Where to Put Your Cash Now for Every Income Level
Rising rates may mean it’s time to put more money in savings accounts, certificates of deposit and Treasury bills
4 min
Stop dwelling on what you’ve lost thanks to rising interest rates and take advantage of the opportunities they present.
High rates are expected to linger for a while and they are having a corrosive impact on some parts of our finances. Taking out a $500,000 mortgage to buy a home today will cost you about $400 more a month than it would have a year ago in a standard 30-year mortgage. That is not to mention higher rates on credit cards, personal loans and other products for borrowers.
The high-rate periods can also bring juicy, high yields on savings accounts, certificates of deposit and Treasury bills—that is, banks are paying you to let your money sit there. And anyone can take advantage, regardless of income.
Dena Bashri opened a SoFi savings account last fall. It now yields 4.5% a year. She wanted a higher return than she was getting at her local credit union.
Bashri, 25 years old, is a senior director at a fundraising firm and makes roughly $92,500 a year. She saves money on rent by living with her parents in Virginia so she’s able to contribute about $4,900 each month to her savings account. She’s already earned close to a few hundred dollars in interest and hopes to continue building her rainy-day fund, she said.
“Emergency savings offers me the flexibility to take risks but also financially anticipate any life changes that may happen,” Bashri said.
Here’s a financial road map for making the most of great yields while staying on track with your short- and long-term money goals.
Level 1: Nothing to spare
Living paycheck to paycheck is now the norm for most Americans.
Financial advisers urge those holding large amounts of debt to first pay down high-interest balances. About half of people carrying credit-card debt allow those balances to roll over into the next month, according to a recent Bankrate survey.
Credit-card interest rates are at record highs, making that debt even more expensive to maintain. Putting money in a savings account with a 4.5% rate will help little if you haven’t paid down your Visa balance with the current average rate of 22.16%.
“Although you may be able to set aside a certain amount of money in a savings account, if you’re potentially offsetting that with not paying off higher debt, that’s an important consumer consideration,” said Courtney Mitchell, head of consumer deposits, products and payments at TD Bank.
For avid debit-card users, high-yield checking accounts are worth consideration, financial advisers say. These accounts can be found at credit unions and online banks and are yielding up to 6%. That interest can then be linked to a high-yield savings account. This is a good option for debit-card users who want to get a start on their emergency fund.
But try not to keep more than one month’s worth of expenses sitting in a checking account, said Rob Williams, managing director of financial planning and wealth management at Charles Schwab. Research shows money sitting in a checking account is more likely to be spent than money in a savings account.
Level 2: $0—$1,000
For those who can sock away at least a little bit each month, even putting $25 in a high-yield account can make a difference, said Mitchell.
If you contribute $25 a month to a savings account yielding 4.5%, you will have roughly $300 in a year including interest.
Putting that money toward emergency savings? Liquidity is key so that when something unexpected happens, like a flat tire, you can get the money quickly. High-yield savings accounts are the best places for emergency savings because they allow easy withdrawals, financial advisers say.
“You really need emergency savings to be in something you can get at as soon as possible and also without a penalty,” said Mark Hamrik, senior economic analyst at Bankrate.
Financial advisers recommend building up six months to one year of expenses in an emergency-savings account. Homeowners should save a little more for unexpected repairs.
Level 3: $1,000+
Once you’re comfortable with your emergency savings, you can set aside money for holiday gifts, vacations and other short-term goals such as a down payment on a car.
The run of interest rate increases has made certificates of deposit popular again. If you are comfortable locking money away for a period of time, consider a CD for some of these short-term goals. Many six-month to one-year CDs are offering yields above 5%.
It can be helpful to divvy up your high-yield savings for coming expenses.
Erin Confortini, 24, is a freelance marketing consultant based in Pennsylvania who made about $120,000 last year. She has three high-yield savings accounts for her short-term savings goals.
Each month, Confortini puts $150 aside for car insurance, $300 for coming vacations and $200 toward Christmas and birthday gifts, she said.
“It’s really great that now that rates are increasing, we do have an option to earn a little bit of money,” Confortini said.
Level 4: Investing for long term
You’ve got at least one month of expenses in your checking account, you’ve beefed up emergency savings and you’ve set aside buckets of money for anticipated expenses.
Maybe it’s time to get more money out of high-yield savings. Keeping all of your money in savings isn’t a strategy for wealth building because the interest gained on high-yield accounts likely won’t outpace inflation in the long run, said Kyle McBrien, a certified financial planner at Betterment.
