SmartyPig

How do you keep your New Year’s resolutions from falling to the wayside? Katie Ashford at Bundle.com knows. It’s been said, “you are the company you keep” so, surrounding yourself with savers makes you more likely to adopt their behavior. Ashford’s second tip: “Take baby steps,” suggesting you take a slow, simple approach. Save a little each week and make it automatic. Studies show the best way to modify behavior is to automate it. We have limited willpower and limited time. But SmartyPig’s account settings allow for simple management of your saving dollars. And once you’re used to saving a little each week, you can easily increase your deposits and number of goals. This gives you more time to focus on family, work, hobbies… and earning a better return.

Some have a financial epiphany and quit their bad habits cold turkey, while others get there the long way. Either path, SmartyPig is the best place to watch your money grow, while reaping the rewards we have to offer – cash back of up to 14%, budgeting and spending tools, and competitive APY – as you get from where you are now to where you want to be later. It’s never too late to start. And we’ll never stop helping you do it.

Wishing you successful saving.

Sarah Foss, SmartyPig’s Media Mad Woman
SFoss@SmartyPig.com

SmartyPig now has even MORE ways to make the most money for your money!

• SmartyPig’s Cash Rewards Card now offers cash back savings at 50 online retailers, including Babies R’ Us, Expedia, Home Depot, JCrew, Nike and Hotels.com. Click here for the full list of over 9,000 cash back partners. And remember, in order to receive cash back, you must link to your retailer of choice from the SmartyPig website while logged into your profile.
• Six new Retailer Gift Card redemption options have been added: Outback Steakhouse, Hyatt, Dillard’s, Neiman Marcus, Crutchfield and Cabela’s. Click here for the full list of Retailer Gift Cards.

Keep checking back – we are updating these lists constantly!

Want to really stretch those dollars? Remember you can share SmartyPig with a friend and earn $25. And if you need to do some spending while you save, don’t forget you can always load a portion of any savings goal onto your Cash Rewards Card for FREE!

Good luck with your savings goals.

Wishing you successful saving.

Sarah Foss, SmartyPig’s Media Mad Woman
SFoss@SmartyPig.com

The SmartyPig team would like to thank each and every one of you for taking the time to share your New Year’s Resolutions with us. Hundreds of you posted your goals for things like paying down credit card debt, creating emergency funds and saving for down payments on homes and new cars. We wish all of you luck with your 2011 goals!

So without further adieu we “throw debt downhill” and bring you our winner….

The month of January is notorious for “holiday debt hangovers.” The average person spent $687 this holiday season and SmartyPig wants to help someone pay off his or her debt. We’ll be writing a check for $687 to one lucky winner on Wednesday, January 26, 2011. Read below to find out how that person could be you!

Wanna play?

Play on Twitter:

• Tweet your 2011 financial resolution(s) and use the hashtag “#SmartyPigResolution” during open contest hours.

Play on Facebook:

• SmartyPig will post a resolution thread and ask for your comments below. Post a comment to the thread during open contest hours.

Can you play on both Facebook and Twitter? Sure can! But please do NOT post multiple times on each. Doing so will not increase your chance of winning. We will only accept one twitter and one facebook post per person.

How do you win?

• We will randomly pick 10 people from the pool of Twitter and Facebook participants. The 10 individuals will be picked using random.org.
• Members from the SmartyPig Team will randomly select the final winner from the 10 finalists and post a video of the selection process on our blog Thursday afternoon, January 27, 2011, so everyone can follow along!

The contest runs from 9 am CT to 5 pm CT on

Wednesday, January 26, 2011.

(Only tweets & facebook comments during the above time will be eligible)

If you don’t follow us on Twitter and Facebook, do so here: SmartyPig Twitter and SmartyPig Facebook.

Good Luck!

The SmartyPig Team

In case you missed it, last week SmartyPig added five new Retailer Gift Card Providers – Outback Steakhouse, Hyatt, Dillard’s, Neiman Marcus and Cabela’s! And the best part is, there’s even more to come!

Not yet redeemed a goal onto one of our Retailer Gift Cards? You’re missing out! Once you’ve reached a savings goal, you can receive up to a 14% cash back savings by placing it on a Retailer Gift Card like Amazon, Travelocity or Lowes. You can even divide up your savings among several Retailer Gift Cards, or put only a portion of your saving on a card or cards.

How does our Retailer Gift Card program work? Great question. Let’s say you’ve saved $2,000 and want to put those savings onto a Macy’s Retailer Gift Card for some new furniture. When you select this option, SmartyPig will pay you a cash back savings of 11% for an additional $220. That’s the SmartyPig difference!

See a full list of Retailer Gift Card providers below or click here for a detailed description.

Wishing you successful saving.

Sarah Foss, SmartyPig’s Media Mad Woman
SFoss@SmartyPig.com