Little bit of good news is pushing up the market today. Commerce Department said that the personal income has gone up six straight months and spending has increased four straight times. Consumers’ personal spending rose by 0.5 percent in January, slightly better than expected. But incomes edged up only 0.1 percent, significantly lower than the 0.4 percent gain that economists had expected. Consumer spending is closely watched because it accounts for 70 percent of total economic activity.

On the inflation side core price index (CPI) for personal consumption expenditures, which excludes volatile food and energy, rose 1.4% compared to January 2009. CPI is slightly decreased compared to December last year. It was 1.5% in December 2009. This means that prices are in check and inflation is not a big danger yet.

In the world of 0% interest rate, 2.8% seems little attractive. FNBO Direct offers 2.8% APY for online savings account. There is no minimum balance requirement, you can open the account with $1.

If your money is sitting idle in your stock brokerage account, earning 2.8% sounds like a better deal. I know it’s not much. But, if you just keep $50,000 in your stock brokerage account in cash, that earns almost nothing in the current environment. If you deposit the 50k in 2.8% account, you will get $1,400 in a year. Not bad, huh? Even if you want to keep the idle money in 2.8% account just for 6 months, you will be still richer by $700.

FNBO Direct is FDIC insured. There are some banks that offer little more interest for one year CD with minimum deposit of $500.  GMAC Bank offers 3.75% for one year CD. Nationwide Bank offers 3.5% for one year CD.

Some people play balance transfer game. They get 0% APR credit card from a Bank-A and do the balance transfer of their existing debt to the new credit card. They pay the full amount to the credit card before 0% Intro rate expires. When the intro rate about to expire, they get the new credit card with 0% APR from Bank-B and balance transfer the debt from Bank-A to Bank-B. The cycle continues until they don’t get 0% offer anymore.

This is a nice way of keeping the debt at 0%, so no interest needs to be paid. Only catch is that if they miss the monthly payment for the credit card, the banks will hike the interest rate to 13% from 0%. If the customer forgets to pay the full amount before the 0% offer expires, he/she will have to pay interest on the balance remaining after the 0% offer expires. If you are interested in this pursuing this strategy, it’s better to keep a spreadsheet detailing the cards you received with 0% APR. The spreadsheet should have the information about card, issuing bank, issued date, start date of 0% offer and expiration of 0% offer. Also, use your outlook program or other reminder software such as Memo To Me to remind you about upcoming 0% offer expiration.

If you want to know which banks offer credit cards with 0% introductory APR, click here.