VBIL
Vanguard 0-3 Month Treasury Bill ETF
Mentions (24Hr)
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Can anyone tell me which place is the best to put short-term cash waiting to be invested?
Mentions
Put most of it, $300k, into an S&P 500 ETF. SPYM is a good choice with the lowest expense ratio of 0.02%. Keep $100k in emergency savings. A) A Treasury ETF. They are exempt from state income taxes on your interest earned. Either SGOV or VBIL. B) A high yield savings account with 3% or higher interest. Wealthfront, SoFi, Capital One, American Express, Barclay, or Marcus. More liquid than a Treasury ETF, but not state tax income protection. A better choice if you live in the 9 states without state income taxes.
For emergency savings, use a Treasury money market or Treasury ETF since you live in NY city. This removes your state and city taxes on interest earned. - Treasury ETFs: VBIL or SGOV. Pick only one. Available at all brokers. - Treasury money market funds: VUSXX, SNSXX, or FDLXX. Only available at the big 3 brokers (Vanguard, Schwab, and Fidelity). Pick one.
The order of operations for investing are: - Emergency saving up to 3 months of your routine expenses. Use a HYSA with 3% interest or higher currently. Alternative option in states with high taxes (California and NY state) are treasury Money market funds or Treasury ETFs (SGOV or VBIL). - Try to max out a Roth IRA if you are working and earn less than $153k in 2026. The max contribution is $7,500 for 2026 according to the IRS. Within in the Roth IRA, invest into ETFs. For ETFs only use SoFI, Fidelity, or Vanguard. With those brokers, you can invest into VTI and VGT. VTI is your core fund that covers the Total USA stock market. Make this 70% of your allocation. VGT is a sector fund covering information technology area. VGT has great returns over the past 10 years, but is limited to a sector. 30% allocation is fine. - Anything extra, put it into a taxable brokerage account. Buy the same ETFs. This is also the type of account to buy Treasury ETFs like SGOV or VBIL.
VBIL. It is functionally equivalent to SGOV. They are both 0-3 month Treasury bond funds. The share price is different. The yields are the same within a couple of bps. Another option is one of the Schwab money market funds.
Emergency funds first. You can put it into Treasury ETFs (SGOV or VBIL) or Treasury money market funds (FZFXX). Something always happens and it is nice to have that buffer zone, so you don't have to sell your investments.
VBIL is a better alternative, it's 100% exempt and it has a slightly lower expense ratio. Pretty much same percentage as SGOV also.
Add some $BOXX or $VBIL, these stocks generate income just shy of the risk free return (~4%).
I like SGOV, but the state tax rate in Georgia is so low it is hardly felt. I think 5% if I am not mistaken (too lazy to look it up). SPAXX is fine for now. Worst case scenario the OP can always switch to SGOV or VBIL later.
Most efficient would be a bond ladder of short term t bills. You can do the duration as whatever you want. For example buy $25k worth of 4 week bills every week for four weeks, set it on autoroll, none of that money will ever be more than 4 weeks away. The further out you go you will theoretically have slightly higher returns because a 3 month T bill is slightly riskier than a 1 month. Or you can just dump 100k into SGOV or VBIL. You pay a tiny fee (0.06% for VBIL) but can always get the money as quickly as you can sell a stock, so like a couple days.
+1 for VBIL as its state-tax exempt. VTEB (Munis) is Fed tax exempt, but more volatile
Treasure money market funds or Treasury ETFs. Both have interest exemption from state taxes. TMMF: SNSXX or FZFXX. T ETFs: SGOV or VBIL.
VBIL is a treasury bill ETF, meaning it is exempt from state taxes but not exempt from federal.
VBIL (cheaper version of SGOV) it's not worth risking anything to eek out a 1% additional yield, that's money you want to be there when you need it
1) If you are working and earn less than $153k per year, I highly advice opening a Roth IRA and invest a small amount ($50 per month) into a Total USA fund. Do this with one of the big 3 brokers. Those are: Fidelity, Charles Schwab, or Vanguard. Fidelity: FZROX. A Zero expense ratio index mutual fund. Mutual funds (Active or Index) are only good for retirement accounts. Schwab: SWTSX. An Index mutual fund. Vanguard: VTI. It is an index Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). A lot more flexible and transferable than an Index mutual fund, and more tax efficient outside retirement accounts. 2) Build up emergency savings with a high yield savings account online or Treasury Money market fund. Fidelity has FZFXX, Schwab has SNSXX, and Vanguard has the ETF version VBIL. For a high yield savings online, look into Capital One or a local credit Union. Currently around 3%. After building up 3 months of your routine expensives, then go harder into investing in your Roth IRA. The 2026 contribution limit is $7,500 ($625 per month). The IRS sets the limit every November for the next year.
