Can I make 4% in my Traditional IRA like I can with savings accounts?

[mathjak107]

i use a money market and cds up to a year at fidelity .

thst is where short term spending cash goes

if i have to worry about what i am getting on a declining balance being spent down to live on , then i seriously need to review my investments plan because it shouldnt amount to a blip on the rader long term what i get on a years worth of cash or even more

[hikernut]

Originally Posted by lewdog_5

To clarify, this is an amount of money that will be used within the year for a home improvement project. I still put 20% of my salary into stock investments. I just don't want this chunk sitting in a savings account doing zero when I can at least get a small something until it's needed to be used.

I'm also considering using something like this for a bulk of our emergency fund. Is there any reason I shouldn't right now? Or maybe the better question is, where should an emergency fund be kept that is low risk and easily accessible, but not a savings account getting nothing?

At least use a money market fund with check writing ability. You can generally get a little more yield from Tbills or short-term bonds (ETF). Of course it takes a few days to get your hands on the money with these. At a minimum there’s the two-day settlement. Then if you need to transfer the money it can take a little longer.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by 16 Acres

The only 4% or better now that I'm finding is in CD's only.

Money maket mutual funds are paying over 4%. Schwab's money market fund has a 7 day yield of about 4.48%. Not FDIC insured, but very safe. But it's not really a long term investment.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by Lizap

Agreed. At 62, at a minimum, the $ should be invested in balanced funds like Vanguard Wellesley or Wellington.

I second this.

[mathjak107]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

I second this.

I third it ….

I find 80% Wellesley and 20% gold are a pretty nice retirement mix and as simple as one can get and cover all the bases.

For more than 2 decades now despite the bond market having a great run , equities and gold have beaten equities and bonds over just about all time frames

[mathjak107]

For those interested

Playing around in portfolio visualizer. I threw in gld which goes back to 2007 and compared a 50/50. With vti and gld vs vti and a total bond fund bnd .

10k in each

Ran it until current

Starting in 2007 Vti gld 35,324 ,, vti bnd 26246

2010. Vti gold 29842. , vti bnd 25,838

2013. Vti gold 20,608 , vti bnd 20,150

2016. Vti gld 20142 , vti bnd 15,882

2020. Vti gld 13,010, vti bnd. 11,259

I was able to go back longer using an asset visualizer instead of exact funds

I used total U.S. stock market and gold , vs total U.S. stock market and total U.S. bond market in a 50/50 .

10k to current date

Starting in 1990. Market and gold 123,455, market and bonds 118,439

Starting in 1995 Market ,gold 100,757, market. , bonds 80,427

2000. Market gold 123,455. , market and bonds 118,435


So no question , gold which pays no interest has out performed bonds when used with equities.

The magic is the fact gold doesn’t sit static but when it has these spikes and hits rebalance points those spikes are harvested and used to buy more equities .

Gold can start and finish the year at the same spot yet have decent moves within a year so behavior in a portfolio is very different then sitting in isolation as a lump as the numbers above show

[mtndave]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

I second this.

Is there a similar fund for people who use Fidelity? Thanks

[mathjak107]

Not really ,Wellesley is unique.

It is 40/60