Even though I’m a big proponent of investing for financial independence, having a savings account always comes in handy. You can save for an emergency fund, or for a nice big vacation. Anyway, savings are still relevant.
Fill that Savings Account!
In his book “Set for Life”, Scott Trench talks about starting your path to financial freedom by saving up 25,000 dollars.
This money will provide you with options and opportunities. You don’t really have to invest much at this point. Just saving up a big pile of cold hard cash already helps you tremendously.
Now, you don’t have to save 25k necessarily, but it’s good to have some amount of money as your goal. Then, you build habits into your life to be able to save this target amount. From there, you have options.
These options can be switching to a less secure job, starting your own company, or simply having money available to invest in stocks or real estate.
Having an Emergency Fund in Cash
Okay okay, sex is nice and all, but have you ever experienced going to be knowing you will be safe no matter what financial setback hits you? That’s the power of an emergency fund right there!
Of course I’m joking around here, but still, having cash set aside for when the times get rough is a wonderful feeling. You will be able to sleep better and worry less.
I personally set aside 6k euros as my emergency fund. This is around four months of living expenses and it has saved me on two different occasions already!
Saving for Investment Opportunities
As you might know by now and can see on my portfolio page, I do set aside money into a savings account every month to have a pool of cash available for investing in real estate.
This money is just sitting there, earning interest less than the inflation, waiting to be spent on the purchase of an investment property.
Even though the money earns no interest now, it saves me from running into an investment opportunity right after a market crash, leaving me with not enough money to purchase!
But Savings Accounts Pay Nothing!
While this is true for some time in Europe (in the US the interest rates seem reasonable again), you still have to put this money somewhere.
Luckily in the European Union, we’ve got a deposit insurance scheme that guarantees your account balances to a maximum of 100k per bank so you could shop around a little bit.
Even when savings accounts pay nothing, you still have to park your money somewhere. I choose to put my money in an online savings account I get with my bank. This account is paying me a reasonable interest percentage (at the moment 0.22%).
Higher Interest Rate with CDs
Although I like to have full control over the cash part of my assets, some people are
This type of account is called a Certificate of Deposit, or CD in short. When you open a CD, it’s like opening a bank account that you can put money in without being able to withdraw it before the term is over.
In return for putting your money away for longer, the bank will pay you more interest. Currently, I still prefer to put my money in a regular online savings account, but if you want to build up some savings for the future you know you don’t need, feel free to open up a Certificate of Deposit.
If you’re from The Netherlands, you can use this link to sign up for
Do you have a lot of money in savings, and why don’t you invest it? Please let me know in the comments below.
2 thoughts on “Savings Are Still Relevant When You’re Investing”
We have one year of expenses in our savings account. It helps me sleep well at night. The rest is invested every month.
That’s quite a lot, but if it makes you feel good it’s a good use of money! Thanks for the comment!
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