There’s nothing as liquid. I’m sure there are some available short term bond funds that will get you more than 4.5 %.
The yield curve is currently inverted so immediate rates are better than longer term.
1 mo. Treasury is ~5.4%
That’s a bit different than “not quite as liquid”
Bonds are not liquid at all for their term.
“Not quite as liquid” is not exactly an exact measurement.
I think it’s accurate to say that a short term bond fund (not an individual bond) is not quite as liquid as a HYSA. Misleading, perhaps.
What do you mean that HYSA aren’t liquid? Are they like a CD in that they have to remain in the account for a certain extended period?
I don’t think anyone said that. We’re saying other things aren’t as liquid as an HYSA. Those are extremely liquid.
Oh OK, misunderstood. That makes sense.
It’s this. I moved a good chunk of my savings from the former to the latter last year. My monthly interest earning now would have taken about 242 months to earn before.
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HYSA is literally just branding for a savings account that pays a competitive rate. Nothing else special about it, no catches. It exists in the same environment as low yield savings accounts because many consumers are bad at money and will let their savings sit in an account paying nearly nothing and banks are happy to take advantage. That’s it.
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Can anyone recommend a good HYSA?
We use Ally. Easy withdraw, good rate.
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I use Amex savings. Bit disappointed that it seems to have topped out some tenths lower than competitors (4.4?).
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I’m using LendingClub. Easy ATM deposits which is huge for me, 4.65% rate that has gone up twice recently. Overall I’m happy with them so far.
Discover Bank. They’re all going to be very similar and fine.
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Capital One has a HYSA so I promptly applied online.
Despite already having three account there totaling way too much money and all my personal info auto-filled during the application process, somehow I still am required to “call the bank because we need more information.”
I hate banks.
What?
No. I said the opposite.
That was directed at Melkerson and:
Sorry for misunderstanding
Last year I did some googling and came up with Bask Bank, which is the internet bank division of a bank in Texas.
Obviously I’d never heard of it, but it aims to be easy for internet savvy people to use. And fully accredited and FDIC insured, of course.
It was paying 4.8% when I opened an account, super easy to transfer to and from with my primary account at Wells Fargo.
Since I’ve been a customer, they’ve bumped the savings rate up, twice. I’m now getting 5.1% APY…. No minimums or fees to transfer. The interest I earn accrues daily, and it gets put in my account at the end of each month.
It gives me the peace of mind that they’re focused on being as competitive as possible for customers that are price sensitive and looking for the best deal.
With the ease of use, I’m confident that no matter the market conditions, I won’t be missing out on a better enough deal elsewhere that I’d have to move it.
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This is my retirement plan:
https://twitter.com/VICENews/status/1750224912587911274?t=uPUtpZS-zREqhmixsuHX6g&s=19
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After digging in to her accounts more, there were a lot of things that struck me as sub-optimal:
- Too much cash
- Too much of that cash in non-interest accounts
- Too much in crappy funds with high expense ratios
- Too much in individual stocks, particularly in utility stocks
But I really didn’t want to overstep, for a few reasons:
- It’s not my money, not my business.
- Who’s to say that my opinion is right?
- Some of this can’t be undone without incurring large taxes.
- There’s a human element to this, in that her accounts are the result of my parents saving and investing over time, and that my suggested changes could be interpreted as criticizing how they did that.
So after having some conversations with my mom and my siblings, I’ve made some slow progress on cleaning up her situation:
- Moved money from her 0.30% account to FSIXX, a Fidelity treasuries only money market fund that’s currently yielding 5.2%.
- Sold several funds (mostly fixed income) that had large unrealized losses and high expense ratios.
- Purchased Vanguard ETFs that replicate the Vanguard LifeStrategy Conservative Growth Fund:
– 42% BND (Total Bond Index Fund)
– 24% VTI (Total Stock Market Index Fund)
– 18% BNDX (Total International Bond Index Fund)
– 16% VEU (Total International Stock Market Index Fund)
60/40 Overall Bond/Equities split; 66/34 Overall US/International split.
Still to do:
- Sell some of holdings in individual stocks in which she’s overly concentrated, but that have large unrealized gains. Hopefully get the calculations right so that I can sell as much as possible while exactly offsetting the realized losses from selling funds.
- Try to convince her that she doesn’t actually need to maintain 3 years of expenses in the 0.30% account, and that she can actually move more into the 5% money market account.
- Cross my fingers that none of these actions turn out badly and leave me with enormous guilt.
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