HYSA

Flying-Bulldog

I use Fidelity and Merrill Edge. Have a Roth with Fidelity and use Merrill just as a place to stash any extra investments. Keep an emergency fund and anything needed for a large purchase like a house or car in an HYSA. Invest everything else

Pristine_Fix_3047

I see the BIL average return is 3.6-3.8%, at that rate aren’t I better off in the HYSA?

Dramatic-South-6236

I had 50k and I asked a financial advisor who, given my inexperience in stock market, suggested me to put it into a 3% HYSA. I decided to invest it myself instead and I lost 50% of it in 18 months because I couldn't stomack the downtrend when Trumpnstarted talking about tariffs. I finally learned my lesson and now I am just 30% down. However, once you lose money it is very hard to recover. I suggest you put it on a HYSA and wait tonsee what happens in November after the elections. It may go down and give you a good opportunity to enter the market. It is not true what they say about "time in the market is better than timing the market". My opinion is the opposite: "Timing the market" is gold, if you start going up from the beginning, you will be able to make a lof ot money.

MarkofCalth

Everyone says dump it, but there’s some things to consider: \-do you already own a house? If not and u plan to buy in the next 1-2 yrs, leave it in the HYSA as a down payment. \-do you have emergency savings? Not talking a couple thousand, but 4-6 months of true all expenses covered in the event of an emergency/lay off? If not, build that first. If you already have both covered, then invest the remainder.

InvestingNerd2020

As others have mentioned, invest into an ETF within a taxable brokerage account. My recommendations would be VT or VTI (not both). Leave $50k in the HYSA and the ETF choice you want with the extra $50k.

Pristine_Fix_3047

Local credit union HYSA, it may be 3.9% actually

ArkaneFighting

Seems you understand that a HYSA is not going to give you the best return but is a worthwhile trade off for your peace of mind. Its respectable, HYSA isn't bad necessarily, and you're not actively hurting yourself, but you are leaving a lot on the table. Money makes money. And your money could make you more in a brokerage. Statistically it could give you 2x the return. So it's a little silly to get 100k and then park the bus in a HYSA. It's like getting a free Ferrari but refusing to drive it over 40mph.

gopoohgo

I have a bond ladder + HYSA.  My longest date is 6 years out: I don't see much improvement on yield v duration risk past that. I'm older than a lot of you, though, and am slowly derisking as I approach retirement.   We are about 80-20 stock-bond.  And I'm thinking about lowering that ratio EOY.  

fred_cheese

Keep what you realistically would need to cough up immediately or within 4 days in a regular savings account. The rest in a HYSA, or short term CD/Money Market.

LTdesign

So...now what do I do with my Discover/soon-to-be Capital One HYSA...?

Soberishhh

I do the same thing basically you listed, minus I’m invested heavily in VOO, use the HYSA/checking for liquid cash, Robinhood is the best system I’ve found that encompasses everything to the degree of bank account/credit card/ match on Roth, plus I have my investment accounts there anyways, plus free wires, plus it feels great to use. Anything bad people have to say doesn’t matter when I enjoy basically every aspect of it, and the stuff they complain about has never affected me anyways, I’m not a gambler For context, $3m+, 32M Unless someone else matches them, nobody as a single entity is touching Robinhood atm on as many fronts, it’s so easy to use I tell all my friends about it, and I genuinely can’t believe more people don’t do it.

OrdinaryLatter

Note that most of these HYSA’s are tunneled through other banks and your cash is piled into a massive account with everyone else’s with just a ledger recording of how much you put in. There are stories of how these go poof and the FDIC does not step in. Put your cash into a money market fund, VUSXX is good.

bofoshow51

Robinhood is designed to make you want to try risky investments. It’s like walking into a casino and saying “hey I just want to keep my money in your safe, I don’t plan to play any games” and then inevitably you play a little, then a little more, and all of a sudden you are 3x leveraged on margin in options and lose it all. Also keep in mind the fees associated with Robinhood Gold technically shave away at your returns. Open an HYSA with Western Alliance Bank, they offer 3.8% interest, have stayed at that rate for over a year, and are IMO very good about processing your money.

