BIL

Western-Count-2244

With a hard August 2026 deadline, stick to guaranteed, short-duration options. Build a T‑bill ladder that matures monthly into your target date; buy 4–26 week bills and roll them until closing day. Shop around too-3.4% is low-no‑penalty CDs at Ally or Marcus let you bail early without fees, and brokered CDs/T‑bills matched to your date avoid early withdrawal risk. If you stay on Robinhood, consider SGOV/BIL for Treasury exposure, but try to hold to minimize price wiggles. I use Fidelity for T‑bills and Ally for no‑penalty CDs; gainbridge.io’s MYGA quotes looked good for longer terms, but surrender periods don’t fit a 9–12 month goal. With a set closing date, keep it guaranteed and match maturities.

Alienware15rr3

Yeah you should always back test, to see how a portfolio performed during a certain event, it will not always react the same way, but it will surely rhyme. In the 70s bonds also had a correction not normally seen in Bonds, and guess what, due to inflation. The only people that were safe in 2022 were those who held short term treasuries so your typical 60/40 didn't since it's common to just hold SP500 and Total Market bonds like AGG. Now, did bonds still hedge in 2022 and the April tariffs, they did, the pain blow was lessened. You could always replace 10% of those AGG bonds into short term treasuries to protect from huge bond fluctuations, but do you really think will get a big spike in inflations in the next few years that could again cause bonds to selloff? no one knows. So can do 60/30/10 (SP500, AGG, and SGOV/BIL or the ETF available in your provider.) Here are some back tests for you: |Scenario|100% SPY|Classic 60/40|60/30/10|60/30/10 Advantage vs 60/40| |:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| |Apr 2025 drawdown|−19.05%|−11.30%|−11.36%|\+0.06% (marginal)| |Apr 2025 YTD to low|−15.32%|−8.98%|−8.94%|\+0.04%| |2022 drawdown|−25.40%|−21.53%|−19.94%|**+1.59%**| |2022 full year|−19.49%|−17.70%|−16.19%|**+1.51%**|

Nago31

“Did you see the way the Saudis treated Trump during his visit. Respect.” My veteran BIL. He doesn’t care about anything except the posturing.

rhesusmacaque

Short-term Treasuries. Their price doesn't change with the interest rate. But they pay interest based on the interest rate, so he'll be receiving less interest when the rate goes down. Same as holding BIL or USFR ETFs, or having money in a high-yield savings account.

pickandpray

I chose the wrong account when buying shares of a stock. Ended up needing to sell my sgov to cover the buy. My BIL has a large margin account and had too many zeros entered when he bought some fb shares in a rush, many years ago. He made money on the mistake.

Iwubinvesting

If 80k is your 6-month salary, you'll be fine. You just paid the stupid tax. Now go put your invesment into diversified index fund like VTI, ACWI, INDY, FXI, TLT/BIL, GLD and IBIT.

Senior-Preference678

VOO and chill works if your only risk is market volatility, but not if the risk is political or currency instability. VOO = 100% U.S. large caps, so you’re fully tied to the U.S. economy and the dollar. If you actually want political-risk protection, diversification matters: - VOO (40%): U.S. growth core - VXUS (20%): global exposure outside the U.S. - GLDM / IAU (15%) – gold hedge - BIL / SHV (10%) – cash & liquidity - STIP / TIP (10%) – inflation-protected bonds - SCHD / JEPI (5%) – dividend income buffer That mix keeps upside exposure but cushions geopolitical shocks. Not financial advice, just risk management 101.

Senior-Preference678

VT is definitely a solid one ETF solution, globally diversified, 60% US and 40% international, covers nearly 9,000 stocks, and yields around 2%. But for real political-risk protection, it’s still 100% equity exposure. If the goal is to hedge instability, I’d still mix VT with: GLDM or IAU: inflation & crisis hedge BIL or SHV: cash-like stability STIP or TIP: inflation-protected bonds SCHD or JEPI: dividend income & lower volatility So maybe 60% VT + 40% hedges for a balance between growth and protection. Not financial advice, just fundamentals talking.

WhoCaresWhatITink

I am loaded up on Nov 672 puts on SPY Also parked 30% of my portfolio in BIL. Sold ATM covered calls on a bunch of my other long term positions. If I am wrong, whatever. I am more interested on keeping what I have than gaining more. This market is a fucking joke.

greytoc

That's a weird thing to be concerned about.... SGOV normally trades at a premium to NAV if you are comparing to the INAV. And have you compared it to the drag of a sweep? The expense ratio on a swept product is usually higher than SGOV or BIL.

DoinIt4DaShorteez

If you've done SGOV trades, check the actual total cost of one of your buys, divided by the number of shares. Your history will probably show a round penny amount as the price, but when you do the math, you may find you got actually got filled somewhere close to the middle of the spread. Same with sells. I use Merrill Edge to buy BIL and it doesn't let me put in fractions of a cent as a limit, so I always have to use the Ask as the limit price unless I want to sit around all day waiting to get filled (and probably never get filled). But I always get filled in the middle. Like Bid 91.50 Ask 91.51, I get filled at 91.505. I don;t think there are any short-term Treasury ETFs that have quoted spreads less than a penny. What you'd need is a platform that let you submit a limit order out to 4 decimals. I don't know if those exist for retail.

