The interest rate on my high-yield savings account keeps dropping. I asked 3 experts how to earn more on my cash.

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• My bank has lowered the APY on my high-yield savings account by almost half a percent recently.
• I’m not happy that my cash is generating less returns now, and I don’t know what to do.
• Three financial advisors gave me some advice on where to invest, such as CDs and Treasury bills.

It’s never pleasant to receive an email from your bank informing you that the interest rate on your high-yield savings account is decreasing.

Unfortunately, like many Americans happy to collect a robust yield on their savings, I’ve gotten three of these notifications in the last three months as the Federal Reserve has begun to lower interest rates. From August until the end of October, the annual percentage yield (APY) on my high-yield savings account has fallen from 4.6% to 4.2%.

I opened this bank account almost two years ago, right after graduating from college. Back in 2023, with inflation still elevated, interest rates were at their highest levels since the Great Financial Crisis, and it seemed like most banks were offering near-5% yields on savings. After paying off my bills every month, I would put the remainder of my paycheck into my high-yield savings account and watch the number creep up.

Now, it looks like the days of a 5% APY are in the past. In September, the Federal Reserve dished out a 50 basis-point rate cut, signifying the beginning of the end for high rates. Continuing this trend, the central bank’s chair, Jerome Powell, announced a 25 basis-point cut last week, and is expected to slash rates further in the months ahead.

Is there anything I can do about the state of my savings account, or do I have to watch my yield erode away slowly? Curious, I asked three financial experts for their advice on this topic.

As a famous politician once said, we didn’t just fall out of a coconut tree. Context is important. Patti Black, a financial advisor at Savant Wealth Management, reminded me that the recent high interest rate environment is a marked departure from the last decade, where interest rates were near zero and there was no yield on cash to be found. So, while yields dropping from nearly 5% might seem like a tough pill to swallow for someone like me who just opened an account in the last couple of years, it’s still a pretty good deal when you consider where rates have been in the past.

I didn’t have a bank account during the post-2008 zero-interest rate policy era, so this was helpful context to have. Perhaps my generation is indeed coddled — first by our parents and now by Jerome Powell’s post-pandemic rate hikes.

Black also suggested that I switch up my perspective. While a rate-cutting cycle means less return on my cash, it also means lower borrowing costs for a car loan or a mortgage, which is good news for the housing market.

But there are other options for where I can have my money sit, Black said. Of course, one alternative is a certificate of deposit (CD), which is essentially a savings account that holds money at a fixed interest rate for a fixed period of time. CDs generally pay higher interest rates than savings and money market accounts in exchange for locking up your money for anywhere between three months to many years. However, my hands are a little tied. A well-known rule of thumb is to keep three to six months of living expenses available in your bank account as an emergency fund (read: liquid and highly accessible), so it’s not a good idea to lock up money in my high-yield savings account for a prolonged period time. I could withdraw my money from the CD if needed, but I’d have to pay back some or all of the interest I’d generated up until that point as a penalty.

With this in mind, Black said that sometimes it doesn’t matter what the rate on the high-yield savings account is — it’s the best place to park cash for easy access.

Armed with this context, I still wanted to see if there were more ways to put my cash to work for me.

Daniel Milan, financial advisor at Cornerstone Financial Services, had some more thoughts on CDs. A three-month CD could be a good option if I were comfortable locking up my money for that period of time, according to Milan.

My bank didn’t offer CDs, so I would need to open up a new bank account, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Some financial experts recommend having multiple bank accounts for different savings goals. Searching online, I saw multiple options yielding over 4.6%.

However, Milan didn’t recommend locking up my money for longer. Usually, the longer the term of the CD, the higher the rate. But that’s not always the case in today’s market.

“In this current environment, it makes no sense to go further out than three months on a CD because the three-month CD is paying you more than a one-year or two-year right now,” Milan said.

Looking at CD offerings from a variety of banks, I discovered that this was indeed true — generally, the longer the CD duration, the lower the rate, especially after a 1-year duration. Rates on 6-month and 9-month CDs were also attractive depending on the bank, but again, my liquidity needs take those off the table.

Many of the banks I looked at didn’t offer short-term CDs, either. For example, one option offered a 4.5% APY on an 11-month CD, 3.7% on a 2-year, and 3.5% on a 5-year.

It wouldn’t make sense to move my money out of my savings account without high enough compensation for the lower liquidity.

“You’re not getting paid for that illiquidity,” Milan told me.

Short-term Treasury bills are another investment option for higher yield, and they offer more liquidity than CDs, according to Richard McHorter, a private wealth advisor at SRM Private Wealth. A three-month Treasury bill currently yields 4.43%.

There’s also the added benefit of tax savings, which is especially appealing for McHorter, who lives in California: “If you’re a resident of a high-income tax state, I would be looking at Treasury bills.”

As a resident of New York City, the idea of lower taxes certainly appeals to me. If I were to buy Treasury bills, I would only need to pay federal taxes, bypassing state and local income taxes.

McHorter also said that there’s a lot of uncertainty about interest rates right now, and they could actually start going back up again. Trump’s proposed tariff policies could increase inflation, in which case the Fed would probably increase rates to combat an overheating economy, he said.

If I buy a three-month Treasury bill, I can reassess the inflation situation when I get my money back in three months and reinvest it accordingly, McHorter said.

When it comes to interest rates and inflation, pay attention to the data and don’t try to predict the market with your money, Milan advised. Jerome Powell himself has said that it’s too soon to say how the election results could reshape markets and interest rates.

“My advice to anybody would be: just be diligent in reading and interpreting the data as it comes out,” Milan said. Watch inflation data and Fed commentary, and base your investing decisions on the information you have at hand.

It feels like the market is a bit in limbo as everyone waits for the effects of the election to ripple through, but as Black mentioned, not taking any action right now isn’t the worst decision.

What’s next? For starters, I’m going to sit down and crunch some numbers for what three to six months of living expenses look like for me and keep that in my high-yield savings account. With the money I have left over, I have some good options.

Are you a Gen-Zer who has recently been faced with an investing predicament? Feel free to reach out to Christine at cji@businessinsider.com to share your story.