My wife Jamie does not need anyone to figure things out for her.

She’s organized, intentional, and hard-working in a way that makes me look like an absolute slacker by comparison. When she decides to do something, you better watch out because it is getting d-o-n-e. Done.

So early in our relationship when we started conversations about combining our finances, when she finally became comfortable sharing the nitty gritty details, I wasn’t surprised by what I found.

She had over $100,000 sitting in a high-yield savings account.

More than most people her age. More than most of her friends (we think, because nobody talks about this stuff, right?!). And more than what many people will have saved in a lifetime.

She knew it, too.

When I asked her to look back and reflect on what that meant, she said:

And honestly? She was right to be proud.

Here’s the thing about a high-yield savings account (HYSA).

It works. Up to a point.

The interest compounds. The balance grows. And if you set up automatic contributions from your paycheck, you never even feel the money leave.

Jamie had done all of this.

Every paycheck, a few hundred dollars landed in the account.

Every month, the number ticked up with more contributions and more interest earned.

Every month, the machine hummed along quietly in the background. No alarms, no issues, no reason to even look at it.

She wasn’t losing money. She wasn’t making bad decisions. She wasn’t falling behind.

She was being responsible. Doing what she was “supposed to” do. Saving for the future.

She was winning.

At least that’s what the number said.

Because when the number keeps going up and up and up? There’s no pain signal. No warning light on the dashboard. Nothing that says, ‘Hey, something might be off here.’

Just a growing balance and a quiet sense that you’re doing everything right.

Right?

Every month or so, Jamie and I would sit down together and review her numbers.

It was my idea, obviously. She wanted to hear how great things were. The machine was humming. There was nothing to review as far as she was concerned.

But I’m a financial coach. An absolute money nerd whose hobby of optimizing finances has turned into a second career. And I could see something she couldn’t.

So we’d pull up her financial dashboard (yes, I made one for her early on in our relationship ❤️) and we would look at her account balances.

We’d watch the cash balance tick up from the last meeting. And every single time, without fail, I would say the same two words:

“Cash drag.”

Jamie would smile. Nod with a subtle side-eye. And smoothly, expertly, change the subject.

Every. Single. Time.

I want to be clear: I was not helping. I had the right idea and absolutely the wrong approach.

Telling your partner the same thing over and over, expecting a different result, is not a sound financial strategy. It’s just annoying.

But I kept saying it. Because her cash kept growing. And the cost of that growing balance sitting still in her HYSA was adding up in a way that only I seemed to see.

“Cash drag.”

She’d smile. She’d nod. Side-eye.

And the machine kept humming.

Here’s what I want you to sit with for a second.

Jamie was doing everything “right.” She was saving aggressively. She was earning the most interest possible in her HYSA. She was meticulously building towards something every single month, on autopilot, with minimal friction.

And she had absolutely no idea what that “something” was.

Not really.

There was a vague shape of it in the back of her head. A house, maybe. A safety net, just in case. A number that felt big enough to finally feel financially secure.

But the goal posts kept moving. The balance kept growing. And somewhere along the way, “someday” became the whole plan.

That’s not a savings strategy.

That’s a placeholder for life.

And placeholders, it turns out, have a cost.

But before Jamie could see any of that, before any calculations I showed her meant anything at all, we had to go somewhere more difficult first.

Back to where the story actually started.

Next week: the voice in her head that built this whole thing, and why it had nothing to do with money.

For now, I have one question for you:

Have you ever looked at your savings balance and felt proud, even though you weren’t sure what you were saving it for?

Hit reply. I read and reply to every single response.

– Joe

P.S.

If you’re sitting on cash and wondering whether it’s actually working for you, that’s exactly what a free Clarity Call is for. No pressure, no pitch. Just clarity. You can book one here:

​https://www.levelupfinancialcoaching.co/clarity-call​
​

Joe Maddux

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