By Sabrina Karl

You’ve all read the news, that inflation is at a decades-long high. That means our purchasing power goes down as time passes. For anyone keeping their surplus funds in a checking account or traditional savings account, high inflation is bad news.

Fortunately, you are not powerless to do something about it. True, you won’t be able to earn as much as the current inflation rate, around 8%, in any kind of bank account or CD. But you can earn much more than you think — even 10 to 20 times more! — by considering high-yield accounts for your extra cash.

Right now, the national average rate on a traditional savings account is a paltry 0.07%. That means $10,000 in such a savings account would earn a shockingly low $7 in interest over a full year. And as if that weren’t bad enough, the biggest banks often pay even less than the average, such as 0.01% or 0.02%.

But with some simple research online you can find at least two dozen banks paying 0.75% APY or more. On $10,000, these accounts would pay at least $75 instead of $7. And rates go higher from there, with several paying 1.00% or more.

The obstacle you may have to get over, if you’ve never held a high-yield savings account, is that you’ll likely need to open one of these accounts at an institution where you don’t already bank. Fortunately, this is easy to do and get used to, since transfers between different banks can be quickly made via online banking. You may even find that having your savings at a separate bank makes it less tempting to spend.

Today’s inflation rates are still going to eat into our financial strength, for now. But at least high-yield savings can help you lessen the bite.