American Express launched a business savings account. High yield. No fees. No minimum balance. The company decided business owners needed somewhere to watch money sit still while they pretend quarterly projections mean something.
The product targets small business owners who already have an Amex business checking account. These are people who incorporated their Etsy store. Filed an LLC for a podcast with six listeners. Bought business cards that say "Founder" under a name their mother still refuses to use at Thanksgiving.
Above-average return is the phrase Amex used. Above average compared to what? The checking account paying 0.01% at the bank that still has a fax machine in the lobby? Congratulations. You beat a corpse in a footrace.
The no minimum balance requirement exists because Amex knows exactly who this account serves. Someone with $847 in business revenue last year. A guy who wrote off his Netflix subscription as a research expense. A woman who calls herself a CEO because she sells meal plans on Instagram to her former roommate.
Business checking and business savings now live together in the Amex ecosystem. You can move money between accounts that both do nothing. Transfer funds from one place where they sit to another place where they sit. Revolutionary. Truly. The financial equivalent of rearranging deck chairs except the ship is not sinking because it never left the dock.
High-yield savings accounts are where trading discipline goes to die. Can't stop refreshing your brokerage app? Park it in savings. Can't handle another -30% drawdown on a meme stock? Lock it away at 4% and tell yourself you are being responsible. You are not being responsible. You are being scared with better marketing.
The account pays interest monthly while your technical indicators pay in humble lessons about what happens when you buy every f*cking dip.
Photo by CardMapr.nl on Unsplash
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