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Banks are supposed to make our money make more money, but what have you been getting in a bank? You probably haven’t received much of anything. When it comes to banks, everyone is talking about inflation and interest rates.
In this episode, Jeremy Keil explains how you can protect your money in the bank. He breaks down three main things you can do to protect your money: how to protect your money in the bank, how to earn more interest, and the various available alternatives to keeping your money in a bank account.
Jeremy discusses:
- What people are talking about when it comes to banks, inflation, and interest rates
- How to get the most protection on your money in the bank
- How to earn more interest on the money you have in the bank
- What alternatives to keeping your money in the bank you should consider
- And more
How to Protect Your Money in the Bank
How can I get the most protection on my money in the bank?
It’s important to ensure that your bank is covered by the FDIC or NCUA. There is a $250,000 limit per depositor per account type, and there are calculators available on fdic.gov for banks and ncua.gov for credit unions to determine if you are fully protected.
The second step is to make sure you get the most coverage possible at that one bank. Places like bankrate.com and depositaccounts.com show you some high interest rates, different account types and the different banks you can go to. If you have over a million dollars, you can look into multiple banks or use services like maxmyinterest.com or americandeposits.com that can open multiple accounts for you and move your money to higher interest rates automatically. Inify Network’s ICS for cash service and CSCDA for holding deposits in multiple banks are also great alternatives.
How do I earn more interest on the money I have in the bank?
Paying attention and being proactive in finding higher interest rates is key. Some banks offer close to zero interest rates, while others offer rates as high as 4%. If you’re a do-it-yourself type of person, depositaccounts.com and bankrate.com seem to be the best places I can find that have a listing of where you can get a one-year CS, a 6-month CD and 18-month CD with links to where you can go and open an account.
By looking around and locking in money at a higher rate, you can get two percentage points higher than the national average of 3% for one-year CDs. It is important to explore different markets for money, such as treasury bills that you can buy directly through treasurydirect.gov, treasury bonds, stable value funds in 401(k)s, and old annuities with guaranteed minimum interest rates.
The bottom line is you deserve to get more interest and you need to plan to do that, so look at those CDs and different banking services because it’s not about finding one bank and hoping they give you some good interest. It’s creating a plan and looking for the different areas that give you a much higher interest rate.
What alternatives are there to keeping my money in the bank?
There are several alternatives to keeping your money in the bank that you should consider. With interest rates being low, it’s important to explore other options. Here are a few alternatives:
- Explore Money Market Accounts: Look beyond traditional bank accounts and consider money market accounts. These accounts function similarly to savings accounts but may offer higher interest rates.
- Consider Treasury Bills and Bonds: Treasury bills, bonds, and notes can provide an alternative to bank savings. These government-backed securities often offer competitive interest rates. You can investigate treasury rates, evaluate their potential as an investment option for your money, and even buy them directly from treasurydirect.gov.
- Evaluate Annuities: Annuities can be another avenue to explore. Certain annuities may offer higher interest rates compared to bank CDs or treasury bonds.
It used to be simple where you probably just used one bank with a checking account and savings account, maybe you had some CDs or went to the bank down the street because they had a CD special and you wanted to get some extra interest on that. But interest rates got incredibly low from 2009 to 2022.
According to depositaccounts.com, right now the national average on savings accounts is about 0.4% and the top rates are 4.4% which is a huge difference where you can do nothing and get close to zero, or do something and get 4% higher. When it comes to CDs, the national average is around 3% and the high is 5%, so you can get two percentage points higher by looking around and locking in your money at a higher rate because you took the time to look around.
Overall, it is important to consider the money market and explore different markets for money.