FINANCIAL HOUSEKEEPING | Christmas Club account a smart gift for yourself
If you are struggling to buy your annual holiday gifts without going deeper into debt, consider opening a Christmas Club account. Typically, club accounts (and some institutions will allow you to open them to save for other goals) require weekly or biweekly deposits of a fixed amount. Many institutions that offer the accounts require direct deposits from a paycheck.
The dollars involved tend to be small, but the accounts frequently pay above-average interest rates because the money flows in regularly and stays for a set period of time.
Deposits can be discontinued, but withdrawals typically are not allowed unless the account is closed and the entire balance is withdrawn. Typically, for an account opened now, that would be at the start of the shopping season next year.
SHORT COURSE | Topple rate
The topple rate is a concept designed to show the rate at which the group of leading companies – whether in a single industry or in a leadership position in the overall stock market – changes over time.
One common measure for the topple rate is membership in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, a position that would show a company to be one of the leading businesses on the market. However, studies have shown that the rate of change in membership on the index has increased dramatically over the last two decades, a sign that newer technologies have been emerging and growing into dominant industries while some older, less-advanced businesses have been in decline.
A high topple rate is considered a sign of an active economy, as it shows that new technology and business plans are continually emerging.