NiceJobSon

Here’s what to try (in order): revenge trade, yell at phone, pray, park all your remaining money in BIL and take a break.

ethnicnebraskan

I've been using BIL, which has been averaging something like 4.4% over the past 12 months. The real upside of SPAXX is that you can still earn that base 3.79% interest even if you're using it as collateral for CSPs, but then I suppose that's no longer *truly* a reserve then.

chatrep

No problem. It’s the same advice I gave to my daughter and BIL. My daughter bought ITM leaps for NVDA, TSM, HOOD about 6–7 months ago. $35k now $150k. My BIL bought Sofi Jan27 $17 about a month ago and his $16k is now $28k. They are not getting 10 baggers but these are still fantastic returns on solid companies with balanced risk. These are standard brokerage accounts so suggesting they hold for over a year for long-term cap gains.

Rib-I

Stick it in SGOV or BIL or an equivalent short term US Treasury ETF. You’ll get back like 4%, currently, and you don’t have to pay state taxes on any dividends 

DoinIt4DaShorteez

A short term treasury etf like BIL, BILS, or SGOV will get you about 4.00%, so $20/month more per $100k than the money market fund you're in. But the NAV for those goes up about a penny a day during month, then they pull the div out of that and start over again. Instead of accruing a daily div like a money market. So when you sell, you'd have a short-term cap gain or loss you'd have to account for unless you sold at the same price you bought at. Divs in those are mostly state-tax exempt though, if you live in a state with its own income tax.

WhoCaresWhatITink

I use BIL -same idea. Ever so slightly higher fees, but it is a much larger fund better liquidity and been around longer.

yayahi

BROTHERS BID TILRAY 2 BIL MARKET CAP SHORT HEAVY FIRST NON NEGATIVE EPS IT IS AT $2, last time wsb breathern were fucking around with it at $200! IT CAN HAPPEN AGAIN!!

Global-Fisherman-587

For awhile a year ago I was just using high yielding savings accounts because the yield was exactly the same as SGOV but with FDIC insurance. Start of this year, SGOV started to be a slightly better place to park cash. As of right now, I am favoring BIL over SGOV because it tracks slightly longer duration treasuries, meaning it should hold it's yield slightly long if the fed drops rates again (and that is a likely scenario). It's also reasonable to buy some of the 12-18 months CDs that are still floating around just over 4% right now. All of these moves will only extend your ability to maintain \~4% cash yields slightly longer by 3 to 12 months if interest rates drop. If rates drop, and they will likely, stocks will do better than cash assuming the market doesn't bust. The reason for this is just inflation, when rates go down stocks go up not because they are worth more but because the dollar is worth less. If you were really bearish, you could buy longer duration (5 to 10 year) treasury funds or put some money into bonds, (municipal bonds for non-retirement, corporate bonds for retirement accounts because of tax reasons). That would let you ride out a multi-year downturn and still pull in 3-6%. Otherwise if things go to shit, HYSAs, SGOV, BILL, Bonds etc. will all start returning nothing after a year and you will have to buy something or just watch inflation eat your cash. All of this is to say the best way to park cash changes pretty rapidly over time and which is best for you is a function of what level of inflation risk you want to hedge against.

Global-Fisherman-587

This is the r/stocks sub, not the r/investing sub. It implies that we are more active investors that are, to at least some extent, trying/doing things like: * Building positions in companies that we think the market has under-undervalued. * Reallocate to different sectors or stocks based on economic risk exposures and events. * Take profits when our positions hit our targets so we have cash firepower available when the next opportunity hits. * Spending copious amounts of time researching new products, demand trends for different industries, and company earnings. If you are not an active investor, head on over to r/investing, pick a top 100 or 500 ETF, and DCA your heart away. There's nothing wrong with that and you could even argue it's more savvy since most people, even professionals, will not beat the market. Or head on over to r/wallstreetbets and gamble by just dumping money into what everyone else it. But I don't think either of those tactics are what this sub is after. Me personally my retirement portfolio is up 40% since June and this morning I took profits in all my index ETFs and AI-related stocks, reallocated a little to some corporate BBBs while rates are still high, and swept the rest into BIL. I only left my pharmaceuticals and 10% in international whole market. When AI companies start to turn actual profits to justify those P/Es (like small caps, not just the big guys profiting on hardware or burning investment cash) and/or unemployment starts to stabilize, then I'll buy back in. It's unlikely that I will make another 40% in next year and I'm happy to give up some potential gains for capital preservation. Worst case I slightly beat inflation for a bit and eek out a couple percent while I miss 20% upside, best case scenario if we recession I'll have the buying opportunity of my lifetime. More than likely nothing exciting happens, I miss 10% and I buy back in.

rithsleeper

Definitely contextual but I stopped the real estate game a while ago. Couldn’t be happier. So much more to worry about and liquidity is insane. Slippage is stupid when you sell a house. And with house prices so high in some areas why sit on them. You can’t get a renter that reflects the house price. Now in my area it’s not insane, but still doesn’t make sense renting. Only reason I didn’t sell my personal house is that I have a 3.2% mortgage and like that the bank handles all the insurance and taxes for me while I hold the funds to pay it off in BIL or SGOV.

PocketPressured

BUFFET IN TALKS TO BUY OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM FOR 10BIL- Bloomberg

TheKubesStore

I prefer my 3.65% HYSA with Goldman than 4.32% from $BIL in a brokerage. Easier to access

mrnoonan81

If she distrusts banks, she could buy shares in BIL and SHY (treasury bond ETFs) She would own those shares and the fund has to hold the actual bonds whereas you may own a bank account but the bank only owes you that money and doesn't necessarily have to have the reserves. The fundamental difference is that the government would owe her money, not the bank. She could buy bonds too, but that would be a pain to maintain.

wayfarer8888

It helps the stock market a few % each time they shave 25 bpts because a lot of money from MMF and short term treasuries now moves into the (on average) already overpriced equities. I moved out of BIL myself today, I won't wait until Wednesday. Employment numbers will matter once consumer sentiment collapses. The Christmas earnings season could be ugly for cyclical consumer discretionary, retail, transport, also car manufacturers.

