My bank pays 0.01 percent interest on savings accounts. That's fairly standard across the banks in my area. The credit unions are at a quarter-percent, but as much as I like the concept of credit unions, my personal situation makes storing it in a bank a wiser decision than storing it in a credit union.
Your choices are: store the money in the Bank of Sealy for free, store the money in a commercial bank for free so some one-percenter can use it to get richer, or store the money with the government for free and a little bit of it might be used to help the needy. And by storing it with the government, I never worry about needing to pay extra on April 15 - which to me is more valuable than the five bucks or so I might make by storing it in a bank.
The Parable of the Talents, updated:
A very rich man was going on a long journey. Before he left, he called his three sons to him.
"I am going to test your investing skills, my sons."
To his eldest son he entrusted five talents. To his middle son three, and to his youngest one.
A year later he came back. "Report."
The eldest son stood: "Father, I found a wonderful investment that would double your money. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a Ponzi scheme. All your money is gone."
The middle son stood: "Father, I invested in gold. Unfortunately, the market for gold took a dump two minutes after I got into it. Of your three talents, I have a tenth of one left."
The youngest son stood: "Father, what the hell can you do with one talent? I put it in a Mason jar and stuck it in the freezer. Here it is."
The youngest son would normally be considered a hero, but his dad was shorting the hell out of the market...
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