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I took a quick poll at work the other day: Have you heard of a high yield savings account?
5 out of 5 nurses said no!
People, this is 2024, and interest rates are huge! And if you don’t have a high yield savings account, you’re missing out.
Do yourself a favor
Go check your savings account right now, and report back on what your current interest rate, or APY (annual percentage yield) is. I can tell you right now, if your money is sitting in Chase savings, it’s an *OFFENSIVE* 0.01%.
If you’re at Betterment, like us, it’s 5.0%! That’s FIVE HUNDRED TIMES higher than Chase. Put another way, Betterment will pay you $50 a year for every $1,000 saved. Chase will pay you $0.10 a year for every $1,000 saved.
Don’t puke, just go open a high yield savings account. Right now. Do it. No time like the present. It takes about two minutes to open one, and you can fund it with one of your existing checking or savings accounts. I was explaining this to another nurse at work and she said “What’s the catch?”
There is no catch, people!
Banks make *their* money by loaning *your* money out to other people. They charge those other people a higher interest than they’re paying you. Voila! Money in the bank.
Online banks don’t have the overhead expenses a physical bank does (looking at you, Chase on every street corner), so they’re able to offer higher interest rates. Voila! Money in *your* bank.
These are not Certificates of Deposit (CDs); you don’t have to leave your money in for a set amount of time. They work like any other savings account; the money is there for you whenever you want it. And there are so many to choose from! Just search “high yield savings account” and see what comes up.
Because I’m insane, we have no less than seven high yield savings accounts (HYSA) with four different banks. One for the girls’ allowance, one for our cash cushion, one for funemployment, one for real estate emergencies, one for real estate purchases, one for real estate rental deposits, and of course one for travel. Current interest rates range from 4.25%-5%.
But you don’t have to do crazy like me. You could just pick one and stockpile!
These are the banks we have our HYSA with:
This is our highest interest account, so where we keep the most money. If you sign up through our link, we both get 5.5% interest for three months! After which, the interest rate will go back to whatever their current rate is, which at the time of writing is 5% interest.
This is also where we keep track of all our checking, savings, investment, and retirement accounts, and more importantly, our net worth. If you sign up through our link, we both get $20! Full disclosure: They will call you and try to get you to invest with their advisors. Just stick to the Jamie Warcken script “No thank you, I manage all our investments myself.” At the time of writing, our savings pays 4.7%.
I’ve been with them for years, and have an interest-bearing checking account with them as well. Even our checking pays 0.1% interest, or 10x what Chase pays! Love to hate on Chase. We have an account with them only so we can deposit cash if we need to, which I transfer into a HYSA asap. At the time of writing, our 360 Performance Savings accounts at Capital One pay 4.25% interest.
Also had them for years, and also have an interest-bearing business checking account with them that earns 1.3%. At the time of writing, our American Express personal savings accounts pay 4.25% interest.
What are you waiting for? Stop reading and go open your own!