RESOURCE: Online Banks

I'm going to open an online bank account as part of monetizing my cat. Why? Because I want to take this seriously. I think it's easy to trick yourself into thinking you won't succeed, especially when you have another full-time job like I do. Then you never put the energy into your side-streams of income, because you're sitting pretty. Dangerous!

Think about it: some of the most successful people are people who start with nothing. What? Crazy, you say. No, really. Look at George Soros. Here's a guy who almost died trying to get out of Hungary as a kid. When he managed to escape to England, do you think he cared when he got fired from his job at the mannequin factory? No, he kept going with everything he had. So when he got an entry-level financial job, he was well set mentally go all the way.

Not only did he have nothing to lose, he knew how awful losing would have been. He lived through the Battle for Budapest-- Nazis and Soviets fighting in the city. How could he not survive-- and thrive-- when put somewhere people weren't shooting at him? When he had open financial markets and a chance to prosper?

Monetizing my cat has no such risk, even though Zooey's not declawed. Actually, that's not true. The biggest risk is that I don't take monetizing my cat seriously. I don't need it to survive, but that doesn't mean it's not important to us both.

So opening this bank account is a way of drawing a line in the sand. I WILL monetize my cat! It tells me I'm not just fooling around.

But...

WHICH BANKS?

Well, there are a number of online banks. The two biggest ones are:

HSBC

and

ING DIRECT

Both pioneered online banking by offering high rates-- comparable to CDs at brick-and-mortar banks-- by doing everything online. So the drawback is they have little infrastructure.

HSBC in particular only has ATMs on the east coast, and it's hard to find on their website where they actually are. ING has more, and "cafes" in a few select large cities-- Chicago, NYC, LA-- but their ATM indicator is easy to find and they've got ATMs all over, at least in my neck of the woods. (HSBC does pay you back if you use other banks' ATMs and get charged a fee, but I hate the extra hassle.)

HSBC's rate is 4.25% right now in January 2007, and ING is 4.10%. Both were a LOT higher when they opened, but the banking disasters have hit them. (I have found nothing to indicate HSBC may be in trouble, but I'd keep an eye on it. Citi has certainly been roughed up.) Other banks have higher rates online, like Zion's Bank in Utah. Bankrate.com lists rates, but many of the other banks have a high initial rate that drops after 3 months. The Big Two have rates that can change with the market, but they don't hide fees and they don't have radical drops. I don't want to chase my money around and I don't want to spend too much time chasing rates when I could be monetizing my cat. Or, post-monetization, chasing mice with her in these the halcyon days of our youth.

I am leaning towards ING. Why? I've actually never used an ATM. My college friends treated ATMs like overindulgent parents, so I long ago decided not to have an ATM card. Self-discipline. So I'm a little wary of using another bank's ATM if HSBC's ATMs are hundreds of miles away. Also, ING has a great reputation for customer service, just poking around forums online. I want the money there, and I don't want hassles. Sounds good.

Also, some other blogs on the same topic with more detail:

• Trent from The Simple Dollar has both & compares them in his direct, pleasant style
  
• My Money Blog is from '06, but has tons of interesting comments
  
• Five Cent Nickel with more info
  

So I'll let you know how it goes! Take care!

Where's Zooey? And Cat-Money Tips!

Zooey asked me to monetize her. But she hasn't been too helpful about it...

See, she was a stray who came into my life. I saw her and knew I had a new best friend, but I also knew things wouldn't be all cuddly like with Dane's Mr. MacMuffin. He's a housecat, but Zooey needs her freedom. She's not a swinger, she's just an outside cat.

I got a house for her, and she has a little timeshare on the deck, picture below.


Figure 1. Cat timeshare.

I hear you shouldn't get timeshares in non-cat life, though. They tend not to be good deals. We're all about good deals!

Anyway, I'd like to talk about some of these monetization options with her, but she's been gone all day. That's not unusual-- I won't put out a xeroxed "Have You Seen Me?" sign for a week yet, and she'll be back by night I'm sure. I'll just hang out and wait.