One simple way to take advantage of rates and get out of high-yield savings is Treasurys.
Take Victor Cipolla, a 33-year-old entrepreneur in New York.
Cipolla moved $30,000 from his high-yield savings account into a Treasury bill after he noticed that rates were going up. The bill currently yields more than 4% and he reinvests the money in another Treasury bill every six months when it matures, he said. The average yield on a six-month Treasury bill is 5.3%.
“We’ve always had this low interest rate environment, so this is a new area to navigate,” said Cipolla.
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From tax residency and superannuation to offshore investments and property, the financial implications of coming home can be more complex than leaving.
3 min
Every year, thousands of Australians make the decision to pack up life overseas and come home.
After years, sometimes decades, building careers, accumulating assets, and growing families in places like Dubai, London, Singapore, or Hong Kong, the pull back is understandable.
What most don’t appreciate until it’s too late is that the return journey is often far more financially complex than the departure.
Leaving Australia is, financially speaking, a relatively clean event.
You depart, you potentially become a non-resident for tax purposes, and a new set of rules applies.
Coming back, however, means reconciling everything you’ve accumulated offshore with an Australian tax system that hasn’t been standing still waiting for you.
The Tax Residency Trap
The first and most costly mistake is misunderstanding when Australian tax residency resumes.
Many returning expats assume residency only kicks in once they’ve formally re-established themselves, signed a lease, updated their address, started a job. The ATO doesn’t see it that way.
Under Australian tax law, residency can recommence the moment you land with the intention of remaining. That means any taxable events, investment income, asset disposals, foreign account distributions that occur after that point are potentially assessable in Australia, even if they’re sitting in offshore accounts you haven’t touched.
Superannuation: The Clock Doesn’t Stop
One of the most underappreciated issues for returning expats is what’s been happening inside their superannuation fund while they’ve been away.
Contributions may have paused, but fees, insurance premiums, and investment volatility haven’t. Some returning clients are genuinely shocked by how much ground their super has lost to fees during periods of lower balances or inappropriate investment settings.
The more strategic issue is what to do on the way back. If you hold foreign pension arrangements, a UK SIPP or QROPS, a 401(k), and international savings schemes, the question of whether and how to repatriate those funds requires careful planning before you return.
Once you’re a tax resident again, distributions from certain foreign structures can be assessable as ordinary income, and the window to manage that exposure closes.
Offshore Investments Don’t Disappear
Returning to Australia doesn’t sever your obligations in the countries where you’ve been living.
Foreign-held shares, managed funds, or investment accounts will be picked up by Australian tax reporting requirements from the moment residency resumes.
The Foreign Investment Fund rules, transferor trust provisions, and the reporting obligations under Australia’s tax information exchange agreements mean these holdings need to be declared and, in some cases, restructured.
Leaving investments sitting offshore in structures that made sense as a non-resident but create compliance headaches as a resident is one of the most common and expensive mistakes we see.
The restructuring cost, if it’s even possible post-return, typically dwarfs what it would have cost to plan properly in advance.
Property: Both Sides of the Balance Sheet
There are two distinct property problems for returning expats.
The first is what they’ve held while away, an Australian property rented out during the absence.
Depending on how long the property was the main residence and how it was treated during the rental period, the CGT calculation on eventual sale can be complex.
The six-year absence rule provides some relief, but it’s not automatic and has conditions that are frequently misunderstood.
The second is re-entry into the Australian property market.
After years of asset accumulation offshore, many returnees assume they’re well-positioned to buy.
The challenge is that their financial picture, including foreign income history, offshore assets and currency, doesn’t translate neatly into Australian mortgage serviceability.
Lenders read foreign income conservatively, and what looks like a strong balance sheet can create unexpected borrowing capacity issues.
The Fix: Plan Before You Land
The single most effective thing an expat can do is start planning the return 12 to 18 months before departure.
That timeline allows for managed asset disposals under non-resident rules where advantageous, superannuation catch-up strategies, foreign structure rationalisation, and property decisions that aren’t being made under time pressure.
The irony is that most Australians sought financial advice before they left on how to exit cleanly.
Far fewer seek the same rigour on the way back in. Given the complexity involved, that’s an expensive oversight.
Coming home should be a financial clean slate. With the right planning, it can be. Without it, you’ll spend the first few years back unwinding decisions that didn’t have to be problems at all.
Brett Evans is the founder of Atlas Wealth and the author of The Expat’s Handbook.
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