FREE MONEY

It got your attention, right? Now you’re saying “where? why don’t I know about this?” Yeah, that’s how I felt when I heard about IDAs.

Okay, Individual Development Accounts (matched savings accounts) aren’t some new trend so maybe this isn’t groundbreaking news - but are you taking advantage of this?

Just as an example, at Alternatives Federal Credit Union in Ithaca, if you save $1,000, they’ll GIVE you $2,000. GIVE. I wasn’t sure if you got that.

There are some qualifications: The money almost always has to go towards higher education, buying a home or starting a small business (but if you’re doing one of the last two you probably don’t need to be taking advice from me) and the most important is you have to be low income. A student would most likely qualify - but you’d have to be independent from your parents. So this is really ideal for a student from a low income family or a non traditional student, like a 30-year old who’s back at school.

But seriously, if you qualify, you’d be insane not to do this, it really is free money.

At the least, you should talk to someone about it because who knows what you could qualify for, or what your own bank or credit union might have to offer in the terms of GIVING.

If you’re in Ithaca - maybe you should talk to Brendan, he deals with all this IDA stuff over at Alternatives. Send him an e-mail at Brendan@alternatives.org or call at 607-216 3445.

Or if you still don’t get it and can’t pick up a phone, try this, and be flattered that I even thought for a second that anyone will actually read that whole article.