Meanwhile, let me list some tips for frugal cat-living.

1. Get nice things for your cats, but don't spoil them. Mr. MacMuffin I think has had his life shortened by Dane's untrammeled love. The cat weighs 25 pounds. I'm serious! It's like an ottoman with a head and a tail. I think it cuddles up with him because it can't move away.
2. Pick one gift and make it the nicest gift. Mine is Zooey's house, which was custom-built. (The timeshare was on sale for a couple of bucks.) But that means I don't have to worry about getting a lot of other gifts she won't appreciate. (By the way, I don't mean "the nicest gift you can afford.")
   
3. Don't sweat the food. I mean, I'm no gourmet either. Besides, I think the cat has side-streams of food, but I don't want to think about it.
4. Most important gift: LOVE. Best way to express it: take true care of your cat! Which is more important, Love and companionship or a bunch of expensive junk? A gold-leaf collar or a vet checkup to prevent feline diabetes? Seriously, make sure you love your cat for a long time by getting regular health checkups and ensuring it has a healthy, active lifestyle. This is especially important for housecats, because we don't want them to turn in Mr. MacMuffin, all full of stuffin.

CATpitalism Plan, Part I.

As Zooey and I figure out new ways to monetize my cat/her self, I want to take a moment to list some of the ways we're first think of doing it.

This will outline our plans-- broadly-- and give you some ideas if you too want to monetize your cat.

1. First, establish this blog so we can reach fellow cat-n-money-lovers. Done!
2. Set up Google Adwords. Done!
   
3. Build traffic. Get the word out.
4. Set up a separate bank account for these online actions. I want to make some money here, but I want it to be separate from my day job and my other accounts. I don't want to come home and find Zooey hopped up on catnip. So I'm looking into some on-line banking accounts to choose one for my transactions here. That way I can see how much I'm making, and how much I'm spending.
5. Figure out non-ad related ways of making money with Zooey. Not factory work, but working with her marketable skills. We'll do a skills assessment later in the week.
   

After all, most of the Internet now seems based on ad revenue. What else can we do? I think it just takes some creativity to figure out...

(I'll update the CATpitalism Plan now and then so you can see how I'm doing, and how I've adjusted it.)

First Steps to Money Online

Zooey is an outside cat, so I guess that makes me a code monkey. I spent yesterday afternoon setting up the blog while she did whatever it is she does, running around in the woods and having tea with the forest creatures, I guess.

I went ahead and set up a Google Adsense account. I'll let you know how it goes. So far, we have two hits and $0.00 in the bank.

They allow three ads per page. You can use other ad providers, but not if they look like Google's. (Yahoo's out.) And I'm not sure I like the look of the things, but they seem to have figured out our feline focus.

I left some food out for Zooey. I wanted to let her know we were on our way!

How My Cat Became a CATpitalist

My cat Zooey and I were sitting on the deck talking. Zooey looks at me and says:

"Cat-Daddy, I'm ready. Monetize me."

I look at Zooey and reply, "Huh? What are you talking about, Zooey?"

Zooey walks around my lawn chair and rubs up against its leg. Then she stares out from between the slats of the deck at a squirrel. "I want to contribute to the household. Monetize me!"

"But how? You're such a shy and temperamental cat, not like the neighbor's Mr. MacMuffin. That cat would be on TV if he knew how."

"I don't know. Try to figure something out." With that, Zooey ran off the deck into the yard and disappeared. As I sat there perplxed, I realized she could be right.

After all, cats are like children. Both come into your world, and love you even as you love them. Both are companions and friends. We expect children to grow up and provide for themselves, and take care of us when we grow old. We never expect our pets to do the same-- so I was touched that Zooey would offer to help out with the bills in such a way!

So THIS is the story of how I have started to monetize my cat! Together Zooey and I will try to make some money online, even as we get our offline accounts all in a row. Check back here as we share some of our successes (and failures-- though hopefully not too many) with you.

If we're lucky, we can ALL become CATpitalists!