The way we save money has changed drastically over the past 100 years, from stashing cash into the cookie jar, to arm-chair-Wall-Streeting high-yield digital accounts and automated robo-advisors, the landscape of savings trends today attests to more than just economic evolution, but how our values, money habits, and tech has transformed everything.
Let’s take a look at how we used to save in the past to how we do it now, especially trends on the rise (or about to fade fast). If you miss the piggy bank days, or just trying to decipher new fintech buzzwords, understanding our savings history might inspire you to start saving more efficiently today.
Savings in the Early/Mid 20th Century
The idea of crypto or digital anything was the stuff of science fiction in the early-to-mid 20th century. Money was cash and coins, period. Tangible and closely guarded with a fear of financial instability. Back then, financial savings trends looked more like this:
Cash Under the Mattress
After the Great Depression, banks were not to be trusted, with over 9,000 of them failing in the 1930s, leading to a nationwide panic of hoarding and stashing cash under mattresses, safes, or anywhere men in suits had no control. Investing? A non-existent concept for most Americans standing in bread lines hoping for a better future, financial or otherwise.
Passbooks
Passbook savings accounts were first introduced on the brink of the Great Depression and were small, portable booklets to track deposits and withdrawals, with these transactions verified by a very physical stamp from a bank teller behind the counter. Although tedious and slow to our modern sensibilities, in the early/mid 20th century, passbooks were the norm.
U.S. Savings Bonds
During and post World War II, buying U.S. savings bonds didn’t just mean safe returns on your investment, but it was seen as your patriotic duty. Savings bonds work by, once purchased, you’re basically agreeing to give the government your money which, in return, you’ll be paid back with interest. Savings bonds (like Series I Bonds) usually reach full maturity after 30 years, with Series EE Bonds maturing at 20 years and at twice the value. U.S. savings bonds still remain relevant, great investments for many, even today.
Savings in the 21st Century
The paper and pencil passbook days are gone. This is the digital age and saving now is fast, flexible, and automatic. Brick and mortar banks are continually shadowed by their online counterparts, with online only accounts offering interest rates traditional institutions just can’t match. In fact, these rates hover around 4.30% as of July 2025, easily accessible via convenient apps with zero minimum balance requirements.
Automation has also revolutionized modern saving with micro-investing apps like Stash and Acorns where the spare change from daily purchases get automatically invested. For example, if you spend $4.20 on coffee, the app will round up to $5.00, investing the remaining $0.80. It’s an easy, entry-type level way of investing that’s grown in popularity with both young and old.
Another recent trend is the concept of “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) cash advance financing, where instead of saving up for something before buying it, you can simply buy now and pay it off gradually. These apps allow you to split your purchases into interest-free installments, so you can basically pull the trigger on whatever you want, whenever you want. It’s instant gratification, in your hands today now and paid back over time.
Not Your Grandma’s Way of Saving
In the tech-driven world of today, the past ways of saving seem absurd, or outdated at best. Cash hidden under the mattress or some other place in the house? Dangerous and risky since it’s earning no interest and is a sitting duck for theft, fire, or other acts of nature. Take the passbook savings accounts of old, once a mainstay of American saving/budgeting, now seen as antiquated and cumbersome.
Also on the way out is budgeting with paper checkbooks, the kind you may have seen your grandparents use while wearing bifocals, squinting, and stressing. Tools like YNAB (You Need a Budget) relieves all the stress and squinting by synching in real-time with your bank accounts while offering helpful insights and tips, things old checkbooks could never do.
What’s Trending Today (and Why)
Saving money today isn’t just about putting away your check into a bank account, it’s about long-term control and setting up systems that will yield results that pay off later. Here’s a few ways how you can do it:
Automated Savings/Budgeting
Now there’s digital platforms that take out all the guesswork and roulette-wheeling of saving your funds. New tools can take an instant snapshot of the way you’re spending and automatically deposit small amounts into your savings, all without you even noticing it, which can be a game changer to the way you manage your savings.
Saving As a Game
If impulse control and spending is not one of your best attributes, what if there was an app that uses behavioral science and gamification to help you save for goals? Emerging tech does just that, and you can set up rules like, “Save $5 every time I skip McDonalds.” By incentivizing you, saving money becomes like a game (hence “gamification”) and less of a chore.
ESG/Purpose-Driven Investing
Many savers today actually care about where their money is going, which is why a growing number of people choose to invest in ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance)-type portfolios so that they know their cash is going towards something they believe in and not something they’re morally (or politically) against. ESG funds reached over $16.0 billion in net inflows in 2024 alone.
New Tools, Old-School Rules
While the old ways of saving might be outdated, the philosophy behind it remains valid at the core, namely that of discipline. Those generations who maybe even dreamed in black and white had backbone and were not about “instant gratification”. If we can take that mindset and harness it with the tools of today, the result could make us financially unstoppable.
But how do we do that? Maybe start by having an emergency fund set up in a high-yield, FDIC-backed savings account while using automation to make consistent deposits. Then take your investments and spread them out through micro-investing apps paired with retirement accounts. Meanwhile, constantly monitor your spending with the aid of tools that offer real-time feedback so you can take immediate action if you need to.
The Basics Haven’t Really Changed
From mattresses, cookie jars, and passbooks, how we save has come a long way. As fast, convenient, and high tech as everything has become, at its heart, saving money is about intention, preparation, and discipline. The real challenge is to take those aspects of the past and combine them with the tech of the present because, at the end of the day, saving money is something that never goes out of style.
