My 2010 New Year's Resolution - Move My Money!

An article posted yesterday entitled "Take Your Money Out of the Hands of the Banking Oligarchs" says it much better than I, but the general idea is to remove your money from any of the big banking conglomerates and place it in a bank highly rated by the volunteer service group, Institutional Risk Analytics or into a local credit union (IRA is looking to offer a way to rate CU's, coming soon in 2010). Over a holiday dinner discussion, writers Arianna Huffington & Rob Johnson, political strategist Alexis McGill, filmmaker/author Eugene Jarecki and Nick Penniman of the HuffPost Investigative Fund, concocted a way that everyday folks like you and I, can help create a more stable financial system. Shortly there after their ideas became the "Move Your Money" campaign. From the article:

"The idea is simple: If enough people who have money in one of the big four banks move it into smaller, more local, more traditional community banks, then collectively we, the people, will have taken a big step toward re-rigging the financial system so it becomes again the productive, stable engine for growth it's meant to be. It's neither Left nor Right -- it's populism at its best. Consider it a withdrawal tax on the big banks for the negative service they provide by consistently ignoring the public interest. It's time for Americans to move their money out of these reckless behemoths. And you don't have to worry, there is zero risk: deposit insurance is just as good at small banks -- and unlike the big banks they don't provide the toxic dividend of derivatives trading in a heads-they-win, tails-we-lose fashion."

As I write, the bank finder widget at the article link above and the one at http://moveyourmoney.info/, both don't seem to be functioning correctly (hopefully a sign of swarming interest), but until it's back up, here is another way: Go to www.IRABankRatings.com, register and start taking advantage of their local bank finder; just click "demo" next to banks in your area to see their rating. You'll notice the info reported is often a couple years old but, the trends that get some banks A+ ratings, while others get F's are not something that has probably changed anytime recently.

I am moving my money out of Chase next week. I hope for all our sakes, you will choose to do the same.

Happy New Year! Enjoy!