My sister's HOA in Santa Clarita has kept both white and yellow Banksiae machetted into shrubs for over thirty years. They pave' themselves with flowers every spring, but require being hacked several times annually to maintain the size and shape. I've seen walls planted with Banksiae in Pacific Palisades where the Banksiae have been maintained for many years only two feet thick and manicured to fit the angles of the house walls. It CAN be done, but it requires vigilance to maintain it. Once it gets away from you, it's difficult to regain the density of "green", with woody holes replacing it. It's honestly more maintenance than I would care to provide it. But, it CAN be done. Kim

Nicole, if you leave the money in for ten years, you would not be paying a penalty at all. The term is ten years. If you left it in you would have pretax income of about $45,000 on an initial investment of $100,000. That is a pretax income number. You only have to pay the penalty if you withdraw before the 120 month term. The APY, net of the penalty would be 0.250%, not 0.030% The risk you are taking is that deposit rates are currently about as low as they can get and will likely increase before the end of the term. Let's say this happens in two years, that means you will have invested your money for two years in an instrument with an APY of essentially 0.250%. I think it's a pretty safe bet that rates will rise, so if it were my money, I'd park it in a money market account (same bank has one for 1.10%) until I thought that deposit rates were stable and then I would buy a long term CD. Putting the money in a liquid account will allow you to maximize your earnings on the cash both now and later. But, YMMV.

No bank in the US, whether domestic or foreign-owned, is allowed to use the FDIC guarantee unless they have paid their insurance premiums to the FDIC. No exceptions! Not only the FDIC, but also other banks, enforce this. You'd better believe that any Internet bank claiming FDIC insurance but not actually having it, would get turned in ASAP by its competitors. "Hot money" (see the great article in today's WSJournal explaining how money flows around seeking the best rates of return, thus is nicknamed 'hot money') is a huge, huge source of cash to leverage for high-yield loans. Note that credit unions are not members of the FDIC. Some of them, but not all, belong to their own equivalent insurance organization. Be sure to check carefully. Having worked at a bank, I can tell you that the worst paid people are the ones who meet with retail customers. The higher you go, the less contact you have with non-institutional customers. No bank is really interested in you personally unless you are regularly moving around seven-figure cash flows. They can pretend they care, but honestly, they really don't. Little amounts are only worthwhile when lumped together into large conglomerated funds. It's just the nature of business.

Berniek is right: Much of the blame here falls upon the shoulders of the politicians (led by then-President Clinton), who forced banks to begin some rather foolish lending practices. Alan Greenspan certainly did his share to push this concept of "everyone can borrow" during his time as Fed chairman. Between creative financing, no money down offers, and other such options, the government has given people plenty of rope with which to hang themselves. We Americans haven't proven ourselves to be particularly strong in the moderation and self-discipline categories over the last 30-40 years. Also, remember the climate that existed in the 90s, when I bought my first house: Spurred on by the soaring housing prices, people were convinced that buying "as much house as you can afford" was a good move. Housing was considered an investment that couldn't fail. Yes, the experts began preaching about "the housing bubble" long before it hit, but the masses couldn't grasp how this sure-thing could ever fall. And there's always been a (faulty) basic belief that "If I couldn't afford it, the bank wouldn't lend it to me." I fully agree with those who say that Real Estate agents will push buyers to their upper limits and beyond, and banks will lend what they can -- it's all about profits for them. Yet, the home owner DOES also bear the brunt of personal responsibility. After all, who cares most about whether I can afford my mortgage -- and still buy groceries and other things I need? Clearly, it's ME! I reap the rewards or punishments of my decisions, so I should do the math and know whether I can comfortably afford a house (or anything else) before I buy it. However, we've sort of left that thinking behind in today's buy-now-pay-later society. We're constantly told that "we deserve" this or that thing. That if we're going to finance it, we deserve to have exactly what we want. That "everyone" has debt. We've got to get past that.