9 Comments

Andre, as I waited for this article I wondered what new and different can one do to optimize a simple liquid investment and you didn't disappoint. Thank you. It's good to know of all these options. I've always had my 6-mo emergency fund invested in 6 CD's one for each month so I don't have to cash them all out at once: 3 No-penalty CDs and 3 5-yr CDs. But with the recent Savings yield being higher than my 5-yr CD I recently cashed them out and with a 5-mo penalty! I've since had the funds in my HYSA as the rates keep increasing. I will now consider some of your options to maximize them. Please clarify:

1. You probably have a lot of different accounts for each of your Emergency Fund tiers and FIRE investments. Isn't it difficult to manage them if you are opening and moving funds around often? And where's your primary account for monthly expenses?

2. Is your liquid Emergency Fund part of your 90:10 bonds allocation? When you max out your iBonds limit for your Emergency Fund, where do you invest the 10% bonds portion of your FIRE investments? And do you prefer retirements/non-retirement accounts for FIRE investing in bonds?

3. You didn't talk about municipal bonds here. Was that intentional? Wouldn't it help saving taxes if you used munis?

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"In August, my emergency fund balance dipped as I moved some cash into my taxable investment account in anticipation of an upcoming RSU vest.", can you explain this strategy? What do you get out of this?

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Hey Andre- thoughts about SHY? Can get exposure to short term T-bills and it’s easier compared to buying directly and laddering. Currently at 4.24% yield

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