What Is The Point Of Putting Money In A Savings Account?

Yeah Kim, I know what you mean and I also know that this thread is an
invitation to be nuked but for crying out loud, I might as well put money
in my mattress.

Kurt's advice is the best so far in the thread. But while micro loans are an excellent way to earn money with money, I'd recommend stepping it up and providing hard money loans. With most businesses feeling the pressure of the restricted credit markets, hard money loans are in high demand and probably will be for some time to come. You can get involved easily and quickly: hard money lenders are not regulated like banks are and therefore both you and your clients can reap some pretty amazing benefits. And because you're investing in the deal and not the individual's credit, it's fairly easy to mitigate any risk.

While I do recommend this, it's not the direction I personally have gone. Why am I qualified to give this "advice?" (Disclaimer: advice is for entertainment purposes only) I spent most of my career (even while writing as a second income in the mid-late nineties) as a financial consultant and risk analyst to the world's largest (at the time) bank. I've written thousands of financial-related articles, retirement planning books, and investing for dummies type books and workbooks. So what am I doing?

Betting against the dollar. Yup- that's right- call me unAmerican; I could care less. The fact of the matter is that the dollar IS GOING TO COLLAPSE. This isn't something that's up for argument or opinion- it is going to happen and there's plenty of evidence to support it. (That's right, US Treasury- just keeping printing money that's backed by NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING!) Most of the rest of the world knows this and so do many here in the US, but few are doing anything about it other than quietly dumping dollars in favor of other commodities and investments.

When the dollar does collapse it won't matter how much money you have in the bank or how much interest you've earned, because it will become pretty much worthless overnight. But if everyone dumps their dollars the collapse will just happen more quickly, right? Yup. @#$%ed if you do, @#$%ed if you don't. Welcome to the New World Order.

Good things to invest in: China. Water rights. Weapons and ammunition. Food, medicine and gasoline stockpiles. Wood-stoves and fuel. Human-powered transport. Getting the hell out of the country. Funding lobbyists for radical change. Sounds crazy, right? It sure is!

Or, you can assume that nothing will ever happen and take the advice of others in this thread and put your money to work at 4-5%. Think that 5% will help you when the dollar collapses? (Actually, it probably will provide about an extra half hour of heat or so. Or it will make for rough but ironic toilet paper.)

Hard money or micro loans for now, using the returns to hedge your bets against the dollar. That's a pretty solid plan, all things considered.

Actually Steve I don't think the purpose of a savings account is to earn money.
The purpose is to have a place to stash money you don't need currently.
Sat your business earns you 10,000 a month and you have to reinvest 2,000 a month. With the 8,000 net profit you decide you need 2,000 a month for fixed expenses and you can invest another 4,000 in stocks or what ever.
Now you have 2,000 left that you don't need to do anything with. By putting it in a savings account you can still have access to it if you need it, but not as quickly as if it was in your house. This gives you a little time to think about how you where going to spend it before you do.
Think of it more as a safety net for emergencies or just don't think about it at all.
I look at a savings account as retired money. I don't need it to work for me anymore so I put it in a retirement home or as some call it a savings account.

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BBC - BBC One Programmes - Homes Under the Hammer, Series 14, Episode 117

BBC - BBC One Programmes - Homes Under the Hammer - Episodes from 2011