Keeping Nickels

Should You Move Your Money?

Nichelle Stephens — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:30:46 +0000

There’s a movement to get people to move their from big banks. I am a big fan of credit unions and community banks, but I am a bigger fan of diversifying your money. I recommend spreading your money around.

Small Business Retailers: Ready, Set, Sell

Nichelle Stephens — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 20:13:03 +0000

It’s go time. Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday are coming. Here are some tips to help small business retailers this week.

Five Foursquare Tactics To Attract Customers
How To Work Holiday Craft Shows and Artisan Flea Markets Without Going Nuts
Are you an Etsy seller? Etsy just launched an iPhone app to track sales
Small Business Saturday is November 26. Tell your customers!

Piggymojo Partners With Brooklyn Federal Credit Union

Nichelle Stephens — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 11:25:54 +0000

Brooklyn Cooperative Federal Credit Union, a nonprofit, low‐income designated credit union, will offer the Piggymojo solution to new and existing account holders to boost savings balances. Piggymojo uses goal visualization, social commitments, and mobile and online technology to help consumers quantify and enjoy the act of not buying. Research shows that impulse buying provides momentary satisfaction, but hinders savings efforts and contributes to debt. The goal of the Piggymojo project is to help low‐income earners increase their savings by motivating and enabling them to make ‘impulse saves’ that retain the satisfaction element of impulse buying without the financial costs. This project will integrate the Piggymojo solution with Brooklyn Cooperative’s core platform so that the impulse save results in money actually moving from the user’s checking account into a savings account.

Free Checking Options Are Dying

Nichelle Stephens — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 15:49:39 +0000

I was listening to NPR yesterday and hear a report about how banks are charging higher fees for basic checking accounts. Free checking is becoming extinct as the big banks need more revenue streams.

Thank goodness you can still find free checking. I myself use ING Direct and Ally, but there are more options if you should check out My Bank Tracker.
MyBankTracker provides a free, easy-to-use website that lets consumers find the best banks, interest rates, peer reviews, The site fills an industry void by providing a transparent, accurate and consistent source of online banking information.>has added “Bank Deals” to its web portal. Banks can sign up for Bank Deals to have their promotions searchable on the site. Bank Deals gives consumers the additional ability to search for deals based on the most popular and latest promotional offerings.

Introducing New York First

Nichelle Stephens — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 14:53:09 +0000

New York First is a business-focused portal to the wealth of incentives, programs and resources available to companies –large and small – within New York State and those that choose to relocate here. The site is administered by Empire State Development, but dozens of other agencies are represented. We are confident that the financial incentives and technical expertise found here – searchable by type of assistance, industry, size of business, MWBE (Minority and Women Business) status and more.

This looks like a great resources and efficient way to find anything related to starting a business in New York.

Finovate Day 2 and Best In Show

Nichelle Stephens — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 21:11:16 +0000

Yesterday, I arrived at Finovate a wee bit tired after hanging out Brandy Library with some of the conference attendees the night before. The whiskey tasting was fun and informative.

Anyway back to the conference. A great way to keep up with the 56 companies who presented is to check out this mind map created by Maarten Korz.

Hey Developers! You may want to consider developing financial apps. Yodlee is the web platform for financial apps, and there are more than 200 developers using the Yodlee platform.

The 7 Best in Show winners:

Betterment

Makes long term investing easy to do. Facilitates re-balancing.

BillShrink

Saves you money on mobile, cable.

Bundle

Sorta like Mint.com but giving more info to make personal finance decisions.

Dynamics

Innovating credit cards and making them more secure

oFlows

Making loan applications easiers. (B to B)

PayNearMe

provides the underbanked with a way to pay in cash for ecommerce transactions at 7-Eleven stores all over the country.

SecureKey

Providing more security for financial info. (B to B)

I really enjoyed the conference. I learned a lot. Hat’s off to all the companies making personal financial management and creating products that help small businesses manage their cash flow.

Captital Access Network: Small Business Lending

Nichelle Stephens — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 18:17:10 +0000

Capital Access Network has a new underwriting model for lending money to small businesses. Instead of reliance on FICO scores, Capital looks at daily cash and credit remittance.

Kashoo

Nichelle Stephens — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:42:34 +0000

Kashoo is online accounting software for small business. The fee is $9.95 per month. Synchronize between web and mobile. Does invoicing. Can view and import bank accounts. Kashoo looks like a good alternative for freelancers or very small businesses.

Summary of Finovate East Day 1

Nichelle Stephens — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 20:23:50 +0000

Today is the first day of Finovate. First off, there’s a definite clash of cultures. Lots of people are wearing suits. I was here last year, so it doesn’t surprise me at all. Some of the start-up guys are surprised to see suit and ties. Another thing is that Finovate is much bigger than last year. It’s two days. There’s a nice laptop lounge. There were waffles for an afternoon snack.

Demos: There are so many of the companies are in the Personal Finance Management PFM space. Some of them are redundant, but many of the ones that look good are using Yodlee. Mint is noticeably absent, mainly because they totally PWNED the PFM space.

The ones that I have liked so far: Credit Sesame, Betterment, CashEdge’s Pop Money, and H&R’s Tax Center. All of these are providing solutions for both consumers and small businesses.

Complaint: iPad Apps. IMHO, there are impractical for personal finance. Most people will do their banking on their native computer or laptop since that’s where all their passwords and cookies are stored. I really doubt iPad users will really migrate that information over.

From the Finovate hashtag: “There are two emerging trends-social media meets PFM and payday lending meets Web 2.0.”

Summary Of Finovate Day 1

Nichelle Stephens — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 20:16:12 +0000

First off, there’s a definite clash of cultures. Lots of people are wearing suits. I was here last year, so it doesn’t surprise me at all. Some of the start-up guys are surprised to see suit and ties. Another thing is that Finovate is much bigger than last year. It’s two days. There’s a nice laptop lounge. There were waffles for an afternoon snack.

The ones that I have liked so far: Credit Sesame, Betterment, Pop Money, and H&R’s Tax Center. All of these are providing solutions for both consumers and small businesses.

Complaint: iPad Apps. Impractical. Most people will do their banking on their native computer or laptop since that’s where all their passwords and cookies are stored. I really doubt iPad users will really migrate that information over.