Don't just leave money in your chequing / savings account.

If inflation / COL is increasing by 3% year over year, and your savings account is giving you 2.5% interest, you are losing money every minute it sits in there.

Any substantial amount of money should be moved to an investment account of some kind. You want to keep an emergency fund relatively liquid and easy to access, but that can still be an investment account earning more interest on average.

In Canada for instance, there are 3 main government programs for savings:

• TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account) - Can be spent on anything, you put post-tax money in, but any money you make from the account is not taxed. This is the easiest and most flexible, and you can usually withdraw TFSA money in a day or two.
• RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Program) - You put pre tax money into, and you don't get taxed on what it earns. More lucrative than a TFSA because you can effectively reduce the amount of income tax you pay by instead putting money into and RRSP, but you can basically only spend it on retirement or to help with buying your own home.
• FHSA (First Home Savings Account) - Like an RRSP (pre-tax money goes in, and profits aren't taxed), but can only be spent on your first home.

Any substantial amount of money you have should basically always be in one of these 3 vehicles if you're in Canada (or an education fund if you have kids).