Alwaysfavoriteasian

My BIL said his company is for sure letting people go because AI is capable of their position. So... just a messenger.

Next-Mail2444

Isn’t Matt’s other BIL is the founder of Anduil?

MaterialGuy007

ORCL - OpenAI's $500 BIL order would need someone to purchase equipment - OpenAI only makes $10bil a year so far. So what's the order for - some say its $300 BIL ?

greytoc

4.1% is actually not bad and close to the current risk-free rate. Ultra short duration bonds even with lower credit quality may not be worth it - the additional yield may be negligible on 6k. For my kid - I use a treasury-based money market fund because it's convenient and I live a state with income tax so the post-tax yield is better. So - if you live in a state with income tax - a short duration treasury fund with a duration less than 3 months would be a good choice. So something like SGOV, BIL. Or if you want shorter duration - a money market fund. If you live in a state without income tax - you could consider a managed ultra-short duration bond fund. Something similar to a MINT fund could work. More details in the wiki here - [https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/wiki/faq/#wiki\_what\_are\_low\_risk\_investments\_with\_liquidity\_that\_can\_be\_used.3F](https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/wiki/faq/#wiki_what_are_low_risk_investments_with_liquidity_that_can_be_used.3F) Fwiw - 6k per semester is a great deal for a college education.

OurNewestMember

The biggest thing on costs: 1) do you want to fund the trade by buying shares to start, or do you need/want to borrow (which incurs costs) (eg, will you have a long call in your structure)? and 2) if you need to borrow, can you avoid the costs of shorting stock specifically? On costs, it is like this (for stocks that are not "hard to borrow"): * long call, short stock (0.5 lot) * Least economical. The broker will not pay the full market interest rate on your short proceeds, you will have daily mark-to-market which increases management costs for retail * long straddle (full lot) * if you don't have full capital for long shares, this is the least expensive way to get exposure * each unit is double the notional size of the others * this is like two long calls and one synthetic short * long shares, long put (0.5 lot) * This has the highest expected value because it requires capital for the shares (assuming rates are stable) Also, be aware that the first two choices can have a much, much greater burn rate due to the implied borrowing (it can even eclipse the vol exposure), and particularly if you believe rates may fall, you might want to hedge for that. How much difference between these? Currently IBKR should have the best short stock interest rate for retail. For 1 full (not half) round lot of short AAPL (example), you will earn 0% on the $23200 cash you bring in at open. If you short 5 full round lots, the effective rate increases to 0.425% (or 370 bps less than market rate) -- this is the best game in town for retail, so it is fair to say it is never economical to short stock for any duration if decent options contracts exist. By comparison, a synthetic short on AAPL will pay around 4.1% (less dividends). So a 1-year, 1-lot synthetic short at current rates would yield $950 (potentially minus about $104 of dividends) more than shorting the stock with the best broker on paying short interest... This is the reason it is more economical to just fund the position with long shares instead of long calls, or at least build the synthetic short into the options position (which gives a long straddle instead of shorting stock) - it's about a $950/year difference for this stock compared to the best retail broker on stock shorts. [Short Sale Cost | Interactive Brokers LLC](https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/pricing/short-sale-cost.php) Also, when you short stock, you have a mark-to-market requirement. Because the broker also pays you less than market interest rate, this is a second way that shorting stock costs retail real money. If you position marks $1000 higher, then you either need to keep plenty of cash around which earns $0 (even IBKR's highly competitive rates will still probably pay you $0 on the amount of cash you keep to support your short mark-to-market), or you need to actively trade something like SGOV/BIL possibly every day (which will cost you the bid-ask spread and for IBKR, several days' interest on commissions even with tiered pro). However many folks aren't ready for using synthetic shorts, so they may be "safer" just shorting the stock, but it definitely has built-in costs. Overall, I get the IV play, but if I'm buying vol ATM 1 year out and the stock moves much, then my options will move away from peak IV, which seems like a headwind for vega profits (even if IV increases) -- so maybe a long strangle (strikes away from ATM) would give a better reward/risk? I might play around with this for curiosity's sake.

DSCN__034

Good points. What about rolling the proceeds of put sales into BIL or a bond fund? Something non-correlated, or, in a perfect world, inversely correlated to stocks?

Anxious_Cheetah5589

My BIL managed a group of brokers at a regional bank at the time. He was a "true believer. " I'm naturally skeptical and a student of stock market history, and saw that valuations were way out of whack. I remember a conversation just before the bubble popped. He said, "companies like Cisco, they're NEVER going down. " CSCO peaked at $80 (p/e 150) in March 2020, then lost 90% of its value in the next 2 years. It's still trading below that all time high 25 years later. Today's AI buzz reminds me of that conversation, these companies are NEVER going down.

TheKubesStore

I mainly do 3 fund portfolios 40/40/20 One is SPTM/SCHG/AVDE One is SPMO/XMMO/IDMO One is CWB/JAAA/BIL

DoinIt4DaShorteez

I mean tbh, the current top comment ends up basically being correct. I see you say you spend $11,000 a month. So you can just put everything in a treasury money market ETF like SGOV or BIL or BILS and you'll get 2% - 3% even when rates come down and you still won't run out of money even if you spend twice as much as you do now.

DSCN__034

I came here to say this. BOXX makes it so easy and you can control the tax event. The one thing I'm not sure about is the capital requirement in a margin account and how it differs from BIL or SGOV.

trix_is_for_kids

BIL has an insta wife. It’s great entertainment for my wife and I.

RTiger

There are lots of ways to implement a barbell risk curve. I won’t comment on the structures in the op. I will mention a super simple barbell implementation.  Percentage willing to be lost in triple leverage QQQ or SPY. The rest in BIL or similar. For example 10 percent triple leveraged, 90 percent safe. 

Scannerguy3000

To add some detail; I keep a minor portion in BIL. Since I don’t see it as “cash”, I don’t deploy it. This is “break glass in case of emergency” money for something like TXN dropping 17%.

Scannerguy3000

Good question. I really don’t know, but somewhere in the 180k-200k range I would guess. My portfolio is designed by all-cash if possible. I keep 5-10% in BIL as a reserve. Otherwise, almost every dollar is deployed. The only true cash in the account is less than enough to open one contract.

Scannerguy3000

Find my other comments. There’s a ton of really bad advice by people who bite their fingernails and say “Oooh, I don’t know if I can afford a Barchart subscription”. Take a good look at the advice you’re getting and realize these people are gamblers, not options sellers. You can make 4.9% or 6.1% at least, because I’m doing it and I’m not any financial genius. I would say put 5% to 10% of your 40k into BIL, and then forget it. That’s your “cash”, but since it doesn’t show up as cash, it’s easier to forget it’s there. That is only for use on a “once per year” opportunity. Put another 5%-10% into a high yield Covered Call strategy ETF. Those two give you a poor earning but stable base. Then sell CSPs using the remaining 80%-90% of your portfolio. Long term statistics, if you sell CSPs your goal is to *not take* equities. .25 delta and you should expect to win 3/4 of your trades. Expect to lose 1/4 — but that’s under your control. As soon as a play starts going bad, close it. Never roll. Rolling is for idiots. Close a position, then plan your next move as a second step. If you can close these when Last equals your original Premium, then you essentially escape a loser for free. If you can’t catch it in time, calculate your Assignment Exit and your BTC Exit and take the better option. If you take shares, your immediate goal is to get rid of them. If the premium plus Strike covers your Adjusted Cost Basis, then take it. Try to get that at a .50 delta and try to get Called away. If you fail to get them off your books, repeat. Don’t get complicated. Any of these multi-legged “element plus animal” names plays are stupid. They’re over complicated and I haven’t heard anyone tell me “I’m making 12% monthly yield with aluminum seagulls”. Don’t get clever. Keep it simple. Just follow this advice and you’ll double your capital in 14-17 months. If you’re in school, you won’t have time to monitor trades all day. So stick to 45 DTE Puts. They give you much longer time, and slower theta decay, so it won’t get away from you within hours. Monitor your trades and you never have to take a loss. Don’t listen to the haters.

PalpitationOk5494

Just the luck of the draw, and like in a casino, the odds are against you. You gotta realize there are A LOT of people requesting. I’ve gotten more than a dozen and my BIL also has gotten a few dozen.

DataExternal4451

BBAI GUIDANCE for 2025 is between $125 million and $140 million, lower Q2 earnings than last year 2BIL market cap btw LOL

db_deuce

The high interest rate environment has completely decimated American's that rely on borrowing for cars, house, loans and credit cares vs those sitting on capital assets making a S-ton of Money just sleeping with 0 risk. The economy is only working for the very few while there a lot of cause and effect, lowering the interest rate will revive lending rate, improve certain areas of industry like housing, building supplies, and fundamentals. Instead of playing needless interest, those can be diverted to something else. Trump is quite good at responding to inflation and I rather we lower interest rates in early 2025 and toggle as needed. The $$ is way too strong as the value to spend money outside is just too tempting. Foreigners come to America and see the prices of restaurants and everything puke at how absurd it is. At the end of the day, you don't need to upgrade your iPhone evert 2 years or have 20 pairs of sneakers. Toggling purchases is easy, fixing the mortgage is hard. I hold a S\_ton of SGOV, BIL and BILS and a just feel sorry to the taxpayer like me that is paying interest to me instead of paying for government services. I'm really pissed 35% of the budget pays interest. I understand interest is a function of interest rate and amount outstanding, but interest rate is easily controlled. I am fortunate to be on the collecting side of the interest spectrum but that is only because I got the ball rolling in a much friendlier interest rate environment.

trinolcour87

If you're worried about losses just put everything into BIL and trade with dividends. Also switch to cash account just so you can cut early without feeling locked in a trade if you do that and doing options I'd say only risk 10-20% of your total account balance so you don't panic sell and leaves room to play the reversal. Most importantly make sure you see the pattern on 0dte.

NedFlanders304

Your BIL is right and wrong. He can probably (maybe) make more money by investing back into his business versus the stock market. For us average Joe’s that work for someone else, the stock market is better. If you can make more than the S&P 500 return which is around 10% historically, then go for it. The problem is not many can do this.

Tiny-Town7673

Get a new BIL Only joking.  He doesn't understand the stock market very much. People putting a fraction of their paycheck I to a 401(k) is the easiest way of becoming a millionaire. 

callmecrude

I don’t disagree with your BIL’s logic if he owns his own business and is seeing success by investing further into it. The upside is usually MUCH higher than what anyone can get from the stock market. But obviously not everyone is capable and/or willing to run a business.

