Where to keep a large savings cushion/emergency fund

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I need to keep ours in an account NOT linked to my checking.... too tempting to dip into.

Me too. I am one of the ING posters. I have several revolving 6 month CDs that I've put my emergency savings into. So there's a real penalty to me if I withdraw it. I'm much less likely to pull it out for some stupid reason. And if it's truly an emergency, the penalty is the last thing on my mind.

This is exactly what we have done, too. We do mix some shorter term and longer term CDs. CDs make the money untouchable (in my mind at least) except for a true emergency, but we have enough revolving that it wouldn't be difficult to access money when needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Me too. I am one of the ING posters. I have several revolving 6 month CDs that I've put my emergency savings into. So there's a real penalty to me if I withdraw it. I'm much less likely to pull it out for some stupid reason. And if it's truly an emergency, the penalty is the last thing on my mind.

This is exactly what we have done, too. We do mix some shorter term and longer term CDs. CDs make the money untouchable (in my mind at least) except for a true emergency, but we have enough revolving that it wouldn't be difficult to access money when needed.

We do the same. ING makes this really convenient, so we've stuck with it. Other online banks probably do the same, but I haven't tried any yet.

We also have an account with DiscoverBank.

[Anonymous]

ING for us.

[Anonymous]

what is ING?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what is ING?

I'm curious too. . .

[Anonymous]

Not to be too snarky but if you google "ING" you will see that it is an internet bank.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what is ING?

I'm curious too. . .

Sounds like a commercial ... it's INGDIRECT.COM. I believe it was originally a Dutch bank.

[Anonymous]

I'm embarrassed to say that ours is in a money market mutual fund earning diddly squat. That's because it's easy to write checks on it and to invest some of it when we have excess. I'd love to be earning even 1% on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not to be too snarky but if you google "ING" you will see that it is an internet bank.

ahh, I did do that. thanks, but it was snarky. was hoping people could provide a little personal context around what was evident on the internet.

[Anonymous]

ING was one of the first really user-friendly internet banks. The interest rates on their savings accounts used to be really high... like 1 or 1.5% higher than you could get with ANY other flexible, no-risk account. I don't know how it compares anymore, but that's why so many people have an account. It's very easy to use, and higher rates than the rest (at least historically).

[Anonymous]

I have 70K in emergency savings. We keep about 45K in ING, the rest in SmartyPig.

[Anonymous]

Second Smartypig- best rates - but, can't keep more than 50K or the rates swoop down. So they other amounts we have in emergency savings is in a HY Savings account at Chevy Chase (now Capital One).

BTW, we have about $150K in emergency - but that's because I may lose my job at the end of the year, so we are socking as much as possible away.

[Anonymous]

Holy shitballs, last two posters, way to depress me!

We have about 70K in my non 401K investments that we could dip into, but only if necessary. Some of this money is tied up in a trust controlled by DH's parents, so that would really make us think twice about dipping in casually! (Uh, Dad, I'm going to need 5K for a new couch and carpet...)

Meantime, we have about 15K in a savings account that I consider our emergency fund. We live simply, have a low mortgage, HHI of 140K and a healthy 401K and no debt other than mortgage and maybe 4K in car payments to make...but this thread is making me think I should start clipping coupons!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Holy shitballs, last two posters, way to depress me!

We have about 70K in my non 401K investments that we could dip into, but only if necessary. Some of this money is tied up in a trust controlled by DH's parents, so that would really make us think twice about dipping in casually! (Uh, Dad, I'm going to need 5K for a new couch and carpet...)

Meantime, we have about 15K in a savings account that I consider our emergency fund. We live simply, have a low mortgage, HHI of 140K and a healthy 401K and no debt other than mortgage and maybe 4K in car payments to make...but this thread is making me think I should start clipping coupons!

I'm the 70K e-fund PP. You have 70K not tied up in a 401k, so what's the difference? The only other assets we have are about 115K in retirement that we can't get into without paying penalties, 2 paid for cars worth about 18K, and about 40K equity in our house. Same HHI. No parental trust, unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I'm the 70K e-fund PP. You have 70K not tied up in a 401k, so what's the difference? The only other assets we have are about 115K in retirement that we can't get into without paying penalties, 2 paid for cars worth about 18K, and about 40K equity in our house. Same HHI. No parental trust, unfortunately.

LOL. Well, our parental trust was VERY small (less than 20K) and we spent most of that when we bought our home and needed a little bit more than what we'd saved for our downpayment to make it to 20 percent. Instead of opening up another investment portfolio (since we are financial know-nothings) we started socking our savings into the preexisting account that DH's dad manages. He still manages it, and that's fine with us. It's a bit enfantalizing, but at this point we don't have the energy or real need to move it up here to have a stranger manage it just for the sake of independencing ourselves. But yeah, every once in a while I think we should grow up... BTW when I say healthy 401K, I guess I mean "not empty." We aren't maxing out, which I know is bad. Again, maybe I should clip coupons!