Good morning Reader!

The headlines from last week were focused on SpaceX's IPO but there's a bigger story and it comes from the Chicago Fed's Advance Retail Trade Summary.

​Retail and food services sales fell 1.3% in May. (adjusted for inflation and seasonality)

Americans are buying less stuff. And consumer spending is roughly 2/3rds of the economy.

A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP "growth" - but you have to experience six months of a recession before you call it a recession. If you are concerned, I would prepare for a recession ASAP.

I've been beating on this drum for a while now (sorry!) because I think it's better to be prepared and wrong than unprepared and wrong.

Oh, did I mention there's a Fed rate meeting today? It's the first led by new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh and they're expected NOT to change rates.

💲 Best Bank Rates (as of 6/17):

💰 High Yield Savings - 3.80% APY + $50/$400 from SoFi​

🏛️ Short Term Treasury - VBIL 3.56%, SGOV 3.55%

📀 Certificates of Deposit (see all 40k+ rates)

🔍 We list nationwide rates, CD Valet has local rates which can be higher so click through to double check for your state.

• 6 months: 4.20% from Quorum FCU (7 mo)
• 12 months: 4.15% from LendingClub Bank (11mo)
• 60 Months: 4.05% from Bank of Iowa ($50k min)

💵 Bank Bonuses - $200 Barclays, $400 Sofi, $500 Bank of America, $400 BMO, $1200 Raisin & more​

​(View this email as a webpage)​

🛠️ Tighten up your finances

With the economy and the American household showing signs of weakness, it's important that we all tighten up our finances and plug in any leaks.

Here are 7 areas to look at today:

​👉 Invisible dangers of too much cash​

💵 Paze is "giving out" $100 per credit card

Paze is a digital wallet created by the same folks as Zelle and they are now offering a $10 statement credit for each purchase over $10. You can do this ten times PER eligible credit card.

For a day, people were buying $10 gift cards at Newegg (I shared it on Instagram) to take advantage of this but this isn't possible anymore. They removed gift cards as an option.

While they patched the ability to get free gift cards, the $10 statement credit per purchase is still available until September 10th.

​ 👉 Paze Spend $10, Get $10 Back Promotion​

🗞️ Money Stuff I Found Interesting

Here are some interesting articles you may have missed (a lot of Wall Street Journal this week!):

• ⭐ ‘This Is Not Financial Advice’ [Noema] - Be careful who you listen to online, especially if they promise anything.
• ​Money Is the Easiest Way To Measure Your Life. But It Is Not the Best [Mr. Stingy]
• ​Behind Every Dad Bod Is a Healthy Dad Brain [New York Times]
• ​You Have No Idea What a Trillion Dollars Is—and We Have Proof [Wall Street Journal]
• ​Use This Trick Before Your Next Purchase [MoneyLion]
• ​FDA allows popular sunscreen ingredient long used in Europe and Asia [NBC News] - We use this!

💵 Good Deals If You Need Them

• ​Cardpointers is 50% off this week - I use it to auto-opt into Chase Offers.
• ​Get $50 from Rakuten after purchases totalling $50+ in 90 days.
• 📕 Did the IRS penalize you from 2020 - 2023? If so, you can get it refunded. You can do it yourself (IRS instructions) or work with PenaltyBack (no up-front fee, they only charge a 25% success fee). Deadline to act is July 10th.
• 📀 Wondering if you have a good CD rate? CD Valet has this APY checker that compares it against their universe of 40,000+ CD rates.

What did you think of today's email?​
✅ I Loved It! 🟨 It Was Okay ❌ Not My Favorite​

Talk to you soon!

Jim

PS. Periodically, I share bank bonuses on a separate list. If you want to get it, click here.

​(see archive of previous emails)​