Hoosier2016

Looks guys ChatGPT just discovered that HYSA’s exist!

zegota

I keep 6 months of spending + all the money for short term goals (which could be abandoned and converted to emergency spending if it came to that) in a liquid HYSA

coaa85

I keep 40k in a HYSA for emergency. It won’t grow like stocks, but you don’t get penalized accessing it up to a few times a year if needed.

seabass_goes_rawr

3-6months expenses. depending on your living and debt situations. Keep it in a HYSA and you’ll get pretty close to money market returns

sanderjl

Hello, My wife (27) and I (31) are reaching some good financial milestones this year and I would appreciate any tips, tricks, and advice on some of our next steps to start saving for the big stuff in the future (house, car, etc.) Right now we are each fully funding our Roth IRA's to hit the limit by the tax deadline, are hitting the match on my employer's 401k plan, she pays into a pension, and this month we just hit $10k in an emergency fund in a Marcus HYSA. Immediate next steps are to pause saving and aggressively pay off her car by December. After that my tentative plan is to open a joint Fidelity JWROS account and start putting all of our savings into SGOV to hopefully maximize tax advantages and gains. With that are full financial picture in 2027 would consist of: \- Gross Household Income of \~$200,800 \- No credit card or student debt \- A $10k emergency fund HYSA in Marcus Account \- 2x fully funded Roth's IRA's (currently $26k and $74k invested in index funds, ETF's, and various stocks) \- My matched 401k (currently $11.6k) \- $114.8k total in rolled over IRA's from previous employer retirement accounts \- 2x paid off cars (one is over 200,000 miles and might need replacing in the next couple of years) \- A Joint Fidelity account invested in SGOV for all of our savings (treasury bill ETF that should be mostly exempt from local and state taxes). Planning to contribute $2400 monthly starting in 2027. \- I also have an individual brokerage with Robinhood (up 17.1% over the past year, up 10.44% YTD) and M1 finance (down 4.54% over the past year, up 0.34% YTD) that have about $12k sitting in various stocks that I have basically left sitting with no deposited contributions for the past couple of years since getting married. Any thoughts on consolidating, reinvesting, etc. are welcome. I'm a big cost cutter so I am pretty sure that our bills/subscriptions are as optimized as possible on things I can control ($25/month for streaming services, $40/month internet, $200/year for cell service, $150/month gym with a $250 annual rebate). Total Bills (rent, utilities, insurance) are about $3100/month. We have considered an HSA and 529, but have decided that these would not be the right fit for our needs as we are unsure if either of use would really like or need to go back to school, and I have chronic health issues so I feel that a lower deductible health plan with an FSA is more cost effective for us. Sorry about the length, would appreciate any advice or input, thank you!

era_2000

That moment when your HYSA outperforms your brokerage

era_2000

HYSA and forget

slimangles

M37. I have ~$35K in my main cash account that covers all expenses with some buffer. Don't really believe in keeping an emergency fund during the accumulation phase. My cash account can weather most unexpected expenses, and I dip into my margin account for anything larger. The likelihood of a large unexpected expense is very low in my opinion, so it's not worth letting cash sit idle or in an HYSA.

maps-and-legends

$50,000 in a HYSA. Whenever that amount gets meaningfully higher, the excess goes into equities.

W_Edwards_Deming

It isn't about agreeing with me, it is about the subreddit's culture. You and a few others have been pleasant, one guy gave me useful advice about comparing the earnings yield with the 10 year treasury bond, another gave me some ETF suggestions. Most were rude an did not engage with the information I presented. It isn't burying my head to walk away from that. I didn't say I will never have an index fund, I simply don't prefer them. Why have 300 stocks in an index fund when I can carefully select 30 myself? I am not the one sneering and I have already generated a "salary." If I were the target audience of this group I'd have done what my finance text suggested and being an obedient retail investor putting 10% of my money into SPY or similar from my first job till today. I didn't, and what did do worked rather well. I may not have beaten the market for four years but I did make about double what the interest on my HYSA provided. Now I am doing far better than that, and importantly I don't want exposure to google, meta and so forth. I don't trust tech, expect an AI bubble burst and believe Gold will rise. My instincts have proven right this year, paired with the screening strategy in the OP. I am not sneering not burying my head. If you were the norm I'd be ok with that, if the guys with the usable advice were the norm I'd be a regular active member trying to provide value of my own. I am the one who has been sneered at by those burying their heads (rightly or wrongly, I can accept that I am seen as a dubious source despite my evidence). In short: What I am doing has been working and it *should,* as it isn't simply something I made up but rather an approximation of Buffett's approach. I am willing to have a German ETF (I used to have Korea fund as well but sold when the Iran war began) to have some exposure to their market but my stocks are overwhelmingly small value / blend. I will grant you that your advice would have been better than what I did for the first few years, but I may not have learned as much. In any case I appreciate your engagement and entirely understand your aversion to what you see as the stress of my approach. I actually enjoy it, hence my desire to discuss it with others who might know more.

