I'm earning 40 times more interest on my savings thanks to a few minutes of research

• I've been a diligent saver for years, but I was keeping my cash in a low-yield account.
• I spent a few minutes looking at my options and chose an Ally high-yield savings account.
• I'm earning 2% interest now, compared to 0.05% on my old account, which is 40 times more interest.
• Compare the best savings accounts with Fiona.

As a huge money nerd, I'm always trying to find easy ways to earn and save more. 

While auto-saving has helped me save up a down payment on a new car, build an emergency fund, and more, last year I realized something I had neglected to do: earn extra cash simply by moving my savings to an account with a higher interest rate.

I did a few minutes of research to find a high-yield savings account that would work for me

For years, I had been forking my savings into an account that let me set up mini-accounts for different goals — a vacation fund, splurge fund, family fund, and so forth. I loved all the different auto-saving rules I could set up.

But last year, when reviewing my statements, I noticed that the APY on my account was at 0.10%. I did some research and decided to move over most of my savings to an Ally high-yield savings account. At the time, the featured APY was 0.50%, which meant I would be earning more interest by doing pretty much nothing.

Since then, Ally's high-yield savings account interest rate has climbed to 2%, while the interest rate on my old account actually dipped to 0.05% — that's 40 times more interest. The first eight months of this year alone I've already earned about $150 in interest. That is far more than if I'd left the money sitting in my old account.

I created buckets for each of my savings goals

To make the most of my high-yield savings account, I created buckets for different goals that were most important to me — pet, vacation, new laptop, and a house fund. Every month, I save a set amount for my house fund, and recently set up auto-transfers. That way, I make steady progress on my savings.

Ally makes it easy to set up these savings buckets. You can choose from a bunch of pre-designed savings goals — think emergency, vacation, car, home, core savings — or you can create a custom bucket.  

Savings boosters help me save even more 

Ally's savings boosters have helped me save even more each month. Since I've opened an account, I've saved an extra $272 with Ally's Surprise Savings booster. This feature analyzes your linked checking accounts to see what additional cash can safely be stashed into savings, and makes automatic deposits.

I can see my savings potential using Ally's high-yield savings account

The act of saving in and of itself isn't necessarily thrilling. What is exciting, and motivating, is seeing how much I've saved — and also how much I can save — if I keep up recurring transfers and surprise savings. Ally's app has a feature that shares that future-looking insight.

Moving my money to a savings account that offers a higher APY and setting up recurring transfers has been among the easiest things I've ever done over the years to make some extra cash.