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By Justin Pritchard, About.com Guide to Banking / Loans

When Laziness Costs Money

Tuesday June 23, 2009
Sometimes doing nothing is great. It's easy, and sometimes it makes financial sense.

Other times, laziness can cost you. For example, leaving money in low-yielding savings accounts (or accounts that literally pay nothing) means you're leaving money on the table.

Savings accounts at major banks may pay less than 1% APY these days. Meanwhile, reputable online bank accounts pay more - in the 1.5% to 3% range.

Consider how much more you can earn if your savings account pays more. How much more per month would you get, and what could you spend it on? How much more would you have if you left the money to compound for several years? Learning the answer might motivate you.

Forbes covered the cost of laziness in several areas of our lives - including health, savings accounts, and more. Run the numbers for yourself and see if you can do better at the bank. You don't have to chase rates and continually open new accounts. Instead, just get a competitive deal, and transfer money from time to time if you can do a lot better for yourself.

Further reading:

Comments

June 24, 2009 at 12:41 pm
(1) Ken says:

It’s probably a good idea to shop savings account rates at least once a year. A good example of this is OnBank, the internet bank from M&T Bank. They had competitive rates for a while, but this year, their rates have tanked. The rate is now only 0.50%.

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