W_Edwards_Deming

> The turn to index was a desire to get away from individual stocks. Seems to be the theme in here, at least you are polite about it! Thank you for that. > Buffett did very well for himself and his shareholders; he also said that retail investors should buy broad, low fee index funds. Correct. I am no Buffett purist, I simply take inspiration from his methods (if not his advice to retail). >are you overall matching (or nearly) the market? I did very badly the first 2.5 years or so and overall am at +7.54% per year. The difference is what I posted in the OP, I wasn't doing that until about three months ago. I made my decisions based on a variety of factors. I heard there would be high inflation and decided to move my money out of the HYSA. I saw that Gold was down and was confident it would go back up. I saw that shipping was important. Above all I used the metrics in the OP (ROE above all, dividends least) to screen and discarded anything Chinese and most tech. I predict an AI bubble, rising Gold and continued demand for container ships. So far so good. Notably +22.20% occurred in the last month. I was happy about that until I posted here, the replies from most meant unsubscribing from the subreddit. You and a few others have been pleasant but it seems near unanimous that you lot prefer ETFs and Mutual Funds (as I do not). I research my current stocks and screen for new options nearly every day, generally first thing when I wake sometimes last thing before I sleep. The pay isn't great for the past four years (adds up like a minimum wage job) but is rather good for the past year and amazing for the past month. Even if Gold goes back down briefly I should be ok, this is regarding CMCL: >Standard Bank (July 10 report) used a 20% effective discount rate and a $4,000/ounce gold price assumption for Blanket mine, and a 25% discount rate for Bilboes, arriving at a fair value range of **$23.13-$29.78/share**, with a midpoint of $26.46, representing a premium of over 25% over the then-current share price. Current Gold value is 4,618.90 USD and I expect $5,000 and beyond any time.

The_Catalyxt

6 months minimum. Essentially single family income with 1 kid + I work in sales. So I’m going to increase it to 9 months or a year. HYSA is mandatory, not a low % bank like you’re currently doing. If I worked in a less volatile field maybe I’d be fine keeping it at 6 months.

BarryMannnilow

2m net worth. I keep about 60k cash HYSA and checking accounts. Far more than 6 months of emergency funds but it makes me feel comfortable

jeon2595

The money in my HYSA.

Itsamegunship

Married 2 kids house and car paid off, 20k in a HYSA, and 20 in JAAA 10 in SATA waiting for market downturns or additional needs IRL

WorldlyWar2143

2.5m in my HYSA

Popular_Song3371

let me out of these positions and i promise i will put it all in a fuckin HYSA!! fr this time

oneWeek2024

figure out core survivability need. rent/mortgage. car/gas/insurance. food. critical utilities. times that by 1 month, 3 months, 6months, 9mo, 12 mo. pick a time frame that aligns with your risk tolerance/employment stability. in my mind it's 3-6 months. And honestly. I only keep 3 months in a HYSA. because there's no universe where i need more than 3mo worth of money at any given time. I keep the rest in a brokerage in simple ETFs/broad market etfs. to try and earn more than the dogshit 3-4% of a HYSA currently. IF i were to face a crisis/laid off or whatnot. I would have enough time with liquid funds to make decisions on the stocks. and any online savings acct/HYSA is going to take 1-3 business days to get that money to a reg checking acct. a stock brokerage is probably only an additional 3ish days to process a sale/get the money out to a checking acct. so to me... the long term risk of letting too much money rot at low % interest is to high. I don't have SO much money that i can just let 20k fucking rot

AdhesivenessGreen474

Hello. Dad of 5 here. Like the others, I would recommend moving on from Acorns and definitely not keeping a 401k there. 2 of my sons are about your age and they started on Acorns when they got their first jobs at 16. $12/m is the higher tier account, I believe. They had the $5/m. Yes, it's expensive but at their age and knowledge level at the time, it taught them the basics. They have both moved on to Public accounts (public dot com) which has low fees and drip investing. Honestly most of them do. Robinhood is fine. My oldest has a 401k through Principal at his work. I have large accounts with Fidelity (taxable & HYSA) & Vanguard (non-tax) and pay $0 in monthly/annual fees. Good luck.

MaddRamm

SGOV for HYSA rates with no risk of fluctuating principal.

