The month of April has something new for workers: until June 15, it will be possible to make an emergency withdrawal of R$ 1,000 from the Severance Indemnity Fund (FGTS), if you have an active or inactive account there. In total, the government released R$ 30 billion to be withdrawn. The column shows whether the amount is worth withdrawing and what to do with the money.
The withdrawal date respects a calendar according to your birth month. If you were born in January, for example, from the 20th of April you can request the withdrawal. Those born in December will be able to redeem from June 15th.
To withdraw, just enter the FGTS app, request the money when the option is released to you and move the amount through the Caixa Tem app. Plan ahead, because if you don’t move the money through Caixa Tem until December 15, it goes back to the FGTS.
The money will be withdrawn from your active account (i.e. your current job) or a dormant account (i.e. your former jobs).
Is it worth taking out?
The amount deposited in the FGTS yields very little. So it’s worth getting out. To give you an idea, the profitability is 3% per year plus the Reference Rate. With the current TR, this amounts to 5.65% per year, which is even below the return on savings accounts.
In other words, any investment that yields more than 5.65% would already be more advantageous to invest the money.
In addition to investing, there are several possibilities. The value can be used to start a small business, can be used for a course or even pay debts. Credit interest rates in Brazil are high and it is never worth carrying a debt if you already have the money to pay it off.
Where to invest?
The ideal investment depends, among other factors, on your objective and if you already have some money saved or if you are starting from scratch.
If you are building the emergency reserve, that first saved economy, you need investments that can be withdrawn at any time, what experts call liquidity.
Savings meets this characteristic well, but yields little. If you invest BRL 1,000 today, a year from now you would have BRL 1074 because the current yield is just over 7% per year.
Another suitable investment for the emergency reserve is the Selic Treasury, which follows the basic interest rate. With the Selic rate of 11.75% per year, the BRL 1,000 invested would become BRL 1,175 a year from now.
It may seem little, but imagine if you invested R$ 1,000 every month. The difference would get bigger and bigger as time went on and compound interest worked its magic.
For those who already have an emergency reserve, it is recommended to start thinking about diversifying their portfolio. Some options are Fixed Rate Treasury, IPCA Treasury, CDBs and LCIs.
Currently there are CDBs that yield 15.05%. Translating, the R$1,000 would have become R$1,150 in one year.
Alternatives beyond savings
As there are many options, it is common for the novice investor to get lost in choosing the best investment. Below, we have a video that can help you with these first steps. There are four options to get out of savings.
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