Thank you, that is very useful information.

Hard to believe this was missed by someone...are they giving us new calipers/shoes?

I have heard it takes a master cylinder to activate them, I am only an apprentice cylinder

Banks have a nice way now to make money. Take in deposits pay almost nothing and use the money to fund mortgages and loans.

You two jokers must of missed the part when I wrote ON OUR SAVINGS

Wells Fargo offered us 3% 1 year CD. Thought it was too good. Per broker we could get it if we opened brokerage account. PASS

I bonds
 

Right now IBONDS are over 9%.

Getting 3.35% on a Fidelity two year CD.

I just started my research on IBonds. I was wondering if it was a good investment.

I personally would like savings rates at 0.2% and inflation at 2% vs 1.2% and 9%. But that’s me.

Keeping ALL of your hard earned cash savings in a bank savings account is a joke. The interest the banks are paying is an insult. I would only keep a enough cash in a bank savings account to access in case of an emergency. Open a brokerage account with TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, or Schwab. Theres a municipal Bond Fund that trades like a stock and pays approx. 5.7% annual interest FEDERAL TAX FREE. Best of All, pays a monthly interest on the first of every month. Yes, the Bond price goes up and down. But really, 5.7% Fed tax Free and a monthly payout. I have been following this Municipal Bond fund for 7 years. I truly believe it's a great fund that should be in your portfolio. Check it out the symbol is IIM.

My current rate at Ally is 1.24%. I’ve been happy with my savings account. I added a checking account there after moving from the Chicago area. My main account is with Chase and I lived somewhere with no Chase ATMs. Ally reimburses ATM fees so it’s handy sometimes to stop for cash at the postal box area. There app is very nice. It’s super easy to transfer money around, including to and from my Chase account.

Even 3.33% looks lousy when the inflation rate is hovering around 9%. You still lose more than 5% of your savings a year. So sure, pull out the money in you mutual funds that are down 30% and put them in the best savings account you can find. Lock in that rate. And then, like two days ago, the Dow goes up 780 points in a day, and there’s a year’s interest or more that you missed out on. What is happening now in the market is mostly the expected aftereffects of closing down the country to a sizable extent for many people in 2019 as a result of Covid. It couldn’t be helped. But it will get better. Another big chunk is Russia’s dirty war in Ukraine. That will get better, too. Then the gas prices will drop even more than they have so far and the market will climb. Mutual fund prices will climb far beyond savings accounts. Prices will still be higher on many things because many restaurant and farm workers have received big raises, bringing their incomes, maybe, closer to not being in the poverty range. This is the fair thing to do, and we just have to live with it.

Ibonds are a good investment but limited. Max is $10k (per person per year). You cannot cash the bond before 12 months from purchase. There's a 3 month interest penalty if you cash the bond prior to 15 months. Of course if you keep the bond beyond 15 months, it continues to earn compound interest. Current interest rate is 9.6% and adjusted every 6 months, based on the current inflation rate. Setting up an account on treasurydirect.gov was straight forward. It took less than 15 minutes. You must link to a bank/checking account for the purchase.

IIM is a closed end bond fund, which means that you cannot buy new shares, so you must buy them on the open market. It has a relative high expense ratio of 1.44 percent. It has provided average returns over the years compared to similar funds, but I wouldn't call it great.

An alternative fund would be the Vanguard Tax-Exempt Bond Index Fund Admiral Shares, which has an expense ratio of only 0.09 percent. Another alternative is the Vanguard Long-Term Tax-Exempt Fund, which has an expense ratio of 0.17 percent. These are not a closed end funds, so you can buy new shares directly from Vanguard, with no commission. To me, the Vanguard funds are a better alternative for a tax exempt investment. Vanguard also has three other tax exempt bond funds.

Comparing the total returns for IIM and the two Vanguard funds, IIM performed slightly better than the Vanguard index fund, but not as well as the Vanguard long term fund.