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Most people work hard for their money, but almost no one talks about the simplest way to make your money work harder for you.
Today’s episode of Financial Feminist is so valuable, we decided to run it back. It’s all about all about unlocking what I truly believe is the easiest money you will ever make — and yes, it’s as simple and lazy-girl-friendly as it sounds. I’m breaking down the one passive income strategy that requires zero extra hours, zero new skills, and absolutely zero stress: a high-yield savings account. If you’ve ever wished you could make money while taking a nap, running errands, or sipping a drink on the beach, this episode shows you exactly how to make your existing money work harder for you, without sacrificing your already-packed schedule.
What you need to know:
Your checking account is quietly holding you back.
Most people don’t realize their checking account is earning them literal pennies, and keeping too much money there is one of the biggest barriers to building wealth. When I tell you $5,000 in checking earns about one to two dollars a year, I mean it. The simplest shift you can make — and the whole point of this episode — is moving the money you aren’t spending this month into a high-yield savings account so it can finally work for you instead of sitting stagnant.
A high-yield savings account is the easiest, safest passive income you’ll ever earn.
If the idea of “earning money while you sleep” sounds ridiculous, this is where I prove it isn’t. A HYSA isn’t investing and it isn’t risky — it’s FDIC-insured, stable, and offers interest rates that are 10–15x higher than a normal savings account. You’re not learning a new skill or hustling harder. You’re literally just putting your existing money somewhere smarter and collecting the free monthly interest.
Automating transfers is the secret to lazy-girl wealth.
You don’t need willpower or discipline to save — you need automation. Every time I get paid, money moves straight from my checking account into my HYSA without me lifting a finger. That’s what makes this the laziest wealth-building strategy: once the system is set, your savings grow whether you’re at work, asleep, or scrolling TikTok. Automation removes the decision-making and helps you build consistency effortlessly.
Know exactly what belongs in your HYSA — and what absolutely doesn’t.
Your emergency fund and all short-term savings goals (vacations, moving, weddings, buying a car, future house) belong in a HYSA where they can grow. But your rent, groceries, and monthly bills must stay in checking so they’re easy to access. And your retirement savings shouldn’t be in a HYSA at all — that money belongs in investment accounts where it can grow long-term. Understanding this distinction keeps your money organized and maximizes your earning potential.
Small wins build massive confidence — and this strategy gives you a win every month.
One of my favorite parts of a HYSA is how quickly it rewires your brain. When you start getting $20, $50, or even more in interest every month, something clicks. You realize you can save. You are making progress. And that emotional shift matters just as much as the money itself. These quick wins help you stay motivated, reduce financial anxiety, and build momentum toward bigger goals like paying off debt or finally hitting that emergency fund target.
Notable quotes
“Your checking account is quietly killing you.”
“This isn’t day trading, it isn’t risky, and it isn’t a scam — it’s literally the easiest money you’ll ever make.”
“You’re already doing the hard work — this is the part where your money finally works hard for you.”
Episode at-a-glance
00:00 Intro
01:14 The Problem with Checking Accounts
02:44 Why High-Yield Savings Accounts Matter
04:21 How to Set Up and Use a HYSA
08:44 The Power of Earning Interest
09:23 Using HYSA for Emergency Funds & Goals
10:22 Overcoming Myths & Fears
12:24 Making Money Passively
14:03 Is My Money Safe?
15:10 Final Thoughts & How to Get Started
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Transcript:
Tori Dunlap:
If you’ve ever dreamt about making money while taking a nap, amazing, you’re about to unlock the laziest form of passive income. Hi, I’m Tori. I am a multimillionaire. I’m a money expert. I’ve helped over five million women be better with money.
And on today’s episode of Financial Feminist, we are diving into maybe a brand new series, if this is something that you like, called The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Building Wealth. Today, we are talking about the easiest thing you can do to start earning passive income and make real money without any additional skills, without taking on any more hours, and without any stress. And if you’re already like, “This seems too good to be true,” I’m going to debunk that as well.
But first, a word from our sponsors.
