Banks are offering very little in the way of interest and yet are still vying for the consumers money through the way of fees. One way of inciting people to save would be to offer a greater interest rate. To get the best interest rates for certificates of deposit, you must have large deposits. If you are saving for a long term goal such as a down payment, college savings or other life event, then look at savings bonds, especially if you have more than five years until your goal. Five year CDs all pay less than the current amount that I bonds pay and the minimum for an I bond is $25 for an online investment and $50 for a paper bond. The drawback to this is that the limit for savings is $5,000 per savings account per year. This helps if people want to accrue a laddered approach to savings.

To get Americans to save, raising the interest rates would be a good start – not everyone likes the risk of the stock market and by saving money this would add some security to the money that people have. When your money will only earn 2% (at the most) on a $10,000 deposit it really isn’t a great encouragement to save, if you weren’t in the saving mode. Where do people put money if earning a tiny amount of interest isn’t incentive enough to save?

This could be where we are now savers, those who are truly interested in saving will save but those who need that extra push or want a secure investment for their liquid assets would like to know that saving is really worth it and not just a waste of time.