What are you doing with your money right now ?

[carrotsmakemefat]

I’ve seen people mention the Federal i Bonds, CDs… what are you doing with your money right now to benefit from a higher interest rate ?

Are you noticing your bank offering anything enticing ?

[jewel]

I bought ibonds for the first time this year, but I’ve got an ongoing issue with them that I really need to call to resolve. I sent them an email through the website and I got an auto response that they’re not responding to emails any more. Lol.

I just dumped a little more into my vanguard MFs, sort of to make myself feel better for how much they’ve crashed this year.

I’m happy that my high yield savings is improving, but not nearly enough to put any extra money there.

I’ll also put more into my HSA at some point before the end of the year, but it’s all held in vanguard funds also, so I haven’t been in a rush to deposit yet.

[AdaraMarie]

I am not changing anything right now, but almost two years ago I moved most of my money from a local bank to an internet bank to go from 0.05% to 0.5% interest and now it's at 2.5% so that's nice.
I also started getting ibonds about a year ago when people were talking about the rate jump last November.
Now I am just trying to close my eyes and keep contributing to my Roth IRA even though it keeps losing money. Since I am not quite 40 I am trying to keep believing it will pay off in the long run to keep buying while things are low.

[Susie]

I bought $5k in I bonds recently, and was planning to buy another $5k.  I basically consider it the bottom portion of my e-fund, at a better rate.

[whitemerlot]

We bought 20k in iBonds this year in April. I've been continuing to max 401k accounts for me and my h and HSA accounts. We had been putting a bit in an S&P 500 fund every month, but I think I want to build my cash up a bit more because of the uncertainty in the world. I used to keep about 50k and now only have 30k since I moved money into the iBonds. I think I'll replenish back to 50k, even though I also consider the iBonds to be part of the emergency fund once they are accessible afer a year.

[carrotsmakemefat]

Oct 2, 2022 13:15:57 GMT -5 jewel said:

I bought ibonds for the first time this year, but I’ve got an ongoing issue with them that I really need to call to resolve. I sent them an email through the website and I got an auto response that they’re not responding to emails any more. Lol.

I just dumped a little more into my vanguard MFs, sort of to make myself feel better for how much they’ve crashed this year.

I’m happy that my high yield savings is improving, but not nearly enough to put any extra money there.

I’ll also put more into my HSA at some point before the end of the year, but it’s all held in vanguard funds also, so I haven’t been in a rush to deposit yet.

What kind of high yield savings do you use ?

[fryjack2]

I'm ready to put it under my mattress.

Our checking account got hacked at the end of August. We closed it and opened a new one. I noticed suspicious activity on Friday -someone linked a BOA account to ours and I luckily saw it and froze the account. Twice in the span of 30 days. We only use that account for auto bill pay, no physical checks, no debit card use.

WE are switching banks and then freezing our credit, but I'm not sure what else to do. We know that H had his identity stolen a couple years ago (someone tried to file unemployment in a another state under his name, someone in another state was arresting with a bunch of people's info including H's, and the hospital he worked at for awhile had a huge data breach years ago). I'm tempted to try to get a new social security number for him

[goldengirlz]

Staying the course. We’ll continue to put our monthly deposit in the stock market. Stocks on sale!

Otherwise, try not to look?

[dcn]

I bought ibonds but otherwise haven’t changed anything. We just had a meeting with our financial advisor at Vanguard and we’ve lost money like everyone but just trying not to worry too much about it.

[mrsd2006]

I haven't changed anything with my 401K, and have my savings in a high yield savings account (Amex)

[wildrice]

Spending it? lol.

Honestly nothing different, though you bring up a good point about interest rates going up so maybe I should think about moving our main savings account. I bought 10k in iBonds earlier this year and had thought I'd buy more (under my H's name) but I've done a really poor job of saving much in recent months and I'm not super comfortable depleting our cash savings in case we need it for something. Right now I'm actually trying to come in under budget through the end of the year so we can dump a little extra into my H's student loans before they go back into repayment on Jan. 1.

