Take Advantage of the Recent Historically High Savings Rates to Save Money!

 

How to Save Money with Apple Savings and Fidelity Bloom

Our past couple posts have focused on earning money off of spending, we'll switch it up here and now focus on earning money off of savings. Saving money can be challenging, especially with today's higher inflation rates, but today's interest rates on savings accounts are some of the highest we've seen in a long time and there are some accounts that offer tools that can help you develop better saving habits and grow your money over time. In this post, I'll introduce you to two of my favorites and the ones I currently use: Apple Savings and Fidelity Bloom.

What is Apple Savings?

Apple Savings is a high-yield savings account that is available to Apple Card users (if you don't have an Apple Card, or don't use Apple at all, don't worry - the next option will be for you, and it’s even sweeter 🤩). It offers a roughly 4.5% annual percentage yield (APY), which is much higher than the average savings rate of less than 1%... This means that your money can earn more interest in Apple Savings than in most other savings accounts.

Apple Savings also has some other benefits, such as:

• No fees, minimum deposits, or balance requirements
• Automatic deposits of your Daily Cash rewards from Apple Card
• A 10% annual savings match from Apple on up to $300 of deposits
• A 10-cent reward for every purchase with your Apple Savings debit card
• Cash-back shopping from over 1,000 participating retailers

You can set up and manage your Apple Savings account directly from the Apple Card in Wallet app on your iPhone. You can also view your account balance and interest earned over time via a dashboard.

What is Fidelity Bloom?

Fidelity Bloom is a free financial app and debit card that helps you organize your finances by separating your savings from your day-to-day spending money. It also uses psychology to help you build mindful spending and saving habits.

Fidelity Bloom comes with two Fidelity accounts: one to save and one to spend. Both are brokerage accounts that hold your uninvested cash in a money market mutual fund, which has the potential to earn yield. The current APY for the Fidelity Bloom accounts is roughly 4.98% (based off of the Fidelity Government Money Market Fund [SPAXX]).

Fidelity Bloom also helps you save money with:

• Lessons, activities, and a yearly savings match that teach you new skills using scientifically proven methods
• Built-in cash rewards that are deposited directly to your Fidelity Bloom Save account
• A 10% annual savings match from Apple on up to $300 of deposits
• No fees, minimum deposits, or balance requirements
• A debit card that gives you a 10-cent reward for every purchase
• Cash-back shopping from more than 1,000 participating retailers when you shop in the app

You can download Fidelity Bloom from the App Store or Google Play Store and sign up with your email address. You can also access your accounts and debit card on Fidelity.com. Fidelity Bloom also offers opportunities to get bonus cash just for opening an account - usually you'll get $5 right off the bat, then another $100 after you deposit at least $50 via a transfer into your account, and finally, if you transfer at least $300, you'll achieve the max 10% yearly savings match of $30, totaling $135 in free money just for opening the account! *Pro Tip: Open one up for you and do the same for your spouse/significant other and you’ll be able to double the bonus opportunities 🤑.

Conclusion 

Apple Savings and Fidelity Bloom are both great tools to help you save money - they may not be the absolute highest offering for savings interest rates these days, but come very close without having to keep a minimum balance or deposit, a direct deposit requirement, or lock-in term requirement. You'll be able to get higher rates on Certificates of Deposit (CD), which guarantee a rate of return, however, there is usually a minimum deposit requirement and the funds are then locked up for the term of the CD (usually a year or longer) - not worth it in my opinion for what will most likely only be an extra 0.5% on the savings rate. Finally, as you save, consider the following tips as well:

• Set up automatic transfers to your Fidelity Bloom account or your Apple Savings account every month. This way, you can save a portion of your income without having to think about it. You can also adjust the amount and frequency of your transfers according to your budget and goals.
• Use the Fidelity Bloom app to track your spending and saving habits, learn new skills, and get motivated by challenges and rewards. You can also use the Apple Card in the Wallet app to monitor your Daily Cash, interest earned, and savings match from Apple Savings.

By using Apple Savings or Fidelity Bloom (or both like I do), you can create a simple and effective system to save money and boost the earnings on that money.

- ItsBigZee

#savings #finance #MoneyTips

P.S. Got another strategy to boost earnings on savings? Let us know in the comments below!