What to do with small savings account?
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Anonymous
| DH and I are both employed, USG and working overseas. We have a very small savings account of 100k. That's all we have saved (liquid) and max out our TSP contributions each year. What can (or should) we do w/ the money sitting in savings? We are totally ignorant on finances but have made it a goal to learn more and take control. We have two kids, no college savings yet. I would like to keep some of the money easy to access in case of an emergency. We have about 15k in checking. |
Anonymous
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You are going to get flamed for characterizing 115K cash as "very small."
Decide how much you feel comfortable with as an emergency fund, put that in a money market account, and invest the rest in a mutual fund. |
Anonymous
| OP here. PP, I don't know if I'll get flamed or not but it seems small in comparison to people on this board who are mega earners and have millions in savings/ investments. Keep in mind that my spouse and I are in our 40s and have zero plan for retirement or college savings with two young kids...so when I look at this figure and think that this is all we have in the world it feels small. Life is risky and one illness or loss of a spouse could devastate our situation. |
Anonymous
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If you have 115k in liquid savings and max out your TSP's you are in decent to good shape assuming you didn't start your TSP at 0k two years ago. Remember to include home equity in your retirement plans.
You have 15k in checking which is probably too much unless you need to be cutting 5k checks regularly. Checking - to pay stuff under say $500 in the right here and now. Keep maybe $3-4k in this one. Money market - money earning interest, protected somewhat if someone filches your ATM card number, access this maybe 1x a month or so for things like "vacation," "transmission falls out," "brother needs $10k bail money." This is where you'd keep your 3-6 months of emergency $$$. Consider any money taken from this as a loan that you need to pay back. I'd put the remaining money in 5-10 year maturity municipal bonds. No tax hassles, a decentish return, and they can be converted back into cash without too much of a problem (you might lose some of your principal, though, but you'd get it all back if you held to maturity.) |
Anonymous
The median total net worth for all employed Americans is about $55k. Something like 30% of Americans have no savings whatsoever. In addition to a cushion of $115k, you have TSP (which you max out, yet don't seem to consider as part of what you have), plus you have health insurance, stable jobs, and possibly a small pension. You really are better off than 90% or more of Americans. It's silly, at best, to compare yourself to people who post about spending $40k on vacations. Having said that, you need to consider what your risk tolerance is for that money. Is is emergency funds that you want to protect the principal, and have easy access to? If so, you might consider rolling it into ibonds, $20k a year, or putting it in an internet bank account. Is a portion of it a long-term investment? If so, you might consider putting it into an indexed mutual fund, perhaps a "balanced" fund that invests in both stocks and bonds. You might want to visit the bogleheads forum, or the CNN/Money personal finance site ("Money 101"). |
Anonymous
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I would split off 6 months of living expenses, and put that in a Vanguard Money Market Fund.
Then, I would deposit the remainder in a few different places: Vanguard Total Stock Market Index If you are funding your kid's college, I would establish a 529 plan, and set-up a minimum deposit to establish the account, then begin contributing monthly an amount that feels comfortable to you. I like to have a sharebuilder account; periodically I use some chunks of money to purchase stocks I am interested in - the ones that do the best have generally been businesses I like and actually go to- Costco, Panera, Whole Foods. DH wanted a Tesla (last year) and we couldn't afford one, so we bought Tesla stock instead. That has one up about 300% since (and I'm sure will go back down). But in general, we like to do things like that we stock - buy the stock instead of the product if we can't do the product . |
Anonymous
1) to say that $100K is a "very small" savings is obnoxious 2) I hate to give a shitty person like you advice, but I would put it all into prepaid college tuition plans for both kids. That way, state tuition is paid in full, and the kids have the option to use those funds to go to a private university. |
Anonymous
| OP, how old are your kids? I'd probably start dumping money into 529s for them. You can get a tax write off depending what state you file taxes in and what state the 529 is in. I assume you have very little living expenses while overseas so you should be able to save a large chunk of money each month. If not, you are living beyond your means. How much longer are you guaranteed to be overseas? Do you have a house in the states? Do you plan to buy one? |
Anonymous
| Sorry, I stopped reading after the second sentence. This OP is pretty out-of-touch with reality and this is some sort of obnoxious fantasy troll. |
Anonymous
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PP, I'm real.
15:02: our kids are preschool age. We have a house in Arlington. 529s are a good idea. We don't know how much longer we'll be overseas. You are right that we may be living beyond our means which is why I'm concerned about how to protect this nest egg that we've built. I didn't realize until this conversation that this amount would be considered abnormal since I know what the COL is in the DC area I see this money as a pittance. It terrifies me to think of entering my 60s without a lot of money socked away for retirement. I guess I've learned by this thread that although we don't have any real understanding of financing and budgeting that I'm risk adverse...maybe that's why we've avoided learning. We had many, many, many years of struggling with cash through grad school and working for non-profits. We're debt free except for the house. Thanks for the good advice, everyone and also the reality check from 08:20. I had no idea! |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Some perspective here. $100K in a savings account is not small, it is huge - for a savings account. But if that savings account the ENTIRE AMOUNT of savings a couple who have both been working a few years has, then the amount does in fact start to look small, especially knowing that college expenses will come up, as well as an eventual retirement.
You say that you are a tandem couple working overseas for the USG. That makes it easy to save, since your housing overseas is paid for. Consider getting another rental property here next time you are back. Or if you don't want to do that, at least diversify your portfolio. Instead of all in a savings account, put some good dividend-paying stocks for a higher return. |