Best Places to Put Your Savings

1. High-Yield Savings Account

A high-yield savings account is a type of account that keeps your cash liquid and accessible, making it a good choice for an emergency fund or any other short-term goals.

High-yield savings account rates change, often fluctuating alongside market conditions. You can't typically expect to get the returns you might find in less liquid investments (see below), but rates tend to be higher than you'd get from a traditional savings account. Select accounts may offer as high as 5% as of May 2026.

Tip: HYSAs are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) up to $250,000 per institution, account owner and ownership category. That should be ample coverage for most, but you could talk to a financial advisor if you're not sure.

2. Tax-Advantaged Accounts

Taking advantage of savings accounts with tax benefits can help you get more out of your money. Here are three main types, and how to use each:

• 401(k)s: These employer-sponsored retirement accounts allow you to make pretax investments toward retirement. Some employers match your contributions up to a set percentage of your income. If you have access to an employer match, try to contribute at least enough to take full advantage of it.
• Individual retirement accounts (IRAs): If you don't already have a retirement account through work (or want to invest beyond it), you can open an IRA yourself. Traditional IRAs offer tax-deductible contributions and tax-deferred growth, while Roth IRAs provide tax-free withdrawals in retirement.
• Health savings accounts (HSAs): These tax-advantaged accounts let you set aside money for qualified medical expenses. Contributions may be tax deductible, earnings grow tax-free and withdrawals are tax-free when used for eligible health care costs.

3. Certificate of Deposit

A certificate of deposit (CD) is a low-risk way to earn fixed interest on your savings. The issuing bank pays you interest on your investment in exchange for leaving your money in the account for a set amount of time. When you cash out your CD at the maturity date, you'll receive your principal and accrued interest.

Generally speaking, how much interest you earn on your CD depends on the size of the deposit and the length of the maturity term. You can often expect longer-term CDs to offer higher yields; however, that isn't always the case: In May 2026, the average rate for a CD with a one-year term was 1.55% versus 1.34% for a five-year term CD, according to the FDIC.

Like savings accounts, CDs are FDIC-insured.

With a CD, accessing your money early can lead to early withdrawal penalties, depending on the terms of the financial institution you're working with. So, they tend to be a good fit if you know you won't need the funds during the maturity period. For instance, you could use a CD to plan for a home improvement in three years. Or, you could build a CD ladder in which several CDs mature at different points, giving you more flexibility with your money.

Learn more: What Are the Best Short-Term Investing Options?

4. Money Market Account

A money market account is a type of savings account that typically earns higher interest than an ordinary savings account. Money market accounts have an average APY of 0.57% in May 2026, according to the FDIC, though some APYs may reach 4% or higher.

You'll generally have easy access to your money with a money market account, though some may limit the number of withdrawals each month. Depending on your bank, you may also receive checks you can use with the account. Money market accounts provided by banks and credit unions are insured.

Tip: You could consider using a money market account to house money needed soon, such as for holiday gifts or a vacation fund.

Learn more: Savings Account vs. CD vs. Money Market Account: What's the Difference?

5. Investments

Beyond keeping some liquid savings for emergencies and short-term goals, investing your money is essential for growing your money over time. If you're new to investing or don't have time to allocate to researching investment options, a broker, investment advisor or less expensive robo-advisor can help you manage your assets.

Low-risk, steady growth assets like exchange-traded funds are one of the safer investments for building wealth slowly over time, but there are investment vehicles for all levels of risk tolerance with varying potential rewards.

Mutual Funds

Mutual funds are investment vehicles that combine the funds of many investors into a diverse pool of securities such as stocks and bonds. Mutual funds can be a good choice for investors because they're professionally managed and generally lower-risk due to their diversified nature.

That said, mutual funds do carry some level of risk, especially those that consist of more volatile securities. Mutual funds can be traded once per day while the market is open.

Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs)

ETFs are similar to mutual funds in that they enable investors to pool their money with that of other investors to receive returns on a number of securities in a diverse portfolio.

Unlike mutual funds, ETF shares and slices of shares can be traded throughout the day like stocks, making them more liquid than mutual funds.

Index Funds

Index funds are a low-cost and accessible type of mutual fund or exchange-traded fund that track the performance of a basket of stocks and bonds in a specific segment of the financial market.

Index funds shoot for long-term returns by investing passively in a given market index. Because of this passive investment strategy, index funds may not provide as much flexibility or ability to react to market trends as other funds.

Individual Stocks

Buying individual stocks allows investors to own shares of specific companies. Compared with other securities, stocks offer one of the greatest potentials for growth, meaning investing in them could lead to high returns over time.

That said, a stock's worth can always swing in the other direction, too, and this volatility makes them a risky and hard-to-manage asset. Putting too much of your investment portfolio into one company's stock can mean devastating losses if the share price plummets and doesn't recover.

Tip: It's important to balance the risk of stock investing with more stable assets, and consider how far in the distance your savings goals are when determining whether to buy stocks. If you're nearing retirement, it's generally safer to start moving your investments into low-risk securities, such as bonds. Younger investors may prefer to opt for a more stock-heavy portfolio because they have more time to ride out losses and volatility.

Bonds

Bonds are low-risk securities issued by companies, states and governments. They're useful for holding savings you'll need for a predictable future expense, as well as for balancing out volatile investments.

One downside of bonds is that if you need to access your money before a bond's maturity, you could be penalized with a loss of earned interest.

Real Estate Investment Trusts

If you're curious about investing in commercial real estate, such as rental properties, storage units, office buildings and retail stores, real estate investment trusts (REITs) are a way to start investing in real estate. With REITs, you don't need to provide large amounts of capital or actually buy or manage real estate. Instead, you can purchase investments with a pool of other REIT investors.

Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency is a form of digital money that's also become popular as a speculative asset used by investors. Cryptocurrency uses public ledger technology called blockchain to create secure virtual tokens of existing currency and track transactions. The most well-known cryptocurrency is Bitcoin, but there are many types available for purchase.

Cryptocurrency's value fluctuates widely and constantly—more so even than stocks—making it perhaps the riskiest investment vehicle out there. If you're crypto-curious, do some research to understand what you'd be investing in.

Tip: If you want to buy cryptocurrency, consider minimizing your risk by limiting your investment to a small percentage of your portfolio and balancing out your crypto investments with safer assets such as bonds.

6. Treasury Savings Bonds

Treasury bills, notes and bonds are debt obligations issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, making them one of the safest places to invest your savings.

Like CDs, Treasury securities have different maturity lengths:

• Treasury bills: Maturities are less than one year, available with regular terms of four, eight, 13, 26 or 52 weeks.
• Treasury notes: Maturities can be two, three, five, seven or 10 years.
• Treasury bonds: Maturities can be 20 or 30 years.

Put Your Money to Work for You

Investing your savings widely can help you build long-term wealth over time, and choosing the right account for the job can help you reach your goals. If you're thinking about opening a high-yield savings account, the Experian Smart Money^™ Digital Savings Account offers competitive annual percentage yields (APYs)^|| based on your Experian membership status with no monthly fees^¶, minimum balance or direct deposit requirements. You can get an Experian Smart Money Digital Savings Account through your free or paid Experian membership, which also gives you access to your FICO^® Score^Θ, Experian credit report, credit monitoring and more. See terms at experian.com/legal.