Said it before and I’ll say it again. Cash will be king in the next few years.
So what are your short to mid-term investment strategies? Risky or safe? CD’s? Funds? Stocks? Bonds? Commodities? Are you planning to stay liquid or going long-term? Laddering CD’s? Best rate? Let’s hear them!
What about savings tips? What are you doing to save the most money you possibly can over the next year? Let’s have your best money saving ideas!
Caveat Emptor!
Grim
You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go.
I owe my soul to the company store.
“Said it before and I’ll say it again. Cash will be king in the next few years.”
Right..because we all know the dollar is holding up so well against foreign currencies.
Never said your cash had to be denominated in USD my friend.
If that is your play, let’s hear the details.
grim
Or even your assets.
jb
I am putting most of my money into 6 month CD’s, which Last time i got one was 4.6%
I am sure there are better options, so I am looking forward to what everyone else in here has to say
the fed is in a lose lose situation. to prop up the dollar rates are now being raised. problem is 2/3’s of the economy is driven by consumer spending and rising rates slows down consumption. foreign central banks will inevitably slow down purchase of our treasuries. this is the main reason the dollar hasn’t dropped like a rock of late.
so you raise rates you slow down the main engine of the economy and the dollar depreciating. you lower rates and you slow down investment and hasten dollar depreciation. in either scenario the dollar will weaken over time. so what to do? over the next 12 months this would be my approach.
40% stocks
10% commodities (5% metals, 5% other)
5% bonds
45% cash (35% US, 15% other currencies)
US dollars should be parked in a high yield MMA like emigrantdirect at 4.5% and/or a few duration tiered CD’s. foreign currencies you can do the same through Everbank. while commodities have gone crazy of late, you should have a position.
this will give you a nice balanced portfolio to take advantage of broad market moves and limit yourself on the downside.
Richard, would you use ETFs to cover the commodity portion of your portfolio? I’ve been looking at them lately. There seem to be a lot of options for investing in non-tradtional areas with these.
Not sure about the crude oil tracking ETF though…the jury seems to be out on that one…
JM
HCSB 6 month is 4.79/4.85
6 month T-Bills are yielding 4.93% and the interest isn’t subject to state income tax.
BTW. I need to keep my $ in short-term safe investments since I will likely need it in a year to 18 months for a downpayment.
For anyone wondering about playing the treasury market:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov
I also use HCSB for their promotional CD rates. The 6-month yield is great considering it’s a branch rate.
grim
automatic withdrawals from checking account to ING savings account!
6 month T-Bills are yielding 4.93% and the interest isn’t subject to state income tax.
————————-
How do those work? Are they essentially like a CD?
Why is the interest not taxed as income?
Are they insured, similar to FDIC?
Just came in from MarketWatch.com
U.S. April home builders index falls to 50, 4-1/2 year low
Link
CFB is offering 4.8% on a jumbo money market account min $25k. i’d stay liquid until the fed stops raising rates, then re-assess.
I put mine in Citibank’s e-saving. 4.5 apr no min……..
CC
6 month T-Bills are yielding 4.93% and the interest isn’t subject to state income tax.
—————————–
How do those work? Are they essentially like a CD?
Why is the interest not taxed as income?
Are they insured, similar to FDIC?
Tips:
A lot less dinners out.
Make my grocery purchases in Shop Rite. No more Kings.
Shake down husband for more savings money every week!
Tips:
A lot less dinners out.
Make my grocery purchases in Shop Rite. No more Kings.
Shake down husband for more savings money every week!
hahahhahahhahahahhahhahahhaha
6 month T-Bills are yielding 4.93% and the interest isn’t subject to state income tax.
—————————–
How do those work? Are they essentially like a CD?
Why is the interest not taxed as income?
Are they insured, similar to FDIC?