CosmosMasterMan

At least park it in a HYSA

hangster

This is exactly that. Been laid off numerous times, has always taken so long to find new work etc... I keep a good chunk, just incase. It doesn't take long for things to flip around. Is your healthcare, salary, life insurances etc... and even your partners/kids/etc also tied to your work? One board room decision changes all of this for you. Typically for me, I've seen this come during a market downturn... so I'd rather lock up my money in a HYSA or SGOV or something vs thinking I can just take it out of the market. Clearly - its a conservative view, but it lets me sleep better at night (which is worth a whole lot).

henrytbpovid

You need a HYSA immediately

animalinstinct10m

Buffer ETFs are a good supplement. A 100% buffer from Innovator gives you S&P upside (up to a cap) with 100% downside protection. That way, you earn more than SGOV or a MM mutual fund, have liquidity, and don't pay taxes on income (like you would with a HYSA, CD, MM mutual fund, or Treasury ETF). The tax impact is when you liquidate but it will be at the capital gains tax rate rather than the ordinary income tax rate. Didn't answer the question of amount as that depends on many of the risks that others have already addressed.

oliguacamolie

Capital one offers HYSA with savings over 3%

MagisterVerde

And as someone below said, most isn’t literally in cash; my emergency fund was entirely in a HYSA, but I recently transferred most of it to a brokerage invested in SGOV. Why? HYSAs invest in short-term treasuries and take some basis points off the top as their fee, so why not skip the spread and invest directly in the same underlying risk profile. The tradeoff is T+1 rather than immediate liquidity, which is why I left 10K in the HYSA to cover me if I get laid off on Friday at 4:30pm of a long weekend 😂

Natural_Barnacle_892

I keep $100k in T-bills to guarantee two years of travel and vacation if I ever quit my job. I keep $30k in a HYSA as a sinking fund for major home repairs on a paid off house. I keep about $600k between IRAs, a 457b, and brokerage account. Have a pension banking for 12 years so far as well. Raised by sick, poor, and now dead parents. Never inherited a dime. I’m a 42 year old confirmed bachelor. Life is good.

RobertPooWiener

I'll probably just sell it all and put it in a HYSA or money market. It looks like all the indexes are down too. I would have made more money up to this point if I had just left my money in SPAXX in Fidelity CMA

MainDark3321

I pay all my bills out of 1 checking account. I total up every dollar that has come out of that account over the past 6 months. Divide that by 6 to get a monthly average and make sure the emergency fund in my HYSA is in that 3-6 month range.

Yourlocalguy30

As a homeowner who just shelled out $10,000 for a roof replaced and another $14,000 to have our dilapidated deck refinished (both in the same year), $40k goes pretty quick. Fortunately I had an emergency fund north of $50k, but just watched half of it get vaporized in the first 6 months of this year alone, and theres still a possible car replacement on the table in the next 12 months. I'd keep that $40k in a HYSA so that at least it's going with a decent interest rate.

Seref15

There's no single answer. My property tax is paid lump-sum annually, my car insurance is paid bi-annually, my homeowners insurance is paid quarterly. I keep enough cash on hand to be able to pay 1 year of all the above, plus ~6 months of typical monthly spending. The location of my emergency fund has changed over the years. Currently it's in an HYSA. In the past I've used CDs, mutual funds, and bond funds, usually picking whichever vehicle has the most advantageous rates at the given time.

sidewinder787

I'd say keep somewhere between 10-50k as liquid cash in a HYSA.

tomgreen99200

At least keep your cash in an HYSA to earn interest. Don’t keep it at your bank. You earn nothing there.

dogs_gt_cats

Transfer from HYSA -> checking, ATM or write check. Ally bank.

Ethanop1a

Where do you have an HYSA that you can withdrawal the cash same day?

dogs_gt_cats

HYSA is about $6k. I also keep cash accounts for things like vacation fund, IRA savings, etc that I can pull from in an emergency until SGOV settles and the ACH completes. To their credit, with Fidelity, I *have* had sales settle and ACH happen within less than 24h, but that's probably because of my account size and margin.

dogs_gt_cats

>HVAC companies send you a bill HVAC companies do not always send you a bill, some want payment immediately, especially if they need to buy expensive parts to repair things. It depends entirely on the business. Many small hvac companies and handimen don't have back offices to handle invoicing. For example the only Trane repair guy in our area that answers his phone is a single person with no office or billing staff. He expects payment same day. > Even if they didn't, you can easily go to the local hardware store and buy either a window AC unit or a radiant space heater depending on why your HVAC breaking That covers two types of issue. That doesn't help you if your air handler springs a leak and does a ton of water damage that requires immediate intervention. Or your furnace dies, taking your hot water heater with it and your whole home has no hot water, and you're risking your pipes freezing. There are myriad ways for things to break. I've been a homeowner for close to 20 years now. Emergencies take many forms, and I've learned not to make assumptions about who will/won't be available to help, and how they will/won't accept payment. In the past 2 months I've had about 12k in emergencies (3 major vehicle repairs one after the other, medical issues with our kid, and an HVAC issue where a water sensor kept triggering and shorting our air handler due to a drain clog). About 1 month before that we had a similar issue to what I described above, where the burner on our furnace wouldn't work, leaving us with no hot water for close to 2 weeks. Generally when emergencies happen, they tend to cluster together for some reason. For both hvac issues, we had to pay cash for parts. Anyways, personally, I keep 1 month of spending in a liquid emergency fund in a HYSA, and then keep 6 months worth of "deep emergency fund" in a position in SGOV. If an immediate emergency requires a cash payment I can borrow from another budget for a few days until a sale from our deep emergency fund can replace it. HYSA yields 3%, SGOV is around 3.7%.

