nterest rates hit another all-time low Monday, which is great news for borrowers but keeps savers in the land of no returns.
Thinkstock
Enlarge
Thinkstock
The bellwether 10-year Treasury note yielded 1.46% Monday and went as low as 1.44% in intraday trading. Bond traders push rates down when they think the economy is slowing and inflation is unlikely.
Rates on 30-year fixed mortgages closely follow the 10-year T-note yield. On Thursday, the average mortgage rate fell to a record low of 3.56%, according to mortgage giant Freddie Mac.
COLUMN: Tips on how to use ETFs to get income from your savings
COLUMN: How to squeeze out higher interest rates from your savings
"Lower interest rates help in finances, and enabled us to purchase our future retirement home, but will probably affect us more in retirement," says Mary Fletcher of Cumming, Ga.
The Federal Reserve pushed its key fed funds rate to zero from 3.5% in 2008. Most savings rates track the fed funds rate.
Money funds yield an average 0.03%. The highest-yielding one-year bank CD, from CIT bank, yields 1.1%, says Bankrate.com — $5,500 a year from a $500,000 deposit.
"The fact that my savings are sitting in a money market fund doing next to nothing certainly impacts my comfort level in terms of when
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/story/2012-07-16/low-interest-rates-borrowers-savers/56262302/1
Realist - Everybody in America is soft, and hates conflict. The cure for this, both in politics and social life, is the same -- hardihood. Give them raw truth.
| 