1:29 PM
Sorry, didn’t think I hit the publish button. Treasuries are obligations of the U.S. government, so no need to be insured. If the U.S. government defaults on these, we have MUCH bigger problems. T-Bills, T-Notes and T-Bonds are all obligations of the U.S. government and the only difference between these three are the maturity dates. T-Bills have maturities of 1 year or less, Notes 10 year or less and bonds, up to 30 years.
http://www.treasurydirect.gov (the site Grim mentioned) is an excellent source to learn about Treasuries in more detail and also open up an account. You can link this account to a checking account and the money will enter and leave the checking account when you buy and sell treasuries automatically. And the cool feature about http://www.treasurydirect.gov is that if you buy these securities at auction, they charge you no commission. If you buy Treasuries through a broker like Fidelity, they will charge you a commission. Treasuries are exempt from state AND local (if you have local taxes like NYC) under IRS rules – probably as an inticement to get retail people to buy.
I haven’t heard anyone mention muni bonds yet. This can be a good investment option if you are in a high tax bracket. Just make sure you aren’t backed by a water park or anything silly like that.
Love Treasury Direct, for anyone interested in treasuries, just go check out the website. They’ve got quite a bit of information available and the user interface is pretty straightforward.
Put in an order for equal dollar amounts of 13 and 26 week bills. Next auction date to get in would be Monday the 24th.
I’m short and laddered in t-bills. I won’t go longer than 6 months on either T-bills or CD’s currently.
grim
Grim,
I too wouldn’t go out longer than 6 months. 6 month rate is 4.91% as we speak, the 5 year is 4.915% and the 10 year is 4.997%. I see no reason to go out longer and I think rates are going to continue to inch up.
I have 50% of my net worth (excluding equity in my house) in short term treasuries, 10% in munis, and the rest in stocks. I work for a hedge fund and can do decent due diligence in stocks and would recommend anyone investing in stocks to do your own due diligence or invest in a good mutual fund. I am not optimistic on stocks overall so most of mine are special situation oriented or deep value stocks. Hold a very small % in non-dollar demominated investments.
I would like to take my % in treasuries down but will not do so until stocks and/or real estate experience a decent pull-back.
1 thought on commodities…don’t.
If you were really good, in 2002 you would have, not now.
i wouldn’t touch t-bills right now. the government doctor up the CPI statistics so why lock in your money and play their manipulated game? you have other options if you want to look at fixed income that gives you slightly more risk at greater flexibility.
Richard,
Why would I care about CPI figures if I am buying 1-month through 6-month treasury bills. Its not like I am buying TIPS?
What other fixed income is more flexible than very short-term Treasury bills? I can tell you that I wouldn’t touch other fixed income besides short term treasuries since: a) the risk premiums are VERY, VERY small so you are not getting compensated for extra risk versus treasuries, and; b) if overall rates continue to inch up and you have to sell other fixed income (like corporate bonds) you will most likely take a loss. I don’t have to worry about taking a loss with 1-6 month Treasury bills because I will never have to sell them and am assured of getting paid par at maturity.
I would agree that I wouldn’t buy T-Notes and T-Bonds now though (as I said above) since I don’t want to take the duration risk. T-Bills are different though.
I’m also curious about municipal bonds. the tax advantage looks really attractive, but are they worth the additional risk above T-bills?
The info for 6 month (26 week) T-bills is all greek to me:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/research/indepth/tbills/res_tbill_faq.htm
“Weekly auctions”?
Also, is the value at maturity automatically deposited into your checking account, or is a deliberate ‘redeem’ step involved?
Gold, gold, and maybe gold.
BOOOOYAAAAAA!
http://danwho.net/mp/index.php?id=snl_dontbuystuff
Bob
An article at bankrate.com
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/story_content.asp?story_uid=18750&prodtype=mtg
Are rates headed even higher?
STEADY GOING: Rates seem to have pretty much stalled out since Thursday. Freddie Mac’s required net yields, which affect the prices that lenders get when they sell loans, are virtually unchanged. The 10-year Treasury yields 5.02 percent this afternoon, down from Thursday’s 5.04 percent.
Columnist Kenneth Harney says: “The global bond market sent an unmistakable message to the U.S. real estate market last Thursday: 10-year Treasury notes, the key index used by American lenders to price 30-year home mortgages, jumped past 5 percent for the first time in nearly four years.