ReadyMethod581

You use an online savings account. I use Capital One 360, it's over 3% for HYSA.

nupper84

If you were alive during the Great Recession you'd know that six months in savings will absolutely save your life. I'm holding 12 months worth in a split between HYSA and SNSXX. During the Great Recession, six months was enough time to adjust expenditures and finances while finding alternative ways of income. It lasted about 18 months, but was felt much longer by many people. Those with an emergency fund fared much better.

Ethanop1a

HVAC companies send you a bill. They often also offer 0% short term loans for the large replacement services. Even if they didn't, you can easily go to the local hardware store and buy either a window AC unit or a radiant space heater depending on why your HVAC breaking is such an emergency that you can't hire a company that takes card or wait a few days for brokerage money. You'd have to wait for a transfer out of HYSA anyways. Are you keeping your emergency fund in a checking account? Maybe we have different ideas of size of emergency. I can cover several thousand out of pocket. We're talking about that "6 months of spending" emergency fund.

mikeismug

My comfort level is: - 3 months normal living expenses immediately available in the bank "savings" earning potato interest - Another 3 months normal living expenses in a HYSA (Fidelity money market), can be transferred to bank if needed, or trickle into investments as it grows - One CD somewhere that I can sell for another 2 months living expenses if totally needed - Everything else invested per my goals

rogerphamm

I’m keeping $100k liquid in HYSA. That includes my emergency fund and also a large cushion if I want / need to make a large purchase, whether it’s a fun purchase or emergency purchase. I’m on track to take home $80K this year salary.

dogs_gt_cats

1 month of bills/average spending in a HYSA. 6 months of bills/average spending in a SGOV position.

hammock62

I currently have $258k in CD’s and HYSA. It’s only 8% of my total investments. The reason why I have it so high is my wife’s employer went into chapter 11 so she was in danger of loosing her job but 3 months ago a better paying job fell into her lap.

ABigBoos

This risk isn’t that You owe the govt…. because if you do, you made money… you still end up ahead. At some point, you have to sell to use the money (eg in retirement!). The risk is having to liquidate at a loss, then you do actually end up behind. HYSA/bonds are a middle ground. Though, may only barely keep pace with inflation.

x---x--x-x

My wife and I have 2 kids and our shared psychological profiles, at least mkney-wise, are pretty conservative. We keep 8 months expenses in a HYSA so that if anything at all happens, we have time to ride it out and to continue to provide absolute stability for our family. We have paid off our house and live in a MCOL area, so it is only like $50k. The opportunity cost of not investing that money is pretty significant but we have plenty of investment elsewhere and we're not playing to perfectly optimize everything. Stability and security is very important to us and we take our duty to provide for and protect our children very seriously. For an emergency fund, especially if a person has to work to build it up, I would advise first targeting 4 months as a minimum, and then 6 months of expenses once you've got your money right. There are many savings vehicles that offer decent interest rates without sacrificing liquidity - definitely look into high yield savings accounts.

No_Strain8370

Sounds like your gamble paid off, congrats. I'd take profits and put it into a HYSA or MMF but you do you

l__griner

Sofi and other online banks offer HYSA

atheos42

Is the cash in a HYSA, money market fund, or SGOV? If so, your fine.

dope-a-meanie

I’m over 50, single. I work in tech (at an investment bank) and if I lost my job today, I doubt I’ll get back into the workforce quickly, if at all. On top of that, normal medical issues as one ages. I have a years net salary in SGOV and another $15k in a HYSA. Since you mentioned investments, I have a bit over $1m in taxable investments (mostly ETF’s, SPYI produces an income to cover my housing in case anything happens). I should have done better at my age but it’s not the worst situation to be in.

markgriz

Find a better bank with a HYSA

Quiet-Conflict-3180

SEEKING ADVICE: Recently, I inherited quite a substantial amount of money, roughly 500k, and I am trying to figure out how to navigate my situation. To answer the thread questions: 1. Late 20s, USA. 2. Employed, making roughly median salary 3. Unsure, don't need a house and not necessarily starting a retirement fund either. More-so wanting to build wealth, use some of it, and keep the majority hopefully growing until retirement. 4. I am also unsure when I will need the money. I would like to use some of it sparingly throughout the years and have a larger pot accumulating over long term. Potentially interested in taking out a portion of gains in a good year and using that money for travel. 5. Risk tolerance is low-mid tier, I would say. 6. No current holdings outside of 401k from work. I know about VOO and VT, that's about it, but more on that below. 7. No debt whatsoever. MORE INFORMATION ON MY SITUATION: I am not experienced in investing or having this much money at all. I opened a Schwab account last week and took their first introductory course to begin learning and will begin the second one soon. Feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the information out there and not really sure where to start, posting this to hopefully get some advice to steer me in the right direction. Some background on my situation and my knowledge up to this point: Late 20s, currently renting an apartment, all of the money is currently in a HYSA making 3.8% interest. My thought process as of now is that I should put most of it in the market, the only two ETFs(?) I know about are VOO and VT, which I read are good long term. However, some people close to me are telling me to buy a house in cash. I don't personally think it would be the best use for the money since it would tie up the majority of the money and I wouldn't get anything in return unless I sold the house, then of course I would need another place to live. Even on a 50% down payment, with current interest rates, I would be paying about the same as I do in rent, but would be on the hook for taxes and repairs, so I am leaning towards not going down the house route and instead down the investing route. Let me know if this is a dumb idea: Keeping roughly 100-150k in the HYSA as a back-up fund that is immediately accessible in case I ever need it (i.e. down payment on a house, but thinking I will wait until I get married and/or have kids to get a house), putting like 10-15K into VOO a month, and maybe 5k a month into VT, until the money in the HYSA gets down to 100-150k. If a really good year were to happen, I may consider taking out some of the gains to increase my "salary", since my salary doesn't give me much room for travel (although, I know it's not the wisest, but I want to try and travel as much as possible for the next couple years). That's about where my knowledge and plan ends. I would love to hear some thoughts from people much smarter than me at this stuff. I am also considering looking into getting an advisor through Schwab, but from what I've read, it may not be worth it. What is the consensus on getting an advisor? If you were my age and in my situation, what would you do?

TachyonTV

About 2-3 years worth in a HYSA, earning about 3.65 to 4.00%.

vaderetrosatana6

HYSA OR Some kind of sweep account in fidelity or Vanguard

54415250154

Put it in a hysa or money market fund! It's still very liquid. If you use vanguard look at VUSXX. Any big bank competitive HYSA is fine too the rates will be fairly similar, banks sometimes drop your hysa rate after a while though and money market funds can be partially state tax exempt

NoThoughtBeforePost

The wife and I only have about 15k in true liquid emergency HYSA for a family of 3 with roughly 4k in monthly expenses. That is something that either of our jobs can cover fairly easily, so we would both need to lose our jobs for it to turn into a real 4 month emergency. After that is an "intermediate" emergency fund of approximately 25k that are in VUSXX, a money market that is primarily us treasuries. That saves us a bit on the state income tax side. After that, everything goes into a regular brokerage.

EricC2010

I’m 46yo with two kids in a fairly stable job. I keep six months of regular expenses in a HYSA and invest the rest. Worst case scenario, I could probably stretch the six months out to eight months plus by canceling subscriptions and no longer eating out.

bearsdidit

We keep six months of bills in a HYSA. Compared to our retirement accounts, the HYSA accounts for approximately 10% of our investments.

Mirojoze

Work out your monthly expenses... Leave an amount in your HYSA that can cover several months worth of your expenses as an emergency fund...the number of months recommended varies. At your age I think I kept 5 months as an emergency fund. If your company matches a certain percentage of what you put in your 401K then try to at the very least put in the full matching amount at a minimum. Now at 22 I think it's worth stepping back and seeing if it might be worth spending money on things that will increase your income - for example you might be in a profession where earning a certification in something will bump up your salary. I'm saying this because at age 22 you have a lot of years of earnings ahead, and increasing what you earn this early in your career can have a huge impact. Look hard at tax sheltered accounts like your 401k and ROTH IRA. Regularly contributions into these seriously builds up money over the years! It was years before I was able to max out my contributions but I invested as much as I could when I could. As for what to invest in...if I were doing it all over again I'd invest in low cost ETFs that are indexed broadly against the market. Rather than choose for you I'd suggest looking into such ETFs yourself. It's better to know what you are investing in that to just follow advice from some rando on Reddit! Lol! At this point I'd also like to say Don't Let Someone Talk You Into Whole Life Insurance! At 22 I had both my parents and an insurance agent try to talk me into this! Fortunately I looked into it and gave them a bit No. Please look into it yourself if you are getting the same kind of push towards getting it...it isn't a good investment at all. Best of Luck!

