Financial stocks of all sizes have propelled the stock market to new highs since Steven Mnuchin’s November 28, 2016 appearance on CNBC. In that appearance, Mnuchin made a vague pronouncement that he wants “to strip back parts of Dodd-Frank”, saying that the law is too complicated and restricts lending. Neither Trump nor Mnuchin, nor anyone else on their team, has outlined with any specificity how they plan in particular to adjust Dodd-Frank, the Volker Rule or other federal legislation governing the financial sector.

Dodd-Frank, which emerged from Congress as a response to the 2008-2009 financial crisis, has been particularly burdensome to smaller and midsized financial institutions. These institutions have borne extraordinary costs of compliance and been forced, as a result, to retreat from those activities where compliance is too costly. Regulatory requirements can be most efficiently met by institutions with large economies of scale. As a result, the irony of the entire governmental response to the financial crisis has been that it has only strengthened the competitive position of the mega-financial institutions that created the crisis in the first place.

So, yes, a peeling back will change the competitive landscape and empower smaller and medium sized financial institutions. This peeling back, however, is not going to happen overnight nor will it be done with a magic wand. It is not going to happen as a result of broad pronouncements either. Changes to the law are going to take time to be formulated by a Republican legislature and then to overcome the opposition of Democrats like Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.

As 2017 progresses, this removal of regulations will coincide with a steepening yield curve, enabling financial institutions to benefit from a time spread (lending on the long end and taking deposits on the short end).

In the end, consumers may be real beneficiaries of increased competition from small and medium sized banks.

Now more than ever, it makes sense to look more broadly at the products that are offered by financial institutions in your geographical area.

Check the best savings rates where you live on BestCashCow.

Compare CD rates from banks near you.

See mortgage refinance rates where you live.

Do you know how much money is coming in and going out of your paycheck each month? The best way to gather this information is by creating a budget. This will let you know where you spend your money. You’ll also discover where you can cut back on your expenses, which can help you save money. This article explains how to create a budget and make that budget work for your needs.

Write Down Your Goals

The first thing you need to do is write down your goals. These are goals that you have for your personal finances, which might include paying off your credit cards, becoming free from debt, and starting up a savings account. This is the first step since is helps you track your progress.

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Record Your Purchases

When you record your purchases, you need to record everything, even those little purchases, which you barely think about. While you may not think they’re a big deal, these little purchases can become an issue then you add them up. A group of little purchases can equal the same amount of money as a big purchase.

When you have too many little purchases, you will find your money disappearing faster than you can track it. So, whenever you go out, at least for the first few weeks, you should record every purchase you make and this will help you see where your money is going.

Create Spending Categories

In order to determine where your money is going, you need to do a little organizing. Some basic categories listed in budgets include utilities, food, debts, work-related expenses and fixed expenses.

You can include categories for things that are important to you. This includes things like car insurance, birthdays, life insurance, and savings. Keep one category open for fun money that can be used for special occasions and just having fun.

Hold a Meeting About Finances

If you have a spouse or other household members, you will need to hold a meeting with them to discuss the budget. Talk it over. You can come up with a plan for your budget, compromising and negotiating until you find something that works for both of you.

When you work with your spouse, you’re more likely to keep on the budget. Then you’ll both be on the same page. Each person needs to be willing to work together and give a little to get the best results.

Schedule Time to Make the Budget

Create a budget can take some patience and work. Make sure you have some free time to get the work done. This budget needs to be something you can live with long-term. Keep some wiggle room in your budget in case of an emergency.

Take the time to make a budget that allows you to live within your means. If you have to make too many sacrifices then you may find it difficult to live within your budget.

Tweak the Budget

The budget you create may not always remain the same. You are not going to be in the same financial situation next year or five years from now. That’s why you should periodically take a chance to look at a budget.

In order to see if there are things that you can change, look at what you need to meet your needs and which items can be eliminated. While you want to make changes to your budget, you don’t want to tweak your budget too often.

According to its website, EverBank is now offering a so-called 3 Year LIBOR Index CD.

The product, which is issued without a prospectus, appears from the information on EverBank’s website to be three years in duration, yet based on the 3 month London Interbank Offer Rate (LIBOR) plus 25 basis points. The product resets quarterly (on March 1, June 1, September 1 and December 1) although it is unclear what rate a deposit receives from the date of deposit until the first reset date.

It absolutely makes sense to position oneself for higher interest rates in the US, especially since they are very likely to be increased following the election of Donald Trump. In a prior article, I have indicated that depositors should protect themselves by avoiding (or selling) bonds at this point and favor savings over CDs, even short term CDs with low early withdrawal fees.

Protecting yourself from rising interest rates is easy. But, positioning yourself to benefit financially from rising interest rates is much more difficult.

The 3-month US dollar denominated LIBOR Rate has moved dramatically over the course of 2016. It began the year at 40 basis points, and recently spiked as high as 88 basis points to a 5-year high.

In 2017 and beyond, we will have a US Federal Reserve, a global economic backdrop (with extremely low rates outside the US acting to keep US short-term rates very low) and a worldwide economic environment all acting to continue to compress US short-term rates and ensure that they will only move up very, very slowly for many years.

Even if the rate were to move to 1.5% (almost twice where it is today) over the next three years, which I view as highly unlikely, the EverBank product would yield only 1.75%, which is hardly a very attractive rate of return on money that is tied up for 3 years.

See the best 3 Year CD rates here. (Hint: EverBank itself is offering a fixed rate without the risk that is comparable with the above best-case scenario.)

Rather than invest money with a 3 year time horizon and tie it to the short end of the interest rate curve, investors and depositors with that type of horizon should look for ways to benefit from a move in the 10-year US Treasury from 2.3% to 3.5% or a move in the 30-year US Treasury from 3% to 4% or 5%.

This exposure is most easily achieved by investing in major insurance companies (Berkshire Hathaway, Aflac) and money center banks (Bank of America, Citibank, JP Morgan) that have business models that leverage the interest rate spread. It is also achieved through structured notes offered through brokers like Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch that can generate interest rates tied directly to the 10-year US Treasury rate or the spread between the short end of the curve and the long end.

Investors and depositors will not make money by betting on a dramatic rise in the short end of the curve, as the EverBank product does. 3-Month LIBOR will remain compressed at or around current levels for the next several years and the money that you would otherwise allocate to this product should just stay in cash.

See the best savings rates here.

Note: EverBank is perhaps the most aggressive bank in the US when it comes to pushing the line between the definition of a CD, or certificate of deposit, and an investment product. The Jacksonville-based bank has in the past offered investment products tied to emerging market currencies, emerging market investment indices, precious metals and interest rates. EverBank designates these products as CDs on the basis that their principal is guaranteed by the bank, and therefore FDIC insured. In 2009, investors lost money in products designated by EverBank as CDs, although these products are now often structured so that, while the investor or depositor does not accrue any gain, they do not lose principal. These products are always issued by EverBank without a prospectus or a SEC registration; EverBank, unlike virtually any other bank in the US, believes that it is exempt from the registration requirements in the Securities and Exchange Act of 1933 as it is a bank as defined in Article 3(a)(2) of that Act.

In August 2016, EverBank reached an agreement to be acquired by TIAA-CREF. TIAA has mismanaged retirement assets for employees of universities and nonprofits for decades. If consummated, the TIAA acquisition, in all likelihood, will mark an end of EverBank’s issuing of investment products labeled as CDs without a 1933 Act prospectus.