Ray Dalio is a Greenwich-based hedge fund manager. I don’t know Ray, but by all accounts he is a very successful operator with excellent performance and a smart guy.

Dalio has recently been playing his hand at making far out comments in order to gain attention. Dalio is generally very discrete and responsible (for example, he did not go on CNBC when Bitcoin hit 19,000 and say it was going to 40,000 like other frequent CNBC guests). Nonetheless, his latest piece of advice is not for you.

You see, Dalio stated to CNBC that saving money in cash is “the worst thing you can do.”

Dalio correctly stated that cash is tax disadvantaged and that you are taxed on interest at ordinary income rates, making cash a less advantaged asset class from a tax perspective than many of other alternatives where income generated has favored treatment (dividends from equities, for example) and where capital gains can be achieved.

But, Dalio overlooks the fact that cash is always going to be there from day to day. You won’t loose 2/3rds of it as you did in 2000 – 2002 or as you did in 2008 – 2009, or as many of his Greenwich-based hedge fund brethren have done in a rising stock market over the last several years. And, if you aren’t old enough to remember those periods or familiar with these types of losses, you can read about the losses people have recently had on bitcoin or look at the market’s fall in just the week after Dalio’s comments.

For those people who aren’t billionaires and who are dependent on maintaining their current asset levels in order to secure the education of their children, cash is a necessary and appropriate place to be and it can be an appropriate place to be with a substantial part of your portfolio for long periods.

To boot, cash doesn’t earn the 0.09% that Dalio assumes that it earns when he says that it doesn’t keep up with inflation. The leading online savings accounts are paying upwards of 2.25% at the moment, and 1-year online CDs can be found at 2.70%. Dalio needs to familiarize himself with the rates on BestCashCow before he makes incorrect statements such as that.

Note to Ray Dalio, as of the date of this article, cash, even if it were only earning 0.09%, has outperformed the stock market, the bond market, EM, bitcoin and real estate in 2018. It is certainly looking like it might outperform these asset classes in 2019 as well.

First, the good news. In its nearly 15 years, BestCashCow has very seldom had to deal with this issue. As the reviews across the site indicate, most people have outstanding experiences with the major online banks. For the most part, across the last decade and half, customers opening savings accounts and CD accounts at these banks experience outstanding service and find rates that enable them to grow their nest eggs faster through compounding at higher rates.

And, the same is generally true of lesser known local banks and credit unions. While we see reviews that are less than generous every day, the thrust of most complaints across all banks relate to long wait times, slow transfer speeds, small unexpected fees here and there (that are often removed), websites timing out, etc. These complaints rarely relate to banks engaging in tactics designed to nickel and dime customers.

And, we do occasionally grapple with banks purporting both to be online and accepting customers nationally, but that really aren’t either. If we learn that a bank is in fact only equipped to accept new customers in its home area or state, we restrict the listing so that it only appears in those places.

The more challenging determination is when a bank does offer all its online services to customers nationally, but does not treat all its customers fairly or in the manner expected of an online bank, but rather seems to go out of its way to rip them off. On only two occasions have we had to deal with this kind of scenario. And, unfortunately, both of those cases are occurring right now (one is a repeat offender).

The first case is that of Brio Direct. Brio Direct is a recent new entrant in the online banking space and is owned by Sterling National Bank. As we have learned from comments on this bank, Sterling is much maligned in New York for a taxi medallion scheme that it is purported to have engaged in with Michael Cohen to systematically defraud the taxi drivers of New York (and hence the City of New York and the State of New York). More importantly, Brio Direct, according to our site viewers, has a policy of taking large and small deposits and holding them for long periods without interest on both inbound and outbound transfers. Not only is this well documented in comments on BestCashCow, but our employees have also experienced this in their own accounts and have confirmed this questionable policy directly with the bank.

The second case is that on Salem Five Direct, the online banking division of Boston’s Salem Five Cent Bank. Salem Five has been around for some time and years ago engaged in a policy of (a) quietly slipping in undisclosed $6 charges for each outbound ACH transfer, and (b) lowering the interest given to existing customers to a rate that is well below that indicated for new customers online (only to then increase it if the customer contacted the bank to complain). These practices were deemed so deceptive that the Florida Office of Financial Regulation contacted BestCashCow and asked us not to list Salem Five Direct in our online savings tables. While we concurred at the time, we have put them back on our lists years later after the bank committed to us that it had changed these practices. However, a comment left on the site yesterday, that we have verified as being authentic, indicates that both deceptive practices have resumed.

Brio Direct and Salem Five Direct practices are especially troubling as these banks are both offering savings rates that are among the most competitive offered nationally at the moment. It would be easy to remove both banks (Salem Five Direct again) from BestCashCow’s online savings tables. But, that would go against BestCashCow’s mission to provide users with the most comprehensive list of online savings rates in the country. Therefore, we have opted to continue to list these banks, but to alert users of other user experiences with these practices in our online savings table. And, through our user comments, those on BestCashCow can easily learn more about the practices of both banks through customers’ own experiences (both banks are now rated 1 star and there are now over 20 comments about Brio’s practices).

While we have left the listings on BestCashCow, we have, however, now advised our affiliates to remove these listings without adequate disclosures. Some affiliates, including RatesAndInfo.com have chosen not to list these banks’ savings rates, but continue to list their CD rates as long as the practices do not extend to those products. We support such a solution where full disclosure cannot be made.

The Federal Reserve unanimously voted to leave interest rates unchanged when it concluded its two-day meeting today. The Fed funds rate remains at a target of zero to 0.25 percent. The Fed again signaled that it is prepared to keep providing the US economy with more support until it fully rebounds from the pandemic. Given that the virus is still raging in most of the country and that Fed Chairman Jay Powell has already taken unpredecented steps to increase liquiity, today's announcement was entirely anticipated by financial markets.

Powell's actions have been well telegraphed, but may still set the stage for online banks and local banks to lower their savings rates still further. You can compare online savings rates here and local savings rates here. With rates still trending towards zero, it could still be a good time to put money that you do not need immediately in a short-term CD, and you can check one-year CD rates here.

Mortgage rates may have fallen about as far as they possibly can and those considering remortgaging should have a look at mortgage rates here. Likewise, it could be a good time to take a look at taking out a home equity loan or line or credit.

Finally, a thought from us: If Eleanor Roosevelt's statue can wear a mask, so can you.