Welcome to Part 2 of this guide. Read Part 1 (Budgeting) here.
This segment focuses on
(Psst… This is the 1st part of a 3-part series: 1 – Budgeting; 2 – Saving; 3 – Investing).
They say it’s good to accumulate your savings in 3 areas:
*Optional: For something you’re saving up for (house, car, travels, that long-coveted date you’ve been meaning to ask your crush on)
After the above, you may want to save for other things, but I suggest pouring a chunk to investments.
APY, or annual percentage yield, is a percentage rate showing the total amount of interest paid on an account, based on the interest rate and the frequency of compounding for a 365-day period. You want higher APY rates to basically earn “free money” by nature of the money just existing in that account.
Bank of America’s Regular Savings Account has an APY of 0.03%. High-yield online savings accounts, however have APY rates of > 1%, because they do not have brick and mortar (and associated employee) costs. I use CIT Bank, but Ally Bank is a good option, too.
It is not AT ALL too early to start accumulating wealth for retirement. In fact, I wish I had started saving my Christmas money sooner. Why? Compounding. Compounding. Compounding. The ability to generating earnings from past earnings.
For example: