Bogleheads.org

^They are at least essentially the same thing. As #cruncher put it at the link below:

"There is a slight difference in the meaning of yield for a Treasury note and the Annual Percentage Yield (APY) of a CD. But it's not enough of a difference to worry about."

viewtopic.php?p=6890787#p6890787

The guaranteed reinvestment rate does eliminate that risk, but that's a different issue from the yield.

^Why would you need a calculator? I'd just compare the YTMs to the APY for the bank CD.

Treasury coupons (if any) are paid in cash, just like brokered CDs.

For a treasury that has been sold, am I correct in assuming that the YTM shown on the confirmation is based on the price (and accrued interest) that I got? Meaning that had I kept the treasury, the YTM shown is the yield I would have earned for the remaining term, assuming the current value was what it sold for. The YTM probably is simply calculated from the price. You received the bid price. Whether or not the indicated YTM is what you would have earned depends on what price you want to base you yield calculation on. If you want to use the bid price, then yes, but that's not what you'd pay if you bought the Treasury--you'd pay the ask price. You might want to calculate the yield based on the midpoint between the ask and bid, assuming that...

Bottom Line: Buying a new bill to replace a maturing bill before the maturity date worked...at Vanguard. Again nothing showed up until the day after the maturity date. I tested the same deal with Fidelity. I couldn't make it work. Fidelity wouldn't budge until the funds were in my settlement account. It appears that works at Schwab also, based on #cruncher's post here: https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6983276#p6983276 ...I haven't tested a manual rollover at Schwab with funds from a T-bill that hasn't matured by the auction date. I'll be interested to hear how it goes. Manual rollover at Schwab worked for me with no days uninvested. I had an 8-week bill maturing 11/29/2022. I was able to buy a new 8-week at the 11/23/2022 a...

For a treasury that has been sold, am I correct in assuming that the YTM shown on the confirmation is based on the price (and accrued interest) that I got? Meaning that had I kept the treasury, the YTM shown is the yield I would have earned for the remaining term, assuming the current value was what it sold for.

Good analysis jeffyscott -- Is the CD you bought Brokered or Retail...? I like the EWP feature of Retail, but Brokered appear to have higher yields at the moment..., Is liquidity an issue with brokered CD's....? (I'm still a brokered-virgin) Do you (or anyone else), have any experience trying to sell brokered CD's in a bad market like 2008....? Brokered CD and yes, they are not very liquid. I have never sold one and don't plan to. Having now sold a couple treasuries, I can see that one kind of hidden advantage to consider, if buying when spreads vs. CDs are small, is that they are easy to sell if the spread vs. CDs later widens. It's pretty cheap and easy to move from a treasury to a CD, but not the reverse. EWP feature is nice, but shippi...

Good analysis jeffyscott -- Is the CD you bought Brokered or Retail...? I like the EWP feature of Retail, but Brokered appear to have higher yields at the moment..., Is liquidity an issue with brokered CD's....? (I'm still a brokered-virgin) Do you (or anyone else), have any experience trying to sell brokered CD's in a bad market like 2008....? Brokered CD and yes, they are not very liquid. I have never sold one and don't plan to. Having now sold a couple treasuries, I can see that one kind of hidden advantage to consider, if buying when spreads vs. CDs are small, is that they are easy to sell if the spread vs. CDs later widens. It's pretty cheap and easy to move from a treasury to a CD, but not the reverse. EWP feature is nice, but shippi...

^ Well, I was only commenting on what I think is something like 3-3.5% inflation required to break-even with TIPS vs. CDs (in an IRA account), given that the market appears to be forecasting something close to 2%, based on treasuries/TIPS. TIPS over treasuries would be an easy choice for me, but not so much vs. CDs Well, if the Fed got inflation down to 3% within a year, and assuming it was a steady, linear decline, that would still mean an average inflation of approx. 3.9% over the course of the year on your investment. 3.9% plus 1.6% YTM= 5.5%, correct? And the inflation protection has to be worth something to you. Even if the market gets it right (which is a big "if") and they do get inflation down to 2% (or lower), you would ...

^ Well, I was only commenting on what I think is something like 3-3.5% inflation required to break-even with TIPS vs. CDs (in an IRA account), given that the market appears to be forecasting something close to 2%, based on treasuries/TIPS. TIPS over treasuries would be an easy choice for me, but not so much vs. CDs

Does Schwab allow you to enter the auction purchase order in those circumstances, no cash and no margin, but with a maturing Treasury?

If they do, then I would guess that it should be okay. I think a test of that was reported on here:
viewtopic.php?p=6983276#p6983276

Anyone migrating back towards Brokerage CDs from Treasuries now that they seem to offer better rates across the spectrum? I'd put just a little in CDs recently, taking funds from short term bond index fund and money market. This question made me think about taking the plunge and actually selling treasuries to buy CDs, I have never sold any before (never have sold anything other than mutual funds before). I sold a treasury with about a year to maturity that would have earned about 4.7% and bought a CD earning 5.35%. I also extended maturity by about 6 months, though I could've gotten the same CD rate at 1 year. I got $9582 for the treasury that would have been worth $10K at maturity 3/15/24, plus two more coupons at 0.25%. So would have had...

Anyone migrating back towards Brokerage CDs from Treasuries now that they seem to offer better rates across the spectrum? I'd put just a little in CDs recently, taking funds from short term bond index fund and money market. This question made me think about taking the plunge and actually selling treasuries to buy CDs, I have never sold any before (never have sold anything other than mutual funds before). I sold a treasury with about a year to maturity that would have earned about 4.7% and bought a CD earning 5.35%. I also extended maturity by about 6 months, though I could've gotten the same CD rate at 1 year. I got $9582 for the treasury that would have been worth $10K at maturity 3/15/24, plus two more coupons at 0.25%. So would have had...

Anyone migrating back towards Brokerage CDs from Treasuries now that they seem to offer better rates across the spectrum? Thanks! I didn't realize this. When I consider that there are no state taxes on the treasuries, the shorter bills pan out about the same as CDs. The 3 year CDs are paying 1% more which beats the 3 year treasurys even when considering state taxes. Everyone already knows to watch out for callable CD offerings. I’m seeing Schwab at around 5.3% for a year. But based on my past experience, it’s much harder to sell a CD before maturity. I’m not sure I want to give up liquidity for slightly better yields. I’m planning to buy 3 month t bills next week. Yes, CDs are not things you want to try to sell. Testing the liquidity of th...

Anyone migrating back towards Brokerage CDs from Treasuries now that they seem to offer better rates across the spectrum? I'd put just a little in CDs recently, taking funds from short term bond index fund and money market. This question made me think about taking the plunge and actually selling treasuries to buy CDs, I have never sold any before (never have sold anything other than mutual funds before). I sold a treasury with about a year to maturity that would have earned about 4.7% and bought a CD earning 5.35%. I also extended maturity by about 6 months, though I could've gotten the same CD rate at 1 year. I got $9582 for the treasury that would have been worth $10K at maturity 3/15/24, plus two more coupons at 0.25%. So would have had...

It appears this is something new for VUSXX, since last year it reported 100% of income was from US government obligations. I just found a great data tool for MMF Repo statistics. From the Office of Financial Research: https://www.financialresearch.gov/money-market-funds/us-mmfs-repos-with-the-federal-reserve/ this can drill down and show participation levels in the various Repo markets to various levels of detail. It is clear from looking at Vanguard Fund level data on the US Treasury Repo market that VUSXX only started in this market in a significant way in the past 90 days. BTW, this data appears to be an aggregation of the monthly fund reports to EDGAR. Took a while to figure it out, but got there eventually. They show 0 going all the w...

Booogle wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 6:27 am

Wiggums wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 6:26 am VUSXX is the safest because of its pure T-Bills composition and state and local tax exempt.

VMFXX is second safest, but the composition is not a pure US treasury play.

This article disagrees with that:

https://www.fitchratings.com/research/f ... 22-02-2023

Perhaps this is why VUSXX now has 24% in repurchase agreements?

It appears this is something new for VUSXX, since last year it reported 100% of income was from US government obligations.

I think the history is that vmrxx was a prime money market and a couple years ago vanguard decided to no longer offer a prime money market and converted it to a federal money market. For whatever reason they didn't merge the prime money market into the existing VMFXX.

I think at the same time they also merged investor and admiral share classes of money market funds.

busdriver11 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 10:08 pm But I think if I present the risk of having over 250K there, she may be less comfortable, and be willing to change something.

Maybe present the cost of this as well . For example having $250K earning 2%, when it could be safely earning 4.5-5% in T-bills or a treasury money market fund is costing her 2.5-3% per year. That comes to $6000-$7500 per year or maybe call it $500-$600 per month. So effectively as if the $250K bank account has a $500-600 monthly fee.