So we’re all busy. We are all overwhelmed. We all want our money to work as hard as we do, okay? But the reality is that most ways of making money are labor, going out and taking on more hours, getting a new job, finding that side hustle. But today’s episode is not about doing more, it’s actually about doing less. We’re talking today about making your existing money work harder for you.
So let’s talk about the problem that no one else is discussing, which is that your checking account is quietly killing you. For those of you who don’t know, your checking account is probably where you get your payments from work, where your payroll gets processed, where you get your money, and then maybe where your bills are getting taken out of. The thing about checking accounts is they’re meant to be an account with a lot of transactions.
The money’s coming in, the money’s going out, right? Maybe you’re getting paid twice a month or you’re adding your tips there and then you have your credit card statement getting taken out of there and maybe your healthcare or maybe your rent or your mortgage payment. There is many transactions happening in a month, sometimes maybe even a dozen or more transactions.
So the idea with the checking account is it’s just supposed to be there to move money in or out. So therefore, your checking account makes you almost nothing in interest. Interest is what banks are paying for you to keep your money there. That is their way of doing business, of getting customers, of making sure that they’re acquiring people to be part of that bank.
But the thing with checking accounts is that because it is this transactional in and out kind of account, you are making very, very little money, almost zero when you keep your money there. Let me give you a concrete example. If you have $5,000 in a checking account, on average, you are making one to $2 a year. I’m going to say that again. $5,000 in a checking account is going to make you maybe one to $2 a year in interest.
That is so little money. It’s basically not worth doing. It is not meant for savings. It is not meant for building wealth. It is again, just there to be about transactions. However, $5,000 in what’s called a high yield savings account could earn hundreds depending on rates, maybe even if you have more money in there, thousands of dollars a year.
So let’s talk about what high-yield savings accounts are. If you have been following me for a while on another platform, you know that at this point I have HISA tattooed on my forehead. So a high-yield savings account, a HISA, is just like an everyday savings account.
So it is just like that savings account that you went in with your dad and opened when you were 17. It’s just like your savings account at your bank down the street, except it’s earning you way more interest. And it is a savings account. It’s not a checking account.
A high-yield savings account is not an investment account. It is not in the stock market. It is not something where you can lose your money. It is not invested in stocks. It is not risky because, again, you are not subjecting yourself to the whims of the stock market, and it is also FDIC insured up to $250,000. So if you have $249,999, your money is safe, guaranteed.
This is not a risky way to earn money. This is the easiest thing you can do to immediately make more money that involves no additional work, no additional risk for the money that you’re already putting in a savings account. A high-yield savings account is also not a place though for your daily spending. That is your checking account. Your checking account serves that purpose.
And the money that’s in your checking account should just be your monthly expenses. So it should be one month of expenses and no more money. I know so many women out there are five million women.
So many of them come to me and they’re like, “But I get nervous about money and so I have six months of my living expenses in a checking account.” No, it needs to be in high-yield savings account because it needs to earn more money. And the only difference between a checking account and a high-yield savings account, there’s no difference in security, there’s no difference in the risk. The only difference is that you’re earning shit in your checking account. You could be earning so much more money in a HISA.
Okay, if I’ve already convinced you that a high-yield savings account is great, you don’t need more information, cool. We have done all the research for you. We have our partner recommendation at herfirst100k.com/ffpod. Again, that’s at herfirst100k.com/ffpod.
So we were talking about Lazy Girl Wealth. The great thing about a HISA is that once you set it up, it just runs itself. So my favorite hack to get the most out of a high-yield savings account is to set up an automatic transfer from your checking account to your savings account.
So maybe it’s every time you get paid, you get paid twice a month. Every time you get paid, you’re going to say, “Okay, I want $100,” or $200 or whatever that amount of money is. It can just be $20 right now, “I’m going to set up that automatic transfer to happen that goes from my checking account to my savings account.”
I want to reinforce that this actually works. We have so many people who have written into me, who have DM’d us, who have emailed us, absolutely shocked that they earned $20 a month or $50 a month or something other than one to $2 a year for literally doing nothing. And I know what you’re thinking. Okay, $20 a month doesn’t sound like much.
