Is keeping your money in a savings account such a bad thing?

August 9, 2026 — 5:00am

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Real Money, a free weekly newsletter giving expert tips on how to save, invest and make the most of your money, is sent every Sunday. You’re reading an excerpt – you can sign up to get the whole newsletter in your inbox.

There’s a common thread in a lot of money advice that keeping all your hard-earned just sitting in a savings account is a bad thing, with the idea being you should be putting that money to work for you somehow, perhaps by investing it, or loading it into your super.

I’m less fussed about this, and my general stance is while sure, it might be wise to invest some of your savings (provided you don’t need them for something), having your money on hand and easily accessible is in no way a bad thing. It’s your money! Go wild with it*! (*not too wild)

But that stance comes with an important caveat: the savings account you do have your money in has to be earning a decent amount of interest. Otherwise, you’re really doing nothing with your money. And that’s bad.

And, as it turns out, a lot of us have absolutely no idea how much our savings accounts are earning. According to recent research from Finder, more than a third (35 per cent) admit they have no idea what their savings account pays, while, worryingly, 9 per cent keep their money in a transaction account − which offers little to no interest − instead of a........

© The Age