{"id":1462,"date":"2025-08-04T07:30:31","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T07:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.finznest.com\/blog\/3-smart-money-moves-to-make\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T07:30:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T07:30:31","slug":"3-smart-money-moves-to-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.finznest.com\/blog\/3-smart-money-moves-to-make\/","title":{"rendered":"3 smart money moves to make"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In minutes released this week from the\u00a0Federal Reserve’s May meeting, central bank policymakers indicated that an interest rate cut isn’t coming anytime soon.<\/p>\n

Largely because of mixed economic signals and the United States’ changing\u00a0tariff agenda,\u00a0officials said they will wait until there’s more clarity about fiscal and trade policy before they will consider lowering rates again.<\/p>\n

In prepared remarks earlier this month, Fed Chair\u00a0Jerome Powell\u00a0also said that the federal funds rate is likely to stay higher as the economy changes and policy is in flux.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Fed’s benchmark sets what banks charge each other for overnight lending, but also has a domino effect on almost all of the\u00a0borrowing and savings rates\u00a0Americans see every day. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When will interest rates go down again?<\/h2>\n
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Since December, the federal funds rate has been in a target range of between 4.25%-4.5%.<\/p>\n

Futures market pricing is implying\u00a0virtually no chance of an interest rate cut\u00a0at next month’s meeting and less than a 25% chance of a cut in July, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch<\/a> gauge.<\/p>\n

It is more likely the Federal Open Market Committee won’t lower its benchmark rate until the Fed’s September meeting, at the earliest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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With a rate cut on the back burner for now, consumers struggling under the weight of high prices and high\u00a0borrowing costs\u00a0aren’t getting much relief, experts say.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“You don’t have to wait for the Fed to ride to the rescue,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.\u00a0“You can have a far, far greater impact on your interest rates than any Fed rate cut ever will, but only if you take action.”<\/p>\n

Here are three ways to do just that:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

1. Pay down credit card debt<\/h2>\n
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With a rate cut likely postponed\u00a0until at least September, the\u00a0average credit card annual percentage rate is hovering just over 20%, according to Bankrate \u2014 not far from last year\u2032s\u00a0all-time high<\/a>. In 2024, banks\u00a0raised\u00a0credit card interest rates to record levels, and some issuers said they’ll\u00a0keep those higher rates in place.<\/p>\n

“When interest rates are high, credit card debt becomes the most expensive mistake you can make,” said Howard Dvorkin, a certified public accountant and the chairman of Debt.com.<\/p>\n

Rather than wait for a rate cut that may be months away, borrowers could switch now to a zero-interest balance transfer credit card or consolidate and pay off high-interest credit cards with a lower-rate\u00a0personal loan, Schulz said.<\/p>\n

“Lowering your interest rates with a 0% balance transfer credit card, a low-interest personal loan or even a call to your lender can be an absolute game-changer,” he said. “It can dramatically reduce the amount of interest you pay and the time it takes to pay off the loan.”<\/p>\n

Start by targeting your highest-interest credit cards first, Dvorkin advised. That tactic can create an added boost, he said: “Even small extra payments can save you hundreds in interest over time.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

2. Lock in a high-yield savings rate<\/h2>\n
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Rates on online savings accounts, money market accounts and certificates of deposit will all go down once the Fed eventually lowers rates. So experts say this is an opportunity to lock in\u00a0better returns before the central bank trims its benchmark, particularly with a high-yield savings account.<\/p>\n

“The best rates now are around 4.5% \u2014 while that’s down about a percentage point from last year, it’s still better than we’ve seen over most of the past 15 years,” said Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate.com. “It’s well above the rate of inflation, and this is for your safe, sleep-at-night kind of money.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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More from FA Playbook:<\/h2>\n
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Here’s a look at other stories affecting the financial advisor business.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A typical saver with about $10,000<\/a> in a checking or savings account\u00a0could earn an additional $450 a year by moving that money into a high-yield account that earns an interest rate of 4.5% or more,\u00a0according to Rossman.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the\u00a0savings account rates at some of the largest retail banks<\/a> are currently 0.42%, on average.<\/p>\n

“If you’re still using a traditional savings account from a giant megabank, you’re likely leaving money on the table, and that’s the last thing anyone needs today,” said Schulz.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

3. Improve your credit score<\/h2>\n
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Those with better credit could already qualify for a lower interest rate.<\/p>\n

In general, the higher your credit score,\u00a0the better off you are\u00a0when it comes to access and rates for a loan. Alternatively, lower credit scores often lead to higher interest rates for new loans and overall lower credit access.<\/p>\n

However, credit scores are trending down, recent reports show. The national average credit score dropped to 715 from 717 a year earlier, according to FICO, developer of one of the scores most widely used by lenders. FICO scores range between 300 and 850.<\/p>\n

Amid high interest rates and rising debt loads, the share of consumers who fell behind on their payments jumped over the past year, FICO found. The resumption of federal\u00a0student loan delinquency reporting\u00a0on consumers’ credit was also a significant contributing factor, the report said.<\/p>\n

VantageScore<\/a>\u00a0also reported a drop in average scores starting in February as early and late-stage credit delinquencies rose sharply, driven by the resumption of\u00a0student loan reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Some of the best ways to\u00a0improve your credit score\u00a0come down to paying your bills on time every month and keeping your utilization rate \u2014 or the ratio of debt to total credit \u2014\u00a0below 30% to limit the effect that high balances can have,\u00a0according to Tommy Lee, senior director of scores and predictive analytics at FICO.<\/p>\n

In fact, increasing your credit score to very good (740 to 799) from fair (580 to 669) could save you more than $39,000 over the lifetime of your balances, a separate analysis by\u00a0LendingTree<\/a>\u00a0found. The largest impact comes from lower mortgage costs, followed by preferred rates on credit cards, auto loans and personal loans.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In minutes released this week from the\u00a0Federal Reserve’s May meeting, central bank policymakers indicated that an interest rate cut isn’t coming anytime soon. Largely because of mixed economic signals and the United States’ changing\u00a0tariff agenda,\u00a0officials said they will wait until there’s more clarity about fiscal and trade policy before they will consider lowering rates again. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[443,373,513],"class_list":["post-1462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-money","tag-moves","tag-smart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finznest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finznest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finznest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finznest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finznest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.finznest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finznest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.finznest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finznest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.finznest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}