“That means that mortgage rates are virtually certain to rise beyond where they were earlier last week — 6.5 percent for conforming 30-year loans, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.”
Don’t kill a fly with a sledgehammer.
If it is your house money, keep it simple, keep it liquid.
What is 50 bps per annum on $100,000? $500
You could burn up that amount or more on breakage fees or being caught flatfooted when you need to make an aggressive move.
The market is smarter than all of us. You are already trying to time the real estate market. Don’t press your luck.
“”Weekly auctions”?
Also, is the value at maturity automatically deposited into your checking account, or is a deliberate ‘redeem’ step involved?
3:00 PM”
Anon – Think of Treasuries like cars, you can either buy new (via auctions) or used (in the secondary market, like stocks after the IPO). Auctions are conducted by the Government so they can get the best price for their debt. You can just go along and get the market clearing price for the T-Bill. For you, it would be like putting in an order for $5K (whatever amount you want) of T-Bills at auction. Auctions are held at regular intervals – you can check out the auction dates on the treasury direct website.
After you put in your order for $5K of T-Bills and they go to auction, a rate is set. Say 4.68% for 1 month T-Bills is what the clearing price is – everyone now gets to purchase the T-Bills at that rate. T-Bills are sold at a discount to par in order to yield the 4.68%. So, for the $5K of T-Bills at 4.68%, approximately $4,980 would be taken out of your account and $5,000 would be put back 1 month later. The formula to calcluate price is:
100 * (1-rate*maturity/360)
multiply above by the amount of bonds you are bidding for – $5K in this example, to get the $4,980 price of the T-Bills.
The treasury direct site also has a nice feature that automatically allows you to reinvest your proceeds after your investment matures 1 times, 2 times, etc. If you have any other questions, please feel free to email me at distressed888@yahoo.com and if I can answer your question, I will.
Chicago,
As you know, 1-month T-Bills are very flexible. It would take you more than 30 days to close on a house in almost all circumstances so that money would be pretty handy to have for your house money.
Chicago,
stressing liquidity definitely seems wise, but does your advice change if the person you’re counseling has no intention of buying a place for at least 3 yrs (like me)?
Thanks debtvulture, that info helps tremendously!
This advice helps too: “Don’t kill a fly with a sledgehammer.”
I’ll see how the RE market does come July, as the window closes for buyers to register kiddies for school, and keep fully liquid (ingdirect.com) until then.
Was hoping to get more savings tips than investment tips.
grim
Washington Mutual has great CD rates if you have over 25k to invest. I usually like to have money money in a brick and morter bank as opposed to an online bank. I do not think 4.5% is really that bad.
If housing prices never fall, and just stagnate, you are still ahead of the game by making the 4.5% in the bank.
Use your Discover or Amex Blue card for gas purchases and get 5% cash rebate.
Hey, I paid $2.65/gallon for regular at Costco today. 5% adds up!
Don’t have kids ;-)
Some savings tips:
* Never pay interest.
* Always buy stuff on sale – never pay full retail for anything.
* Drop needless monthly burn expenses – expanded cable TV package, etc.
* Eat in restaurants as infrequently as possible, and the $25 dish almost never tastes better than the $12 dish.
* Don’t ‘go to the mall’ unless you actually need something – you’ll just end up buying more junk.
* Buy in bulk when things are on sale.
* Live below your means.
* Don’t be a stingy scrooge, enjoy nights out with your friends (not really a savings tip). :-)
* Stay away from Vegas/Atlantic City.
* Run as many expenses possible through a reward points credit card, and pay off the full balance each month.
* Enjoy the decent interest rates at banks and save, save, save. Keep that ‘average daily balance’ as high as possible.
The credit card companies must hate me. I’ve never carried any balance, nor have I ever paid a fee.
I do, however, use rewards cards for 90% of my purchases. Gas, Groceries, and anything else where there isn’t a ‘cash discount’.
