FatFreddie said:Good for you. Stick to your guns and do what works & feels best for you. Being "typical" won't make you wealthy. And don't let the 'must be heavily in equities at all times' Suzie Orman wannabees make you feel dumb, especially when you didn't solicit their advice to begin with.
Thanks, I have a saying that I follow, "You need the equities market to make your fortune and then the banks to keep it" May not be right for all but has worked just fine for me

whodini said:scott1961 - are you able to live off $20k/yr in interest if your house is paid off? If not, what's the minimum? How do you obtain health insurance?
My drop dead min is $90k/yr to live. House is paid off and no other debt. My wife is an RN who I made stop working 8 years ago to be a stay at home mom when our child was born. She wants to work again and the opportunities are endless for an experienced RN. She plans on working about 20hrs a week which would get us healthcare

76hhma said:You need to figure out how much you would need for comfortable retirement and work backward. The long-term stock market direction is up and you have 21 years to retirement. You should have 55% - 65% in equity. Sorry for OT.There you go again. What gives you the authority to tell anyone what they "should have"? Your advice could very well turn out to be terrible. Markets go down too, and can go down for very long periods of time. From 1966 - 1982 for example, the market went nowhere, and one actually lost big money if they were heavily invested at that time since inflation was running 10 - 15%/year.

There are some who believe a secular bear market began with the bubble popping in 2000, and the recent 2+ year rally is but a dead cat bounce within the longer-term downward trend.

Can it really be so simple that if everyone just blindly puts their $ in "the market" they surely won't lose money, and will outpace inflation and other investments? To a stockbroker, or others who make their money from commissions and other fees convincing others to "invest", it is.

scott1961 said: I have an account right now that pays the 1-Month Libor rate and that greatly simplifies rate chasing as it stays just ahead of our FED rate. As of right now it's about 4.63% and is a totally liquid checking account.

Can you share what institution is this and does it have any restrictions ie. locality?
On the OT discussion, agree w/ the observation that 'typical' asset alloc is just that 'typical'. If you have enough $$$$ and a matching budget then you can afford to be atypical if that's what rocks your boat. For ex. 2.5 millions asset @ 4% will get you 100K before tax and depending on your situation you still can pay little tax on that to net out a comfortable middle class lifestyle. And then for 10+ million and a reasonable lifestyle do you really have to have any equity allocation at all if you don't want any????

stfs said:scott1961 said: I have an account right now that pays the 1-Month Libor rate and that greatly simplifies rate chasing as it stays just ahead of our FED rate. As of right now it's about 4.63% and is a totally liquid checking account.

Can you share what institution is this and does it have any restrictions ie. locality?

The account is Salem Fives Platinum Cash account. I posted it here right after it was offered but most thought it was not worth it. They got such a big response that they quickly changed it for new accounts to Libor rate minus a 1/2 point, Which did ruin it but anyone who already had it gets full rate.
link

didYOUsearch,

What's your basis for considering 25k as the cutoff point for high? For instance, I don't consider 25k particularly high. Apparently, the average ED account has 30k in it (source) so 25k is actually below that average. Why not 50k? 75k?

tylr said:Thanks for creating the thread. I would find it very useful.

Added Stearns Bank although 4.41% is below Superior Savings, it has 4 individually chartered banks so it maybe of interest to those w/ high balance but don't want to deal w/ multiple banks in order to maintain FDIC insurance protection.
Some other items, should this list also include high balance&HY short-term CDs (3-6 months) as well as liquid accounts? Personally I would find the addl info useful. Also how about accounts that do not have FDIC/NCUA/ESI insurance?I think the Stearns option for expanded FDIC and other short term accts/CDs are great topics here, all relevant to those with large deposits/// thanks for your additions!

scott1961 said: I have an account right now that pays the 1-Month Libor rate and that greatly simplifies rate chasing as it stays just ahead of our FED rate. As of right now it's about 4.63% and is a totally liquid checking account. Makes it a great account to use for bill paying and linking as you get that interest right up till the last second

(Could you share with us, which bank pays 4.63%? thx.)

Edited
Got it. sorry i missed what has been written.

scott1961 said:whodini said:scott1961 - are you able to live off $20k/yr in interest if your house is paid off? If not, what's the minimum? How do you obtain health insurance?
My drop dead min is $90k/yr to live. House is paid off and no other debt. My wife is an RN who I made stop working 8 years ago to be a stay at home mom when our child was born. She wants to work again and the opportunities are endless for an experienced RN. She plans on working about 20hrs a week which would get us healthcare

Wow, if I calculate back with 4.63% intereat, that means you have accumulated at least USD2million and perhaps more. Congrats. what line of business? or what kind of profession?

I'm self employed, so my income stream is not predictable or regular. Big checks coming in but irregularly. I may have $50K in my account or only $10K. I try to keep $10K to avoid the fees at BoA for going below that. Its in an account called Interest Checking. I like it cuz I can do online transfers to my checking before I pay my home bills. I need the checking part to pay a few business related bills. (I had a separate checking account for the business but I closed it because I was only writing a few checks - I don't have that many bills to pay for the business- and it charged fees)

Forgot to say, I'm in NJ. Also, I need something to be easy....Don't have a lot of time - I'd rather spend it working and making money.


Any suggestions?