Scratching for Yield

This happens every time interest rates rise; it's just that the increases have been so sharp that the effect is noticeable to everyone, not just Wall Street and corporate treasurers.

Interest Rates Are Rising Everywhere—Except Your Savings Account [bold added]

The interest on my $45,900 money market fund rose
from .16% to .25% between August and September.
Sheer laziness was the reason I didn't do better.

Mortgage rates doubled this year to nearly 7%, and it has become more expensive to get a car loan or carry a credit-card balance. Yet the interest on savings accounts barely budged. In March 2020, the average annual yield on a standard savings account was 0.1%, according to Bankrate.com. It fell to a pandemic low of 0.06% after Americans’ personal saving rate peaked, and is now up to a wan 0.14%.

...[banks] still paying out meager interest can count on customer inertia: We fail to take advantage of better deals, because switching banks seems like a headache.

One reason savers haven't shopped around is inertia; another is the "headache" of switching. A third reason, IMHO, is that we've gotten used to making $thousands on the stock market, and scratching around for $hundreds in interest doesn't seem to be worth the trouble.

The great reset isn't just about re-evaluating priorities; it's about recognizing how hard it is to make a buck, working hard for it, and shopping around, both to lower household expenses and to raise the interest on one's savings.

By the way, I have not yet seized the opportunity to invest in the almost too-good-to-be-true yield (9.62%) on I-bonds. There is a $10,000 limit on an I-bond account, so under the old perspective it wasn't worth the trouble. Now that I'm scratching for yield, it is.