I keep coming back to this thread and Doctor of Credit.
I am realizing I have a couple things to ask for more detailed answers about:
1) I am considering going for the Consumer Credit Union account where you keep $20k on the sidelines, meet the spend requirements on their credit card ($12k per year) and the debit card transactions each month, and get 4.6% on your $20k. BUT the way I see it is, I should really only have an emergency fund of around $5-7k based on my lifestyle. So that's the amount of money I should be keeping in cash, outside of the market. For the remainder up to $20k, my question is "would you take a guaranteed return of 4.6% on $13k, as opposed to having it in the market?" It requires some work though...
I feel like my answer is "no", so I think I'm going to pass on this, but wanted to hear what others think.
2) Currently I'm the guy that has my emergency fund (and then some) getting basically 0% in savings and checking at Wells Fargo. I value simplicity, so in evaluating where I should park my emergency fund cash to earn more money, I've realized I should probably be looking at something that serves as a checking account as well as a savings account. (I feel everyone needs the ability to write checks, at least every once in a while). So a "high interest savings account" on it's own held at ally, alliant, etc. doesn't do much for me. I would then still need to have a separate checking account, like the one I currently have at wells fargo.
I would like to find a high interest checking account, and maybe a little savings account on the side I guess, and completely terminate my relationship with WF. here's the catch: My oldest line of credit is the credit card I was issued by wells fargo when I was in college. I think that means something significant for my credit score, but don't know how to quantify it.
So I think I'm going to move all the money from wells fargo to whichever high interest checking account/savings account combo I decide on, and leave the credit card open at WF for all of time. Not much in the way of simplicity, but I really won't pay much attention to that old credit card account ever.
3)
Ultimate Goal: all this boils down to I'd like to find a high interest checking account so that I can write checks from it, but basically just have it serve as my slush fund to pay off my credit card each month. Keep maybe $3k in there.
I think I like the idea above of having my true emergency fund just buying treasury bonds in my vanguard taxable account. Then I get to capture the rising interest rates of the fed right? or am I misunderstanding how that works? Is it more like I 'lock in' my rate with the treasury bonds I buy, and then if rates go up I'm actually suffering?
If that's the case, would high interest checking/savings accounts be more likely to keep up with/outpace the rising rates?