Pull out the last statement from the savings account you opened decades ago. Find the line that says interest earned.
If yours looks like most, it is a number you could cover with a thumb.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve held its benchmark rate between 3.75% and 4%. Two officials wanted to raise it. Inflation ran 3.7% over the past year, the main reason the Fed is in no hurry to ease.
So money is expensive to borrow. Yet the average savings account pays 0.38%. Both of those things are true at the same bank, on the same day.
When the Fed shifts like this, money moves, and some people make a career of tracking where. One veteran trader says this shift is the biggest in nearly 20 years.
Now put the three rates that matter to a saver side by side.
4.00%
Top of the Fed’s target range, held on October 28
3.7%
Consumer prices over the past year, through September
-3.3 pts
What the average savings account loses to inflation, by our math
That last number is the one to keep. A dollar parked at the national average shrinks by about three cents a year in buying power.
Our generation feels that more than most. We are the ones living on what we saved. And many of us still trust the bank where we opened our first account.
Where the cohort’s money sits this quarter, and where the interest is hiding.
The honest catch? That gap only lasts while we sit still. Online banks and CD specials pay several times the average, and moving money takes an afternoon.
Banks know a good share of loyal savers will move eventually. They are betting it will not be this year.
Cash in the bank is only one choice. Some savers are looking further out, at fast-growing companies that are not even public yet. One tech analyst says the name to watch is an AI startup with a famous backer.
The arithmetic
Federal funds target range held at 3.75% to 4% on October 28, 2026, by a 10-2 vote, with two officials favoring a quarter-point increase; consumer prices up 3.7% over the year to September: Federal Reserve statement, as reported by Fortune, October 28, 2026. National average savings rate of 0.38% for October 2026: FDIC National Rates, via the St. Louis Fed (series SNDR). The -3.3 point real return and “about three cents a year” are Boomers Trade’s own math from those two figures. Fixed CDs offering roughly 4.50% to 5.00% APY: Raisin, October 30, 2026.
This weekend, find that savings statement and read the interest line out loud. Then read the inflation number next to it. The gap between them is somebody’s business model. Same time tomorrow, one statement smarter.
Andrew
Boomers Trade is written by someone getting older right alongside you, and watching who profits from it.
|