Responsible-Slide913

Exactly. Like I said, I set up a savings first before buying assets. But that’s just me. Just in case I had an emergency I wouldn’t be selling my assets (at potentially a loss) triggering a taxable event. But I don’t agree with you BIL. It’s a feee and open market. It’s meant for everybody, even small fish like us 😀

redracer67

I don't think the AI hype will die, too many companies are investing/banking on it and I do think it's different than crypto in terms of overall hype. AI has been developing for longer than I think some folks realize (since like the 1960s but didn't quite get into consumer hands until early 2010s). Maybe I have an optimistic view. But, ask someone in 1985 if they think someone could run their entire business remote from their computer, without an office or human interaction and I would venture to guess most people would say "no, that would be impossible". But ask someone that in 2025, and the answer is obviously yes...my BIL runs a international 6 figure business off of freaking WhatsApp and email. I very much think there will be a future when entire businesses will be almost completely automated, maybe not in the next 5 years, but 10+ years? I 100% think that will happen...we already have entire YouTube AI channels or AI generated books making 5 to 6 figures. Hell, I made a card game that my friends and I play on chatgpt...getting ready to throw it on the play store after some more testing and I don't know how to program a single line of code.

Alwaysfavoriteasian

BIL at $12 and accumulated for the years between. Pretty sure he's a millionaire now. He sells cover calls. If pltr does better he needs up selling. That's cool, if it doesn't he cashes checks with CC. Also a win

greytoc

I'm going to slightly disagree with u/xiongchiamiov that a HYSA is a better option if you are willing to lock up access for a 1 or 2 years and you don't need liquidity. The reason is because you need to look at the yield curve on interest rates. The yield curve on treasuries with less than 5 years of duration is currently inverted. So that favors short duration fixed income products like bank savings accounts (ie a HYSA) and short-term treasury bonds. But if you look at where the short-term treasury yield normally peaks - it's about 30-60 days. A treasury fund like SGOV or BIL has a trailing yield of about 4.52% with a YTM of about 4.34%. They also have the benefit of being state-tax exempt unlike a HYSA. If state-tax drag is not an issue for you - there are ultra-short term fixed (60-90 day duration) income funds like MINT which have a yield that will vary between 4.41% to 4.78%. And if you think that short-term treasury interest rates will drop below 4% - you can lock in 1 or 2 year rates at around 4%. Also - if you are willing to take on a little more credit quality risk, you can use target maturity bond funds like Bulletshares or iShares to invest in investment-grade fixed income assets. Investment grade fixed income has a 1 year yield-to-maturity of about 4.56%. If you are willing to take on higher credit risk - the 1 year yield-to-maturity of about 7.2%. If you want to actively manage cash - doing it in a brokerage account is also going to give you more flexibility than chasing yields at various bank HYSA products.

MaterialGuy007

I used to do backlog for a Large Multinational - I just saw CRWV has like a $20-30BIL backlog - which they can convert to Revenue in a quarter - so $2BIL could jump to $10BIL just like that? Prob comes from NVDA, MSFT and GOOG - they need CRWV to accelerate demand....

Heyhayheigh

No worries. What broker are you using? Use an easy central place like Fidelity. The default money market is more than most HYSA, if you want a step further out it in SGOV. If you want to automate, have auto buy of SGOV, then sell the SGOV to do the nondeductible contribution for the conversion (backdoor). The money should be like no other: short term money = SGOV. Long term money sp500 or NASDAQ on an auto weekly (or biweekly paycheck) basis. You just have a funny “reason” for short term, it is still just short term. You can even use a different ETF like USFR or BIL just to segregate. DM me if you have other questions. Best of luck

DoinIt4DaShorteez

Money market mutual fund or short term Treasury ETF like SGOV or BIL. Tbh, in the situation you describe, I'd just use a mutual fund because you can get one with checkwriting. ETF you have to sell and then wait a business day to be able to transfer the cash.

Graywulff

Yeah BIL ETF like insider Nancy.

ego_sum_satoshi

Or BIL

Bears0nUnicycles

I need your BIL’s name, losing credibility with the wife by referring to him as ReleventTrouble’s Brother In Law

tuliptrades

$BIL

SlanderousSalamander

BIL. I make an annual Roth capitalization that I deploy throughout the year, so I park my cash there until I by other things with it. You get a money market like return, super low risk, and tradeability.

WillyFista-Gash

My fuggin BIL

WillyFista-Gash

My BIL just text me he bought puts on OPEN… please guys don’t let him win this

FaithlessnessDry5285

Its actually only half the size. I know some minis are 1/10 but ES is 50 units or half the size. SPX: **-1** of the 5400 puts you can sell for $4.3 x 100 = $430 - $.65 brokerage fee - $.64 exchange fee = $428.72 Margin/Buying Power Effect: 54,000 Premium per $ of margin 428.72/54,000 = 0.79% ES: **-2** of the 5400 puts you can sell for $4.3 x 100 = $430 - $2.30 brokerage fee - $.64 exchange fee = $426.56 Margin/Buying Power Effect: 17,293 Premium per $ of margin 426.56/17,293 = 2.466% /ES is SPX x 50 SPX is SPX x 100 There is a tradeoff for commission but I like to think about it as premium per dollar of margin and you getting 3.12x premium per dollar of margin using ES vs SPX **Now to your point of the bottom line there is a difference in margin of $36,707 between the two equivalent options you did pay $1.65 more of that option but you have 36.7k in extra cash. That 36.7k cash can be put in a T-Bil ETF named BIL and you can get about 4.5% on that cash which works out to $137.65 over the course of that 30 days. So your bottom line is more than compensated for the extra dollar you paid in fees.**

bespoketrancheop

# Listen up all you limey fs who didn't catch Carvana you know you're gonna wanna end it if you dont catch OPEN too so stop crying and put your $$$s to work. 1.5 BIL MARKET CAP I EAT THAT FOR BREAKFAST