p3dal

>I also currently am maxing out my Roth with almost 2000 invested For the 2026 tax year, you can put up to $7,500 per year in a Roth IRA, so you're still a ways away from maxing it out. >I currently have about 28k in my hysa. I also do have my 401(k) with about 3000 in.  I would want those ratios to be opposite. Your retirement savings should have much more than your HYSA. >I was thinking of taking some money out of my hysa and matching out my Roth first and then looking into buying stocks.  Max out the 401k and Roth, invest those funds into an ETF or a diversified fund. The only reason to keep the majority of your net worth in an HYSA is if you're expecting the markets to crash in the near future. Don't worry about buying individual stocks until you've got money to play with.

flyingtiger188

If 20k is all you have in the world I would dump most/all of it in HYSA/SGOV/money market funds or other safe investments. You need to maintain 3-12 months of emergency funds if something bad happens and you can't work or experience a significant unexpected cost.

TheNewKnew2

True. 5 year yield is 4.3 but that locks in your funds. I’m not risk is worth the squeeze. Leave it in HYSA

sharp315

that's worse than his current HYSA yield and also overly complicated.

cloudlet723

I’m 23. I keep an emergency fund in my HYSA. I work 2 jobs and try to max both 401k and Roth IRA every year. I buy only 1 ETF which is VOO since it sounds cool and keeps it simple

NatureNurturerQ

I'd say keep that money in a HYSA as an emergency fund and just start investing into a roth IRA, 401k, traditional IRA, or regular brokerage account depending on your tax situation as much as possible monthly. Having money invested is great, but say the market goes down at the same time some shit happens in life. You'd lose money by selling stocks cheap or go into credit card debt. That money in a HYSA would temporarily shelter you from that happening.

Certain-Arugula8333

Id put 6 months expenses worth in HYSA then the rest into VOO.

__redruM

It sounds like a shitty HYSA, especially if you owe taxes on the wine.

airbud9

The research around the retirement withdraw strategies show us that the thing that depletes a portfolio is volatility plus withdrawals. That is obvious because if you sell at a low point to take a withdraw, that is less money in the account to recover with when the market rebounds. This is why retirees have to add bonds when entering retirement if they want to follow a 4%, 5%, or 6% withdraw rate. Same research does also show if you have a very low withdraw rate, like 1%-2%, you can have a heavier stock allocation as you won't ever be removing a large percentage of the portfolio in the times when the market is down. The same concept applies for 529s, if you will be withdrawing small amounts from the 529 then you could be more aggressive. In most cases the withdrawal rate for a 529 is going to be quite high (most would plan for the account to be near spent at the end of your child's studies), so having a fairly conservative glidepath makes sense. Now you mention you would be able to pay for college without the 529, that seems counterproductive to me as the 529 is tax advantaged for college spending and their are caps for the 529 to Roth conversion, so you would want to use the 529. Also this money you could use to pay for college on the side, is that just cash in a HYSA or is that just future income, or is it you own portfolio. If its just cash or your own portfolio, it seems you could be investing that for yourself and just allow the 529 to become more conservative. If its future income, again you could just have that get invested aggressively when earned and allow the 529 to become more conservative.

owenmills04

HYSA isn’t a tech company?

Emotional-Power-7242

I got some watches. They aren't good investments but they have beat a HYSA.

sushicatbread

A few things..,is her annuity linked to her LTC? If so, a remainder balance should pass to beneficiary anyway. Look for “death benefit” or “premium return” in her policy documents to be sure. Second most plans don’t allow you to receive payments until you actually need it (qualify). If she does, then she’s entitled to it. If it allows her to take it regardless, make sure you’re accounting for any tax implications. I would also make sure your numbers are representative of the places in your mom’s area or your area that she would be going to if needed. In my area cost is more around $130k annually. I would probably plan for at least a full 3 years regardless. That $ doesn’t all have to come from the policy plan. It could be a combo of the savings plus the policy. If she’s comfortable with it and there actually is no death benefit, then I could see maybe drawing down into a different HYSA at another bank to make sure they stay in the FDIC insured threshold with the understanding that she may be losing growth (inflation protection) on the balance of the LTHC plan. … I’d check on that too.

Produff26

To not invest in equities is one thing but an investment portfolio can have a wide variety of products from treasuries to bonds and so on. Whats the advisor's thoughts on those? Just leaving in HYSA is something anyone can do without advice!

