4 Ways to Earn More From Your Rainy Day Fund

You should set aside enough money to cover three to six months of living expenses in case of an emergency. But sticking this cash in a savings account can mean forgoing earnings from interest.

Concept art showing a piggy bank under an umbrella in the rain
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Conventional wisdom calls for keeping enough cash in a rainy day fund to cover three to six months of routine living expenses as well as all insurance deductibles. But sequestering tens of thousands of dollars in a savings account that earns a miserly 0.01% is painful.

There are better ways -- like the four alternatives that follow -- for an emergency fund to earn more.

Contributing Writer, -

Katherine Reynolds Lewis is an award-winning journalist, speaker and author of The Good News About Bad Behavior: Why Kids Are Less Disciplined Than Ever – And What to Do About It. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, Fortune, Medium, Mother Jones, The New York Times, Parents, Slate, USA Today, The Washington Post and Working Mother, among others. She's been an EWA Education Reporting Fellow, Fund for Investigative Journalism fellow and Logan Nonfiction Fellow at the Carey Institute for Global Good. Residencies include the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Ragdale. A Harvard physics graduate, Katherine previously worked as a national correspondent for Newhouse and Bloomberg News, covering everything from financial and media policy to the White House.