Loading…
4
My coworker said your bank is always safer, and I bit my tongue for a week
We were grabbing lunch near the office in Denver when my coworker said he would put every dollar in his bank savings account and not touch a broker, since banks are the safe choice. I used to think the same way for years, mostly since my parents did it. But two years back I ran the numbers on my own savings account and my rate was 0.15% while inflation was eating way more than that. I moved part of my cash into a basic index fund through a broker and it did fine, even with a rough stretch in 2022. His point was that banks are guaranteed and brokers are risky, and yes, the insurance part is real, but that only covers a small slice of what you hold. What bugged me is that he lumped every broker into the same pile without ever looking at what his own bank charges him in fees. So I stayed quiet and just pulled up my statements later to double check I was not fooling myself. Where do you all draw the line on cash you can actually sleep on versus money you are fine letting ride?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
the_wade13h ago
Man, this is the same thing as people who swear by one brand of anything and never look at the label. We all pick a guy and stick with him because our dad did or our neighbor said so, and checking the actual numbers feels like admitting we got it wrong for years. I keep a few months of bills in the bank so I can sleep, and the rest goes where it can actually grow, because leaving it all in a 0.15% account is a choice too, just a quiet one.
5