I got my first salaried job after three years of temping and retail, and was very excited to finally bring in enough money to start planning for the future. I didn't know what that future was going to be -- a wedding? a baby? retirement? a crazy round-the-world adventure? -- but I knew that I needed to start setting money aside to make it happen. I earned $42,000 that first year working as an administrative assistant at an insurance company, and by the end of the year had saved $7,000. This is right on target; finance experts recommend that you should save approximately 20% of your after-tax paycheck, and I had saved just a bit over that key percentage. However, $7,000 didn't seem like all that much. Maybe it was enough for a round-the-world trip, but it certainly wasn't enough for buying a home, or even buying a new car. And I could forget about retirement; if I only saved $7,000 each year, it would take me four years of working to save for one year's worth of retirement expenses, … [Read more...] about How an Online Savings Account Taught Me About Financial Strategy