Banking

Let’s talk about something that’s a little embarrassing for a lot of us—but deeply human: staying loyal to a bank that hasn’t earned it.

You’ve registered your LLC, whipped up a service agreement from a template you don’t totally trust, and maybe even printed some business cards (do people still do that?). Now you’re staring down a deceptively dull but very real next step: opening a business bank account.

Back in my early 20s, I thought getting paid meant getting handed a paper check and racing to the bank before 5:00 p.m. on Friday. Nothing like holding up a weekend plan because you're stuck in line with half your town, trying to cash out your workweek.

Some years back, a close friend of mine received a letter from her bank requesting clarification on a few “unusual” deposits into her account. She called me in a panic, half-joking that she was probably on some government watchlist. As someone who’s spent years writing about personal finance, banking, and security systems, I knew this wasn’t the moment for a shrug or a half-answer. What she was experiencing wasn’t just bad luck—it was the real-life ripple effect of something banks call a Suspicious Activity Report, or SAR.

If there’s one thing motherhood and managing a career have taught me, it’s that my time is never just mine. It’s constantly on loan—to my son’s school schedule, to deadlines, to the mysterious “urgent” laundry pile that seems to multiply when I look away.

I’ve worked in financial media for over a decade, but I’ll be the first to admit: most people don’t need to think like a hedge fund manager to get their money in order. What they do need is a clear, human way of thinking about their finances—something that respects where they are, not where someone on the internet thinks they should be.

Most of us are trained to look at numbers that feel tangible—interest rates, rewards, cashback perks, account minimums. And sure, those numbers matter. But there’s one figure we often overlook, even though it has the power to protect (or endanger) the money we trust to the bank: liquidity.

The first time I opened an online-only bank account, I remember double-checking three times to make sure the website wasn’t a scam. No branches, no tellers, just a slick app promising high interest rates. It felt odd to trust a digital interface with my paycheck. At the same time, my old brick-and-mortar bank charged me $12 a month for a checking account that barely earned any interest.

My dad used to tell me, “Money is like water; if you don’t direct it, it’ll flow where you don’t want it to.” He wasn’t wrong. Back then, as I stared at my first pay stub, I didn’t give much thought to where I kept my money, as long as it was somewhere. Fast forward to today, and I realize that choosing the right bank is more than finding a place to stash my paycheck. It’s about picking a financial partner that grows with you, adapts to your life, and makes managing your money feel a little less taxing.

A few months into living with my now-husband, I opened our kitchen junk drawer and found a sticky note with my debit card number scribbled on it. Next to it? His own card number—also on a sticky note. We had been Venmoing back and forth for groceries, rent, and coffee runs, but that moment was a quiet signal: we were in some kind of financial relationship, and it was getting tangled.

A few years ago, I found myself standing in line at a brick-and-mortar bank with a crumpled check in one hand and a half-cold coffee in the other, thinking, “Why is this my Thursday?” That was before I fully embraced online banking—not just the app on my phone, but the broader shift in how financial institutions are adapting to modern, unpredictable lifestyles.

In the world of banking, few rules have quietly frustrated more people than Regulation D—the federal rule that used to limit how often you could move money from your savings account. If you’ve ever gotten a passive-aggressive warning from your bank or even had your savings account converted into a checking account because you made “too many transfers,” then you’ve met Reg D in real life.