SPAXX, SPRXX, SGOV, VBIL, BOXX, etc are all equivalent holdings to a HYSA. I use 3 as different breakdowns of emergency fund, sinking fund, next year's IRA contribution.
I went with VBIL over SGOV. It has a slightly lower expense ratio, but that doesn’t really matter at levels you should be keeping in an emergency fund. Been doing OK with it, better than my old checking account interest.
VBIL is the exact same as SGOV with lower expenses. If you can handle a slight bit more volatility, DUSB should provide even more returns
What ? You can buy billions of treasuries if you want? I mean even if you only have $100 extra a month , you could invest into something like VBIL or a money market fund.
I will probably go SGOV or VBIL
I am leaning VBIL because of the lower expense ratio
I see SGOV mentioned here a lot and am switching to this or VBIL from money market currently. Is there any reason SGOV is preferred over VBIL? They seem almost identical, with VBIL having a slightly smaller expense ratio.
Those are some good shouts on the ETFs, I’ll definitely look into SGOV and VBIL, thanks for the heads up. As for the tariff and war periods, honestly, the biggest thing was just not panicking. When everyone is screaming about the news, I just look at the price and wait for the institutional footprints to show up. I stayed mostly in high-conviction leaders and made sure I didn't overtrade when things got volatile. It’s usually more about what you don't do during those times that keeps you in the game. I’ll try to put together a post with more details on how I handled those specific environments when I have a bit more time
I partially sold some of my stocks to cash on some profit but will remain invested. I put my cash into VBIL approx 10% of my portfolio. Will wait for some opportunity and continue to pile up some cash through my contributions
Ironically, schwab allows automatically reinvesting dividends into ETFs but not buying fractional ETFs. Fidelity is so much better when it comes to fractional shares but I still stick with Schwab for checkings and emergency fund (VBIL treasury ETF) because I’ve found Fidelity CMA doesn’t work well with third-party connections and doesn’t support Zelle.
It’s not uncommon — many have a local brick-and-mortar bank they deal with, 401(k) or similar at employer’s custodian of choice, personal investment accounts like IRAs and/or taxable brokerage at another institution, etc. Generally, it just adds complexity. There’s an argument for security e.g. having some money in a second place should you lose access to the first. For actual bank accounts, using multiple institutions may be warranted if you exceed FDIC or NCUA coverage. I’m personally not quite as concerned about SIPC coverage for brokerage accounts. Since joining an employer who uses Fidelity as custodian for their 401(k), HSA, ESOP and RSU plans, I’ve also consolidated my own taxable brokerage and IRA accounts there as well. As it is, I currently have ten accounts at Fidelity, including my main savings/emergency fund invested in VBIL… I do still keep some money (<$10k) at my local credit union and run my every day expenses through there.
SGOV is a teensy bit less expensive for many people. Trading spreads between SGOV & VBIL are close but VBIL carries a higher premium paid on each trade. previous reply to someone else: [https://www.reddit.com/r/ETFs/comments/1rqz6ml/comment/o9vx5hc/?context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/ETFs/comments/1rqz6ml/comment/o9vx5hc/?context=3)
Your worry about Blackrock is inconsequential. SGOV is an ETF and all ETFs are structured so that if the investment manager fails - it doesn't impact the fund investment. As for the differences - you have to look at the duration of the fund. All three of the funds that you mentioned as effectively the same as ultra-short duration treasury funds. Usually, someone investing in cash and the interest rate markets is going to look at the duration based on their interest rate thesis. Regarding your comment about liquidity - while a mmf is required to have liquidity requirements - both SGOV and VBIL are open-ended ETFs and they have the exact same liquidity profile. Re: cap - gains - one advantage of a MMF is that there are no cap gains and wash sale rules don't apply. One advantage of ETF's is that there is no 30 day restriction on marginability.
My VBIL is the only one in the green lolz
I keep 80% in either VOO/ICPY or VBIL/CLOA depending on the overall market’s valuation, RSI, SMA crossovers, etc. (your standard run-of-the-mill market risk/reward technical indicators). The other 20% is for individual high-conviction stock picks, usually with deep OOTM LEAPS over shares if I’m feeling particularly gutsy.
