As I’m sure you’re aware, interest rates are at an all-time historical low. This means the money in your savings account is just sitting there, not doing anything useful. You’re making at most 0.5% interest per year, if you’re lucky. It doesn’t have to be that way, though! I recently signed up for five unconventional savings accounts that are yielding 6x that amount. There are savings accounts that make even more than that, some above 6% even, but those have restrictions that made me decide they’re not worth it – a very low maximum balance that earns interest and/or a requirement for a minimum number of debit card transactions each month. I don’t want to work to earn my money – I already have a job. The savings accounts discussed in this post all have a large maximum balance that can earn interest (the lowest is $10,000 and highest is $100,000) and don’t require any maintenance work to maintain. There are a few tricks you can do to squeeze out slightly more benefits if you are a high earner and have very high balances, but I’ll save that unnecessary optimization for Part 2.