441
Nearly 40% of Americans have less than $500 in cash savings, survey shows
(www.livenowfox.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2026
441 points (100.0% liked)
A Boring Dystopia
16399 readers
64 users here now
Pictures, Videos, Articles showing just how boring it is to live in a dystopic society, or with signs of a dystopic society.
Rules (Subject to Change)
--Be a Decent Human Being
--Posting news articles: include the source name and exact title from article in your post title
--If a picture is just a screenshot of an article, link the article
--If a video's content isn't clear from title, write a short summary so people know what it's about.
--Posts must have something to do with the topic
--Zero tolerance for Racism/Sexism/Ableism/etc.
--No NSFW content
--Abide by the rules of lemmy.world
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Tax refunds act as forced savings for many people. It's not a good way to save as the government pays no interest on the savings. The the people then blow the money immediately on major purchases or paying down debt buildup.
Personally, I always tried to make it so that I didn't get a tax return. I always figured it cost me significant money in cash flow through the year. Always pissed me off to overpay in taxes when I could have used the money for critical things I needed during the year.
I can't remember the last time I saw a bank pay interest, either. If you want to grow a principle balance, you need to invest it, and that gets real iffy when the demented gameshow host decides to manipulate the markets.
It seems like my 401k dips $5k every afternoon when Trump promises something insane, then bounces back the next morning when he doesn't follow through.
If you have more than a few thousand in your bank you need to look at their financial offerings or consider opening a high yield savings account at a larger bank. My credit union has a few offerings which give 2-3% interest as long as you maintain a balance over a certain amount (usually 1-5k) but most of the account offerings that are more focused on being fee-free only yield about 0.25% interest. And this is all without dipping into actual brokerage and other more risky financial products
Basically it's the difference between $10k earning you $25 a year or earning you $300-400/year
You can open a brokerage account like Fidelity and put the money in a 3-4% cash account(like spaxx). Takes about 10 minutes and it's low risk. Can get your money any time like a bank.
This is the ideal way to handle your emergency fund, toss it in a high yield savings account with a different bank from your every day one, and then it's harder to tap into if you have a mild inconvenience. Between the high yield savings account and CDs that I keep about 1/3 of my emergency fund tied up in, my emergency fund is earning me about $500/year. Is that a life changing amount of money? Of course not! But it is enough that I can basically never touch my emergency fund and it should hold its value a bit above inflation indefinitely. And as a bonus it's all FDIC insured!
Any halfway decent bank/credit union should be giving a decent interest rate given how high the national rate is.
For example Ally gives 3+% on savings accounts - https://www.ally.com/bank/view-rates/