Here is the ad that was on my bank's site. Notice the rate has fallen to 1.76% from 2.01%.

Like most people, I don’t like to mess with my day-to-day banking or investment accounts so I took some time to mull over whether I should bother with the high yield account or just leave well enough alone. Though it took me a few days, I finally decided to go over to my local branch of Central Jersey Bank and talk to them about the high yield checking account option.

There’s no great “POW!” moment to end this portion of the entry, so be forewarned. I went over to the branch and the woman who assisted me was excellent and showed me how my usage qualified for the high yield checking account. We talked about the different checking account options and I opted to go with this account. So now my checking account is earning 1.76% (the rate went down a few days ago and will probably continue to go down each month – hey, I know it’s a promotion, but it’s a good one).

While I was talking to the woman at the bank, I thought I might open up a savings account, too. I haven’t had a savings account at a brick-and-mortar bank in a long time – probably dating back to when I was in my first or second year of college (which, terrifyingly enough, was over a decade ago). For a long time now I’ve had a savings account at ING Direct and I’ve been very happy with its performance. Of course, the initial interest rate that I was receiving over at ING Direct was something like 4.50% and that’s dropped down to 0.90%, but I understand that the drop was more a function of a poor financial market than factors inside ING Direct (or any other bank for that matter). Anyway, I wanted to open up a savings account and two issues stopped me dead in my tracks.

I wound up staying with ING Direct

A $3 fee for not keeping at least $1,000 in a 0.30% savings account? Yeah right! Give me a break.

Instead of dealing with that hot mess, I decided to just stick with my ING Direct account as my only savings account. I would liked to diversify and have a second savings account, but silly restrictions like the one noted above are not something that I have the time or the inclination to worry about. With respect to savings accounts, though, I’m thinking about looking into Ally Bank since they’re offering a similar rate to ING Direct (0.85%).

This process did get me thinking, though. In particular, I started thinking more about the checking account that I use for Usable Web Solutions, LLC. I keep most of the funds for my small website business in Sovereign Bank, but I really haven’t been thrilled with their service since they were acquired by Santander a few years ago. Certain things have become a hassle that shouldn’t be a hassle. For example, they rebranded and changed their debit cards and so they sent me a new one to use. Like any new debit card, I had to activate it over the phone. The problem was that the phone activation system forced me (automatically for some reason) to an operator for final activation. Then this woman on the activation line may have asked me 50 questions to get this stupid card (which I didn’t want, request, or need) activated.

I'm not sold on Santander's customer service

And then TD Bank came in and crapped all over Commerce Bank’s customer-friendly reputation, but that’s another story.

In any event, this entire process has me thinking about some of my other banking and investment accounts. I’ve scheduled a meeting with my company’s 401k agent to talk to her about my asset allocation in my 401k account. For some reason, I’ve got a gut feeling that now is the time to invest heavily in aggressive, struggling funds. Yeah, they’re probably going to go down again, but I think they’re going to come roaring back in the next 2 – 3 years. I guess we’ll see, but I want to meet with the agent to be sure that my feeling is reflected adequately in my asset allocation.

Ahhh... the good old days!

Since the only thing keeping me hanging on to this credit card is the Worldpoints feature, I’ve been researching other “cash back” credit cards and all of the reviews point me towards the Freedom Chase card. Sure, the interest rate is a bit high and variable (both unacceptable for someone who isn’t a credit risk at all), but I don’t carry a balance anyway so I wouldn’t be paying the interest. Plus, there are a variety of ways to double, triple, quadruple, and quintuple (that’s “multiply times five,” folks) the amount of points that you get for certain purchases with the Freedom Chase card.

So I’ve been thinking about possibly getting that card. And I’ve also been looking into the Barnes & Noble MasterCard because, you know, I’m a Barnes & Noble fan. They’re big draw is that for everyone 2,500 points you earn (i.e. every $2,500 you spend on the credit card), you get a free $25 Barnes & Noble gift card sent to you. You also get 5% off everything at their store. There are some months where I spend more than $2,500 on my credit card, so getting that monthly gift card would be nice. But then again, it would also be nice to build a whole bunch of points with Freedom Chase and get cash back instead of a gift card.

