Wake Up America

When I was in my 20's and just starting to raise a family, it was considered stupid not to put away a little money in a savings account for a rainy day.  Well, I just did a little adding and subtracting and it's actually kind of a stupid idea to have a savings account these days.

Here's why.  Back when I had a rainy day savings account interest rates on a personal savings account were about 5%.  That meant if I kept $4,000 in my account the bank would give me $16.66 a month interest.  In addition, my local hometown bank would give me $100 just to open a checking account to go along with my savings account.  And there were no maintenance fees of any kind.   

Today, YOU have to pay THEM.   You do business with a big far off corporate bank.  They charge on average $13.88 for monthly maintenance fees.  The interest rate on personal savings accounts these days is .03%.  That means if you had $4,000 in a saving account today THEY would owe YOU 10 cents a month.  So,  $13.88 minus $0.10 means YOU have to pay THEM  $13.78 per month to take YOUR money.

It gets even crazier when you look at it this way...

Back when those savings account interest rates were 5%, you could go to McDonald's, order a double cheeseburger, fries and a Coke and get change back from a dollar.  I kid you not. So, back then when the bank was paying me $16.66 interest on my savings account, I could have used it to take my wife and two kids to McDonald's about once a week.

Today (forget about the maintenance fees), the bank would be paying me a whopping 10 cents a month interest on that same $4,000 savings account.  If I've done the math right, that means I could take my wife and two kids to McDonald's and buy them that same meal about ONCE EVERY SIXTEEN YEARS.

And some of my friends tell me I'm crazy to want to go back to the "good old days".