My interest in simple ways to save and manage money wisely has gone back many years when I first purchased the domain yourfinances.com. I had planned to write a blog but work demands had prevented me from taking the time to set this up. My wife and I were recently reviewing our retirement savings … we have the following plans in place:
- Long term retirement savings in the form of 401k and taxable accounts.
- College savings 529 plans for our kids
- Emergency fund savings in a savings account.
- Short term savings in a checking account to pay for short term needs.
Our emergency fund — the savings account where you have 4-6 months of liquid pay immediately available in case of emergency — was in a regular savings account. This account was earning something like 0.1%. What? Given inflation is about 2% give or take, I was losing money on this amount.
There had to be a better way.
A little bit of research led me to the availability of high-yield savings accounts. Accounts earning not 0.1% but closer to 2% or even more. My bank did not have anything like a high-yield savings and the closest they had was a money market but the interest was still below 1%.
Other ways to save money
My Brother and I often compare notes on ways we regularly save money at home. Including innovative bank bonuses or credit card promotions. There are in fact a huge number of opportunities to save money or wisely place your money or create accounts that pay you money to sign up.
Why not create a blog?
My wife and brother recommended I give this a try…sharing our ideas, thoughts, advice and interaction. Thus, the creation of yourfinances.com blog.