While I do carry a debit card, I don’t ever use it.
I used to use my Chase Subaru rewards card religiously. It paid 3% back on all purchases in “Subaru Bucks”. These certificates were redeemable for parts, service, or maintenance, etc (I’m sure you get the idea). However, the certificates were very easy to sell at 80% face value online.
The return I’d get through selling them (2.4%) was higher than the 1% cash back through Discover, so I preferred.
I’m sure you folks are wondering why I even bother. I used to put some very expensive items on my cards (tuition, vacations, business expenses, etc).
grim
DebtVulture said…
Chicago,
As you know, 1-month T-Bills are very flexible. It would take you more than 30 days to close on a house in almost all circumstances so that money would be pretty handy to have for your house money.
3:42 PM
Vultch: I agree, but to most people, keeping up with bills and other chores is challenge enough. It takes a special breed [of which I am one] to play with games where “disciplined behavior” is key.
Repeatedly, when you describe such approches to people, their eyes glaze over. To the average person, even credit card “teaser rate” hopping is hard to manage without tripping a wire.
Those points add up quickly when you run everything (the phone bill, cell phone bill, cable TV bill, groceries, etc) through a reward points card.
Can’t turn away free money.
I just read back the last post – I don’t mean to sound arrogant.
My point is that some people find working on these issues relaxing. Others find it stressful or annoying.
Unless you find such approaches satisifying – do not feel as if you are shortchnaging yourself by keeping the approach simple.
“What other fixed income is more flexible than very short-term Treasury bills?
I’d look at municipal closed end bond funds that are trading at a discount. you can get tax free monthly dividends with little gyrations in price. i have a few and been doing 6.5%.
Richard,
When buying closed-end muni bonds, make sure you are buying from a very good manager. Closed-end funds are not liquid and can trade for decent discounts to NAV (good on the way in, bad on the way out), but some of them also have buckets in which they can invest in some riskier stuff than AAA munis.
Chicago….I hear you on a lot of what you say. I’ll just put info out there and let people decide if it is too much for them.
Some of these CDs, from both online banks and b&m banks, have great rates, especially if they are running a promotion, so that may be a good strategy for some people (as long as they don’t have a redemption penalty).
Speaking of all these credit card deals, my friend is basically getting paid to carry a balance on two of his credit cards. They sent him a no-fee, no interest rate card so he took out the most he could – something like $60K – and invested the proceeds in an ING savings account. He has to pay some minimal amount each month and then pay it all off after the promotion period. An easy $2.7K in interest income on a $60K balance if carried for one year. The rub is he can never be late with a payment or they will slap him with back-payment fees and then start accruing interest. Most people may forget to make a payment but this is sooo stupid of the credit card company. Talk about free money if you are careful!
Oh on another poster that wanted an opinion on liquidity aspects if he wanted to buy a house in next three years. 3 years is a very short-term horizon for investments so keep it very safe and liquid.
Richard,
When buying closed-end muni bonds, make sure you are buying from a very good manager. Closed-end funds are not liquid and can trade for decent discounts to NAV (good on the way in, bad on the way out), but some of them also have buckets in which they can invest in some riskier stuff than AAA munis.
Chicago….I hear you on a lot of what you say. I’ll just put info out there and let people decide if it is too much for them.
Some of these CDs, from both online banks and b&m banks, have great rates, especially if they are running a promotion, so that may be a good strategy for some people (as long as they don’t have a redemption penalty).
Speaking of all these credit card deals, my friend is basically getting paid to carry a balance on two of his credit cards. They sent him a no-fee, no interest rate card so he took out the most he could – something like $60K – and invested the proceeds in an ING savings account. He has to pay some minimal amount each month and then pay it all off after the promotion period. An easy $2.7K in interest income on a $60K balance if carried for one year. The rub is he can never be late with a payment or they will slap him with back-payment fees and then start accruing interest. Most people may forget to make a payment but this is sooo stupid of the credit card company. Talk about free money if you are careful!
