Banks for You!

That’s the good news. Now, the bad news. Wymar has a pretty restrictive field of membership. Credit Unions are allowed to restrict who can join to certain organizations, geographies, places of workship, or other criteria. Wymar membership is open to:

• Employees of BASF Corporation who work in Geismar, Louisiana and members of their immediate family
• Employees of this credit union and members of their immediate family
• Un-remarried spouses of persons who died while within the field of membership of this credit union
• Persons retired as pensioners or annuitants from BASF Corporation
• Organizations of such persons

Not all credit unions are this restrictive. Last week, I reviewed Fredercia Federal Credit and they allow anyone to join.

If you do quality, the credit union looks financially strong. Wymar FCU was established in 1958 and operates one branch in Geismer, LA. The credit union has a low Texas Ratio ( learn more about the Texas Ratio) of 4.71% versus the national average of 10.34% (the lower the Texas Ratio the better). Wymar holds $67.66 million in assets.

Wymar is NCUA insured, the credit union equivalent of FDIC insurance.

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This is a Virginia Heritage Bank CD rates January Review, 2012 that is happy to announce there were no more reductions in the CD rates being offered the public. This allows for more consistency when you are investing your money with this financial intuition.

The minimum deposit for opening a certificates of deposit account is $500.

The current bank CD rates include the 3 month CD that is earning an APY of 0.35%. The 6 month CD is earning an APT of 0.35%.

The 9 month CD is earning an APY of 0.50%. The 1 year CD is earning an APY of 1.00%. The 18 month CD is earning an APY of 1.15%.

The 2 year CD is earning an APY of 1.20%. The 30 month CD is earning an APY of 1.25%. The 3 year CD is earning an APY of 1.55%.

The 4 year CD is earning an APY of 1.75%. The best CD rates are from the 5 year CD that is earning an APY of 2.00%.

There is also IRA CDs being offered by the Virginia Heritage Bank and are slightly better than the standard CD rates. The minimum deposit amount is still at $500. The current IRA CD rates include the 3 month CD that is earning an APY of 0.40%.

The 6 month CD is earning an APT of 0.40%. The 9 month CD is earning an APY of 0.55%.

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An aggressive supermarket price war and a range of high street promotions are expected to trigger a sharp fall in December’s inflation figure on Tuesday.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is expected to reveal that the consumer prices index (CPI) rate of inflation fell to 4.2% last month, from 4.8% in November, according to consensus City forecasts.

The drop, down from September’s three-year peak of 5.2%, came as a vicious supermarket price war unfolded and an unprecedented number of pre-Christmas promotions were put on by retailers desperate to drum up trade.

A further drop in the rate of inflation is likely to reinforce arguments in favour of holding interest rates at historic lows of 0.5%, after thinktank CEBR predicted they will be held until 2016, as well as another boost to the quantitative easing programme.

Victoria Cadman, an economist at Investec, who has forecast CPI to come in at 4.3%, said: “Evidence for December to date suggests that it has been another month of heavy discounting on the high street, helping to keep a hold on clothing and other goods price inflation.”

Earlier this month, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said shop price inflation fell to 1.7% in December down from 2% in November – its lowest level for 16 months.

The rate of inflation for non-food items was at a two-year low of 0.3%, and significantly down on 0.8% in the previous month. T

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One of my favorite blogs is kottke.org – a daily posting of fun facts, videos, photos and essays from around the web. Kottke recently posted a chart from a website called XKCD called “A chart of almost all the money” showing a huge visual representation of big picture things about money like how much a billion dollars can buy, total government spending, who are the wealthiest people in the world, etc.

This chart goes into amazing detail and it has a lot to teach us about the larger world of money. Here are some of the fun facts I found from “The Money Chart.”

Movies are big business, but they used to be even bigger. Although the modern film industry is still going strong, some of the most successful movies of all time were released during the 1930s. Adjusted for inflation, the top-grossing box office blockbusters of all time are Gone With the Wind (1939) ($3.16 billion), Snow White (1937) ($2.84 billion) and Star Wars (1977) ($1.68 billion). During the 1930s, 80 million Americans bought movie tickets each year.

America is governed by millionaires. The average net worth of a U.S. Senator is $13.4 million, and the average net worth of a U.S. Congressi

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The SchoolFirst Federal Credit Union CD rates are today’s subject from Highest CD Rates.

The SchoolFirst Federal Credit Union certificate of deposit rates are in a tiered format with the minimum amounts being $500, $20,000, $50,000 and $100,000. Since our last visit in October of 2011 the CD rates have not changed. Also available are the IRA CDs, but their rates are slightly higher.

The current CD rates include the 30 day CD that is earning an APY of 0.15%, 0.20%, 0.25% and 0.30% respectively. The 3 to 5 month CD is earning an APY of 0.25%, 0.30%, 0.35% and 0.40%.

The 6 to 11 month CD is earning an APY of 0.30%, 0.35%, 0.40% and 0.45%. The 1 year to 17 month CD is earning an APY of 0.35%, 0.40%, 0.45% and 0.50%.

The 18 month To 23 month CD is earning an APY of 0.45%, 0.50%, 0.55% and 0.60%.  The 2 year to 35 month CD is earning an APY of 0.55%, 0.60%, 0.65% and 0.70%.

The 3 year to 47 month CD is earning an APY of 0.85%, 0.90%, 0.95% and 1.00% respectively. The

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