SofaProfessor

I doubt they are making more money from that compared to stocks/ETFs/mutual funds. I used to work in this industry (admittedly not for EJ) and HYSA paid the worst of any product. We got 25bps revenue off that. Not to mention, the funds grew slower than pretty much anything else. Meanwhile, putting a client in an index ETF generated revenue of 100bps, on average. Plus the funds grew more over the long term. Maybe their fee structure is different but I doubt it, as this was pretty standard across any firm I was aware of. The only time I wanted to hold HYSA for a client is if they had a specific, short term goal and I didn't want to expose their funds to any market volatility. There was no personal incentive for me to do so other than maintaining my reputation as an advisor that doesn't lose 5% on your downpayment funds you need in a couple months. If anything, there was a disincentive to hold cash from an advisor pay perspective. I'd bet that the advisor fancies themselves some kind of market wizard and thinks they can time things with the cash. Also, potentially, they are worried about a market downturn and are afraid to have a hard conversation about staying invested long term despite paper losses. Instead, they can say, "Good thing we held back these funds that you can throw in now that markets are down." I'm sure their analysis will conveniently ignore any missed dividends that could have been reinvested along the way.

InfoCruncha

Follow the money - he might be personally benefitting by having you in a HYSA or something.

JefeDiez

If you're looking for 1000 by 2030 it is smarter to invest the money into a HYSA.

Historical_Low4458

I agree with everyone here. Healthcare is expensive, and is only getting more expensive. It doesn't seem over funded to me. If she is paying for it every month, I might see if she could stop payments on it and maintain the policy. I am more concerned about the $200k just sitting in a HYSA. I understand capital preservation, is the #1 goal in retirement, but that still is a large amount of money not doing anything. IMO, she should put a portion of that into government bonds.

deafgamer_

Emergency fund? Yep, in a HYSA, around $70k. Our monthly expenses are at around $10k a month. Combined with my wife's income, through 10 months of unemployment my emergency fund went from $120k to $70k so I do not think I will be adding to this fund for some time.

Firm-Raspberry9181

HYSA does have returns. Of course it’s an investment. Would you say your stocks are not an “investment” if they were stagnant, low-yielding, or declined in value? Of course not. When you invest your money in a HYSA you might get 3.5% interest. That’s the return. Some people value stability for something like their emergency funds. Or money you need to access soon, for a tuition bill or house down payment. Or nearing retirement.

HyperPunch

Seems like your on the right path. The only thing I would consider is maybe taking $300 from $1800 and stacking it in your savings account. And if you can, find a HYSA if you don’t already have one. Mine is about 3%. Get ahead on the emergency fund. Never know what could happen.

K_A_irony

Some let you also invest in stocks / index funds inside the HYSA.

Seref15

I mean, at least he went with an HYSA. Plenty of people, especially older people, still have their money in like sub-1% traditional bank savings accounts.

AntiqueProfessor5134

Sounds like you're doing pretty well. I'd probably suggest trying to save up the 5k you might need in HYSA or short term treasuries, but otherwise everything seems reasonable. One comment would be that your portfolio and risk tolerance may not match very well. I guess it depends on what % is in the two individual stocks vs the ETF, but significant concentration in two individual stocks is almost inherently risky. That being said given your age I don't think your portfolio is necessarily unreasonable, I just think you should be prepared the possibility of unpredictable drops if a significant component of your portfolio is two stocks.

MrMapexMan2020

I will let someone smarter than me answer, but I have to say thank you for being honest. Many 20 year olds come on this sub claiming to have $500K invested - have a 6 month emergency fund and have $200K in a HYSA. Should I invest some of that $250K invested my brokerage account? Nonetheless sounds like you are on the right track. Keep it up.

Working-Leg-1482

We have been saving in 401k since the 1990s. Probably not at a high enough level and we have made some stupid money decisions in life. However between us we now have 2 mill in 401k, a decent chunk in HYSA and about 1 mill in home equity at ages 60/58. Never had huge incomes. We have no pension other than a tiny one my husband was vested into before pensions got eliminated. (Enough to pay for groceries). However I am very nervous relying on 401k and SS and I feel like we are not on solid ground. Considering an annuity for reliable income although I know that they are generally not recommended. And I know we are lucky and in better shape than most. I don’t know how people cope with nothing saved. Start small and let compounding work for you over time. Savings gain momentum over time and it becomes almost magical.

kalterik

This is so hot… real question, do you acknowledge you probably suck at this and just got lucky before? Like this is some straight casino shit, you got to >1m and it still wasn’t enough to derisk. No amount will ever be enough for you based on that. Even if you ‘made it all back’ I would put what is your average Tuesday bet (i.e. nearly all of my life savings) that you you just end up losing it in a nearly identical way. No hate, please just don’t forget to post the update if you reload with the HYSA. 🤤

Alternative-Car8221

When you say make it back, please tell me you mean keeping it in safe ETFs and your HYSA.

Jazzlike-Check9040

I have 150k and another 300k in my HYSA; I can make it back.