I'll be upfront with you, I've been rethinking VTIP after the latest ppi numbers don't match cpi. Had it in there because it beat the HYSA but I'm moving to VGSH/VBIL (VBIL Is close enough to SGOV with lower expense ratio because i'm in vanguard in a taxable for this) after the next dividend payout, so 2 weeks-ish. husband's in tech so his job isn't guaranteed and kid is 3 years out from college with an okay-but-not-great 529 (i didn't want to park everything in the 529 in case they didn't go to college) so job loss and college expenses could be major factors in the road ahead, and I have planned accordingly. You need to look at your 5 years ahead and see what bond fund could make sense for you or if it makes sense to have anything at all aside from an efund, for most folks it might not, aside from maybe a house fund, and then be willing to shift as factors shift :) stagflation is going to be about riding the waves, and by asking these questions and keeping your ears open, you'll be okay.
You can just do VT as a conservative bet, which is basically 60/40 VTI/VXUS. I like 70/30 VTI/VXUS personally, but all-in VT is fine too. You are very diversified with this. If you want to be even more conservative toss in 10% BND or VBIL or SGOV.
I like the money market funds in Fidelity. The benefit to them, is that they are treated as cash in the account. If you have $1000 SPAXX, and $4000 FDLXX, and you transfer $5000 out, it will automatically liquidate the FDLXX and move the money. So no downtime, waiting to sell an ETF, etc. I keep some VBIL in my savings as well, just to eek out a bit more yield. If you have a 6 month E-fund, having a month or to in a readily liquid MM is not a bad idea for emergencies. You live in CA, so it might be worth it to keep the funds in FDLXX, as it is typically in the ballpark of 98% exempt from CA state tax. FDRXX did not maintain a minimum of 50% treasury notes/bills each quarter of 2025, so you cannot deduct any of the interest from your state taxes. As a Fidelity user, the gist of the advice you were given is good.
Best strategy is TIME IN the market not TIMING the market. Just hold. If you have any strategies that are not under you could pull that out and put into VBIL or a high yield or some bond etf , but I’d just hold. If you want to feel better about future volatility (swings) then you could allocate some into less volatile equities like the ones above or even real estate or consumer staples which tend to be less volatile to the general market
VBIL is a slightly lower expense ration than SGOV, but I read that you are more state income tax exempt (97% of the dividends) with SGOV. I forgot what it was for VBIL, but it was much lower. So any cost savings would be negligible.
Can get almost same liquidity with money market (SPAXX*), short term Treasuries (VBIL)... can compare rates. Another option is a municipal bond fund (e.g. VTEB). If in a brokerage account (taxable) the yields are tax free. Can get 3.5% tax free return approximately currently
tbh at age 20 that is way too defensive. i'm retired and i could see that as my portfolio, and i'm pretty defensive now, but not even as defensive at that. if you are putting in new money, corrections are going to be your friend if you get more growth oriented. if i was 20, i'd set aside a cushion for expenses and keep that in VBIL or any of the other short-term treasury ETFs, but the rest of the money, I would buy equal shares of VOO or SPY, and QQQ. Or add in an Ex-US ETF if you want. If money comes out of AI and chips, it's going to go somewhere else and if you have a broad index fund, that somewhere else is going to be in the index.
I really appreciate this advice. In terms of an emergency fund, I don't want to hold cash - is VBIL or another safe fixed rate ETF fine?
Might keep pace with inflation but not preferable to SGOV or VBIL or just investing in the broad market.
Not really. Don't get cute, VBIL is fine.
I would keep the cash in a short term treasury fund, like VBIL if you plan to buy a house in the next 36 months.
I'm considering relocating in the future and I'm building up cash reserves for a down payment on a new home. Are there any options right now for stashing cash on a 12 - 60 month time frame that beat something like VBIL? I'm willing to take some risk, but I'd rather avoid going full equities.
They recently dropped the expense of VBIL by 1 bps
Just a heads up, VBIL is just like SGOV but 7 bps cheaper.
I'd go with VBIL (lower fee version of SGOV) for short duration. Cheap and flexible. IBIE is also a decent option, October 2028 TIPS (inflation linked bonds).