Nothing wrong with one of these big, massive banks sending me a check every once in a while, you know?

Anyway, what about the rest of you? Is anyone else out there reassessing where they put their money and which financial products they use during this cloudy economic climate?

The first comment that I have about the show is that the crowd was HOT! They were going bonkers over every back body drop and punch that was offered by the wrestlers. I’ve never been in a wrestling crowd like that before and I’ve been to RAW, Smackdown!, WWE’s ECW, SummerSlam, and a variety of independent shows. One of my roommates who was with me commented that the crowd was very similar to an old ECW crowd. My only complaint is about the trio of morons sitting behind me who felt the need to let everyone in the immediate vicinity know their wrestling knowledge. For example, at one point one of the wrestler’s threw on the crossface and the dopes behind me immediately started chanting, “You’re not Benoit!” Yes, dummies. We know that Benoit used the crossface. Congratulations, you know a wrestling fact.

It only got worse when they started chanting “Joe can’t sell!” during the Booker T./Samoa Joe bout. Yes, idiots. We understand that Joe has been working hard to make his opponents look better in the ring. Congratulations, you read websites like mine. I wouldn’t have been so upset about these guys if they weren’t sitting directly behind me screaming the worst chants ever at the top of their lungs for the ENTIRE night. My right ear was ringing all day Monday because of them. Speaking of people sitting around us in the stands, my roommates and I were pretty sure that the guy sitting next to me was asleep the entire time or that he had one eye (probably the latter). The poor guy jumped square out of his seat during the opening pyro which, I admit, was incredibly loud. The kid sitting at the other end of the row was from Brooklyn and came to the show with no ride home. His first question to us as we sat down was if we could give him a ride home (no way!). Also, this kid was a major WWE fan (complete with replica spinning belt) and hated on a bunch of the TNA guys. He was comical because whenever a “TNA! TNA!” chant broke out, he would quietly speak-chant “WWE. WWE.” Weird.

By the way, would you go to Trenton from Brooklyn to watch a wrestling show of a promotion that you don’t even like…with no ride home?!

Final comment before the match reviews – Ice T. was advertised as appearing with F.I.L.T.H.E.E. and he was no where to be found when the rap group opened up the show.

TNA X-Division Championship
Petey Williams def. Consequences Creed
– The crowd was hot for Williams in this one, which may have surprised the TNA folks as Creed had been billed as the face and received huge love from the crowd two days earlier in Asbury Park. Williams is an amazing wrestler and Creed has a great future ahead of him. This match featured lots of chants of “Let’s go Petey!” and a great cheer/boo segment with both competitors trading blows. I don’t do “star” rankings because I’m not that pretentious, but this was a great opening match. To show you the fickleness of a wrestling crowd, as soon as Abdul Bashir came out, the fans were behind Consequences Creed. Don’t you love it?!

6-Knockout Match
Gail Kim, ODB, & Taylor Wilde def. Awesome Kong & The Beautiful People
– Unlike a WWE Women’s match, this was not a throwaway event. ODB has enormous crowd support, but Awesome Kong had just as much. By the way, even though we weren’t too close to ringside you can tell that The Beautiful People really are quite stunning. Gail Kim performed pretty well, but I thought that Taylor Wilde could use a little bit more time rehearsing some of her spots. All in all this was a good match that the crowd was into for the entire time.

At this point there was some type of vignette with Team 3D in the rafters (these were all pre-recorded because the thousands of us in attendance kept looking to the rafters during these segments and saw no one). The only comment that was audible in the arena was about a black bat, though not Brother Devon’s black bat. Thanks Brother Ray.

