Here’s Where This Financial Planner Keeps Her Money (Hint: Not Big Banks)

After becoming a financial planner last year, Denisa Petricko took a closer look at her own finances.

A lump of her money sat quietly at Wells Fargo.

With a more informed eye, the 40-year-old resident, whose primary gig is as a real estate agent, started investigating what the bank did with her money.

“After looking at the breakdowns of how my money was being handled by a larger bank, I realized that I had large sums just sitting in an account accumulating interest — but not for me,” she says in an email. “It was for the banks themselves.”

Petricko met with her bank’s financial consultants to see if there was anything out there that’d help her out — earn her some interest.

The meetings led nowhere.

Then, in the summer of 2017, as she clicked through Elephant Journal, an online yoga-centric magazine (she’s also a certified yoga instructor — holy side gigs!), she stumbled upon an article about the Aspiration Account.

When she read the online checking account would collect up to 1% in interest — for her to keep — she was sold.

Why This Financial Planner Banks With Aspiration

Although the initial sell for Petricko was the interest rate, she’s come to love many other parts of Aspiration and her account, including:

• As we mentioned in a previous Aspiration review, Aspiration is a do-good company, focusing on what’s best for not only you, but also the planet. You can even track the impact of your spending based on the retailers you frequent.
• It allows you to choose what you pay each month — even if that’s $0. Additionally, there are no sneaky fees. There’s no minimum balance and no minimum monthly deposit. Plus, you can open an account with just $10.
• You can travel (which Petricko does frequently for both business and pleasure) without facing insane ATM fees. In fact, ATM fees across the world are 100% refundable. Aspiration automatically reimburses you each month.
• Aspiration has an easy-to-use app and website, making it accessible everywhere there’s cell phone or internet service.
• It also offers investment options, including its Redwood Fund and Flagship IRA accounts — all of which Petricko has in one convenient spot.

It’s been more than a year since this financial planner trusted Aspiration with her money, and she says she has no regrets; she’s yet to have a negative experience.

In fact, Petricko would go as far as to call Aspiration’s online-only model “banking of the future.”

“The big banks are proving to be crooked,” she says. “…Aspiration gave me new hope in banking.”

With her old bank, she was lucky to earn 8 cents a month on a $10,000 balance. That’s because, Petricko explains, the bank was earning interest interest for themselves — from her money.

Now, Aspiration’s high-yield account slides $5 to $10 into her account each month, thanks to those interest rates.

Petricko wholeheartedly recommends Aspiration to her clients, her friends and her family.

If you’re interested in learning more about the online-only bank account, head over to Aspiration.

We may receive compensation from Aspiration for promoting the company, but we weren’t paid for this specific review. All reporting is our own.

Carson Kohler (carson@thepennyhoarder.com) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She too banks with Aspiration and broke down why she loves it (as well as a few downsides).

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

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