SoFi Blog

With spring home buying season just around the corner, you may be gearing up for a string of weekends spent perusing open houses. Want to get a jump on your search now? If you haven’t settled on the best neighborhood to buy a home, now’s a good time to do some research.

Choosing the right neighborhood is no small feat, especially if you’re relocating long distance to an area that you don’t know well. While a great neighborhood can make your dream home even dreamier, just one bad neighbor or experience could have you thinking twice about how much you love your new digs. So how can you tell if you’re buying a home in your ideal community, or if you’re about to become financially tethered to a situation you’ll soon regret?

Maybe you have long been on the recycling bandwagon, you eat seasonal and local foods, perhaps you even buy carbon offset credits to reduce your carbon footprint. But now you want to take the next step and go green with your energy usage, as well.

Whether you own a house or rent an apartment, there are several great options available for adopting renewable energy these days. Here’s a quick guide to the basic options – including what the costs look like and what benefits you may gain as a result.

Asking for a raise can be an intimidating prospect, but the truth is that it’s more dangerous not to ask. The longer you stay in one job without a significant pay increase, the more likely you are to make below market rate when compared to your peers. 

If you’ve been watching the teaser ads for the Big Game this week, you may have seen SoFi’s new spot making the rounds. It was a big bet for a five-year old startup, made even bigger by the fact that we chose a somewhat provocative message—the idea that SoFi provides “great loans for great people.”

While the ad was praised by many for its humor, production quality and creativity, it didn’t take long for a few people to take offense. “The message couldn’t be less inclusive if it were produced by Marie Antoinette’s ad agency,” complained one fintech newsletter. “Don’t bank with us, says fintech bank,” jabbed another headline.

We recently hit the streets to ask people how they feel about their banks. The responses weren’t surprising:

“I don’t think my bank cares much about me.”

“I’ve never recommended my bank to anyone.”

“I don’t really trust banking institutions in general.”

Beating up on banks has become a national pastime. Yet what’s crazy is how long we’ve put up with it – the nickel-and-dime fees, the bad customer service, the being treated like a number. Most of us don’t even switch banks when we get fed up —it’s too much hassle, and aren’t they all the same anyway?