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Few banks have had as profound an impact on our daily lives as Ally Bank. Back in the time of Model T Fords, all automobiles were paid for in cash. General Motors created the General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) in 1919 to offer their customers easy access to credit, helping more individuals to afford their own automobile. To say the concept of consumer credit and an automobile in every driveway has transformed the way we live today would be an understatement.

Introducing Ally Bank

After the turn of the millennium, GMAC expanded into other forms of banking and became a fully fledged bank. During the Great Recession, GMAC spun off from GM and was renamed Ally Bank.

Banking in America is unique. No other country has as many banks, and types of banks, as the United States. Most countries in Europe have about four or five big banks… and that’s it. When there are so few competitors, they all tend to be alike, and not all that consumer-friendly.

The plethora of banks in America is good news, but the news is not all good. How do you know which banks, among the plethora lining your Main Street, are worthy of your business? CNNMoney (there is no magazine anymore) ranks banks in America annually, and they released their 2013 rankings last month.

The diversity of banks in America makes it almost impossible to pick a “best in show” kind of overall winner. CNNMoney therefore breaks the surveyed banks into several categories. Here’s a quick summary of this year’s top rankings:

We are right in the middle of the engagement season. According to the wedding planning website theknot.com, 39 percent of weddings begin with a proposal between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day. Everyone wants to buy the perfect ring. Being one of the most expensive purchases we make in our life, it is important to plan ahead and understand the process. It will make both the recipient and your wallet happy.

TALK FINANCES

Before you head out ring shopping, it is important to sit with your loved one and talk about finances if you have not done so already. Not about the ring, but in general. Do you and your significant other have similar goals when it comes to finances? Do you have personality clashes? Do you know what her expectations are when it comes to big purchases?

PLAN YOUR PURCHASE

Twenty-thirteen is the year the Haves and the Have Nots came to prominence, dressed up as a new TV series which opened on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). The title of the show alludes, of course, to the notion that there is a distinction between those with high incomes and/or a high net worth, and, well, the rest of us.

The Haves are also known as “the 1 percent,” and the Have Nots, in the wonderful math of rhetoric, “the 47 percent.” The unnamed mass in the middle, well, nobody talks about them. There may be a good reason: The American middle class appears to be following the path of the dodo. America is in the midst of a disturbing trend, a growing gulf between the haves and the have nots.