Frequentflier

I'm old. What works for me might not be right for others but why I sleep ok at night: Large % of investment money in Treasuries & Non Callable CDs - 3-5 year maturities, all currently at 4.5% or better. Have a few Treasuries with longer maturity at 5% yield I bought just because they were at 5%+; whoever inherits that will likely be ok with 5% plus Treasuries can be sold (at gain or loss) in secondary market. For those who believe Fed will lower rates starting this year I think buying treasuries (again which could be sold if needed) and/or CDs is a good short term strategy. Plus 4% yield is going to look good if Fed lowers. My memory is still good about getting garbage yields of 2% or lower. Balance of $$ in ETFs, mostly S&P 500, technology, consumer staples, high dividend. Some might say "but what if the market turns down and you need that money". I won't need it and its essentially longer terms investment dollars as beneficiaries will inherit it.

As I guess is one more step in that cashless direction, I read a headline today that the U.S. mint just placed its last order for pennies. Surely there are a lot of pennies out there already so it is doubtful they will disappear completely in what remains of my lifetime.

Nice. You saved a bunch being able to pay with cash. I read that Colorado passed a law limiting how much a merchant can charge for accepting a credit card. Note that they don't have to accept credit cards, just that if they do high fees aren't possible. Fee has to be disclosed prominently. Limit is 2% or actual amount business pays whichever is less. No fee on debit card. A friend has a Maserati and his dealership charges a high percent to pay by credit card. Like what? He now pays for service, which as we know can be high on cars like a Maserati, with cash. He says he wants them to have to deal with taking cash to a bank. My thinking is, don't buy a Maserati. Haha. It is easier to evade taxes by accepting cash. And now that the IRS has fewer agents its even less likely an auditor will show up and be able to figure out using other data from a business whether all the revenue has been reported. As with the above examples there are still plenty of ways to pay others with cash; recipients who are likely also avoiding taxes. For tenants I started using a service years ago that automatically pulls payments directly from tenant bank accounts. I was more interested in the service because tenants can opt into credit bureau reporting so their on time payments helped their scores. Every tenant I've had and have now opted in. The fee is $5 a month and it can be paid by either party or split. I pay the $5.

Super sleuth: a highly skilled and successful detective or investigator. You are a scammers biggest fear. For the rest of us, thanks for the results

I thought we'd see interest rates continue to decline but I've also seen an increase in CD rates recently. And last week my partner bought (with my money) some long term treasury notes yielding over 5%. Only saw that over 5% for a brief period. Treasury securites are very liquid so holding to maturity isn't a requirement; "risk" is that treasury rates increase and market value falls but at 4.5%-5%+...... Treasuries are marginable if cash is needed but the interest rates on those loans are usually high

So two objectives perhaps? 1) have enough money to buy a house or condo without a mortgage so you don't have to pay exhorbitant insurance rates and for a condo can pay the special assessments and 2) if a condo buy at a high level so your home never ends up in the basement as the building sinks.

I have accounts at Vanguard, Schwab and Fidelity. Have never had an accuracy issue or problem with service or fees at Vanguard or Fidelity. There was family trust money at Schwab for a long while but the trustee moved the money, with my agreement, to Morgan Stanley because Schwab said they would handle a split and distribution to heirs basically "whenever". I actually complained to the SEC about Schwab but don't have any expectation of disciplinary action on that. I don't recommend Morgan Stanley, a representative there told our family trustee that they are used to working with people who have at least "hundreds of millions" in investments. Morgan Stanley though has handled the account properly, timely and error free.

His RM ad is gone, as of today anyway. From the comments it is doubtful anyone will be disappointed he has retired.

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He has an OnlyFans, same name. He looks great so hopefully he's as good company as he is eye candy.

I've found some decent CD's on Fidelity's New Issue page. The secondary market rarely has anything decent. I've had good luck on these sites: CDVALET, Bankrate. Or you can just search "best 6 month cd rate" or "best two year cd rate", etc. Some recent success with Lending Club Bank, Bankwell, Barclays. Again, as I think I posted previously, check the bank on the FDIC website to confirm its a covered bank AND the website you are using is legitimate. The FDIC website even provides the official webpage for a covered bank. I see lots of violatilty but if someone is ok to check everyday until they have bought enough they are getting ahead of further rate decreases. Keeping in mind that we don't know what will happen in the future and certainly with the election so I don't go out more than 24 months and have many laddered shorter than that. Sorry if everyone knows this but many banks let you decide when you open a CD or even throughout the term what you want done with the interest. Paid electronically to another bank account with that bank or another. Lending Club I think even allows you to make that decision online whereas some ask you to call within a certain number of days of when an interest payment will be made.

I'm watching Boeing but waiting to buy because I don't think its stopped decreasing yet. I had some Boeing bonds which matured and lets just say I'm not disappointed they matured recently and were paid off without issue.

Premiums for an ACA policy are not based on income. To quality for premium subsidies from the Federal government your income has to be below I believe 400% of an amount considered low income. Said otherwise, if you make $10 million a year in income you pay the same premium as someone making $125,000 a year. About pre-existing conditions, there should continue to be as now NO additional premium for having ANY pre-existing condition. With ONE exception - people who smoke. Smokers can be charged higher premiums. Other than that, you could be just be a head in a jar and you'd pay the same as someone else who runs marathons. And, yes, gross premiums before subsidies vary by market and provider.

Check out Lending Club bank. Currently offering 5.1% for 10 months, 4.9% for 18 months, etc. There is an option to have interest transferred to another account although that would mean a lower APY. Definetly takes some shopping now to get decent rates, and the Fed hasn't even dropped interest rates yet! Have noticed that CDs sold on Vanguard and Fidelity sites are as much as .80% lower than investing directly with a bank. Even for well known banks I like to look them up at the FDIC wesbite to make sure there is FDIC coverage and the website I"m accessing is legit. Here's the link to confirm FDIC coverage and it also provides the official website for the bank. BankFind Suite BANKS.DATA.FDIC.GOV

Whether a beneficiary is good managing their spending and investments or not my belief is that many would be better off being beneficiaries of a trust that lives on after them. My assets are in a trust with beneficiaries set to receive a percentage of earnings for their lives and then they can choose the beneficiaries for when they pass on. The earnings beneficiaries receive will be more than enough for them to live well on and ideally they work so can live etremely well. As less than 100% of income is distributed monthly trust assets will continue to grow. I'm no Jeff Bezos but creating generational wealth is the plan. I have a sibling who is considering doing the same for his children and ultimately grandchildren. Maybe a variation of the above would work for the beneficiaries the original poster is having issues with. Perhaps they get $5,000 a month for life, or whatever amount the executor/trustee determines, and that is it. The beneficiaries make that work and/or get jobs to supplement their cash flow.