Frustration: My savings accounts aren’t keeping up

Posted on June 15, 2008 9 Comments

I’ve just spent the last four hours online, researching my finances. And I feel frustrated. Not just because I’m sick and my head feels like a giant balloon is expanding inside of it, or because after four hours of sitting on the floor, my bottom has fallen asleep, or because it’s a lovely summer Saturday night and I’m stuck at home. No … I’m frustrated because I’m working hard to every day to save my money, but my accounts are acting like total deadbeats — unmoving, unsuccessful and quite possibly hung over.

After my last post, a reader asked me to explain exactly how inflation is affecting my bank account. So I went back to pull the numbers, and analyzed my accounts during May 07, November 07 and May 08. I expected to find that expenses for ordinary things have gone up over the last few months. But on the contrary, I’ve been pretty good about adjusting my purchases to keep groceries and other staples at the same cost; for instance, we’ve made an effort to shop at Trader Joe’s more regularly vs. Whole Foods, and at the high-priced Whole Foods, we’ve cut back on the higher-priced items.

While I was rather impressed with my spending discipline, I knew there were more accounts to investigate.

Up next was my savings account – and that is most definitely hurting. First, the good news: I have managed to save nearly $15,000 towards my downpayment during the last twelve months! Now the bad news: During the last twelve months, my money market account has plunged from a 5.05 percent APY in May 07 to a 2.75 APY in May 08. It’s not even keeping up with inflation (which is currently at 4.2 percent), which sort of defeats the purpose of a savings account.

In fact, none of my accounts are keeping up with inflation. Not my bank savings account, not my money market account and not my 401K. In response to this statement, B said, somewhat sarcastically, that if my rates of return are above zero, the accounts still doing OK, and that the only people doing well right now are those who invest in commodities. I asked him if this meant I should invest in eggs and corn and cows. He laughed for a second, and then, more seriously said, “Well, if you open a brokerage account you can. Corn and gold are up right now.”

Unfortunately I don’t know how, or where, to open a brokerage account. Or if it’s a good idea. So I looked it up on google, and found that it’s pretty much just a standard investment account, which is not on my list of things to do with my downpayment funds.

It’s weird – I’m so close to where I want to be with that account, but it still feels so far away. I’m probably a year to 18 months away from buying a place — I have about $25,000 saved up right now — and I have a plan for the next twelve months that involves home buyer education and real estate market analysis. So I should feel good, or great, about my progress. But instead of feeling like my money’s doing well, I feel like my accounts aren’t working as hard as I am to help me reach my goals.

But given the economy, I guess everyone’s in the same boat. Maybe I should be happy that despite my savings accounts, I’m still managing to sock away money. Maybe I should also be happy that I haven’t lost any money, or any equity (since I don’t own a house). My net worth has steadily grown, despite the “market contraction.” All very positive things. So what’s bugging me?

I think the problem is that I feel helpless to do anything about the fact that my accounts aren’t keeping up. On the downpayment account, I shouldn’t move into higher risk, higher yield accounts, because I’m not planning on keeping money there five years or more. On the retirement account, a 1.9 percent rate of return is actually better than where my account was in November 07 (-4.5 percent). Truth be told, I wouldn’t want to make any bold moves in this economy; there’s too much uncertainty. And really, the difference between a 5.05 percent APY and a 2.75 percent APY probably only boils down to about $20 per month for me. So the best bet is to sit here and continue to save, like I always do.

I don’t know, maybe it is the weekend cold talking. Let me get a little better and tell you how I feel next week.

Category: Money
   Tags: Saving

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