Best Safest place to PUT SAVINGS

[rvchat]

CDs are paying less than 1.5%

any advice on best place to put savings?

thanks all

ok to dm me

 

[dvcgirl]

If you're talking about a simple savings account that you would use for an emergency fund, and not say, retirement investments....then a regular old savings account is fine.

The idea of a savings account that is used for an emergency fund is to keep those funds liquid, or immediately accessible if you need the money.

If the "savings" you're speaking of is for retirement purposes, or many, many years from now, you definitely don't want that money in a CD or a savings account, rather in mutual funds.

So, first, you need to determine the purpose of the money that you're talking about, and then you'll have a better idea where to put it.

Hope this helps.

 

[bicker]

If I understand the OP's intent (because perhaps it matches a concern of my own), it goes back to how things were in the booming 1990s. There were riskier investments - stock and mutual funds and such - and less risky investments - municipal bonds and money market accounts and such - but both paid significant returns, with riskier investment offering higher possible returns than less risky investments. It seems now that all there are are risky investments that offer the possibility for great returns (though perhaps not as great as in the booming 1990s), and less risky investment that offer practically bupkis.

Where do you put the money, now, that you used to put into municipal bonds and money market accounts?

 

[rvchat]

not thinking about it for emergency (separate for that).

Was just thinking a GOOD, SAFE INVESTMENT / 5-10 years.


And what about all those fees tied to mutual funds? front, back and ?

 

[gasman61]

Silver and gold! Prices have gone up tremendously in the past few years.

 

[bicker]

Isn't silver trading especially volatile?

 

[nowellsl]

If you're talking about a plain old savings account I use Ally Bank. It's an on line account currently only pays 1.09%. I have a couple of CD's laddered. They offer a 2 year CD that currently pays 1.52% but you can opt to raise the rate once within the 2 years if rates start to climb at some point (we can hope, right?!) There's not much out there otherwise that doesn't involve some kind of risk....and I have a low tolerance for risk

 

[JaymeC]

You may want to call around to your local credit unions. Ours offers a 2.6% rate on checking, if you qualify. You qualify by using your debit card at least 12x/month and having one electronic transfer in per month. Ours is local to our city, I'm sure there are others offering the same deals though.

 

[Jeff_G]

Here is a good article on the different options for short term savings:

http://www.fool.com/personal-finance/saving/where-to-park-your-cash.aspx?source=iscsithlc0000001

You need to determine your goals, how much interest you want to earn, how much risk you are willing to take, and how liquid you want your savings to be...

 

[dvcgirl]

not thinking about it for emergency (separate for that).

Was just thinking a GOOD, SAFE INVESTMENT / 5-10 years.


And what about all those fees tied to mutual funds? front, back and ?

Well, what's the money for? If, for example, you're saving for a house that you plan to purchase in 5 years, then that money should not be invested in stock mutual funds. However, if this money is for retirement 10 years out, then there are conservative mutual funds that would suit your needs.

As far as anything being completely safe, well, there's that CD where you're getting 1.5%, or the mattress, but for most of us, that won't get us where we need to be with respect to retirement savings.

One option you may look into are life cycle funds. Each of the low cost mutual fund houses offers these funds. The fees are very low, for example for Vanguard funds, the fees on these funds are less than 0.2%.

You choose the fund by picking the year that correlates with the year that you are going to retire. As the years go on, the fund manager rebalances the fund to make it more conservative as you reach your retirement date.

So, for example, if you plan to retire in 2030, you'd choose a 2030 fund....and that particular fund may have 65% in mutual funds (a mix of domestic and international funds....which is also important), say 25% in bonds and 10% in cash. As you get older, the amount in stock mutual funds goes down, the amount in bonds and cash goes up....and so on.

Vanguard, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity and Charles Schwaab are all low cost fund houses that offer these types of investments. Personally, my favorite in that group is T. Rowe....the returns have been good even though the fees are slightly higher than Vanguard, but still low....at 0.75%. Very low.

Hope this helps.....

 

[disneysteve]

Silver and gold! Prices have gone up tremendously in the past few years.

Which is exactly why you shouldn't buy them now!

Remember, the goal is buy LOW and sell HIGH, not the other way around. Besides, OP asked for a SAFE investment.

 

[disneysteve]

not thinking about it for emergency (separate for that).

Was just thinking a GOOD, SAFE INVESTMENT / 5-10 years.


And what about all those fees tied to mutual funds? front, back and ?

Stay away from load funds, generally sold through salespeople/brokers/advisors. What you want are no-load mutual funds typically sold directly by the fund company. The big 3 are the companies dvcgirl mentioned: Fidelity, T. Rowe and Vanguard. Schwab is a discount brokerage that also offers a wide selection of no-load funds from various fund companies as well as their own in-house funds.

What would be appropriate for you? You really haven't provided enough info to answer that question. It depends on the big picture. What does the rest of your portfolio look like? What is your asset allocation? How old are you? Do you have any debt besides a mortgage? Are you saving at least 15% for retirement? Lots of questions to answer before any of us could suggest anything specific.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

You may want to call around to your local credit unions. Ours offers a 2.6% rate on checking, if you qualify. You qualify by using your debit card at least 12x/month and having one electronic transfer in per month. Ours is local to our city, I'm sure there are others offering the same deals though.

I agree. My local credit union has a type of savings account that I never knew about until last year (I've always just had a regular savings account with them and then a few online accounts with other banks). I get 5% for the first $2,500 and 3% for anything after that with no fees and no minimums. I can withdraw two times a year as well.

 

[rvchat]

That's very high even for a credit union. Are you sure? which bank? Are you in Va?

thanks

 

[NeverlandClub23]

Yep, it's Langley Federal Credit Union. I was off on the numbers though. It's still pretty good as even if you have over the $2,500 you still earn the 5% on the first $500 and 3% on the $500-$2,500. I don't have much more than the $2,500 in there though so I don't know if there's better out there for the richer folk


5.10% Up to $500
3.03% > $500 - $2,500
0.25% > $2,500