Best place to keep money?

Open a savings account at your local bank.

I have an Orange Savings Account with ING and its awesome!

No Minimums to setup and you earn 4% or better interest. What’s nice is that you can have it automatically deposit money from your checking account to your ING Account, so you don’t have to do it manually. We have it setup to transfer funds to ING every pay period. You can also transfer the money back to your checking account if you need to, as well.

When we opened our account we got $25 automatically deposited into the account by ING as a sign on bonus. It was a special offer in the mail.

ING also does CD’s too.

Good Luck!
R

I moved to an online checking account with interest, however be forewarned that it’s impossible to deposit cash at a later date. I went ahead and did it because I plan to shift some of that into mutual funds and such at a later date. If I have a wad of cash (i.e. post-xmas) I have a free checking account with a local bank that I deposit it into, and use the free online transfer to get it to my online bank.

Look for a local credit union, and open a savings account. You don’t generally have to be a member of the sponsoring company or institution, and they generally have excellent interest rates.

I use an HSBC Online Savings account for short-term savings. I like it because there’s a 3-day lag between when I ask for the money and when the money is finally transferred; this is a solution to my biggest single money-saving problem, which is that I’m an impulse spender. So I have to plan the purchase three days in advance, which is usually enough to put the damper on inappropriate spending. But at the same time, it’s not such a long delay that if I have a legitimate problem (like major car repairs) I can’t get at it quickly.

An IRA if you’re looking to get the biggest bang for your buck.

My husband and I have a “high yield” money market account (although the interest rates have dropped considerably over the last year, which sucks). We don’t have a minimum balance and don’t experience any penalty charges for inactivity… we have checks so we can use it as a checking account, if need be. Better than being locked up in a 5 year CD or having an investment with a high minimum requirement. The interest isn’t much more than a savings account at this point, but it will bounce back up in time. I personally would rather make a lower return and know that it’s safe.