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Where do you keep your safety net/living expenses (what type of account?)

post #1 of 22
11/1/10 at 10:50pm
Thread Starter 
Just wondering where people are keeping their X months supply of living expenses. Ours are currently at ING because we started there when they actually had an interest rate to be excited about. I have looked and things are still pretty bleak out there in terms of gaining interest. I've looked at CDs also, same thing.

Am I missing anything or should I just sit tight and hope things change? I just hate having more than 10K sitting there doing nothing....

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post #2 of 22
11/1/10 at 10:55pm
I'm keeping mine in my Tax Free Savings account right now.
post #3 of 22
11/2/10 at 10:38am
Mine is in ING as well.

Although yes, the interest rate is dismal, interest rates across the board are low, so it's not like ING is holding out on us, take your issues up with the federal reserve...


Alas, the purpose of that money is to be there when needed. it's purpose is not to earn some great interest rate/ return. This is not investment money, it's emergency money.

my .02 cents
post #4 of 22
11/2/10 at 1:02pm
The bulk of our mid-term savings ("x" months worth of essential living expenses) is in an account with Capital One through Costco's website. The interest rate is higher than our ING account (short-term savings) and the CapOne account earns a quarterly bonus and we received cash for opening the account and funding it within a period of time (which we left in the account).

The rest is invested in a variety of ways (stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, etc.).

DH & I had 401k accounts with certain jobs and rolled them over and they are still invested and growing. Neither of us has access to a 401k now, though, so we can only invest $5K per year each into our Roth IRAs for retirement.

While our mid-term savings is intended to support us in the event of job loss or other major need during our earning years, it will also help support us in our retirement years. We need this money to grow, so I invest a percentage of it. I have a degree in finance and worked in securities and banking for years. My risk tolerance is higher than average. YMMV
post #5 of 22
11/3/10 at 1:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Denvergirlie View Post
Mine is in ING as well.

Although yes, the interest rate is dismal, interest rates across the board are low, so it's not like ING is holding out on us, take your issues up with the federal reserve...


Alas, the purpose of that money is to be there when needed. it's purpose is not to earn some great interest rate/ return. This is not investment money, it's emergency money.

my .02 cents


ING has one of the better interest rates that I have found.
post #6 of 22
11/3/10 at 2:12am
Also with ING
post #7 of 22
11/3/10 at 2:15am
Ours is in a money market account (Capital One). We wanted to have checks in order to have the money available in an emergency instead of waiting 3 days for a transfer.
post #8 of 22
11/3/10 at 3:23am
Online Savings with American Express
post #9 of 22
11/3/10 at 4:58am
Money Market Mutual Fund. Vanguard's Prime Market account.
post #10 of 22
11/3/10 at 8:31am
My emergency fund is partially in an e-bank account and the rest in a mutual fund. I pay a fee upfront (well that is before they got rid of the B stock, which has no fee after 6 years) so if I need the money from the mutual fund, the fee is already paid...
post #11 of 22
11/4/10 at 3:07pm
Another ING'er. I'm interested in the Costco account though. I'm always amazed at all the services that Costco has.
post #12 of 22
11/4/10 at 3:11pm
Guessing you have to be a member of Costco for the account? My MIL is a member, but we are not. Wonder if we could sign up during a 30-day free trial membership?
post #13 of 22
11/4/10 at 3:50pm
ING, but I'm checking out that Capital One account via Costco right now. I'm always looking for more incentives to keep our membership. If I went with Capital One (looks like I will), I would get rid of my ING account.

Sunnysandiegan has been holding out on us!
post #14 of 22
11/4/10 at 4:35pm
Ours is just with out local bank. We might move it to ING or somewhere else in search of a slightly better rate, but our bank is pretty competitive. No matter what it stays liquid.
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post #15 of 22
11/4/10 at 5:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mulvah View Post
ING, but I'm checking out that Capital One account via Costco right now. I'm always looking for more incentives to keep our membership. If I went with Capital One (looks like I will), I would get rid of my ING account.

Sunnysandiegan has been holding out on us!


I've been mentioning it in this forum since August 2009. We've had excellent customer service and are satisfied customers with this account and Costco, in general.
post #16 of 22
11/4/10 at 6:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunnysandiegan View Post


I've been mentioning it in this forum since August 2009. We've had excellent customer service and are satisfied customers with this account and Costco, in general.
Lies! All lies! :nana I obviously missed it and had no idea they had such a thing.

I'm a fan of Costco, but I always look to make the most of the membership cost. This is a good way to do it. Thanks for sharing (again ).
post #17 of 22
11/4/10 at 10:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mulvah View Post
Lies! All lies! :nana I obviously missed it and had no idea they had such a thing.

I'm a fan of Costco, but I always look to make the most of the membership cost. This is a good way to do it. Thanks for sharing (again ).
It is my pleasure.

I do the same thing with making the most of the membership cost and we didn't even have our own membership until a few years ago. I was able to go with one friend or another and get the same deals without paying the annual fee. Eventually, we found enough reasons to join ourselves and we took my dad with us for a year or two before he wanted new tires and decided to join on his own.
post #18 of 22
11/5/10 at 12:15am
Our local credit union has a deal where they will pay 4% on the first 25k. But you have to have 15 debit card transactions on the acct.

DH is studious about making sure we have all the transactions, but so far it seems worth it.
post #19 of 22
11/5/10 at 2:43pm
We keep a bit in our local bank in a savings account and the rest in a high-yield saving account with Sallie Mae. I think we're getting 1.4% interest.
post #20 of 22
11/13/10 at 11:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Denvergirlie View Post

Alas, the purpose of that money is to be there when needed. it's purpose is not to earn some great interest rate/ return. This is not investment money, it's emergency money.
 

I have not given the interest in my savings account / emergency fund a second thought, because like the PP said, the point of that money is not an investment but to be easily accessible in case of an emergency.

 

So I pay bills and conduct household business out of an interest-bearing checking account at Charter One bank, and I always keep a $1000 cushion in that account.

 

Our baby emergency fund is a money market account at our local credit union.  We keep that at $10,000, give-or-take, and only pay big / infrequent bills out of that, like car insurance and annual life insurance premiums.

 

 

After we pay off the rest of our debt we will bump up the credit union account to a true emergency fund ($30k ?!?), THEN think about investing.

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