If you found a $20 bill on the ground every single month, would you be excited about that? You’d have $120 extra for doing nothing, for literally doing nothing. There’s no labor, there’s no side hustle, there’s no nothing here. You’re just switching bank accounts. That’s it.
Once you can see that interest hit, your brain also changes. This is not just about the money. It’s not just about making more an interest. It’s about the idea that I have a financial win under my belt now.
I am making progress. I am doing something that concretely betters my money that I can see because the interest hits every month. Fun fact, it’s not a yearly thing. You get free money every single month that you have contributed to that high yield savings account.
So you start thinking, “Oh, I can do this. I can progress in my debt payoff goals. I can progress in saving more money.” It is that quick hit of dopamine that your brain needs to get your brain on board for your financial goals. It is starting to rewire and get that immediate quick win so that you can keep progressing towards those bigger financial goals.
All right, how do we use a HISA in everyday life? Here’s what to keep in your high yield savings account. An emergency fund, that is where your emergency fund should live. No exceptions. We all need an emergency fund. Every single person listening to this episode, you need a high yield savings account because you need an emergency fund.
So your emergency fund lives in a HISA and any short-term savings. So maybe you’re saving for a vacation next year, maybe you’re getting married, maybe you’re trying to buy a new car, maybe you’re moving, maybe you’re even trying to buy a house in a few years. Your money should go in a HISA.
Here’s what to not keep in a HISA, your rent money. Absolutely not. Your money for your groceries next week. Anything that is a monthly expense needs to keep living in that checking account because again, it’s a transaction. This money’s coming in, this money’s coming out.
Your retirement account savings should also not be in a high yield savings account. That needs to be in an investment account. That needs to be in something like a 401k or a Roth IRA.
Another common myth I hear is that people are so nervous to set up high yield savings account because they get it in their head that this is complicated. It is not complicated at all. So the first thing is to pick a reputable high yield savings account. As opposed to spending two hours of your precious time researching when you could be watching Timothée Chalamet YouTube compilations, that’s what I’m doing with my free time, you can just sign up for the one we recommend.
You can go to herfirst100k.com/ffpod, and we have the one we recommend linked there. Again, herfirst100k.com/ffpod. This actual opening of the account should take you less than 10 minutes. You’re just going to answer a few questions, you’re going to get it open, everything’s going to be good.
The second thing you’re going to do, and this is really important, you can’t just open the account. Open the account doesn’t get you anything, right? There’s no money in there yet. So number two is you’re going to link your checking account.
Whatever checking account you’re using right now where your paycheck gets deposited, you’re going to link that checking account so that you make sure that you can transfer money into this high yield savings account. That’s also probably going to take you three to five minutes. And finally, the third thing you’re going to do is you’re going to automate transfers. We were talking about automation, the power of being able to just save money on autopilot without you having to think about it.
You’re going to set up that auto transfer, maybe that’s every time you get paid, maybe that’s once a month, but you’re going to set up that auto transfer of a minimum of $10, minimum $10. If you could save more than that, amazing. The reason we’re doing that is because one, again, it’s happening on autopilot. This is the Lazy Girl’s guide to building wealth. We’re not making this harder than it has to be. This is how we save money, is we make it as easy as possible.
And the second thing is that you don’t actually earn any of the free money unless you transfer money into that account. And the easiest way to do that is automating. So the Lazy Girl Wealth Math, let’s take you through a couple simple, very powerful scenarios. Sunday, you’re taking a nap, you’re making money. At work, you’re making money at maybe a job you like, it might be a job you hate, you’re also making money in your high yield savings account. On vacation, you are sipping a piña colada on the beach, you’re making money. You’re making money doing nothing, right?
You are making money doing nothing because the systems you’ve put together are building the wealth for you. This is the point we want to get to where we are not only working hard for our money, but our money is working hard for us. This is the easiest, most accessible form of passive income that most women will ever get. This is the easiest thing you can do to immediately make more money.
I want to go through a couple more fears or myths here. Will this hurt my credit? No, no, they’re not going to check your credit. Everything’s going to be fine. This is just like a normal savings account.