OurNewestMember

>Should everyone whose margin rate is above the risk free rate ...So everyone? Lol. Broker margin \*might\* sometimes be cheaper as a limited time offer only, but otherwise more expensive by quite a bit Maybe someone shouldn't do the box if they are likely to mess up the handling of it (eg, don't hit the bid, check for correct strikes and expirations, etc). Another case not to do a box is when the loan value is small relative to the cost and effort. Although, for active traders, it might still be more economical to sell a modest box and use something pretty small and fungible to redeposit the excess cash (eg, SGOV, BIL, SPAXX, etc) Even with weird interest rate volatility scenarios, it's there aren't obvious cases where it's more economical to do the broker margin loan. Maybe someone else can think of why the broker loan is better besides convenience (at 25% to 300% higher cost) or fear of messing up. And some of the most competitive advertised USD margin rates are still 50-60 bps above the treasury rate for large loans (eg, $50 million on RH Gold and $250 million on IBKR). I'd budget maybe 30 bps for even a modest-sized box (eg, $20k). So you also can't size your way out of broker overcharging. [RHF Fee Schedule](https://cdn.robinhood.com/assets/robinhood/legal/RHF+Fee+Schedule.pdf) [Margin Rates and Financing | Interactive Brokers LLC](https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/margin-rates.php) I think they've had these rates for some time (with treasuries riding higher and lower)

Alwaysfavoriteasian

Bro I had OPEN at 52 and my BIL convinced me to sell it. I went all in on PEW. I have regurts.

yaletown28

MINT’s solid, but with 12+ months in mind, I’d look at treasuries via BIL, SGOV, or even laddering 1-year T-bills. Higher yield, still liquid, and ultra low risk

MinuteAppropriate400

The fact that you're taking it seriously now can't hurt you, so kudos to you for that. The most aggressive, highest risk to reward ratio, might be throwing as much money into US stocks (SPY ETF, or similar S&P500 fund) as you can, and keeping your emergency 6-12 months of cash reserves in treasury bills (something like the BIL ETF or similar) for that rainy day scenario. Build up both at the same time, ideally. It all depends on your risk tolerance and your investment horizon.

iOCharts_

Yep! Check out SGOV, BIL, or SHV, all solid ultra-short bond ETFs. Safer than stocks and better than letting cash just sit. I usually pull them up on iO Charts to compare yields and trends quickly, which makes it way easier.

rithsleeper

A dollar is a dollar. I don’t understand how almost everyone in this world including well versed individuals on this sub operate and designate ridiculous budgets. I can see general “needs, wants, impulse”. Or something like that but my view is simple…. I max my roths, then every single dollar that isn’t needed for immediate bills is thrown into my brokerage and immediately buying “shares” of sgov or BIL. Then when I find an allocation, it’s moved to that. If I have an “emergency” I can float it on a credit card and sell SGOV or BIL, then withdraw the amount, and pay off the card before the statement is due (no interest). Why people will keep thousands of dollars idle in a “savings” account just in case I have no idea. It’s simply lack of understanding. Please give me one scenario where I could need anything other short of a solar flare that knocks out the entire power grid…. That’s where my silver bullion, my 1000 rounds of rifle/sidearm ammunition, and 3 months of non perishable reserves comes into play. I’ve got 2 vehicles that are carburetors.

norththunder_23

Emergency fund is money that should not be invested in stocks… put in a bond etf like SGoV or BIL that’s fine as the volatility risk is next to nothing on the principal amount.

jazerac

1. BIL 1.1mil 2. NXP 850k 3. SCHD 840k 4. VTV 750k 5. A tie between a dozen other funds but got close to 600k on Google and 550k in VDE for some swing trades.

Substantial_Team6751

SGOV or BIL pay around 4.7%.

Secure_Dragonfly8247

Here’s the real answer. Not what stocks, how much you are putting in. My BIL retired at 45 he maxed out his 401(k) at 22 and never stopped.

Substantial_Team6751

SGOV or BIL currently yield around 4.7%. There are tons of incoming producing funds that will yield 7-8% if you are willing to take on some risk.

jazerac

I have a $10mil+ portfolio. Roughly 80% is invested in a variety of fixed income. It generates $450k a year give or take. The other 20% is in more value growth and I swing trade with $500k-1mil. Basically buy stuff when it tanks and sell when it rebounds. For example, I bought $500k in Google after "liberation day" and im up almost $100k in 10 weeks. Easy money... I will sell soon. I also put about $500k in energy as it always rebounds... but it could take a little time but thats ok. Also put $300k in UNH so i will keep an eye on that one as it will rebound in time too. Once I cash out, I will park it in BIL and wait for another "correction" and scoop up the deals. Rinse and repeat. Its a great way to generate some side bucks while your 80% generates safety income. I did this last year so I could buy a $300k supercar. Once you hit a certain portfolio size, you can do whatever you want. Especially if your debt free. Best of luck. Happy to answer any questions.