Fidelity has a good auto roll system for T-bills. Vanguard has the best (cheapest) treasury money market fund. And I would say that Schwab has the best fraud protection, at least it seemed so 5 years ago based on this:
viewtopic.php?t=257429

Why do you think that is safer? I would start first by checking the “shadow NAV” of each fund. Not just me look at the outflows/inflows for these two funds today -3.3B and +2B so maybe lot more people think SNSXX is safer and I dont know what is shadow NAV :) I am guessing shadow NAV is the same as market NAV. It was $1.0001 on 3/16. Well, no. The NAV was $1.0000. That is the point. You always buy and sell at $1.0000 even when the Net Asset Value is not $1.0000. On this case it looks like the fund is slightly overfunded, which is a good sign. Schwab lists a "Market-Based NAV" of $1.0001 https://www.schwabassetmanagement.com/products/swvxx Presumably this is what the true NAV would be, if it weren't artificially held to $1. Is thi...

imbogled wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 8:47 am

jeffyscott wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 8:02 am I think you can find that here: http://eyebonds.info/tips/hist/tips47hista.html

If I understand correctly, that is showing a YTM of 1.96% if you bought at the first issue date and held to maturity. That would account the purchase price of $1,075.06, all coupon payments, and the value at maturity of $1,290.50.

Thanks to all for quick and helpful replies. So, for $100,000 is it as simple as multiplying 100?

I understand that things will be different for the future. I was just wondering in general how that particular time period panned out.

Multiplying by $100, would make initial principal invested about $107,500.

They auctioned at a premium to the $1000 face value. That's why real yield was negative.

Of course it would not be a bill, but there could be a coupon paying note or bond with ~1 year remaining to maturity.

Notes and bonds pay interest every 6 months, so if there were one selling for $950 with a 0.5% coupon, you would get coupon payment(s) of $2.50 and the $1000 face value (along with the final coupon payment) at maturity.

I think you can find that here: http://eyebonds.info/tips/hist/tips47hista.html

If I understand correctly, that is showing a YTM of 1.96% if you bought at the first issue date and held to maturity. That would account the purchase price of $1,075.06, all coupon payments, and the value at maturity of $1,290.50.

Why do you think that is safer? I would start first by checking the “shadow NAV” of each fund. Not just me look at the outflows/inflows for these two funds today -3.3B and +2B so maybe lot more people think SNSXX is safer and I dont know what is shadow NAV :) At the very least, maybe you're helping Schwab in their present difficulties by saving them a little bit in their interest payments. (I moved a little bit myself, after checking at their portfolios on the mutual fund comparison on the Schwab site.) Schwab gets 0.34% per year in either case, the ER is the same for SNSXX and SWVXX. The interest you get is not coming from Schwab, it is coming from the securities held by the fund, which is passed through to you (less the 0.34% ER). If any...

Schwab lets me effectively do exchanges of any mutual funds, while holding no cash (and no margin). I can do this by entering separate buy and sell orders. I also can, for example, enter an order to sell a mutual fund and then enter an order to buy a CD (again this is with no cash and no margin) with the anticipated proceeds. I can not do that on E-trade (nor Vanguard, Fidelity). Will Schwab permit me to exchange one money market fund for another without waiting for a sell to settle before making the buy? Do you mean you want to exchange one money market fund for another money market fund? If so, since money market is just a variety of mutual fund, it should be no different than any other. But, AFAIK, Schwab offers only Schwab money market...

^No COLA probably means you should strongly favor TIPS over nominals.

Your employer offering the subsidy for the 50% option is nice. It's unfortunate that they take that away if you choose the 100% survivor benefit, though. Based on the 4% discount rate figures that #cruncher posted, it appears that it would effectively cost $58,000 to buy that extra protection.

Schwab lets me effectively do exchanges of any mutual funds, while holding no cash (and no margin). I can do this by entering separate buy and sell orders. I also can, for example, enter an order to sell a mutual fund and then enter an order to buy a CD (again this is with no cash and no margin) with the anticipated proceeds. I can not do that on E-trade (nor Vanguard, Fidelity). Will Schwab permit me to exchange one money market fund for another without waiting for a sell to settle before making the buy? Do you mean you want to exchange one money market fund for another money market fund? If so, since money market is just a variety of mutual fund, it should be no different than any other. But, AFAIK, Schwab offers only Schwab money market...

It really comes down to Schwab vs E*Trade. Schwab: - doesn't have as good cash management options - mutual funds are expensive to buy - has foreign ATM and debit transactions refunds - excellent customer service E*Trade - has pretty good cash management - a lot mutual funds are free to buy and sell - does not have debit card that refunds foreign transactions and ATMs. - customer service not as top notch as Schwab To be clear, all (available) mutual funds are now free at E-trade. No transaction fees on any that they offer and also no early redemption fees. Since I prefer mutual funds, this would be a big advantage to E-trade, if I didn't have a waiver for Vanguard, Fidelity, and Dodge and Cox at Schwab (I also assume that I could probably g...

