A Comparison of High-Yield Online Savings Accounts
Saving money lies at the foundation of any financial plan. It doesn’t matter if you’re just getting started and trying to figure out how to start saving money by saving a few bucks a month or if you’re aggressively saving money fast so you can get together a down payment on a house, the simple act of putting money aside instead of spending it all will go a long way in helping you achieve your goals. This is why it’s important to begin saving today even if it feels as if you don’t have any money to save. When you start, it isn’t about how much you can save, but the act of saving itself. Over time this becomes a habit and when your finances improve you’ll already be in a position to easily put a little more money away. And over time your savings account will grow and provide the positive reinforcement you need to help you keep at it. Hopefully you will never worry about being broke.
Eventually you will start getting into the deeper questions like “How much should I save for retirement?” or “What is the max I can contribute to my 401k?” or “How do I become a millionaire?” Wouldn’t it be great if you where eventually saving too much for retirement?
In the past you had to do a little work to get started with a savings account. It usually meant going into a local bank branch or credit union, sitting down with a banker who tries to sell you other services, and you end up wasting the better part of your afternoon. On top of that, you then had to usually meet certain requirements to ensure you weren’t getting stuck with fees, you’d have to work around bank hours, or go find an ATM when you needed to make a deposit or withdrawal, and deal with virtually no interest. Thankfully, those days are over. Today we are fortunate enough to have plenty of online banks to choose from. In this electronic world you can open an account in 10 minutes from anywhere in the world, access your account 24 hours a day, and almost instantly transfer money from bank to bank with the click of a mouse. Even better, because these online banks don’t have a lot of overhead in the way of branches to maintain they can pass the savings on to you in the way of higher interest rates.
All of these banks are FDIC insured. If you did happen to find a bank you want to change to here be sure to check out my article on how to change banks for a guide to getting it done.