Theintelligentinv

Hello, thank you for sharing your situation — first of all, I am sorry for the loss of your grandfather. It sounds like it left you on a very solid financial footing, and it's great that you're thinking long-term with money. Here are some ideas based on what you shared: ⸻ 🛡️ 1. Maintain flexibility (optionality) Since you plan to go back to school and might need that money to buy a house, you don't want to put it into something risky or something you can't easily withdraw. The simple fact that you are being cautious already puts you ahead of many people your age. ⸻ 🏡 2. If you need it in 3 to 5 years, the objective is to protect the capital, not to grow it too much Since you are thinking about using that money in the medium term, the most important thing is that it does not lose value. Some safe options: • High Yield Savings Account – super safe, and currently returns ~4–5% annually. • Treasury bonds or money market funds (for example VMFXX at Vanguard) – low risk, higher return than a bank. • Short-term bond ETFs – such as BIL or VGSH. They give a little more, but have some duration risk (interest). ⸻ 📊 3. Don't put everything in stocks with that money You already have good exposure to stocks (VOO, VUG, Nvidia, Apple), and that's great for the long term. But this inherited money should be treated differently, because if the market goes down just when you need that money, you could lose some of the value. ⸻ 🧾 4. Find out if that money has fiscal implications (taxes) It is worth confirming whether the inheritance is taxable. • If it comes from a regular investment account, you will probably receive what is called a “stepped-up basis,” which is very favorable. • If you are coming from an IRA or other tax-advantaged account, the rules change. It would be good to ask the executor or an accountant. It's worth it to stay calm. ⸻ 🎓 5. If you are going to study, save an emergency fund in cash If you're not going to work full time, it's a good idea to set aside 6 to 12 months of living expenses in a secure account (like a HYSA or money market). This gives you stability and prevents you from having to sell investments if there is volatility in the market. ⸻ ✅ Final thought: • You are in an excellent position: no debt, diversified portfolio and long-term mindset. • With that inherited money, the ideal is to prioritize security and flexibility. • Let your investments in VOO and VUG continue to grow in the long term, but protect short and medium term money from volatility.

RED-DOT-MAN

My BIL recently purchased model Y over Lexus mainly because of the EV credits. They recently also got solar so now they get to charge at home for cheap. 100% would have purchased that Lexus if EV credit was not a factor.

33445delray

https://stockcharts.com/c-sc/sc?s=_BIL&p=D&b=5&g=0&i=t0607893375c&r=1751369882537

ResearchNo8631

What is BIL

33445delray

I sold 1200 BIL this morning and plan to buy it back tomorrow morning at a lower price because I will not get the dividend. I would prefer to pay taxes on short term capital gains rather than on interest because I have a carryover capital loss. Is my tax strategy going to work?

Alwaysfavoriteasian

BIL believes in Rocket Mortgage. Says when they finally cut rates, mortgage companies are going to see a run.

TheBarnacle63

$BIL is the best out there for low risk. Paying a 4.58% yield.

Dense-Anxiety6086

I mean yeah relatively speaking they only cut 150BIL yearly and our annual budget is 4.1 trillion so really didn’t do much

stoneycrk55

And his followers believe him!!! They do not see that they are paying the tariffs/tax, straight from my BIL mouth!!! SMDH

ViskaRodd

Why can’t you take your boss’s picks? Is that a rule? QQQ buy, write. Is the strat I would go with on a six month time horizon. The other strat I’d use just to beat the boss would be sticking the cash in BIL and aggressively selling puts on each of his picks.

redracer67

My BIL moved about 50% of his Roth to put into tesla back in January because he thought musk and Trump would be butt buddies for the next 4 years and it would go to the moon. Yes, I called him an idiot 20 times over for many reasons

Due-Tea3607

I will say as a starting investor, or an unskilled investor it is fine. There will be big downturns, but normally they recover within a year of you want to be totally passive.  The SP500 is the benchmark to beat. You can easily spend a lot more effort for worse results. Sector specific funds have a lot more risks, with potentially more upside in the right conditions, but rarely do they win out in the long term, historically speaking.  Once you do more research and have more funds, you can diversify.  This year might be a very iffy one to start though. Indicators for the rest of the year look volatile.  A lot of people are using treasury ETFs on the very short term like SGOV or BIL in a more defensive position for large parts of their portfolio with the mixed signals indicating a significant chance of a major drop.  It depends how much of a potential drawdown you can stomach. Someone close to retirement or dependent on the funds for income won’t have time to wait for a recovery.  But being too defensive means you miss out on recoveries and the general time spent, which usually averages up in normal markets.  Everyone is nervous right now because there is fear that we are heading into abnormal markets. Recessions and financial restarts do happen—not going to pretend it’s all upside.  Ultimately you will have to have emotional discipline, keep educating yourself if you want to pad some extra yield on top of a base SP500 index. 

xiongchiamiov

If you like treasuries (I do, too, but also live in a state with high income tax), VBIL is a newer option from Vanguard that undercuts SGOV, BIL, and the others on expense ratio and thus is normally going to produce the highest yield. TFLO and USFR come into conversation as well. They invest in floating rate notes, which are a thing the Treasury introduced about a decade ago and in fund form are essentially the same thing as the ultra short term bonds funds, but capture a small premium that allows them to produce higher yields despite higher expense ratios. A lot of people like these; personally I'm not quite sure what their liquidity will look like in times of financial stress. The difference between all of these is going to be pretty minimal though, so it doesn't really matter. This is just if you like to be an optimizer.

