Right now I’m putting most of my extra cash in TFLO, which is a short term treasury bill fund. It’s a very safe fund for preserving capital with a current payout around 5%. I do also have some money in stocks, but right now I’m just taking advantage of the safe returns while deciding how I feel about the broader economy.
At this point I’m mainly still on Windows because it is the easiest thing to do - I know how to use it and it is already installed on all my PCs. At least 3 of my PCs are eligible to upgrade to Win11 (2 are not), but I have no plans to ever upgrade. So, when security updates stop, that will be my motivation to give Linux another try.
Musicolet is my preferred music player OurGroceries is what I use to keep shared lists with my family (mainly grocery list, but also things like a travel check list and favorite meals for when we can think of what to have for dinner).
One other thing to consider is if you get insurance through your employer, you lose it as soon as you leave. Imagine if one of you has a long-term illness that puts you out of work before dying. All of the premiums paid by that spouse would be lost with no payout.
For myself, I have just enough supplemental insurance through my employer to cover funeral expenses for my wife (who is currently in school) and my kids, no supplemental insurance for myself. I should add a term life plan for me outside work, but have not done so yet.
Also, I think you can stack different durations to account for increased savings over time. For example, you might get a 10 year and a 20 year term life plan for 500K each. If you died in the first 10 years, your family would get 1M total. Hopefully in 10 years your savings has increased enough to live with a smaller insurance payout, but you could always add more coverage then, if needed.
I agree with the MMF approach, I’ve moved almost everything out of my HYS account and am using my brokerage account for savings now.
I keep a little in a MMF for quick access and the rest in a treasury bill ETF (TFLO). My HYS account is nearly empty now.
If I were doing this, I would get an average balance for the month (start of month balance + end of month balance divided by 2) and multiply by monthly interest rate (interest rate divided by 12). I would add that interest payment to the end of month balance and that would become the next months starting balance. My spreadsheet columns might look like this:
Beginning Balance formula would be =sum(Ending Balance, Interest Earned) from the previous line
Deposits and Withdrawals would be numerical entries
Ending Balance formula is =Beginner Balance + Deposits - Withdrawals
Interest formula is =average(Beginning Balance, Ending Balance) * rate / 12
I agree with this view. If there is no minimum holding period or a very short period that you are comfortable with, buy as much as you can afford and sell immediately for a quick profit.
With a holding period, you are now speculating that the price won’t drop more than the discount. I was very disappointed when my company added a 1 year holding period, but it is a large, stable company with minimal volatility, so I’m continuing to participate.
Holding beyond that, you need to evaluate it as an investment outside your work relationship. Based on what you know as an investor, would you buy and hold shares? What % of your portfolio would you allocate to a single investment? I recall a lot of employees were wiped out when Enron and Worldcom went out of business. They both seemed like great companies until everyone found out about their fraudulent financial statements.
It depends on what alternatives I have available. Prior to this year, I was aiming for 3-6 months of liquid savings and the rest in my investment accounts.
Now that reasonable interest rates are available, I have changed my priorities. My goal now is 2 months savings in my checking account. This allows me to cover nearly any expense that comes up without the annoyance of transferring money to cover it.
I keep another 1-2 months of expenses in a MMF earning >4% interest and immediately available for withdrawal.
Then I have a decent amount (no particular target) invested in a short-term treasury ETF (TFLO) earning >5% interest, but it takes about a week to sell and transfer funds if I need it.
Altogether, I’m probably keeping 6-12 months readily available, but most of it is earning interest now. I would also likely get 3-6 months severence if I lost my job and could probably cut back on some expenses to stretch things a bit further.
Finally, I used to contribute to a Roth 401k (I’ve since switched to traditional 401k), so I should be able to access those contributions without penalty, if needed. This would only be relevant for someone in the US though.
So does anyone know if there is a bot I can load on my phone and PC to auto solve these and save me the annoyance?
Paying off your loans gives a guaranteed tax-free return, which is very hard to beat on a consistent basis. Obviously you can get lucky with market timing, but I prefer the guarantee. It also increases your monthly cash flow, which you can start investing.
I don’t find it worthwhile to spend mental energy thinking about food, so I eat the same things constantly (though I occasionally change the menu). My wife doesn’t like eating the same thing more than a couple of times in a row, so she always wants to make something different, but is constantly stressing about what to plan for meals. She reinforces my view that food planning is not worth mental energy.