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Comment by e0m | Hacker News Reader

Given that the best savings / MMA accounts are netting at most 1.10%, and inflation has swung between ~1% and 3% over the past 10 years, you're likely losing money with a savings account.

Better to dump it in a major index fund or bonds if you're feeling cautious.

Most people with substantial incomes realize this and do this anyway. I wonder if investment portfolios were included when they asked about "savings" accounts?

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I don't know about the USA, but in Europe "ordinary" people don't do investment portfolios. You can safely assume that if they don't have any savings, they most certainly won't have investment portfolios.

I find that hard to believe. Europeans don't have retirement investments? Even if it's just a pension they have some sort of portfolio even if it's not managed by the individual.

I don't know about Europe, but here in Uruguay and South America in general you have absolutely no say about what they do with your pension money.

There are even laws mandating the pension funds to invest in local Treasury bonds (which are fortunately reasonably safe and high-yield, Uruguay is among the most stable in the continent)

In Latin America in general pension funds are mismanaged and periodically raided by populist governments.

Pensions are managed by pension funds. Can't touch 'm until you're 67 (in the Netherlands). And even then you won't receive a lump sum, but a monthly allowance (that's how I see it). All employees take part in a pension fund, as mandated by law. It's one very important reason why I'm self employed. It's the only way to avoid this nonsense.

The big difference is if you have a substantial income you can afford to play the long game and throw money into the market. If you're living paycheck to paycheck as very few people who contribute content to this site do, it's a much different story. They need the money to be liquid, and they can't afford to take a 10% loss and wait for a rebound.

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