Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Goldman Sachs Marcus Account. All online and 2.25, although their CDs are higher.

If you have trust for young children, avoid banks like Goldman and Capital One. They do not allow trustee as beneficiary. Instead look at Barclays, Ally, Synchrony, PenFed CU, Alliant CU. They have competitive rates and allow trustee as beneficiary.

This is important to know! Capital does not even have a way to designate TOD beneficiary.

Anonymous wrote:Ally is super easy to use and has good interest rates. I also like to put some of our e-fund in i-bonds (currently pays 2.8% but rate adjusts every six months and money need to stay there at least a year)

I second this. i-bonds are perfect as a longer-term part of the emergency fund since they are inflation protected.

Anonymous wrote:I recommend Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund (VMFXX). Open a Vanguard brokerage account if you don't have one yet.

2.4%, which is exempt from state income taxes.

https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-funds/profile/VMFXX

It's 2.36% now, according to Vanguard, but it also has a .11% fee, which means you might be better off with an Ally no-penalty CD (paying 2.3 percent for deposits of $25,000 or more) or even a regular Ally savings account (paying 2.2 percent with no minimums), since there's absolutely no risk involved. The state tax exemption on the interest with the Vanguard fund might give it better returns overall, I guess, but none of these options seems bad.

We sort of spread things around:
1. We keep around 1k in cash at home for true immediate emergencies as well as a number of high limit credit cards on which we never carry a balance.
2.We keep a 2k cushion in our checking account so autopay mistakes etc. don't give us a headache/create fees but also available in a pinch on a moment's notice.
3. We keep 10k at Ally bank at 2.2% interest--it's easy, consistently has good rates, FDIC insured.
4. We maintain 30k in a vanguard prime mm brokerage account. This is for purchasing securities as we find good options, but also a secondary emergency fund. We replenish it to 30k after securities purchases asap.
5. We buy 10K of Ibonds each year as part emergency fund/part inflation hedge--very close to 3% right now I think.
6. We have cd's with varying terms for specific intended purchases/sinking funds that could be tapped.
7. We have short term bond investments in our investment portfolio that could be used as well--not very volatile.

I'm getting 2.3% from Northpointe Bank. I like it.

Anonymous wrote:Goldman Sachs Marcus Account. All online and 2.25, although their CDs are higher.

If you have trust for young children, avoid banks like Goldman and Capital One. They do not allow trustee as beneficiary. Instead look at Barclays, Ally, Synchrony, PenFed CU, Alliant CU. They have competitive rates and allow trustee as beneficiary.

Marcus is easy to use except that you can't connect it to mint.com if you use that for your finances.

CIT Bank. 2.421% (2.45% APY) with minimum $25k. Just opened an account myself.