Savings/investments/bonds Master Thread.

[mlight]

We are talking about online accounts. Fidelity is same day ACH's for my CU. IIRC Cit Bank is not that fast.
ETA: Someone would have to do a t-bill sale to see the timeframe.

Thanks. Not familiar with the process of buying these but can research... are there limits how much can be bought/put in?

[CountValentine]

Thanks. Not familiar with the process of buying these but can research... are there limits how much can be bought/put in?

No limits that I know of. Simple to purchase. Somewhere upthread I gave step-by-step instructions.

[sam2015]

How long does settlement take after a sale? Ie how long does it take for the money to become liquid?

Liquid in terms of what? To buy more bills/notes and to trade stocks or to transfer to another bank.
Pretty sure you can actually do both right away. But at least trading or buying more bills should not be a problem.

[CountValentine]

Liquid in terms of what? To buy more bills/notes and to trade stocks or to transfer to another bank.
Pretty sure you can actually do both right away. But at least trading should not be a problem.

I took it to mean to withdraw the funds. To trade as you pointed out it is available right away.

[Euclid]

Liquid in terms of what? To buy more bills/notes and to trade stocks or to transfer to another bank.
Pretty sure you can actually do both right away. But at least trading or buying more bills should not be a problem.

Either withdraw cash or use to pay eg CC bill.

[zh cohen]

IIRC Cit Bank is not that fast.

Internal transfers are instant, so I have a CIT checking account (with a debit card) in case of emergency.

[ExGingi]

We are talking about online accounts. Fidelity is same day ACH's for my CU. IIRC Cit Bank is not that fast.
ETA: Someone would have to do a t-bill sale to see the timeframe.
Schwab money fund current 7-day yield is 4.27%.

I bought a 1yr treasury ladder this week. 4 rungs (3,6,9,12 months) avg yield IINM was 4.68%.

A couple of weeks ago I got 1yr and 2yr out agencies at over 5%.

Schwab money market is the best I found (unless you go to jumbo size investments).

Outside of Schwab (in my E*Trade account) Vanguard was best ($3,000 initial minimum) followed by Gabelli ($1,000 minimum). Fidelity funds are lower, but do have the advantage of serving as a Core Position, which means any otherwise uninvested cash goes there automatically. No need to trade in and out.

[CountValentine]

Internal transfers are instant, so I have a CIT checking account (with a debit card) in case of emergency.

What about ACH?
Internal transfers are instant just about everywhere and meaningless. AFAIK debit card limits are why too low to effective.

[CountValentine]

I bought a 1yr treasury ladder this week. 4 rungs (3,6,9,12 months) avg yield IINM was 4.68%.

A couple of weeks ago I got 1yr and 2yr out agencies at over 5%.

Schwab money market is the best I found (unless you go to jumbo size investments).

Outside of Schwab (in my E*Trade account) Vanguard was best ($3,000 initial minimum) followed by Gabelli ($1,000 minimum). Fidelity funds are lower, but do have the advantage of serving as a Core Position, which means any otherwise uninvested cash goes there automatically. Not need to trade in and out.

Good info. I will go longer term once interest rates make a significant turn.

[aygart]

Actual bonds/bills have an advantage that if rates drop they go up in value.

[ExGingi]

Good info. I will go longer term once interest rates make a significant turn.

I've been looking at fixed income offerings grid quite often recently.

On occasion there are special situations that create extremely attractive Risk/Reward scenarios in corporate bonds. Bad news can often hammer bond prices, while the risk isn't anywhere near what it is for the stock, and a coupon is collected while waiting for the market to reprice the bond back to normal, or hold to maturity.

[ExGingi]

Actual bonds/bills have an advantage that if rates drop they go up in value.

Correct. There's potential for capital gains. And a coupon is collected while waiting.

[CountValentine]

Actual bonds/bills have an advantage that if rates drop they go up in value.

I guess you can look at it that way. I would rather see rates to continue to increase if I was investing in t-bills.

[ExGingi]

I guess you can look at it that way. I would rather see rates to continue to increase if I was investing in t-bills.

Which is why laddering makes sense in my mind.

[CountValentine]

Which is why laddering makes sense in my mind.

In a raising interest rate environment?
I have been buying every week, so I have a manual ladder. 

[ExGingi]

In a raising interest rate environment?
I have been buying every week, so I have a manual ladder. 

In Aramaic your post would be called הוא מתיב לה והוא מפרק לה. (You asked the question and gave the answer).

Yes. In a rising rate environment (how much longer?) laddering makes sense. But a true ladder requires spreading out the maturities, and then reinvesting the maturing bonds into the longest duration, so that one always has rungs maturing at the same fixed intervals. Once rates stop rising you want to be locked into as long as possible.

The weird thing in the current environment is that there's often no positive spread (and there might actually be a negative spread in some cases) for corporates over treasuries.

[aygart]

I guess you can look at it that way. I would rather see rates to continue to increase if I was investing in t-bills.

That would Lower the value of the ones you own.

[ExGingi]

That would Lower the value of the ones you own.

A non-issue if short dated and held to maturity.

[aygart]

A non-issue if short dated and held to maturity.

Correct, but your yeild is still locked to what it was at purchase

[CountValentine]

Correct, but your yeild is still locked to what it was at purchase

Yield to maturity. You can sell at any time.