TNA Tag Team Championship Match
Beer Money, Inc. def LAX
– Though I was surprised by the outcome of this match, I found it enjoyable. At one point the crowd was slowly wavering away from the match, but when Hernandez threw Homicide over the top rope on to Beer Money, Inc. the place erupted. The beer bottle shot to the head was heard crystal clear throughout the arena. Good work on everyone’s part. I didn’t particularly care for the LAX entrance with F.I.L.T.H.E.E. It was a bit much, though watching Salinas dance around was sweet.

Tuxedo Chain Strap Match
Jay Lethal def. Sonjay Dutt
– Well, if you watched this on pay-per-view I’m sure the “Fire Russo” chants were as clear as day. What an abomination. On the one hand, I admire Lethal and Dutt for putting up with this crap, but on the other hand it might be time to get Russo in check. A tuxedo strap match? What a waste of two incredible talents. Early on the crowd wanted to get excited to see these two go at it, but the stupidity of this match was clear and present. There were also loud chants of “Boring” which is a shame because I think these two could really tear the place apart if given the opportunity.

Jersey Street Fight
Rhino & Christian def. Team 3D
– This is the match where the internet reviews have pissed me off the most. Not only was this a good hardcore match, but the crowd was completely into it for the entire duration! The comedic spots went over well live and the high spots went over even better. When I read dummies on the internet write about how the crowd fighting got boring after a while I cringe because it definitely was not boring. The crowd was electrified to begin with – this match only turned up the juice a bit. Christian Cage is an even better wrestler in person, though Rhino may want to hit the gym a little bit. The Abyss run-in went over huge with the live crowd, too.

Last Man Standing Match
AJ Styles def. Kurt Angle
– I want to say that this match was perfect, but there was one problem – the Last Man Standing rules! Most of the people in the crowd were confused about the pin/submission followed up by a standing 10-count. Does WWE own the rights to a generic 10-count Last Man Standing Match? One of the kids sitting next to me made the point that it should just be a 13-count. Why not? In any event, this was the match of the night complete with high spots and great technical wrestling. The dopey online writers may not give this match the kudos that it deserves, but this was the best live match that I’ve ever seen. Crisp movement in the ring, a hot crowd outside of the ring, two of the best wrestlers in the world fighting it out – you can’t go wrong. The crowd popped for Sting before realizing that he took out AJ Styles.

TNA World Heavyweight Championship
Six Sides of Steel with Weapons
Samoa Joe def. Booker T. w/Sharmell
– I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cage match live before so this was sort of special. As a quick aside, did you know that they hold the TNA steel cage together with zip ties? Amazing, huh? Both of these men put on a good show, though it felt a little anti-climatic to not have a Sting appearance at some point. Anyone can see that Russo is going for a Sting vs. the new generation of stars type of angle – or at least that’s what it is now. Knowing Russo he’ll change the entire thing next week if he reads that one person has figured out his angle. Booker T is really a lot better in person than I thought he would be (I’m not a big fan). Samoa Joe did a good job of keeping up with Booker, though I thought that we would see more of an aggressive side from him. The guitar shot at the end of the match was alright, but I can think of better ways to bring Jeff Jarrett back into the show.

As I said earlier, this was the best live event that I’ve ever attended. The next time TNA is in your area I encourage you to go and check them out – the next time they’re in New Jersey, I’ll be there!

For 162 pictures from the show (including some of the people sitting around me), click here. Enjoy!

Total Nonstop Action is the alternative brand of professional wrestling to the worldwide leader, World Wrestling Entertainment. The production value isn’t as good (they tape from the same location every other week and produce two weeks’ worth of shows from one setting) and the weekly television show is sometimes burdensome to watch, but the action in the ring is amazing. They have a guy named AJ Styles who does the most ridiculous stuff that I’ve ever seen. See for yourself:

Pretty amazing stuff, huh?

TNA will be in New Jersey at Convention Hall in Asbury Park on Friday, August 8th and at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton for their annual “Hard Justice” pay per view on Sunday, August 10th. Lucky me – I bought tickets for each show.