Where are you putting your emergency cash stash?

[Whakamole]

For a while I've been keeping it in an ING account... but I'm getting tired of the hidden inflation we're seeing devaluing it.

Thinkin' about I-bonds (at least I wouldn't pay tax unless I needed the money and cashed them in)... or short-term corporates...

well?

[trumpeting_angel]

I'm in ING, too. If I were going to change, it would have to be for a compellingly higher interest rate, or to another vehicle equally as simple to use. I love moving money around with only a few clicks of the mouse.

Anne

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I keep about 10-20k in my credit unions "limited money market". It pays 2.5% and can be withdrawn from once a month for free, $25 a withdrawal after that (big whoop).

The rest of my short-intermediate money is in my short term corporate bond account. All my taxable funds (Wellesley, japan, europe indexes) pay their distributions out into the short term corp fund, which also reinvests dividends.

When my checking account runs low, I pull a distribution out of the limited money market. When that goes below 10k I pull another 10k out of the short term corp. The other funds keep pumping that full of money.

Anything big that I dont want to pull cash from my vanguard account, I'll use my HELOC for and pay that back in a month or two or three. So far nothing big and unexpected has happened.

[brewer12345]

I have been keeping cash at ING, but over the past year, I have tired of getting paid below inflation. So half of my emergency cash is in the ING savings account, half is in a 5 year CD there. I am getting pretty close to finding another 5 year CD with high yields, but this time I will be looking for one with lower surrender penalties. ING charges half of all interest credited, while other paces charge as little as 6 months worth of interest. I have also decided to set up a HELOC for "just in case" liquidity, but I don't ever expect to use it.

Psychologically, my "emergency" money is my credit cards. With lots of available credit and rates as low as
-0-, it's a good feeling.

John Galt

[Jane]

I looked at Canadian saving bonds and found them not very attractive so I put my short-term/emergency savings in ING for now. When interest rate starts inching up, I will look into bonds again.

When I was saving for my condo a few years ago, I wasn't very knowledgeable about investing and *I put the money in 1 year GIC and mortgage fund from my bank (my first mutual fund!). It was somewhat a beginner's luck that the mortgage fund was the only think rocketing up after 9/11. Everyone I know lost significant money (one guy was afraid to ever invest in the market ever again since he lost quite a bit - he was fully invested in some high-risk technology stocks). Now in hindsight, if I have to save a considerable amount of money for short-term I probably will put the money in GIC and saving account, instead of mutual fund.

Jane