>At Schwab one first one must move the funds to cash and then trade You can buy the stock, then sell the MF, since they both settle in t+1 . Its a trade off, fidelity has a sweep but the schwab Money Market funds usually pay slightly more, not that it will really matter. However I just prefer to use something like VBIL, again if I need cash just sell VBIL then buy what ever. I do not do too many trades so its not really a big deal.
VBIL is a great fund, nice to see fee cuts there. I suspect AUM gap between SGOV and VBIL will slowly close over next 3-5 years thus allowing more fee cuts for Vanguard!
Anyone switching to VBIL or putting additional savings there, due to the similar performance and lower expense ratio? It's small; but $2 savings on every $10k, per year.
If I wanted to earn interest on cash I would just invest in VBIL or SGOV
I mean if you simple lump sum contribute and invest at the beginning of every year you are somewhat DCAing just yearly However considering lump sum investing beats DCAing about 2/3rd of the time; and its almost impossible to tell if today its better to DCA vs Lump sum, if you simply invest at the beginning of every year for 30 years you will almost certainly come out ahead vs DCAing through out the year However you could just buy some money market fund or something like SGOV or VBIL if you wanted to earn some interest
> Or just use short term bond ETFs. For those interested, good examples of those are VBIL and SGOV.
\--First, don't tell anyone about it. Your friends, family, co-workers will be coming out of the woodwork with requests for money and idiotic investment ideas. At the very least, they can grow resentful and it can interfere with your relationships. \--Get the money into a brokerage: Schwab, Fidelity, or Vanguard. Open an account with only your name on it. \--Make sure the cash is invested in safe funds that pay a decent return -- a money market fund, or a treasury bill fund such as SGOV or VBIL \--Do not commingle this money by putting it into an account with anyone else on it. \--Pay off any high interest debt (probably your solar loan and car loan) \--If you haven't maxed out your Roth IRA for 2025 and 2026 for you and your wife, go ahead and do that \--For the rest, wait a year before changing or spending. Take some time to plan and learn. Don't YOLO into expensive new cars, home remodels, round the world trips, etc. I think you should seriously consider just investing most of it in passively managed, low cost ETFs and considering it part of your retirement savings. Looking at the financials you posted, you are a bit behind on retirement. Once you get any high interest debt paid down, you might find a way to increase 401k contributions. And make sure that whatever else you do with this money, you keep 6 months of expenses in an emergency fund. OP, I'm sorry for the loss of your family member.
As long as they are FDIC insured and to be a bank in the USA you have to be, there really isn't a risk of losing money. Just make sure it's a bank and not a fin tech middle man. However hysa follow short term rates when rates drop hysa interest drops. Sometimes you can get some into rate that will be higher for 3-6 months but it may be limited to like 20k or something. Personally I don't use a hysa , just open a brokerage and use a money market funds or something like VBIL or SGOV. You will always get the short term rate.
I have a CMA. I set my default core position to Fidelity's SPAXX, which is a money market fund. Treated like cash. Every Thursday, I buy a set amount of FDLXX, a treasury only Money Market. It is 97% treasuries and thus mostly state tax free. It will automatically liquidate when I pay bills or transfer. Interest is a smidge lower than something like VBIL or SGOV, but the function is better. I do keep a portion of my savings in SGOV, which I can liquidate in a day or two if needed. I can buy it right in my CMA account.
I have a Fidelity Brokerage Account that I treat as my savings account. I can't access by ATM (as far as I know), but I can transfer funds from Fidelity to my Wells Fargo checking account and access the next day. My cash in the brokerage account automatically goes into SPAXX, but I chose to hold it in the VBIL short term treasury fund, which currently pays 3.67%. Mainly I like the convenience of having my cash immediately available to invest in the market. I used to jump around between various HYSAs, yield chasing for that extra .1%, but now I rest easy knowing that my Fidelity yield is competitive with HYSA market rates.
Are you saying that you have a 10 year horizon before buying a house? I wouldn't use SGOV or VBIL. Those are short duration funds. If you want to just have the risk free rate - you may want to look at a longer duration treasury fund. It also depends on whether you believe if interest rates will go down or not. Alternatively - with a 10 year horizon - you probably could put some portion into higher credit risk products if you want the relative lower risk of bond investments vs equity investments. You could look at corporate debt. Something like target-maturity corporate bond funds from SSgA, Invesco or Blackrock may generate higher yield - depends also on the state that you live treasuries are state tax exempt.
