Short term investment ideas.

Just looking at this yesterday as we have a similar situation. Think we're going to do an online savings account because the interest is so much higher than our brick bank and the CD rates at the moment weren't much different unless we wanted to lock in for 2-3 years. I did see our bank had a CD option for 24 months that you could do a one-time "bump-up" if interest rates went up.
 
Yes, I did have a gain on the sale of the property and I'll definitely need to consider the taxes on it. My parents had rental properties growing up, which I helped with. While you might get good renters, my parent's got enough bad renters to put a bad taste in my mouth. I'm not considering that as an options personally. Still a goo thought though and appreciated!
Why not just do a flip on a property? Housing market is still going crazy.
 
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This year, I split my $30k emergency fund into $10k in savings earning like 0.5%, $10k in a 6mo CD earning 2.5%, and $10k in a 12mo CD earning 2.75%.
 
This year, I split my $30k emergency fund into $10k in savings earning like 0.5%, $10k in a 6mo CD earning 2.5%, and $10k in a 12mo CD earning 2.75%.
Did the same as you only did my savings through Ally for 2%
 
Are you set on keeping all of that liquid?

I'm not overly financially aggressive, but even with the market's recent slump, you should still be able to get close to an 8% return in 3 years versus the much more modest 3-4% from a CD.
 
If your gf is a sure thing for a long time prolly a multi-year CD if not money market
 
Three years? Buy stock in either Visa or Home Depot and put it away. Or AT&T which is doesn't have a ton of upside but a downside that is protected with a 7% dividend.
 
If I was in your position, I would first make sure to avoid tax penalties as much as possible and within the confines of the law. Assuming you are good there
  • dump everything into a money market account at the start (~2% right now)
  • start building a ladder of 1 year CDs (~3%), on for each month. The idea is to not commit everything to CDs now, only to have the fed raise rates 2 or 3 times next year
  • maximize savings to all tax deferred retirement accounts
  • consider taking the year off and using the perceived lack of income to convert some traditional IRA money to Roth
If your investment horizon was a touch longer, you could look at some of the tax advantaged funds from Vanguard or their competitors (VTMFX and his more aggressive brother VTCLX). 3 years is kind of low to be taking on much risk though. GNMAs and tax immune municipal bonds would also be things to consider, but hard to get excited about those in a short term time frame that is likely to see rising interest rates

Good luck
H
 
This year, I split my $30k emergency fund into $10k in savings earning like 0.5%, $10k in a 6mo CD earning 2.5%, and $10k in a 12mo CD earning 2.75%.

Not bad choices there, but consider moving that savings to an online savings or money market account with a higher yield. CapitalOne has a money market that is currently paying 2% if you maintain a 10k balance. Vanguard's VMMXX money market is currently yielding 2.4% on a min investment of $3000.

H
 
VMMXX is a money market account paying 2.46% right now. I wouldn't mess with a CD when this is a fully liquid option for a similar return.

If you want to take a little risk I'd find a balanced mutual fund and dollar cost average about 1/3 of the money into that every month for the next year. Then you would have 1/3 of your money in the market to see upside and 2/3 protected. Dollar cost averaging would help you get in the market with the current volatility.
 
I would honestly buy Amazon.....and then sell as soon as the next "bump" goes up in the next few months. :)
 
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I would not put it into a CD. Like others have said you can find an online FDIC bank like Ally that will give you about the same rate but you have easy access to it. I have moved my emergency fund to PNC bank at 2.35%.

Another method I am testing out is LendingClub.com, where I am the investor for other people's loans. I hope to have the opportunity to earn 5-7%
 
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Not bad choices there, but consider moving that savings to an online savings or money market account with a higher yield. CapitalOne has a money market that is currently paying 2% if you maintain a 10k balance. Vanguard's VMMXX money market is currently yielding 2.4% on a min investment of $3000.

H

Yeah, I thought about that. I just like the instantaneous access I have currently with my online banking through my credit union. I didn’t like the delays of money transfers when I had a similar American Express savings account.
 
First, upgrade your CF account and throw a little moolah their way.
Second, how big is her basement? Fuel will hit more than $3 a gal this summer, so why not full a bunch of barrels now and store in her basement, sell later at a profit.
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