Well, dollars today won’t buy
as much in the future. So
keeping up with inflation, you
know, matters. And inflation
recently has been pretty bad.
The first time in over a year,
though, a top high yield
savings accounts are beating
inflation. So we’ll find a
little bit more about what that
means right now with our guest.
Breaking it down for us.
Bankrate analyst Matthew
Goldberg. He’s live on the
Feet. Matthew, good morning.
How are
you doing?
>> Born in doing well. How are
you? Good. Thanks for being
with us. Important topic.
Obviously money is that it’s
not always simple to
understand. Let’s talk about
this. This phrase, our money
loses purchasing power over
time. A dollar today doesn’t
buy what it will in the future.
What we mean by that.
>> Well, let’s say I was at or
let’s say in early 2019, I was
at a restaurant and bought $20
worth of goods and let’s say
left a $20 bill in my genes
from early 2019 and I didn’t
touch it. That money’s not
keeping up with inflation.
So I have 2 options now because
that would be according to the
bureau labors statistics
calculator, inflation
calculator that money. It would
cost more than $24 in today’s
dollars to buy those same
goods. So I would either have
to cut something, maybe not an
appetizer, something like that
or I would have to find another
$4. Plus to buy those same
good. So that’s kind of a what
inflation is. That’s a great
analogy. And I think a lot of
us can relate in the sense
that, you know, our paychecks
or whatever hasn’t grown by
that 4 bucks to make up the
difference during that same
time, I think a lot of cases.
>> Yeah. That’s more than 20%
increase. And I think a lot of
people haven’t got and 20%
cumulative raises in the past 4
years. All right.
>> Donna, let’s talk about than
the current savings rate
environment because interest
rates are up. So that’s I guess
bad if you’re borrowing.
But it’s it’s good. If you’re
saving.
>> Absolutely. So it’s one of
those rare times where top
savings yields are act actually
outpacing inflation. Now, this
is a marathon, not a sprint.
So right now that’s great.
But this isn’t a trend that’s
going you know, probably last
our lifetimes. And so for the
our lifetime, we’re usually
want going to want to do our
best to keep up with inflation.
We’re not going to stay ahead
with our safe FDIC, insured
savings accounts, but is a
great time for savers.
>> So in that sense now are are
dollars that worse, you know,
putting away at a high yield
account or protected
temporarily.
>> Correct. At this time they
exceed a top savings yields
exceeding inflation, you’ve
got to be in one of usually
online savings accounts at FDIC
insured banks. You’ve got to be
in one of account. Certainly.
>> So what kind of advice do
you give the people who are
just struggling at this moment
to keep up with living paycheck
to paycheck? But they want to
try to at least take advantage
of some of this time now where
they get some of this interest
on savings account.
>> One thing for some of those
people is June was one of those
rare. They’re usually 2 times
in a calendar year where
there’s a 3 paycheck month for
people what every other week.
And so if you’re one of those
people and you haven’t spent
that 3rd paycheck yet from
June, that’s a great savings
opportunity. The start an
emergency fund or something
like Right now I’m in
unemployment is kind of low.
And life is good for a lot of
people where they have that
job. And so now is the time to
be thinking about that
emergency fund and putting that
emergency fund in a high-yield
savings account, FDIC insured
bank to do your best to keep up
with inflation. Right now you
can be beating against one of
the nice thing to have used
Bankrate a number of times
myself as anybody can go to
your Web site throughout the
year.
>> And keep track of I mean,
any number of of different
rates right?
Absolutely. It’s it’s the way
to do it in a matter of minutes
as opposed to going to many,
many bank websites and doing
it yourself and then once you
have that account, savings
yields are generally variable.
So you wanna I’m not saying
every week or every month, but
every few months. Check it out
to make sure your account is
still competitive. Yeah, got
you. I will love the
calculators to that. You guys