So you built an emergency fund. Congrats!
Four thousand dollars, parked in the savings account attached to your checking, exactly where your bank wants it.
Do you know what it’s earning?
Almost nothing.
Plenty of the big banks pay a rate so small it rounds to zero after inflation. They turn around and lend your money out, keep the spread, and hand you back a few cents and a thank you.
Worse, that money is losing ground while it sits there.
I know it sucks to do "the responsible thing" and have some asshole on the internet tell you it's not enough.
(It's me, I'm the asshole.)
Good news though, the fix takes one afternoon.
(Click here if you don't feel like reading the rest of this)
Just move the emergency fund into a high-yield savings account.
Same FDIC insurance. Same access to your money. You just get paid a real rate instead of a rounding error.
One rule while you do it.
Keep it away from your checking. Different bank if you can manage it. The point is to create friction, so you can’t drain the thing at 11pm because you had a rough day and DoorDash started looking like therapy.
Today’s sponsor MoneyLion has a high-yield savings marketplace where you can compare savings account offers from partner institutions in one place.
Compare the rate, sure, but read past it.
Look at minimum balance requirements, how long transfers take, and whether there’s a monthly fee. A beautiful rate with a $10,000 minimum is worthless to somebody sitting on $800.
And rates move.
Whatever’s best today might not be in a year, so check in on it once in a while instead of setting it and forgetting it for a decade the way you did with the last one.
Your money should be doing something. Right now most of yours is on the clock and asleep.