Kangaloosh

Thanks everyone. I get more confused the more I look into this : ) I'd think / you said treasuries are going to have a lower yield than prime funds.? But based on the [https://yieldfinder.app/money\_markets](https://yieldfinder.app/money_markets) site (thanks u/xiongchiamiov !), the highest money market yield is TFLO at 4.32%.... but that's 30 day SEC. I am used to seeing 7 day SEC yields (is 7 day for $1 funds, and 30 day is for ETFs?). Regardless, that's a treasury fund so I'd expect others (prime / non treasury to be higher? But not seeing them?) u/DoinIt4DaShorteezAny reason not to go with that one? Vs. BIL that is at 4.12? And am I right? A whole 'nuther wrinkle is with an ETF, you will have capital gains / losses as you get in / out of it? So you may be getting tax favorable interest but then taxable cap gains / losses depending on when you sell it (just before / after a dividend). ARGHH! too many variables! Another reason to be fully in the market, at least in my mind ; )

DoinIt4DaShorteez

Divs from Treasury funds and ETFs are generally free from state taxes. The article you posted is paywalled. I'm not going to bother looking up treasury-based money market funds, but BIL, BILS, or SGOV would suit your purpose as ETFs. The ETFs you can sell any time during the day, they dont have any real volatility, and you can turn around and use the sale proceeds immediately to buy something else.

Exciting_Ad_1097

BIL. Short term treasury yield with the option of next day liquidity.

OurNewestMember

>Every month, I deploy 1/12 of the yearly yield (\~$191) into leveraged call options (e.g., targeting 5× exposure to NASDAQ or S&P 500). • I buy 2–3 month expiry options, but roll them monthly to avoid late-stage theta decay. Concept seems pretty reasonable. Were you thinking just outright long call options, spreads or something else? What kind of strikes? I think this is the critical part of the campaign. Also, the 2.3% yield seems icky when you are looking to (I assume) buy call options which would be denominated in USD and priced at 4.1%. I would look into converting some extra CAD to USD and going for at least some of the 4.1% yield (it's common for people to buy US ETFs like SGOV/BIL/etc or short-duration treasury bills) while seeing if I could get an acceptable hedge on rising CAD.USD. Maybe I would feel that I could do some of the 4.1% yield unhedged for forex due to undiversified CAD exposure. I don't know. But I would also look into the forex exposure to understand the cost/benefits.

Alwaysfavoriteasian

My BIL who is probably a closet millionaire, just find companies with good fundamentals. He was stacking PLTR years ago when RDDT just kept calling it a turd. Now I'll buy whatever he says to buy. Why didn't I listen? Anyway, he found a product that sounded interesting. AI that kept getting govt contracts. They had strong fundamentals and he kept buying. Obviously there's thousands of companies, but you need conviction and a small portfolio. He also said to watch max 10 stocks. You can't have a giant portfolio and be able to pay attention to all of them.

BusyBee7729

If this is safety net cash, keeping it low risk is smart. A HYSA or a Fidelity money market fund (like SPAXX or FDLXX) is are good options, both are yielding close to 5% right now. You might also look at short-term Treasury ETFs (like BIL or SGOV) for slightly better tax efficiency. Just make sure whatever you pick is liquid and low-volatility if you might need it soon.

DoinIt4DaShorteez

Stick with term if that's what you have it for, and put the rest of your investable money into a HYSA or a short-duration treasury note ETF like BIL, BILS, SGOV. You have the right instinct, whole life is a shitty investment product.

Unlucky-Fun-378

2-5% per year? Or per month? If per year then just bit SGOV or BIL. They yield 4.5% risk free. If you want 2-5%+per month then buy high yield ETF from Yieldmax (e.g TSLY, MSTY) or roundhill (e.g. QDTE, XDTE). If you want 2-5% per week then go with options trading

OurNewestMember

What margin regime at webull? If it's reg-T, there's a decent chance boxes are margined at 100%. But if you still wanted to trade on top of the 100k deposit, maybe you could check the margin requirement on short duration funds like SGOV/BIL/BOXX/etc? And if that's still too high, maybe check their margin requirements for plain old T bills. Theoretically you could just suck it up and take the 100% margin requirement on the box and then if you're dying to trade just sell the box, but that feels like unnecessary exposure to the possibility of bleeding your yield with wide spreads. Do you have futures options on Webull? Maybe a european style box there, and then if you need to release funds you could sell a shorter dated box or at least have a variety of choices (keeping in mind futures have different regulatory and margin regime, so that may not always be right). Regarding cost basis tracking, that is a bit of a crapshoot when moving risk assets between brokers.

Iwubinvesting

XEI.TO, BIL, GLD, BRK.b Slow and steady move out of qqq and voo

PuzzleheadedHand6836

No free lunch! Clever idea, but margin interest is usually higher than BIL’s yield, you’d end up losing money on the spread.

rithsleeper

The 90k in a brokerage you say you keep putting into a CD, I can’t see any argument to not move that into sgov or BIL. It’s liquid. Now maybe you are worried rates will drop and you want to lock in a lower rate for a longer time? Seems like you are worried about a job loss though. Which seems like this solves you problem. With the Roth taking out your contributions, my cpa said you just have to document it specifically and keep the records of what you are doing. I’m sure your tax advisor knows how to do it. This just seems like a risk mitigation for you. Personally I feel you are really playing it way too safe. You have multiple sources of income, even selling your rentals you still could have close to a million simply gaining 4.2% a year. That’s 42k. What are your living expenses? And that’s the safest of any choice but will streamline and simplify your risk mitigation. But for a decade before retirement? Seems like you could move to some sort of 60/40 portfolio. 60 bonds that is to keep risk down. My risk tolerance is a lot higher than you and only have about 400k in net worth. But you’ve got a couple of super easy no brainer fixes to make. I’d personally be taking some positions and selling premium against it. Capping gains and reducing potential losses. That’s a whole can of worms though. Not something you want to do at your age and your risk aversion.