That's a direct quote from a 21-year-old who came on our live show. Let's break it down.

Name: Krissee   Age: 21 (CA)

Income     $5K/mo

Debt       $0

Expenses   $900/mo

Savings    $18K (HYSA)

Checking   $42K

Krissee is a full-time content creator from Sacramento. Most of her income comes from Fanfix, with the rest from Twitch, Instagram, TikTok Shop, and reselling. Expenses of $900/mo. She told me she's "not very financially literate." Krissee, with respect — you are doing very well!

Krissee already has a high-yield savings account with $18K in it. Yet, she didn't put the other $42K in it. That money is currently earning her $4.20 a year in her checking account. You could not buy a Pokémon starter pack with that.

I asked her why. Her answer: "Honestly, it should be, but it feels weird to put it in a different bank account that's not my main."

She’s also not consistently investing for retirement. That’s a big no-no around these parts.

Option 1: Transfer the $42K into the HYSA she already has open (keep $3K in checking for bills). That's a $1,165 annual raise for one button press. Do it tonight before booting up Netflix or playing Arc Raiders.

Option 2: The HYSA is a great first stop, but it's not the finish line. Let me show you what's actually on the table here. If Krissee takes $40K out of that HYSA, drops it into an S&P 500 index fund, and doesn't add another dollar for 40 years, here's where she lands at 61 (assuming the historical ~10% average annual return):

$40,000 → ~$1.8 million.

That same $40K sitting in a HYSA at 3% for 40 years is about $130K. Cool, but $1.8 million is cooler.

Option 3 (MY RECOMMENDATION): Do both. Move the $42K into the HYSA now, then immediately contribute $7.5K to max her Roth IRA. The HYSA holds her emergency fund and short-term goals (Brazil trip 🇧🇷, streaming PC 🎮). The market does the heavy lifting on retirement. Best of both worlds.

Talk soon,

— Imran

P.S. Two quick things. One: if this landed in Promotions, drag it to Primary — Gmail learns from that, and it keeps me out of your spam graveyard. Two: hit reply with literally one word ("hi" counts), and you're entered to win a free 30-minute 1-on-1 coaching call with me ($500 value). I'll pick one winner at the end of the month!