Hey Everyone, it’s that time again when I recommend some crap that you probably don’t want to read about, but it makes me happy and passes a lazy Sunday morning.
This week I want to recommend something really exciting…wait for it…a bank! But not just any bank, a social media bank. Wow I feel douchy just typing that I can’t imagine saying it out loud, but hear me out. The bank I am talking about is actually an automatic savings plan backed by a real bank. They are called SmartyPig and I guess you could call it a piggy bank for adults.
I started using SmartyPig last year when the wife and I were saving for our honeymoon and her laptop. The basic premise is that you set a savings goal which is an amount you want to save and a date you want to target. Then you link your account to your normal bank account and SmartyPig figures out how much you will need to transfer every month to hit your target by the date you want. That’s it, now every month you have an automatic savings transfer.
The concept is simple, but the reason I’m recommending it is two-fold. First, you get 2.00% APY on the account which is better than pretty much any other savings account out there right now. They used to be higher (as high as 4.5% as I recall), but everyone’s rates have fallen I’m hopeful that it will go up again someday. The second bonus is that when you cash out, you can opt to have your money cashed out into a gift card and get an additional boost. This isn’t great for all savings goals, but if you were going to buy camping gear from REI anyway, why not get the boost? Of course, you can also ACH your money back to your regular bank account for free. In case you worry about such things, your money is actually held at West Bank and is FDIC insured just like a regular bank account.
Like I said, I’ve used SmartyPig for big and small goals and they have been really great all around. It looks like they have addressed one of their biggest complaints too. Now when you transfer money it clears very quickly. It used to take 3-5 business days, but I transferred money and it was added to my goal within a day! Finally, you may want to follow them on twitter at @SmartyPig they do a monthly contest where you can win a $100 gift card. Oh man, I forgot, family and friends can also contribute to your savings goal by buying you a savings gift card. Allright, I’ve said enough. If you want to save up for something, check out the site, I’m not getting anything out of this, I just think it’s a cool concept and well executed.
Hello, I don’t think I’ve actually ever said who I am…and I’m not going to now, but suffice it to say I’m Sean and I occasionally post silly links and stuff here.
Enough about me. We all like something and there are those things that you like enough that you want to tell other people about it. So, I figured this would be a cool place to occasionally write about something I like and that I recommend. Maybe this will become a regular thing, maybe I will forget about this idea in 2 hours. I know you won’t cry if I do.
Today I am recommending podcasts (click the link if you don’t know what a podcast is). I love me some podcasts. I walk my dog twice a day (lately I’ve been lazy and my wife has been picking up the slack in the mornings because she’s awesome like that). I also take the bus to work and clean the dishes. All of this is time that podcasts make more enjoyable. I am not sure when this obsession started, but I’m hooked now and I have a decent list that I listen to weekly. I’m not going to list them all in this post, but I will list some of my favorites and why. In some future (possibly mythical) Sean Recommends post I will list more.
Welcome to the Future - Technology Podcast I recommend:
This Week in Tech - Remember Tech TV? Well, Tech TV was a great cable/satellite station at one point that I greatly enjoyed before it was sold off and married to G4TV where it became a giant heaping steam of crap. Far and away the best part of Tech TV was The ScreenSavers. This was a show that in its heyday was hosted by Leo Laporte and Patrick Norton. Overall it was an open format show that covered all things tech from software picks to how to build a cheap computer to interviews with leading tech people. It was rough at the edges in all the right ways that made it highly enjoyable. All of this is to say that This Week in Tech (aka TWiT) is both a show and a network of podcasts started by Leo Laporte. TWiT is a panel of tech pundit folks having an open format conversation about the week’s tech news. It’s usually about an hour and a half, but it could be shorter or longer. If you ever watched The Screen Savers or Tech TV then you will recognize many of the guests on the show. So, if you like to geek out and keep up with the technology goings on, I recommend this one. One last thing, if you catch a show with Jason Calacanis on it, try one more before you delete it from iTunes. There are days when Calacanis makes it a good show and there are days when I want to rip the headphones out of my ears because he annoys me so much.
Tekzilla - I can’t recommend TWiT and talk about The Screen Savers without recommending Tekzilla. This one is a video podcast and it is probably the closest approximation to The Screen Savers out there. It is hosted by Patrick Norton and Veronica Belmont and covers a lot of the software recommendations, product reviews, and geeky topics from the Screen Savers days. It’s about 30-45 minutes and comes out weekly. I don’t watch this as much as I listen to my other podcasts, but when I do catch it I enjoy it. Fair warning, Veronica Belmont is a polarizing person people either like her or are insanely annoyed by her. My wife can’t stand be in the room when I watch, so you’ve been warned.
Macbreak Weekly - Macbreak Weekly (aka MBW) is another TWiT network show featuring Leo Laporte. So, if you didn’t like him on TWiT, then he will annoy you just as much here. It’s pretty much the same format as TWiT, but it’s all about the mac. There’s much more of a regular cast as well on MBW. Most weeks one or more of Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, and Scott Bourne are on the panel and I enjoy the banter even if it does sometimes get repetitive week to week. The best bit is finding out about new software for the mac or iPhone via the Macbreak picks of the week. At the end of each show, each host picks one piece of software they recommend (whoa, meta recommendation moment). You can check out past picks of the week at MBW Picks.
Those are just a few of the podcasts I listen to/watch. There are quite a few more that I will try and get to in time. In case you missed it, I already talked very briefly about You Look Nice Today. So, anyone out there (all 4 of you) have a favorite podcast or two?
