My partner and I currently have enough savings we could comfortably live off of for over two years, if we had no source of income. This amount is also enough to easily get a mortgage — we’ve been looking to buy for over a year now, but the housing market is awful.
All those savings are just sitting in our bank account and everyone we’ve talked to says that’s stupid with inflation eating it away. That is true, however we don’t know what to do with it in the meantime. Several people suggested investing in ETFs, but neither of us knows much about it. On the surface level, to me it sounds like one needs to invest a lot to see any benefit. It also looks suspiciously like gambling, which makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, there doesn’t seem to be any alternative, except leave the money to slowly rot while we’re waiting for a good housing opportunity.
Any thoughts, suggestions?
Does Europe have accounts similar to HYSA? High yield savings accounts get 3-4% interest right now in the US. That is where emergency and shorter term money can be parked without losing to inflation.
If you dont have access to a hysa I would invest in a MMF or money market fund, again these are relatively low return but keep pretty close pace with inflation. Good for shorter term investing.
For when you arent going to touch the money for 5-10y+ then an ETF or index fund makes sense. Yes, the stock market is gambling but historically over long periods the average goes up.
Wise (ex TransferWise) is currently 3.14% on USD, 0.8% on EUR, and I’ve never seen it much higher for EUR. I’ve not seen it much higher there or elsewhere (lived in UK/France).