Oh on another poster that wanted an opinion on liquidity aspects if he wanted to buy a house in next three years. 3 years is a very short-term horizon for investments so keep it very safe and liquid.
I got rid of my car and just ride my bike everywhere. I thought I would get another car, but I really like riding my bike, and everytime I think of spending money on a car and gas and insurance, I change my mind.
I bought some shares in AMTD stock (Ameritrade). Anybody on this blog with expertise in the stock market and where would you think this stock will be in 12 months?
Thanks
I think discussing individual stocks is well out of the realm of this blog..
However, anyone following ECR tonite (ECC Capital)?
(Reuters) – ECC Capital Corp. The company, which reported a net loss of $49.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2005, had in February said it would not pay any dividend in the first quarter of this year due to losses in its mortgage banking segment.
If ECC Capital utilizes available cash for operations, it may not have sufficient cash to pay the distributions required to maintain its REIT status, the company said in a news release to announce the results.
I just changed my W-4 withholding to 1 exemption (from 0). Since I regularly get a refund, this translates to giving the government an interest-free loan every year. I plan to increase my bi-weekly savings in my ING Direct account which is now paying 4% interest and make a little money throughout the year. Then if I happen to owe, I’ll be ready.
I also try to take my own lunch to work rather than buy lunch everyday. In Manhattan, you can easily spend $8 just on a sandwich and a soda. That’s about $160 a month just on weekday lunches. I also have eliminated my afternoon coffee, especially the Starbucks which can easily be $2 a pop for plain coffee (more if you get cappuccino or latte).
Since I can’t be without a car, I choose one that get’s good fuel economy (Pontiac Vibe: 29 city/36 highway, regular fuel) and I keep my driving record clean. Tickets, accidents and claims make for higher auto insurance premiums. I take the highest possible deductibles and use the same company for my renters and auto insurance (multi-policy discount). I find that I am only paying about $60 more per term in NJ than I did in Michigan (my home state), which actually says to me that Michigan was quite high!
“…I take the highest possible deductibles and use the same company for my renters and auto insurance (multi-policy discount).”
Check to see If you qualify for New Jersey Manufacturers Auto Insurance. It’s the probably lowest legitimate rate around, but you need a clean record. You also need to work for a company that is a member of the NJ Business & Industry Association.
Traffic has been picking up pretty rapidly over the past week or two.
Averages for the past few days are up near 2,000 visitors a day and 3,500 hits a day.
Seems like we’re regularly hitting 100 comments on a thread.
The forums are in the works, only really need to come up with a easy-to-remember domain name.
grim
grim
vulture,
which card does ‘friend’ have that’s zero percent?
I thought Citi were stupid to give me 1.99, but 0.00 is lots better than that.
grim-
for a domain name, how about:
http://www.DoNotBeStupidAndBuyAHouseNow.com
David,
It was Citibank and Chase, although Chase tried to do a bait and switch but he fought with them and won. I haven’t done it myself and keep kicking myself.
Roadtripboy said…
I just changed my W-4 withholding to 1 exemption (from 0). Since I regularly get a refund, this translates to giving the government an interest-free loan every year……
Just be careful that the money you are saving does not throw you into a situation where you are paying interest and penalties because you owe them too much. It almost happened to me this year.
There is a huge bull market on oil stocks and commodities and you guys are sitting on 4% CD’s???
What a load of crap. Go out there and make some MONEY. 4% CD’s are for retirees and I don’t consider it as a strategy.
Be bold!
“There is a huge bull market on oil stocks and commodities and you guys are sitting on 4% CD’s???
What a load of crap. Go out there and make some MONEY. 4% CD’s are for retirees and I don’t consider it as a strategy.
Be bold!”
Each of my friends lost $50,000+ when there was a bull market on technology and dot-com stocks.
Mark Cuban cashed out broadcast.com just before the bust, and made a Billion dollars. That’s billion with a B.
Here’s a posting from him:
“The stock market is for suckers”
http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1234000173073470/
Here’s a post from Billionaire Mark Cuban:
“My Investment advice for 2006”
http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1234000700073465
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