SoFi Blog

Who says you can’t have avocado toast if you want to buy a home? Oh, right—an Australian real estate developer who made the comment heard ’round the world about how it’s preventing millennials from becoming homeowners.

You probably already know that you should have an emergency fund—three to six months of expenses saved in a place you can access it quickly and easily if needed, like a checking or savings account.

But what you might not know is that, beyond your emergency fund, a savings account is one of the worst places to keep—and grow—your money. The average savings account interest rate of the five largest U.S. banks this year was 0.08%—less than one-tenth of one percent!

Monetary Policy and the Phillips Curve: Global edition.

We’ve seen a moderate increase in stock price volatility this June and early July as comments by European Central Bank president Mario Draghi about rolling back stimulus sent interest rates higher and equities lower globally. More recently, mixed data and comments by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen sent U.S. interest rates back down slightly. A lot has happened in the markets, but looking at events in terms of how central bankers view the relationship between unemployment and inflation can help us make sense of this activity and what may happen going forward.

There are lots of good reasons to become a doctor. Being a physician means you can help people in one of the most direct ways possible: By doing your best to restore their health. An added bonus is you can eventually make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year doing it; Medscape’s 2016 physician compensation report found that the lowest-earning doctors (pediatricians and endocrinologists) bring in around $200,000 a year, while the highest earners (orthopedists and cardiologists) make over $400,000.

Having a child is one of the biggest decisions a couple can make. The second largest decision? Choosing which child care is right for their family. With all the options out there, settling on just one can be a challenge, as every family’s situation and needs are different.

On top of that, in my 10 years of helping new parents financially plan their families, child care also tends to be the second largest monthly expense, after housing. And contrary to what you might think, it’s not an expense that some parents can choose not to budget for. Even if you have one stay-at-home parent, you’ll still need to pay for some babysitting and child care, as it’s wan important part of maintaining a healthy relationship with a partner—not to mention provides a necessary mental break for both.