Key Takeaways
- Building a habit of saving a modest amount every day or week can lead to significant growth over time.
- Stashing as little as $3 per day in one of today’s best high-yield savings accounts could turn into well over $1,100 in 12 months.
- We crunch the numbers for different scenarios, including saving a little more—like $25 or $50 a week.
- It’s crucial to choose a high-yield account that beats the current inflation rate, ensuring your money isn’t losing value over time.
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Why Every Little Bit Counts: What $3 a Day Can Build To in 1 Year
No matter what your current financial situation looks like, thinking about making progress in small, manageable steps can reignite your motivation to grow your savings.
One way to approach it is by thinking in terms of dollars per day. For example, could you set aside $3 each day? That’s roughly the cost of a few store-bought coffees or bubble teas per week—the classic “forego the latte” strategy.
Or maybe it’s easier for you to set up an automatic transfer from your checking account—or even your Venmo balance—to a savings account each week, like on Mondays or Fridays. Saving $3 a day adds up to a $21 weekly transfer.
To truly maximize your new savings habit, you’ll want to stash the money in a high-yield savings account rather than a traditional account paying minimal interest. While typical savings accounts offer near-zero interest, today’s best high-yield accounts pay 11–13 times the national average, with 20 options offering returns from 4.30% to 5.00%.
To calculate your potential savings after one year, we used a 4.50% APY from a high-yield savings account and assumed regular weekly deposits of $21. After 52 weeks of regular savings, and nearly $25 in interest, you’d have a balance of approximately $1,116.
How Saving More—$25 or $50 a Week—Can Boost Your Savings Even Faster
If you can bump your weekly savings from $21 to $25, you’ll build your balance even faster. Saving $25 a week is $3.57 per day, but that small increase would inflate your year-end balance to $1,329. Alternatively, if you’re paid biweekly, sending $50 from each paycheck to your high-yield savings account will have the same effect.
If you’re able to commit to saving even more—$50 per week or $100 every two weeks—you’ll supercharge your savings. At the end of 12 months, you’d have a balance of $2,658, thanks to almost $60 in interest earnings.
| Daily Savings | Weekly Savings | APY | Balance After 52 Weeks |
| $3.00 per day | $21 per week | 4.50% | $1,116 |
| $3.57 per day | $25 per week | 4.50% | $1,329 |
| $7.14 per day | $50 per week | 4.50% | $2,658 |
Why a Savings Account That Beats Inflation Really Matters
The national average savings account rate at FDIC-insured banks is just 0.38%, with major banks like Chase and Bank of America offering even less—often as low as 0.01%. Meanwhile, inflation is currently at 2.7%.
That means any savings earning less than 2.7% is effectively losing value month after month. By instead choosing a high-yield account that pays 3%, 4%, or even 5%, you can make sure your savings stay ahead of inflation, instead of losing ground.
Daily Rankings of the Best CDs and Savings Accounts
We update these rankings every business day to give you the best deposit rates available:
Important
Note that the “top rates” quoted here are the highest nationally available rates Investopedia has identified in its daily rate research on hundreds of banks and credit unions. This is much different than the national average, which includes all banks offering a CD with that term, including many large banks that pay a pittance in interest. Thus, the national averages are always quite low, while the top rates you can unearth by shopping around are often 5, 10, or even 15 times higher.
How We Find the Best Savings and CD Rates
Every business day, Investopedia tracks the rate data of more than 200 banks and credit unions that offer CDs and savings accounts to customers nationwide and determines daily rankings of the top-paying accounts. To qualify for our lists, the institution must be federally insured (FDIC for banks, NCUA for credit unions), and the account’s minimum initial deposit must not exceed $25,000. It also cannot specify a maximum deposit amount that’s below $5,000.
Banks must be available in at least 40 states to qualify as nationally available. And while some credit unions require you to donate to a specific charity or association to become a member if you don’t meet other eligibility criteria (e.g., you don’t live in a certain area or work in a certain kind of job), we exclude credit unions whose donation requirement is $40 or more. For more about how we choose the best rates, read our full methodology.