You start investing after you've paid off all credit cards and personal loans, build a budget, and save up money in an emergency fund for the unexpected. The portion of this money that you may need instantly, to pay your recurring bills, should be put in a Money Market Account or a Money Market Fund which allow check-writing and provide a better return than a conventional savings account from a bank; the former are issued by banks (with FDIC insurance) and the latter by investment firms. The portion of this money that you don't need to pay bills should go into a bank High Yield Savings Account, which after 2023 have interest rates of around 5% (the result of the Federal Reserve's increases in interest rates). A useful arrangement is to have a High Yield Savings Account and a Money Market Account at the same bank, where you can instantly move money online between the accounts. And don't limit yourself to accounts in your city -- those offered elsewhere often have higher interest rates, and depositing and withdrawing from them is a cinch, with online access and the ability to link these accounts to a local bank account (if you have one) for easy, 1-day or 2-day transfers. To find the best Money Market Accounts and High Yield Savings Accounts nationwide go to BankRate.com, but search carefully in this website for the highest rates because it's full of "sponsored" (paid) entries that may not be the highest. Where To Put Your Emergency Fund Money
by Ernesto R. Martin
