Hi Everyone! I'm very happy to be back after a short hiatus. I left the computer at home so I could unplug for our two month trip to Europe. Here's Joe and I hiking the Alta Via in the Italian Dolomites! Shortly after our return, we had a little thing called a wedding :) Now that things are settled down, it's time to talk finances again.
Time to check your HYSA
Markets are down and inflation is up. With that, the Federal Reserve continues to push up interest rates. For those of you looking to take out a mortgage or another type of loan, you may be disheartened by the increase in interest rates, and as a result, higher expected monthly payments.
But there is a silver lining for many of us here.
Interest rates in our savings accounts *should* be going up. I say should because this is only the case if you are in a high-yield savings account, or HYSA. Higher interest rates can be a good thing because when we are the lenders of money, we get the benefit of those higher interest rates. In the case of your savings account, your money isn’t just sitting in that account, it’s actually being lent to the bank for their use. As such, they pay you monthly interest for the privilege of using your money. And higher interest rates means higher monthly payments to you.
Back in April, my Marcus by Goldman Sachs HYSA was earning me only 0.5% in interest. Fast forward to today, it’s now at 3.0%, or 6x greater.
This is a great time to check the APY in your savings account and see if it’s still competitive with today’s rates. If you need a refresher on how to do this, you can visit the Learn to Invest course exercise “High-Yield Savings Account”.
In fact, I just went ahead and checked for myself, and it seems like I could be doing better than my Marcus account. So I’m gonna make some moves today and push my 4-month emergency fund back over to CIT Bank who is offering a 3.25% APY at this time. This is an easy peasy transfer as I already had an account with them back when they offered a higher APY than Marcus did.
What I want in an HYSA!
Bank is FDIC insured
Easy-to-use platform
Website is transparent and info isn't buried
No outgoing transfer fees
No minimum balance required (or at least it is one that I can meet)
Has a mobile app so I can easily access while traveling
There are a number of banks offering APYs over 3.5%, but having dug through their offerings, I didn’t like what I saw because:
Their online platform wasn’t as smooth as I wanted it to be…I personally value efficiency over a few tenths of a percentage point
They charged outgoing transfer fees
I didn’t meet the minimum balance requirement that granted the higher APY
For example, UFB is offering 3.64% for accounts holding more than $25,000 and 3.83% for accounts holding more than $50,000. I liked what I saw, but I personally don’t have that amount of money in my savings bucket at this time. This may be a great option if say you are shopping around for a home and have a large chunk of cash waiting to be used as a down payment.
I hope you this silver lining brings you peace of mind.
Do me a favor! Drop me a note if you do make a switch for your HYSA. I’m always eager to hear what moves you make and to better understand your experience banking across different platforms.
Boost your Wallet. Wellbeing. World.
Rebecca
Disclaimer: The information contained in the Yield & Spread website, course materials and all other related content is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to substitute for obtaining accounting, tax, or financial advice, and may not be suitable for every individual. Yield & Spread is not a registered investment, legal or tax advisor or a broker/dealer.