This remark may sound like a friend we have that changes his mind often, I mentioned above that I was going to forgo the 18 mo 2.75% CD.
So I’m going to go ahead with the 18 mo 2.75% CD. By taking funds from my savings at Ablebanking 1.70% & buy the above mentioned CD. “a bird in the hand”.
Going back to Sharonview 4%, it’s an excellent deal but I still never like such a long term, 5+ years.
I find the rate environment frustrating at the moment because shorter term rates are going up ever so slowly (or not at all, looking at the Ally no penalty CD rate 
) while longer term rates aren’t that much better (especially since we all “know” that short term rates are going to go up steadily over the next year or two).
I have been noticing that boring, normal treasury bills are now becoming competitive to CDs (it has been quite awhile since it was talked about in FWF). I think these may be getting sexy enough to start talking about.
With the 6 month getting close to 2% and with interest being exempt from state income tax is anyone else thinking about biting or am I the only one tempted?
I looked at the treasury rates you provided as well as Advantages & Disadvantages of US Treasury Notes & Bonds | Pocketsense
Honestly the only ones that even have a chance of tempting me are the 6 month and 1 year ones…however we do have banks paying 2% for 6 months and 2.15% for 1 year.
Doing a quick google will give you the max income tax rate you can have for your state. Lets say it’s 8 percent…so the 6 month 1.92 becomes 2% and the 1 year 2.05 becomes 2.13. I still see nothing to move me from cd’s into treasury notes. Perhaps farther down the road that will change but if you look at the advantage/disadvantage page it mentions their main perk being holding high interest rates over long hauls if you lock them in at the right time. Obviously nothing long term with them is a good idea right now.
The 6 month bill is exactly what I have my eye on. It isn’t a slam dunk but I expect my state income marginal tax rate to be above 9% for 2018 and I already have a treasury direct account setup so this would be easier for me than establishing a relationship with yet another bank. I was thinking that others here were in the same boat.
I noticed the same thing about Treasuries. I am rotating some extra cash through a 4 week t-bill ladder I built in my checking account. This past week’s auction was 1.72%.
I am also investing in T-bills.
Since CDs are state taxable:
EquivalentCDYield = TBillRate/(1 - TaxRate)
Here in Taxafornia my TaxRate = 0.093
So for example a 6 month T-Bill with 1.92% rate is equivalent to a CD with a 1.92/(1 - .093) = 2.1169%
A one year T-bill with a 2.04 rate is equivalent to 2.2492%
Definitely YMMV depending on your state income tax rate.
ConnectOne Bank added a nationally available 10-Month CD at 2.17% APY - $500 minimum deposit.
Market USA FCU offers a 10-Month Tax Time Certificate Special at 2.50% APY - $500 minimum, $10,000 maximum deposit. (Yes, the max is small but if you have 10K sitting around, it’s not a bad short-term CD offer). Easy membership requirement: if you don’t meet residency, employment/affiliation or family relationship test, membership in the Market USA Cares Foundation (minimum $10 donation) qualifies for Credit Union membership.
shinobi, have you noticed the nice Sharonview interest payment for this month? For me it was only for a couple weeks & not the complete month. 4% looks very nice!
Now on today. The Popular Direct 2% liquid savings is a good deal. (I think) Looking back at my portfolio I have CD’s only paying as low as 1.85%. But I plan to just leave them alone & wait for maturity. (for the time being)
Happy times until 3-4%'ers pop up…(short term, is my liking)
Yes, the Sharonview interest payment was very nice. You notice right away the extra dollars on account of 4% vs. a lower rate of interest. Am still kicking myself for not putting in more money. What was I thinking!
Also, for me, a nice boost on 4/1 to my Bellco Index Advantage interest rate. Rate is now at 2.95%. If Fed continues to increase the federal funds rate, and I’m not certain they will, but if they do I could end up with 3.45% later this year at Bellco if you assume two more 0.25% hikes.
Bellco and Sharonview are my success stories. My failures, which I shall not mention in any detail, are more numerous. Can say that if I sense falling interest rates I will be dumping in a lot of money fast. And right now I do not really know why people think rates will continue to rise, but I acknowledge most people think that and I acknowledge rates are not falling . . . at least again for now.
