A financial institution has identified four bank accounts specifically designed for college graduates. The timing is remarkable. Graduate in May. Open a checking account in June. Watch your rent check bounce in July because you forgot about the minimum balance requirement buried in paragraph fourteen of the terms and conditions.
The accounts promise to grow your post-grad money while avoiding fees. They will do neither. You will get neither growth nor fee avoidance. What you will get is a 0.01% annual percentage yield and a $12 monthly maintenance charge unless you maintain a $5,000 minimum daily balance, which you obviously cannot do because you just graduated college and your net worth is negative $47,000.
The article assumes you have money to put somewhere. You do not have money. You have loan deferment and three months before Navient starts sending letters. But sure, let's talk about optimizing your savings strategy. Let's discuss certificate of deposit laddering and high-yield money market accounts. Let's pretend the $380 in your checking account requires sophisticated asset allocation.
Real life hits the moment you realize the advice is written for someone else. Someone whose parents paid for school. Someone who already has the money sitting there, waiting to be allocated across four different accounts for optimal fee avoidance. Someone who needs to decide between Ally and Marcus by Goldman Sachs instead of deciding between paying rent and paying for groceries.
The best checking account for a recent college graduate is the one that does not charge you $35 for being poor. The best savings account is your parents' house.
Photo by Honey Yanibel Minaya Cruz on Unsplash
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