I’m a 26M and I want to start saving for a down payment for a house. I max out my 401k, HSA, and Roth IRA each year and historically have put the rest of my savings in a taxable brokerage account investing ETFS. I already have an emergency fund sitting in SGOV and VBIL. I’m my time horizon is 10 years, should I just put my cash for a down payment fully into SGOV:VBIL or split it between the treasury bill etfs and a total market index fund such as VTI? Thank you!
> Super helpful info! MMFs yielding less than SWVXX, isn’t SWVXX already a MMF? Yes SWVXX is a MMF. Different MMF's have different yields. > It’s specifically a 7 day yield fund. I don't know what you mean by this. '7 day yield' is how the yield is reported on MMFs. Its what annualized return of the fund over the previous 7 days. You don't get that yield every 7 days. >When you say 0-3 month, does that mean it matures in 3 months or expires in 3 months? When I looked up SGOV, it had no maturity from my understanding, but I could totally be wrong! SGOV doesn't mature. That Treasuries it holds matures and the proceeds are then invested in new Treasuries. Its essentially a bond ladder with an effective duration of 0.1 years. >What the difference between Floating Rate Treasuries and Government bonds? A floating rate treasury is a type of Government Bond. Its a longer term bond but the interest rate floats so it doesn't have the same interest rate risk as longer term treasuries. USFR's effective duration is 0.2 years. >I also, tried looking up where to find a list of short term government bonds on Shwab but couldn’t find a list? Their customer service didn’t know either so i’m wondering how do we find the different options out there other than SGOV that does something similar to keep funds liquid with a return. Not sure I follow, are you looking for other short term bond ETFs? How many variations of Vanilla ice cream do you need? Here are some I'm aware of: SGOV, BIL, VBIL, TBIL, JPST, ICSH, VUSB, USFR, TFLO. The only ones I have any first hand experience with is SGOV, USFR and TFLO Here is an oldie but goodie: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Bogleheads/comments/11prp0b/hysa\_mmf\_cds\_tbills\_searching\_for\_the\_best\_return/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/Bogleheads/comments/11prp0b/hysa_mmf_cds_tbills_searching_for_the_best_return/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
>When that account gets to $100k can I just take it out and use it? Yes >Should I be putting my money for a house in a different account? I have a HYSA but the returns on it are only like 3.5% (Amex) so I try not to use that one, thanks. You can use a brokerage account as a savings account, it depends on what you invest the money into. You could invest it into a money market fund or some ultra short bond fund (VBIL/SGOV) and those will effectively act like a HYSA, meaning no real losses and some lower but somewhat guaranteed return Or you could invest in some high risk investment that could gain 100% but could also lose everything So saving in a brokerage account isn't good or bad, its entirely what you buy in that brokerage account. For anything under 5 years I would simply do something like VBIL or SGOV
It does not matter how much you "love" or "trust" your adviser. The relevant question is, how much value do they add? How does the performance and risk profile of your adviser-managed portfolio compare to something simple like: 60% broad stock ETF (VOO, VTI etc) 40% t-bill ETF (SGOV, VBIL etc) --- OR --- 60% broad stock ETF 20% t-bill ETF 20% gold ETF (SGOL, IAU, IAUM etc) PS: I outgrew my adviser five minutes after I read one thin little book twenty years ago: "Fail Safe Investing" by Harry Browne.
The main purpose of a box spread is to create a synthetic loan or bond. Investopedia has a good article on it. [https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/boxspread.asp](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/boxspread.asp) I have some of my "liquid" or "cash" invested in BOXX. So far, it's working out great. BOXX goes up in value rather than disburse interest from bonds such as SGOV or VBIL. I am patiently waiting for the fallout from any tax issues.