We both have money going into retirement and that's not changing. I just started contributing with my current employer in January, since I started there in December, and every time I log into ADP I see that my retirement savings have lost 15% this year, so that's fun. I haven't logged into my previous retirement account in a while because I don't want to be depressed.

[jewel]

Oct 2, 2022 20:46:34 GMT -5 carrotsmakemefat said:

Oct 2, 2022 13:15:57 GMT -5 jewel said:

I bought ibonds for the first time this year, but I’ve got an ongoing issue with them that I really need to call to resolve. I sent them an email through the website and I got an auto response that they’re not responding to emails any more. Lol.

I just dumped a little more into my vanguard MFs, sort of to make myself feel better for how much they’ve crashed this year.

I’m happy that my high yield savings is improving, but not nearly enough to put any extra money there.

I’ll also put more into my HSA at some point before the end of the year, but it’s all held in vanguard funds also, so I haven’t been in a rush to deposit yet.

What kind of high yield savings do you use ?

I currently use Synchrony, which I think it at 2.25%. I’ve jumped around in the past (Amex, cap 1, others), if I could get a good enough rate to put the effort in to switch.

It’s not high, but it’s been much lower for the past few years. That said, my mortgage is currently at 1.99% and my car at 2.65%, so I’m pretty happy to earn at around the same rate I’m paying - if I close my eyes on what’s being held at vanguard, that is.

[sadlebred]

Same ole, same ole. I have shifted the bulk of my savings to a HYA. I have some short term cds renewing, so they will be at a higher rate. I like to ladder them, so I'll probably do 1 at 12 months and the other at 6.

I bought some iBonds earlier this year but have no plans to buy more. The rest is same ole for retirement/401K, ROTH account, etc. The balances make me so sad right now, but retirement is a long time away.

[Pilsy]

We haven't changed anything. I try not to look at my 401k, and I don't have a login to view our other Vanguard investments (I know, I know - will get on that), because I know deep down that it's the long play and we have to ride it out.

We did invest in $20K of iBonds this year, so that's a win. And we tend to be too heavy on cash, so I don't feel too bad about it for once.

PDQ: My H is experiencing some extraordinary job risk, which feels EXTRA uncomfortable in this economic climate, but such is life.

[jlt19]

I’ve just left it in our regular 360 account, which has been increasing so that’s nice.

I used the money I had set aside (after selling our house last year) to pay my SLs to buy I Bonds last year and this year. I will qualify for the relief, so I’m leaving the money there and it’s now our efund, since $10k can be accessed as of Oct 1. Another $10k will be available Dec 1 and the rest in April. So I feel safe with that.

I got a promotion/raise in September so I added another 2% to my 401k and the extra cash is pretty much exactly what I’ll owe for my SL. So I start paying that in October. I may attempt to refinance once the relief is in place, but not if rates aren’t good.

We already max out Roth’s and my HSA by dollar cost averaging, so I’m just letting it all ride. I do have one investment account that I like to play with, and I actually just put in another few hundred to average down on the Google and Amazon stock I bought after they split. I feel like they’re a steal right now.

[simpsongal]

Paying down variable rate debt [LOL sob]

[niq]

Mostly KOKO, other than I-bonds. We keep half our e-fund in a money market account, so moving to something like 3- or 5-year CDs isn't worth it.

[vmars]

We have money in just savings bonds, a brokerage account, money market and a regular checking account.

[dr.girlfriend]

We did the I bonds thing for the first time, and will probably do $10k more each in January. Otherwise, just trying to contribute to retirement plans now (DH is freelance so has to dump money in himself) while the market is low! The bulk of our savings has always been in a high-yield account. I checked just now and they are at 1.9% APY which is probably not the best but not worth moving I think.

[Roc A Bee]

Spending it! No really. Planning a housewarming party to the tune of $3-4k so not saving currently.

I did buy $5k in I-bonds but no other changes. Once the party is paid for, I’ll go back to saving and I’ll up my retirement contribution at the new year.