Karma is more than a tenet of Buddhism. Karma applies to everyone and is the good or bad destiny generated by someone or something. So what is savings karma? It sounds made up, right? Read on, savings karma can improve your life.

Pick a Good Guy Bank

You can generate a lot of savings karma by picking the right bank. For instance, a green eco-friendly bank is much better than a bank that loans money unethically. Now you may have an instinct to pick a bank purely on the rate offered on their CDs, checking, savings or money markets, but this can be wrong. Let's say you have $10,000 to invest in CDs and an eco-friendly bank is offering a one-year CD for 3.55%. Meanwhile, a bank with a bad reputation for their business decisions is offering 3.65%. Your financial savvy tells you to pick the higher rate and not to worry about anything else. After all as long as they are both FDIC-insured, who cares? But, do the calculation first. The higher rate CD from the evil bank pays an extra $10 over the course of the year. This comes to three cents a day. Do you have to have that three cents if it means not rewarding a bank commited to responsible lending or protecting the environment? The more people that open accounts at ethically-sound banks, the better off we will all be. So for a three cents a day will you go with the eco-friendly bank and build up some savings karma?

Start Small

Another way to build up savings karma is to start small. In fact, no initial deposit is too small. There are countless online banks that will accept a $10 or even a $1 starting deposit. Far too many people think that they have to wait until they have built up a tidy sum in their local checking account before looking for a high yielding online savings account. Unfortunately, they don't ever get around to actually opening that account and the money gets withdrawn for cable TV, Girl Scout cookies, lottery tickets, or other randon household expenses.  Don't worry about the starting amount, just start saving today in a new savings account unattached to your monthly bills. There are plenty of depression-era senior citizens who saved their way to millions one penny at a time. That's true savings karma.

Keep It Simple

The final piece of the puzzle needed to build up your savings karma is to keep it simple. This means you should stick to the boring old savings account when it might seem like the least interesting investment available. Tech stocks, REITS, and auction rate securities all seemed like a great idea to investors at the time, but in many cases they led to disappointment and losses. A savings account is not about doubling your money every two years, but it is about saving for a wedding, a special vacation, or even saving for your kid's college education. Savings goals like these can be attained with an organized savings plan which should include transferring money to a segregated savings account. The hard economic times have also taught many Americans that you cannot depend upon your home equity loans or your stock trading account to provide you with the money for financial hardships. It is amazing and shocking how quickly funds credit and funds can dry up during financial crisis. Opening a savings account with the express purpose of being an "emergency savings account" is now popular for the first time in decades. FDIC-insured and liquid a savings account will be there when you might need it the most. It's all about the savings karma.