It strikes me that at a time of high inflation claiming early is not as bad as it would otherwise appear— and especially since there is no immediate COLA. ETA: obv we don’t know the inflation rate in five years so this is more of a thought experiment. FWIW, based on TIPS/nominal spread for 5 year, the market expectation is about 2.1% inflation over the next 5 years. The pension has no COLA for the first ten years based on current rules. Does that mean that if she takes it at 55, the COLAs start when she is 65, but if she waits until she is 60 the COLAs would start when she is 70? (Not that I have any idea how that would impact the decision :mrgreen: ) Even a 12% reduction is not that bad ($6k). The break even point for a 12% reduction is 8...

I highly recommend checking out freetaxusa. In 2021 I bought the offline version of H&R Block and found it so terrible that I ended up looking for other solutions. I discovered freetaxusa, which I found significantly better. The interface is far more intuitive and easier to navigate. You can check the filled in pdf tax forms at any time, so it's more clear what's actually happening as you enter data. The free cash app tax (formerly credit karma) also let's you see pdf of forms at any time. Is that not a feature of tax software that people actually pay to use? Cash app tax handled rollovers and Roth conversions for us with no issues. Free to file both federal and state. The only minor issue for me was that it has an odd way of dealing w...

I highly recommend checking out freetaxusa. In 2021 I bought the offline version of H&R Block and found it so terrible that I ended up looking for other solutions. I discovered freetaxusa, which I found significantly better. The interface is far more intuitive and easier to navigate. You can check the filled in pdf tax forms at any time, so it's more clear what's actually happening as you enter data. The free cash app tax (formerly credit karma) also let's you see pdf of forms at any time. Is that not a feature of tax software that people actually pay to use? Cash app tax handled rollovers and Roth conversions for us with no issues. Free to file both federal and state. The only minor issue for me was that it has an odd way of dealing w...

Can you actually buy an annuity that would make up the difference for less than $835 monthly difference? The 20 years of insurance doesn't seem long enough, unless it's expected that the extra money would not really needed by your spouse after 20 years.

How does your spouse feel about the prospect of managing a (larger) pile of money vs. getting a larger monthly check? Mine strongly preferred the latter, so I chose 100% survivor.

All options were supposed to be actuarially equal, except that the retiree's sex was not considered, of course. That fact meant there was a small extra benefit when a male retiree with a female spouse chose the largest survivor benefit and small penalty for the opposite due to life expectancy differences.

^Does the transaction history show the transaction being "as of" the 16th or something like that?

I've seen that sort of thing, but only with mutual funds, at Schwab a few times.

snowblinded wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 10:05 pm Given Schwab stock is down nearly 40% in three trading days makes me wonder about their money market funds.

Why?

The money market funds are not investing in Schwab stock.

alex_686 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 7:59 am

jeffyscott wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 7:52 am

alex_686 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 5:16 amThere is a reason why settlement periods used to be 21 days and a stock trade was $100.

You meant 100 shares, of course...a round lot.

No, I meant $100 per trade. And yeah, I worked at a full service brokerage after trade commissions were deregulated. But still, trade commissions were high because you did have to shuffle paperwork.

Oh so you were referring to the commission, not the amount of stock that could be traded.

alex_686 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 5:16 amThere is a reason why settlement periods used to be 21 days and a stock trade was $100.

You meant 100 shares, of course...a round lot.

You might take a look at the Vanguard Brokerage versus Mutual Fund Account Decision thread:

viewtopic.php?p=6852567#p6852567

I'm pretty sure that you can't buy a Vanguard money market fund at Fidelity (or vice versa).

The difference of 1.99% vs. 2% for taking statement credits vs. bank deposit amounts to $10 for every $100,000 charged to the card. While I do take it as a bank deposit, it's really not worth worrying about, IMO. I'd just do it whichever way seems most convenient to you.

Also earned income is not a requirement for HSA contributions:
https://www.kiplinger.com/article/insur ... n-hsa.html

The requirements are listed here: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p969#e ... 1000204025

rockstar wrote: ↑Fri Mar 10, 2023 3:53 pm FDIC has a history of paying. But banks do fail. Don’t put in more than insured. It’s not hard to put money in 1 month rolling t-bills. Of course, if the treasury defaults, it will be much worse than the GFC, so it’s a reasonable risk. SIPC doesn’t have a good history, nor is it funded like the FDIC. Pick your poison.

