounts where they have a robo advisor that can select investments for you based on your risk profile. But I do love that style of investing and think it's a good option for a lot of people. So I'm really happy to actually look at that as a point as well and kind of see if it works for our purposes. But for now, I'm just using the cash account and there's no management fees or no extra fees on this. So it operates a lot like a high yield savings account, but it gives you a bigger return on your money.
Another reason why I switched over to Wealthfront is that they have the bucket style system that I really liked at other banks, and they call it categories. So basically within your one account, you can create categories of different items. For me, that was our home savings so I can put the money any far down payment there. It was also to save up for travel.
So I have a vacation category, then a fun family category, and also a category for gifts for giving and things like that. So those were the four that I immediately set up when I started Wealthfront. And I love that they give you this category option within your account.
So basically, anytime money goes into your account, you can put that money into the individual buckets or categories as they call it, and then you can save up for each goal. But it's all within the account. However, it lets you see the difference between what money is with which goal and that's a lot easier for most people than having a separate spreadsheet where you're kind of keeping track of everything inside one account. I find that the visual aspect of separating the money out is really useful for us and for a lot of other people which is why I wanted to try this out. And so far I really like how they have it set up.
And the third reason why I am trying out Wealthfront is that it was highly recommended and suggested by a lot of people that I really respect and also communities that I'm part of. It had really great reviews from all of those sources and anytime I mentioned a high yield savings account in any of my videos people would suggest Wealthfront as well. It wasn't really on my radar to start with but because it kept getting brought up so many times I decided that I was going to check it out and try it out this year and so far I'm really happy with that choice.
It was super easy to set up the account and I'm so far really enjoying it. Another couple reasons why I decided to switch over is that the UX in the app is actually really great. It looks amazing.
It's well designed. I love things that look nice. So if I'm going to be using an app for my savings every single week and checking in on it, I want it to look and function in a way that makes sense and is just really intuitive and easy.
Especially if I'm recommending it to people, I want to make sure that people are going to be able to understand how to use this app and how to actually put their money in and how to separate it into categories and how to put it into investments. So I just always like to make sure that the things I'm using and recommending actually function in a way that is logical and also beautiful and I think Wealthfront does that really well. In addition to that I think Wealthfront has a lot of really interesting planning tools and they have a lot of really great technology behind what they're doing there. So I really like some of the planning tools and you can link outside accounts and they take that into account when they're putting the numbers into the planning tool.
So if you have a certain goal you're wanting to hit they kind of pull everything together and it's really nice. do have that within an account. I think a lot of people like an all-in-one solution.
So if you're not using a different budgeting app or a net worth tracking device, you are going to Some of that built into Wealthfront, which I think is really helpful for some people. And those tools look really interesting. I haven't played around with them too much.
And then I also really like some of the stuff they have, like the tax optimization strategies. So they basically are helping people. people with tax loss harvesting and some of the more advanced things that, you know, you might not be thinking about when you're just getting into personal finance. But if you are a little bit more advanced, if you have a little bit more money, if you are really concerned about your tax.
situation. They have some really interesting stuff that I haven't dived too deep into. But I was really intrigued that that's even like on their radar and that they are really focused on that for a lot of different accounts if you're investing with them.
So I did like that they offer that. And then additionally, the final two things that were on my list were that they have a low minimum balance for investment accounts. If you're opening a cash account, which is what I am starting with, because I'm doing mainly saving for a shorter term goal, that is completely different. You can start with like a dollar and that is covered by FDIC insurance so your money is safe, it is fine, but they also have the investment side where you can start with $500 and that's a little bit higher than some options out there but it's still under $1,000 so it's still a little bit more reasonable for people to get started and I think that that is always a great option rather than having a really high bar that's in the multiple thousands and I love anything that is on the lower side to get started. so that people can start where they are and get access to some of these tools that are really useful and can help them.
So that is fantastic and one of the reasons why I chose Wealthfront as well. So those are the reasons why I switched over and let's talk about what I think so far. I've only been using it for a few weeks but honestly I really enjoy it so far. Like I said it's well designed, it is logical, everything looks good and makes sense inside the app.
I really like how they separate out your individual cash account into the category so I can see my individual cash account balance that is like my home, vacation, gift, fun right under it. That looks really good and is a very easy way to kind of process that information when you're looking at your bank balance so you don't have to like go into different areas and it's really just all laid out very simply which is fantastic. So far transferring money into this account and between the different categories in the account has been really simple. Doing a transfer has been quick.
They're actually probably quicker than some of the other things that I've used, which is fantastic. I like that. Of course, I've only done it a couple times. So this is just an initial review. I haven't run into any problems with transfers yet.
But I have seen that it works really well so far. Of course, I do like the idea that they have a three month boost for your account where you can earn an extra 0.5 APY on your rate so that you can earn more money. And every time you refer someone, you can get that little rate boost, which is really nice.
Of course, I hope that I can get some as well, maybe. if you're watching this video you want to use my link down below and give me that little boost for my savings but I also like that because it is something that anyone can do it's not something that's only an affiliate program that just me an influencer or a youtuber can get it's something that you can get to you can refer your friends you can refer your family every three months you can refer people and get that as well so that you can earn money too and I like the referral programs like that where it's everyone using the app or the bank can actually get those as well. It's not just for the high and mighty on the influencer side. So I will definitely update and create a video six months and maybe a year later after using Wealthfront and kind of diving deeper into all of those aspects of what they offer. But for now, my initial review is really positive.
It's been a good experience so far. It was super easy to set up my account. And so far transferring money over and rebuilding my house savings has been so easy with Wealthfront. So I definitely give give it a two thumbs up and a five star for now.
I will be checking out all the things like customer service and all of that for my future reviews, but I just wanted to share why I switched over, what my initial thoughts were, and why maybe you want to try it too. If you do, I have a link down in the description box. And for now, I also have a list of all the different high yield savings accounts that you might want to try out. So if you're in the market for something new to help your savings grow, check out that video.