SoFi Blog

By Tony Morosini, VP of Banking

There’s no question deposit accounts are having a moment. In a rising rate environment, banks earn an increasing yield on the deposits they hold, and these additional proceeds can often go directly to earnings. To gather more deposits, banks fight to get consumers to switch banks, but it’s a tough sell because changing banks is painful.

While lots of institutions are offering deals to entice people to move their accounts, they haven’t invested in making the consumer experience as good as it should be. People have been using and managing money online at scale for 20 years, and we’ve now gotten to a place where people are not just comfortable with handling money online, but they expect it. The traditional financial institutions have improved on some marks, like improving their mobile experiences (or at least creating one at all), but there’s still a lot of space to tackle.

We’re in the full swing of home improvement season here at SoFi. We launched our Tiny Kitchen Makeover campaign to kick things off, and even conducted a survey on the DIY home improvement habits of Millennials versus Baby Boomers (TLDR: Millennials do it for the ‘gram).

And now, we’re excited to announce a new partnership with Joist, a software platform used by over 650,000 trades contractors to estimate, invoice, process payments and manage their projects from anywhere. We’re partnering with Joist to help empower contractors to provide homeowners with access to financing options to get their dream project done and help show why a SoFi Personal Loan for home improvement may be the right fit.

By Jane Bianchi

Have you been fantasizing about leaving your job behind and going into an entirely new profession—but also worrying about what a big change would mean for your finances?

You’re not alone. “A lot of times people stick with a job out of fear. I’ll ask, ‘What are you afraid of?’ The person might say, ‘I’m afraid I won’t make as much money,’” says Nancy Von Horn, Senior Career Coach at SoFi. “But once you do some digging, you’ll likely find that it’s possible to make that money back.”

It’s true. Changing careers doesn’t have to mean accepting a lower salary. It just means that you have to do some soul-searching and some homework ahead of time. Ready to dive in? Follow this game plan.

By Katie Wolf

Updated 8/14/20

Think back to the first job you ever had, and compare it to the job you have now. You can probably see quite an evolution—over the years, you’ve likely gained experience, confidence, and efficiency in the way you approach your role.

Yet when it comes to the job search, many people take the same approach they did when they first entered the professional world. It’s simply easier to default to the strategies you’ve always used. But that mindset could lead to a frustrating, lengthy search.

Instead, think of how many executives look for new jobs. By that point in their career, it’s no longer about casting a wide net—it’s about knowing what they want and confidently going after it. And that often results in a more strategic, efficient, and fruitful search.

Here’s what you can learn from that executive job search mindset and how to apply it to your own job hunt—even if you haven’t made it into the C-suite yet.

At SoFi, we think a lot about how we build products to help consumers make good financial decisions. But we thought it’d be interesting to hear how others in the fintech space in San Francisco were considering these questions, too. So earlier today, we hosted a breakfast for members of the press at our new downtown engineering office space in San Francisco to discuss just that along with representatives from Robinhood, Wealthfront, Digit, and Plaid. The panel was moderated by Kristen Berman, co-founder of Irrational Labs with behavioral economist Dan Ariely and co-founder of the Common Cents Lab with Duke University. Here’s a quick recap.