I was feeling great about things earlier when the stock market was ebullient. That situation is supportive of higher and higher interest rates. But the stock market has gone south and, along with it, many of my hopes for lots of 4% and 5% CD interest rates later this year. Now it’s just “wait and see” and “watch very carefully”.
I’m usually up on good deals. How did I miss out on Bellco? Your rate of 2.95% is very nice.
I also feel pretty good about the last couple of CD offers I ended up with. Sharonview, 5+yr CD 4% & my 18 Mo CD, 2.75%.
So for now I’ll add funds to that Popular Direct Savings 2% on all balances, $5k minimum opening. The good thing is its liquid with a few glitches. Hopefully better, great offers will suddenly appear soon.
The Bellco CD is an indexed CD. The interest rate rises and falls with the Federal funds rate. Right now the Federal funds rate is rising, so my interest rate is rising as well. The rate started out at only 2.45%. There have been two 0.25% increases since.
Problem with the Bellco CD is, with the descending stock market, there is real danger the Federal funds rate could eventually turn around and fall. The Fed does anything required to support the stock market. Consider how low they kept interest rates following the crash of 2008-2009. So I’m not exactly counting my chickens with the Bellco thing. But for now it is so far so good.
The tables appear to be significantly out of date so for those looking for an alternate method to stay “in the know” you can use ifttt.com…basically I set up an “applet” that says this:
If new feed item from http://depositaccounts.com/rss.aspx, then send me an email at xxx@yyy.com
So anytime a new blog entry is posted it gets sent to my email. You can also add keyword filters so you could get just the cd deals or just the savings/checking. This is a great workaround for ANY webpage that doesn’t have a method to “subscribe” to it. If a site doesn’t have an rss feed sometimes you can use changedetection.com to notify you when a page has been updated. It can be set to ignore small changes and only notify on large ones. changedetection.com is great to use where you want to monitor when interest rates change at a particular financial institution.
NWFCU is now paying special five year CD rates for senior citizens age 62 years and older:
$1000-99,999 3.15%
$100,000-249,999 3.35%
$250,000 and over 3.41%
Telephone them toll free at 844-709-8900 for more details. NWFCU is in Virginia.
I have been a NWFCU member for many years. I’m all but certain anyone can join, but I do not remember any longer how it is done.
There are a number of partner organizations you can join as part of the membership application:
OK so the ten year T-bond is at 3% plus or minus . . . let’s not quibble about a few basis points.
The stock market is reflecting the impact of this.
Why are the miserable five year CDs not reacting more vigorously. I expect five year CD rates to be at least equal to the ten year T-bond rate. And, sure, there are 3% five year CDs around . . . mostly in special situations.
But I would not say 3% five year CDs are routinely available. And if you’re searching for outliers north of 3% . . . . good luck with that.
Situation stinks.
Stand by for higher CD rates commencing next Tuesday, first of May. At least that is the word on the street.
Less than one week to wait.
I’m waiting!!
I have a couple CD’s that mature in June. Until then I would have to scounrge for funds. But if (say) a 3-4 year 4% came around I would find a source. lol
shinobi, higher rates coming in May?
For me, it’s going to take a rate that can top 2.78% for a 2+year CD. Those of us that purchased GTE Financial 30 Month CD 2.78% w/ Add-on, in October 2017, are set now… That CD did take a $100K minimum, new money required to open. My CD matures 4/20.
Personally I’m not playing their short term/low rate game. Why not?
It’s because I’m not convinced that interest rates out between eighteen months and thirty months will be high as is the case today. I’m seeing them trying to tie me up for that interval and then, if rates fall, I’m stuck.
So what could change my mind? Well, the moment I sense interest rates are generally falling I will lock in whatever deals are available at that moment. But right now my impression is we remain in a (generally) rising rate environment. Hence I continue to harbor hope of locking in higher rates than are available now.
Meanwhile, your 2% return on liquid funds does not seem punitive at all. At that rate we can afford to wait things out . . . at least a bit longer.