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Moving to an Online Bank

January 12th, 2016 at 10:48 pm

I recently decided to finally switch banks. I've been postponing this because I know what a time-suck it will be to transfer all my different retail/membership/direct deposit/etc accounts to the new checking account.

I recently opened an interest-yielding checking account through online bank Ally and a savings account through them as well. I've read many good things about them on NerdWallet, BankRate, etc. Any of you have an opinion on Ally?

What finally made me put on my big girl pants and do this was because my dad recently passed away and he had life insurance in which I am a beneficiary. I didn't want that death benefit check sitting in a checking account doing nothing.
I am also in the progress of selling my townhouse in Minnesota and will be getting check for the mortgage/purchase price difference and didn't want that sitting in an account that wouldn't do anything either.

I've never done any investing other than a 401K (and buying a couple Powerball tickets this week for the first time ever) so I figured a high-yield interest savings account was the first logical step.

Rental License??

April 8th, 2015 at 10:03 pm

I'm prepping to move to Montana in June and I own a townhouse in Minnesota that I plan on just renting out. As I am knee-deep in working with my property management company, I find out I need to let the city know I plan on renting it out. My association, sure. The city? Fine. I contact the city and find out I need to APPLY for a rental license! Seriously? Apparently I'm completely oblivious to things because I assumed if I owned a home it was mine to do what I wanted (within reason of course.)
Turns out I had to pay $325 to apply for the 3-year rental license ($100) and have a city inspector come "approve" my home ($225). I was shocked and maybe naive to think I had to pay so much just to rent out my own home.
Anyone else rent out their home and come across this? Yikes!