What if rates drop? This is a question we get all the time because rates are variable. They are determined by the Federal Reserve. So rates go up, they go down. This still, even if rates are down, will earn way more than a checking account and still significantly more than an everyday savings account.
So even if the rates decrease, a high yield savings account is still more than worth it if your high yield savings account is over a half a percent, and we have no reason to believe that it is going to be anywhere as low as that for a very long time. We’re talking, again, multiple percentage points in interest. Is my money safe? We talked about this already, but yes, your money in a high yield savings account is insured just like at any other bank up to $250,000. It is FDIC insured.
And finally, do I have to switch banks? No, you can keep your checking account wherever you’re banking right now, and you’re going to set up this separate high yield savings account. The one we recommend is a separate bank account, and that’s on purpose because it’s actually going to be less tempting for you to transfer your money back to your checking account so you can keep spending.
We are purposefully adding a little bit of friction so that we can actually start building a wealth, that we can actually achieve our goals rather than just being like, “Oh yeah, I really want that thing that maybe I didn’t actually think through and is kind of mindless fucking spending, and I’m just going to transfer my money back into my checking account.” This helps prevent that behavior.
To wrap this all up, this is an incredibly powerful wealth building step that anybody watching can do. Literally, there is no exceptions. Anybody can sign up for a high yield savings account, and it is the easiest thing you can do to make your money work harder for you in 2026. We have seen people afford to go on vacation using their high yield savings account interest. We’ve seen people pay for Christmas gifts using their high yield savings account interest. We’ve seen people just be able to accelerate their financial goals to be able to hit that emergency fund goal faster or buy their house faster.
And the point isn’t perfection here, right? The point is making a choice that supports future you. So you can open up high yield savings account in less time than it took to watch this episode. Go to herfirst100k.com/ffpod to get started. And if you’re watching or listening on Spotify or YouTube, feel free to drop your questions down below in the comments, and we will be happy to answer them.
Thank you as always for being here, Financial Feminist. We would appreciate you subscribing. Thank you for supporting feminist-based financial education and media, and we’ll talk to you very soon.
Thank you for listening to Financial Feminist produced by Her First $100K. If you love this show and want to keep supporting Feminist Media, please subscribe or follow us on your preferred podcasting platform or on YouTube. Your support helps us continue to bring this content to you for free. If you’re looking for resources, tools, and education, including all of the resources mentioned in this episode, head to herfirst100k.com/ffpod.
Financial Feminist is hosted by me, Tori Dunlap. Produced by Ellice Ellis and Tamisha Grant. Audio and video engineering by Jonathan Kirk. Marketing and Operations by Karina Patel and Amanda Leffew. Special thanks to our team at Her First $100K, Masha Bakhmetyeva, Rae Wong, Daryl Ann Ingman, Meghan Walker, Marciella Baietto, Demi Ganim, Taylor Toll, Zoe Rezek and Stormy McBride. Promotional graphics by Mary Stratton, photography by Sarah Wolfe, and theme music by Jonah Cohen Sound. A huge thanks to the entire Her First 100K community for supporting our show.
Tori Dunlap
Tori Dunlap is an internationally-recognized money and career expert. After saving $100,000 at age 25, Tori quit her corporate job in marketing and founded Her First $100K to fight financial inequality by giving women actionable resources to better their money. She has helped over five million women negotiate salaries, pay off debt, build savings, and invest.
Tori’s work has been featured on Good Morning America, the New York Times, BBC, TIME, PEOPLE, CNN, New York Magazine, Forbes, CNBC, BuzzFeed, and more.
With a dedicated following of over 2.1 million on Instagram and 2.4 million on TikTok —and multiple instances of her story going viral—Tori’s unique take on financial advice has made her the go-to voice for ambitious millennial women. CNBC called Tori “the voice of financial confidence for women.”
An honors graduate of the University of Portland, Tori currently lives in Seattle, where she enjoys eating fried chicken, going to barre classes, and attempting to naturally work John Mulaney bits into conversation.