Not equivalent but relevant: VFQY ( quality factor) VTV ( value US ) then a lot of VBIL and bingo
Treasury Bill ETFs. Stable as fuck, good dividend, doesn't grow much though. My recommendations: BIL VBIL XONE SCHO WEEK USFR UTEN
For the responses saying to start an IRA or Roth IRA for an 18 year old that doesn’t even have a standard individual brokerage account yet is just not right. He won’t be able to access any of that til what.. 67 i think it is now?? Ridiculous Start him off with a regular brokerage account, contribute a set amount a week (say $50-$200) into $VT or $VOO (total US stock market, S&P500, respectively - very similar). This is for mid-long term outlook (5-20 years, leaning more into the latter) where it really starts to balance out and compound. For just collecting the interest in the same account (cash equivalent +about 3.8% / year as of today), $VBIL. This would be for strictly cash savings that you don’t want any risk of short term depriciation. Other than that i would set aside about 10% of the account actual cash - In the end, say 80% $VT 10% $VBIL 10% cash. Certainly open to adjustments based on risk tolerances
interesting, thanks so much for this. Will probably go SGOV until VBIL becomes a little more established
I tried an experiment for the last two months of SGOV vs VBIL. I decide to try VBIL and moved 1/3 of my SGOV holding to VBIL. I have now waited for two complete months of dividends and below is dividend payout summary from my account this month. The first column is dist-yield and the second column is SEC-yield. SGOV 12/1/25 (payout 12/4) 4.15% 3.85% VBIL 12/1/25 (payout 12/3) 2.81% 3.89% Since the dist-yield is what is deposited to my account each month, between the two, I'd prefer SGOV. The surprise is the that SEC-yield is actually higher on VBIL... YMMV.
I use both. Chase has mine and my hubby’s Roth IRAs since they allow auto-investing for mutual funds, as well as our emergency fund in SGOV and VBIL (still waffling on which I like more) so I can have it close in case we need it. However, hubby’s 401k is through Fidelity as is our taxable brokerage investing. I’m also planning to start an HSA account through Fidelity next year and transfer my HSA money over to take advantage of lower fees vs my job’s company. A couple tips: you’ll need to link the accounts both ways and sometimes it’s a bit confusing to get it done since Fidelity isn’t a bank listed on the Chase site. Money that you push from Chase (vs pull through Fidelity) will clear/settle faster although there’ll be a day or two delay.
First, congratulations on preparing for your future at a young age. Compounding will work well for you if you don’t panic when the market drops. As far as picks go, I suggest an S&P 500 ETF as your first investment. My personal choice is VOO from Vanguard. If you have earned income, you can start a Roth IRA or a traditional IRA. Both have tax advantages over a normal brokerage account, but you cannot withdraw money until you are 59.5 years old. You should investigate the differences between these accounts and pick the one that meets your goals. Do not put money into an IRA if you will need it to pay for college, housing, or something else in the short term because the penalties for early withdrawal are stiff (10% plus tax on earnings). I also use ETFs that invest in short term Treasuries instead of cash. Good for money you may need in the next couple of years because the market can drop at any time and put you in a bad position if you have to take a loss. I use SGOV and VBIL for this purpose.
There really won't be all that much meaningful difference between them, they essentially all hold ultra short term debt so most will pretty much yield the same . The difference maybe one that only holds treasuries what will yield slightly less but be exampt from state taxes, vs ones that may hold corporate debt or repo agreements, will yield slightly more but be subject to state tax Depending on your income and state one may be better then the other. If you are higher income and live in a state with higher state taxes the treasury MM may be better If you live in a state with no state income taxes or very low ones the higher yielding fund that holds corporate debt may be better. Personally I just buy something like VBIL/SGOV what are 0-3 month treasury ETFs that basically acts like a money market fund
SGOV and VBIL ETFs are short term treasury bond funds that hold their value. Very small changes due to the interest payment. Pull them up on a chart.
5 yr: VBIL 10yr: VT (still possible to lose money but low probability) 20yr: VT
SGOV and VBIL ETFs don’t lose capital.
I pretty much use Fidelity to hold cash in its core position which is a money market fund - which holds short term government debt. I do use other money market funds (like VBIL or PMMF) to earmark funds needed for lump sum payments like property tax and insurance.
When VBIL becomes more popular maybe the premium will come down. But right now VBIL has been selling at a 0.11% premium to its NAV according to [ETF.com](http://ETF.com) while SGOV's premium stayed at 0.02% for the first half of the year and then fell to 0.01%. So the net-net of it is that the 2 basis points saved on annualized expenses is negated by the 9 basis points paid in extra premium. So for me it's SGOV for tbills.
To be blunt, .02 on 100k is $20. I'm not saying not to be money conscious but that kind of money really doesn't count. Smaller newer funds can have more NAV variance, which both causes weird capital gain issues and can theoretically result in you losing money. That said VBILs been pretty stable for some time now so maybe it's fine. It's not simple to measure because VBIL started a month late, but SGOV yield YTD is 3.68% vs 3.09% for VBIL, so don't be sure you're making more money
I was always worried with VBIL volume but it seems to have picked up. Both are safe bets.