Not sure why companies don't do that, buy T-bills or a treasury money market fund, rather that having millions in a single bank, far beyond the $250K limit.

You can just make the contributions yourself and deduct them.

I'm not a retired fed, but am retired, collecting a pension, and deducting HSA contributions each year. For us this increases our Roth conversions as it provides a little more space in the 12% bracket.

^ Yes, only the US Treasury money fund is exempt from state income taxes.

https://www.schwabassetmanagement.com/r ... nformation

As you can see at the link, in 2022 the government money and Treasury obligations funds each got only about 20% of income from direct US government obligations. Since CA has a minimum threshold, there's no exempt income. For most states a portion would be exempt.

For those with Platinum Honors and who use the customized cash card for occasional travel, how broad is travel defined? Do Airbnb and VRBO code as travel? We don't travel much but I am looking for a card with better travel cash back benefits than our US Bank Altitude Connect. No AF would be nice! Not what you asked, but I recently used a Citi Costco card for a VRBO deposit and it was categorized as hotel/lodging and earned 3%. Part of the charge came directly from Vacasa and that also qualified for 3%. I would assume if they are hotels/lodging for one Visa they are that for all. (Immediately after I had used that card without thinking about it much, I'd thought it was a mistake as I think VRBO and similar had not earned 3% for previous pur...

martha wrote: ↑Thu Mar 09, 2023 8:44 pmWe will be moving a VOYA 401k to a Fidelity Rollover IRA -- so two different custodians.

You might want to check into doing the rollover at Voya and then transferring the IRA to Fidelity. Doing it that way, you may be able to avoid being out of the market (and also avoid the mailing around of checks).

My spouse did that with T. Rowe and Schwab. Rolled to IRA at T. Rowe and then as soon as that was done, she transferred the IRA in-kind to Schwab (with a bonus).

^Ah, US Cellular, the forgotten network operator. I guess with Sprint gone, they now operate the 4th largest network in the US.

I bought some of the 2053 TIPS at auction in mid Feb and am looking to add some more. Now that they have settled on 2/28/23, I do see them on Fidelity secondary market. However, for the past 2 days, I've seen very limited bids/asks with only quantity of 50 or 75. Does it generally take time for the depth of book to fill in like the rest of the TIPS? That's a great question. Market is closed, but what I see now is no depth of book at all. Just min qty 50. Let's take a look tomorrow. Looks like Vanguard and Fidelity have a pretty shallow book right now, with min quantities of 50. Schwab is much better, offering the almost ask price for min-quantity of 1, and a better bid price. Yes, the Schwab price difference for 1 vs. 50 is so small it's a...

^ Regarding that choice, I found an email from last Oct that says, in part:

You chose to receive your Settlement payment via check. The Settlement Administrator can now offer you the ability to receive your payment electronically via PayPal or pre-paid card. If you would like to switch your payment selection to electronic payment via PayPal or pre-paid card rather than a physical check, please click here.

If you do not want to change your payment selection of check, you do not need to do anything. If we don’t hear from you by October 14, 2022, your payment will be sent to you by check.

^Thanks for explaining why closing only the mutual fund door wouldn't work.

Obviously, I have learned that in the future, remove ALL payment methods from PayPal except for the one you want to use. Yes, and the last few times I switched cards, there was an additional annoying step to take, removing "pay with points", which PayPal had automatically enabled. I got an offer from Citi to get 5% via PayPal. I clicked to enable that, but then realized it'll require too much adding and removing of cards to be worth bothering with unless we have a large purchase (I already get 5% on utility payments with US Bank). We're spending a few hundred at Home Depot and Lowes this quarter, but since Chase and Discover are 5% on groceries, Custom Cash is giving me 5% at home improvement stores, without the need to involve P...

Schwab Value Advantage Money Fund® – Investor Shares (SWVXX) 4.48% yield 0.34% ER Schwab Government Money Fund – Investor Shares (SNVXX) 4.16% yield 0.34% ER Schwab Treasury Obligations Money Fund – Investor Shares (SNOXX) 4.26% yield 0.34% ER Schwab U.S. Treasury Money Fund – Investor Shares (SNSXX) 4.07% yield 0.34% ER Schwab U.S. Treasury Money Fund – Ultra Shares (SUTXX) 4.22% yield 0.34% ER What is the risk of the prime vs Gov't MM? I know Gov't is more heavily in tbills...but what is my real risk vs. prime? Very high? From my reading SNSXX seemed the safest as most heavily tbills. It's a shame those expense ratios are so high. I hear they are lower on Vanguard MM funds, but my investments are all at Schwab. I'm looking for immediate ...