We all have horror stories about how we were mistreated, overcharged, or otherwise screwed by a bank at some point in our lives. If we find this happening again and again, it’s quite possible that we’ve chosen the wrong bank. The choice of a bank is less about whether a bank is good or bad, but whether it is good or bad for you.

The bank that I use is notorious for infuriating some of its customers. There are websites out there whose sole purpose is to bash my bank and tell all the reasons why it’s so horrible. I laugh when I see people getting so worked up about this because I have never been charged the ridiculous fees described, received anything but the best customer service, and have had a simply wonderful banking experience. Clearly they are the wrong bank for some people, but the right bank for me. In fact, in addition to having a checking and savings account with them,

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Everyone loves a good rule of thumb. Knowing that the number of cricket chirps in 15 seconds plus 37 is the approximate temperature _[1] is great . I usually do the old 100 plus my age comparison when I get my blood pressure checked as well. These ballpark estimates are easy to remember and give a close enough approximation for many things in life. Unfortunately, there are often way too many variables for a rule of thumb to be of any real value for personal finances.

There are some financial rules that are valuable, but they tend to be the ones that are math based. An example would be “Double your hourly rate and add three zeros to get approximate yearly salary.” Of course, even such a rule makes the assumption that you work 40 hours per week. These “rules of thumb” are what I generally file under Quick Calculations. They are more mathematical approximations

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