A Great Way to Save for a House Down Payment
My spouse and I have been ING Direct customers since early 2001 when they first came out in Canada and often recommend it without any reservation to our friends and family as a truly great financial management tool. This is especially true now that I am a mortgage broker helping people get into homes. It helps you save your money and earn interest considerably higher than the average of the major banks.
What we like most about this account is that it is a great way to create a forced savings plan. It is “set and forget”, meaning you set it up over the Internet, first to link it your primary banking account (say BMO chequing, for example), then to “take” a specific amount of money every month on a specific day from the primary bank account. We like to set up the auto debit to coincide with payday! That way, we never even see the money, so we are not tempted to spend it! Meanwhile, we are building savings as fast as we desire to meet our savings goals. You can modify the savings plan at any time and move money back and forth with your primary bank account easily via the Internet when the time comes to access it. This is really a great financial management tool.
Another great feature is that, since there are no fees or minimum required balances, we can have as many accounts as we want to manage! Over the years, we have used one for a rain-day fund (financial planners say you should have 3 months living expenses set aside), another for annual regular and unplanned expenses (car insurance, house insurance, maintenance and repair stash, etc.), once for a vacation, and we even have one for gift giving (Christmas, birthdays, etc.). The uses are varied and it is the “set and forget” that we like the most. We also feel great, knowing that we have achieved a certain level of financial discipline and stability, which we know is a good thing.
Anyway, as a mortgage broker, I now recommend this product to clients getting into home ownership. To learn more, follow the link to ING’s website, then select Investment Savings Account (ISA) and Learn More. There is a great calculator tool called See How Easy it is to Save, which helps you determine how quickly you can accumulate your desired down payment.
http://www.ingdirect.ca/en/save-invest/savingsaccounts/index.html
You may also be interested to know that ING currently has a promotion on for new accounts, though not many know about it. They will add $25 to your account assuming you start off with a $100 deposit. All you have to do is put this promo key (20376327S1) where it says “Orange Key” at the bottom of the enrollment form.
What do you think of this idea? Would it help you save more?