High Yield Options for Shorter Term Savings

[panda]

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[ChpBstrd]

I would not assume AGG to be low volatility given all the speculation about interest rates and inflation. That said, it's still pretty safe. To keep your moving budget intact, overshoot by 10%.

Other ideas:
LQD
PFF
PGF

[MrUpwardlyMobile]

It seems I've crossed an interesting milestone since I now have enough in my banks savings to capture to the full interest amount (0.15% APY) and I'm reluctant to put more into my higher yield money market since it is only getting 1% APY. I have a couple contingencies in place since I know that within the next six to eighteen months I will be moving and need to pull the money back out of the savings accounts. However, since I'm running a fairly significant budget surplus I would like to park the money someplace where I can put the dollars to work. I'd like to avoid stocks since we are entering market volatility and obviously savings accounts don't pay very much. I have thought about NYSE:AGG since it is not too volatile (bond ETF) and has 2.4% returns which would offset transactions fees. However, does the MMM community have any other suggestions?

Marcus by Goldman Sachs Bank has a 1.5% apy savings account.  CIT Bank is offering 1.55%.  If you’re going to park some cash in a savings account, it might as well not be a bad one.  I posted about some of the account options on my blog in January.  There are a few high yield savings account options with good banks out there.

[Michael in ABQ]

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/high-interest-savings-to-get/

If you're willing to jump through some hoops you can get 3-5% on a limited amount of money (a few tens of thousands). The highest yielding regular savings accounts with no gimmicks are about 1.7%. I just opened an account with Live Oak Bank that will be earning 1.6% but there's a few credit unions that pay 3% interest on up to $15,000 if you meet some activity requirements (4 logins per month, 10 debit transactions, online statements).

[MrUpwardlyMobile]

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/high-interest-savings-to-get/

If you're willing to jump through some hoops you can get 3-5% on a limited amount of money (a few tens of thousands). The highest yielding regular savings accounts with no gimmicks are about 1.7%. I just opened an account with Live Oak Bank that will be earning 1.6% but there's a few credit unions that pay 3% interest on up to $15,000 if you meet some activity requirements (4 logins per month, 10 debit transactions, online statements).

A lot of those options are tough to manage.  That's for the experienced account hacker. 

[LWYRUP]

I like Ally.

I like Ally because while they frequently don't have the absolute highest interest rates, they are always near the top of the no-strings (e.g., no hoops, rules, gimmicks, expiration dates, teasers) league tables.  Other banks will juice rates up to get deposits and then drop them well below top of the market at a time when they don't need as many.  Capital One did this to me about ten years ago and I bounced to Ally and didn't look back. 

Goldman Sachs bank has decent rates but you can link Ally savings and checking together and transfer money immediately, which is super helpful.  GS also hasn't been around as long, so who knows if they will keep these high rates forever.

You can also get around the six transaction limit on savings account but opening and linking multiple savings accounts together.  Then you can set up all sorts of autopays with the knowledge that you are going to get a pretty good (but maybe not tippy top) rate for many years. 

[frugaliknowit]

If you are a keen manager/hacker, your best bet is a high yield checking account (mine pays 2.5% on up to $25k.  At one time, I was running 2 accounts to create a sinking fund to kill my mortgage...).

You can start here by putting in your zip code and looking for a bank that offers such accounts in your area:  https://www.depositaccounts.com/checking/reward-checking-accounts.html