SmartyPig is a Des Moines, IA based company that offers online savings accounts that allow borrowers to save up for specific goals. Many in the financial blogosphere (including us) have compared SmartyPig to other online savings account offerings such as ING Direct and FNBO Direct, but maybe that’s not the most apt comparison. SmartyPig is probably better characterized as an online piggy-bank than a traditional online savings account.

Think back to your youth. When you wanted to purchase something, it’s possible that your parents made you save up and pay for it. Often this would come in the form of putting money into a piggy bank until you had enough to make your purchase. When the time came you would smash the piggy bank and take out your savings to make your purchase.

SmartyPig operates very much like an online piggy-bank, but instead of putting money into a ceramic pig, you’re putting it into an FDIC insured online savings account that’s offering a much better rate of return than any piggybank (and almost any other online savings account) would offer.

You put in money slowly, month by month, until you reach your savings goal. Typically SmartyPig users use the service to save up for major purchases such as new cars, vacations, and high-end consumer electronics. Once you have enough money in your SmartyPig savings account to meet your goal, you smash your virtual piggy-bank and then get your money back out in the form of an electronic transfer back to your bank or in the form of a gift card.

SmartyPig really is the 21^st century version of a piggy-bank, but it’s much better than any piggy-bank you might have put money into during your youth. You actually earn interest on the money you have in your piggy-bank and you have the opportunity to redeem the funds in the form of gift cards to major retails and you get a bonus for doing so. If you redeem your funds for a Macy’s gift card, you currently get a 12% bonus on your money.

SmartyPig also provides its customers with a number of tracking tools and calculators to help determine how and when they can meet their savings goals.

If you’re looking for a savings account to put money in and take money out as needed, SmartyPig probably isn’t the best fit for you, but if you need a modern version of a piggybank to save up for something, SmartyPig is an excellent choice.

Teaching children to practice sound financial fundamentals such as saving up for making major purchases and associating doing work and earning money is an important part of any family’s child development process. If you have a child that you would like to help learn to save money, there’s a great savings account offering that you should be aware of—SmartyPig.com.

If you’re not aware of SmartyPig, it’s a Des Moines, IA based company that offers an online savings account that helps you setup specific savings goals and tells you how much you need to save to meet that goal.

Many financial experts, including Dave Ramsey, suggest that you put your children on “commission” and pay them for the chores that they do, then take the earnings from the work that they do and allow them to save that money up for a purchase they might want to make, such as for a new bike, a wanted toy, or even for their first vehicle.

Using SmartyPig as the savings vehicle for when your child is saving up for their major purchase has a number of benefits. Your child will learn how online banking works first hand and will also get an idea of how earning interest works. They will also be learning to save and learning valuable internet usage skills.

SmartyPig’s website is easy-to-navigate and makes use of vibrant colors and imagery, making it very kid friendly. If your child is a bit older, say around 10, he or she will likely be able to login to their account themselves and track their own progress toward their savings goals.

SmartyPig might not be the best solution for younger children that might benefit from seeing their collection of cash grow visibly in a piggy bank or savings jar, but it’s a great option for kids starting at around age 8 or 9, depending on the maturity of the child.

If you’re looking for a way to teach your kids to save, be sure to checkout SmartyPig.com

TradeKing is a highly competitive discount brokerage service that puts a high-emphasis on customer service. Here’s our TradeKing review.

Discount brokers have been out in force for over a decade now. As a trader, you want to be able to buy and sell stocks, have your trades executed quickly and not have your returns be eaten up by trading fees. There are a number f firms that do this relatively well, but after taking a look at TradeKing’s services, we believe that its offerings are some of the most competitive in the market.

TradeKing places a strong emphasis on customer service and has a reputation for being one of the most customer friendly discount brokerages in the industry. It’s won many awards including “Best Customer Service”, “Best for Option Traders” and “Best for Long-Term Investing” according to Barron’s and Smart Money. TradeKing customers can get support via an 800 number where you can talk to a live human being or you can even chat with one of their representatives live. Regardless of which customer service option you take, you’ll be able to get your questions answered within minutes.

Our TradeKing Review leads us to believe that TradeKing offers some very solid technologies. Their website simply doesn’t go down. There are also a lot of extensive user interface tools, research tools and the company does an excellent job of executing trades quickly and  routing funds.

TradeKing’s prices are almost impossible to beat when it comes to stock trade pricing. The company charges just $4.95 per trade and $0.65 per options contract. It’s easily one of the lowest rates in the industry and stays the same regardless of how often you trade. The company’s pricing is straight forward and you can even trade through the phone for just $4.93 per trade as well. If your computer is down or don’t have online access, you can know with peace of mind that you can trade over the phone.

TradeKing’s stock picker is also best of breed. The company offers all sorts of filters so that you don’t have to comb through individual stocks to find investments that meet your criteria. The company also offers free technical analysis with every account—a critical component for short-term trading. The company offers great charts for shares and provides you a concise analysis summary about each stock.

If you’re looking for a discount stock broker, TradeKing is definitely worth your consideration.