Carving out a secret hole in the side of your mattress may seem pretty cool, but it’s really not a practical place to store your money (it doesn’t sound too comfortable either).

Mattresses, along with stuffed animals and shoeboxes, all seem like safe places to store your money (supposing no one else knows where it is), but you’re actually putting yourself in a financially bad position. By storing your money in places like these and not a bank, you are slowly losing money and risking all of it too. How does that happen?

Banks are not just money storage facilities; they use your money to offer financial services (at a cost) to other customers and in turn pay you interest on a regular basis. By keeping your money in a bank, you are actually earning money as opposed to just hiding it away. Banks also keep your money safe; your money is guaranteed up to $250,000 by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), a government organization, in case something happens to the bank. No one has ever lost a penny of covered funds from a bank failure since the FDIC was created in 1933. Compare that to losing your wallet or your sister raiding your mattress – you are not getting that money back.

What does this mean for you? Well, you can either be sure about the safety of your money (while earning a little extra at the same time) or you can hide it away under a mattress and hope no one ever peeks under the sheet.