It depends on the current yield curve and where you may want to be on that yield curve. The short-term curve is inverted at the present so if you think that ultra-short term rates (the one month is a little over 4%) is going to fall more than the current 1 year of 3.6% plus the interest for 1 year - then an interest rate trader may choose a longer duration. You can also do things like take on a little more credit risk with investment grade bond funds. Or use ultra-short duration active investment grade funds. Or even target maturity funds in a ladder depending on your tax situation and timeframe. Tldr - you can make cash management as complicated as you want - but if you dont' want to time the interest rate markets or the effort to actively manage cash to eek out a few more basis points - than just keep it simple and use any ultra-short duration product. I personally think that too many people over-analyze the differences between funds like VBIL and SGOV.
"Better" is subjective. It will depend on your timeframe and any thesis that you may have on interest rate markets. Also depends on things like your tax situation and if you are willing to take on some credit risk. For example - if you are saving to buy a house in 3 years and you think that shorter term interest rates will go down - then SGOV and VBIL are poor choices. And a better choice would be longer duration treasury funds that are at least 1 year duration.
SGOV expense ratio is 0.09 while VBIL is 0.07 They basically hold the same thing so in theory VBIL should return 0.02% more what probably is not worth worrying about
VBIL has decent volume now so it is just slightly better
A ultra short term treasury fund like VBIL/SGOV
You're over thinking it. A Treasury ETF like VBIL, SGOV, USFR or Treasury Money Market like VUSXX are functionally equivalent. Just pick whatever is most convenient for you.
>I’m curious how others evaluate where to keep their emergency fund or idle cash while still balancing safety and liquidity. Thats the issue with banks, HYSA will mostly follow the short term interest rates , however they can vary . If a bank has excess cash they may yield less , if they need cash they may have a promo to yield slightly more . A great HYSA pretty much matching short term rates can become one that lags behind it . So you can chase yield and open new accounts and move money to the highest paying accounts Or you can simply use a money market fund or a ultra short bond ETF like VBIL/SGOV and you are always guaranteed to pretty much get the short term rate Some banks may offer some promotional rate but honestly chasing yields may net you like .1% more then VBIL/SGOV what is like $50 on a 50k emergency fund.
Savings- 6 months emergency in HYSA, rest in money market, buy some TBILLS or CDs and create a ladder.(if you have state tax TBILLs can be a better optiony, as they are not subject to state taxes. You can also just use SGOV or VBIL ETF for TBILLS or buy CDs through your bank.) Retirement- max out ROTH IRA, contribute to 401k and HSA (you can invest excess $$$ HSA after you've hit your cap.) Visit r/bogleheads for tried and true ETF's Personal Brokerage- create a dividend portfolio. I use QQQI and SPYI ETFS currently. It pays for my monthly spending. I also have a little gold just to hedge and put spare change towards BTC. And if i get excited about a up and company company ill bet on that if I have extra cash to toss around. DRIP- Enable reinvestment for your Retirement and savings positions!!! Set it and forget it. Also use DRIP methodology until you get your dividend portfolio where you would like it to be. LIVE BELOW YOUR MEANS and budget EVERYTHING (including tine) ! - No matter what stay humble and live far below your means. Don't pay above 25 percent of your income for rent, keep your grocery budget reasonable. Instead of eating out shitty every week go to one nice restaurant a month etc.. No one knows what tommorow holds. Dont piss away your hard work buy making your day to day bills eat up your whole paycheck. All it takes is a lost job and now you have lost everything.
Short-term bonds are paying 4% right now, and inflation is 3% so they're making a real-dollar yield on their cash. Not a lot, but they're not seeing it depreciate. They'd make over 4% just dropping it in VBIL. [https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/etfs/profile/vbil](https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/etfs/profile/vbil)
I have the same concern as you and im not sure the solution. Does any broker let you pick fractional limit prices? Does any broker give better execution than Fidelity? One alternative is VBIL, lower volume but higher price so it helps with the spread
My Savings account is a brokerage where I buy something like VBIL and ultra short term treasury ETF I prefer this because an ETF like VBIL will always basically give you the short term rate. Banks HYSA usually return a bit less and can be somewhat inconsistent, for example a HYSA may start off matching the short term rate but if rates rise lag behind it, or if rates drop , drop more and end up in 6 months paying much less then the short term rate Ultra short term treasuries you will always get the short term rate, you cannot say that with a HYSA . The added benefit is the interest is exempt from state taxes