This might be a LOL topic considering that the economy is ass right now, but I am planning on getting out of the service in about 2 years. Instead of just throwing my money in the bank and earning next to nothing and maintaining unneeded liquidity ( I have another account for incidentals anyway), where would be a good place to keep this money and earn a decent return...and yet be able to be gotten out when I need it once my tour of service is over?

Most would probably say CD's but they are only slightly better than just having it in the savings account.

With inflation as bad as it is, and only getting worse, check out I-Bonds.

Open a PayPal business account, it's paying around 3.5% right now. I kid not.

www.emigrantdirect.com has 3% savings and 4% 14 month CDs

*edit* their savings went from 3.5% to 3.0% :(

https://www.dollarsavingsdirect.com/ is 4% savings and currently "America's Highest Rate" according to them, but it has $1,000 minimum

I think USAA had some 3.6% stuff too. But their minimum deposit was outside of my range so I didn't read too much on it.

Pretty much buy ANYTHING right now... if you are looking for long term investment just buy and index fund and rake in the low prices ...... 10 years from now you will be sitting pretty..

He's only talking about two years. I wouldn't suggest putting money in the market for two years, right now. We might be at the bottom, but we also definitely might not be.

Oh yeah you are right.... i didn't read the title very well did i? :(

I still say a guaranteed 4% over 2 years is better than the potential losses of an I-Bond, but here's a good article on them from a few months ago: http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/block/2008-04-21-inflation-adjusted-bonds_N.htm

Can't lose money on I-Bonds. They floor at 0, in the case of deflation. Long as we're printing trillions for these bailouts, I can't imagine inflation will do anything but increase though anyway.

I think you can lose on TIPS, but those aren't the same.

The only thing about I-Bonds is that you forfeit 3 months of interest if you cash out before five years. 21 months at 4.83% earns (slightly more) than 24 months at 4% though, and that gap obviously keeps widening the longer you keep it invested.

None of us are financial planners though. Advise from the Internet may or may not be more useful than that from the astrology section of a newspaper.

Advise from financial planners is usually about as good as the astrology section as well. Probably your best bet is finding whatever tax-exempt bonds are available, but short term there probably are capital growth opportunities ... just few and hard to guess.

http://seekingalpha.com/ usually has decent suggestions.

True Sanchek, I was counting the extra 4% interest you are guaranteed as the loss. There is so much talk about "strengthening" the dollar as of late, that I am not sure we'll see inflation as rampant over the next 2 years as we have. Who the hell knows, though. If it was an absolute, everyone would be doing it.

With a CD, $1,000 with 4% interest is a safe bet - won't make you rich, but you know for sure how much money you have after the year is over.

If you look closer at that "strengthening" of the dollar, it's an illusion. You see people measuring it against the cost of over-supplied oil or other falling currencies, and calling it strong.

Yet, if you look simply at the change in the money supply, where it's headed is pretty obvious.

The short term investements I see everyone talking about here just seem to be a vehicle to stuff away your money in a guaranteed haven where you eek out a meesly 4%. If you want to go conservative then this is definatly the route, but it won't do much for your bottom line when they mature, they will just keep your money safe during a volitile time.

I ALWAYS think long term with investments. I use some short term vehicles like GICs (Canada) and a 3.4% ING account to keep a certain amount of money liquid and semi liquid.

But the rest goes into long term.

Over the last couple of years I have been dropping a good % of my after tax dollars into a Real Estate Management corporation. Bricks and mortar, over a long period of time are netting me the best growth in my portfolio far and away.

If I was handy I would slowly be buying up properties and renting them out. I'm not handy so there would be a lot of risk there for me and extra cost by bringing in trades to do small fix up jobs.

Over time Real Estate wins out big.

I have a financial advisor that keeps my RRSPs (Canada - tax shelter investment) in line. I meet with him twice a year to realign the funds I am invested in to make sure the fund is healthy and has a good outlook. I have always been 75% semi conservative, 25% higer risk with my market funds.

Now is the time to NOT pull out of the market if you are invested in funds. Make sure you are up (or find a financial advisor who is) on the fund managers. Is it a new fund manager, did the fund manager just quit? Has the fund manager been there for 10 years and has consistent performance, is the fund manager's risk threshold align with yours?

Long term, buy low sell high.

Over the long run the market steps up with major corrections. Your ability to weathers the corrections is what makes or breaks your portfolio.


Anyway, 2cp.


Cheers,

Lokase, that always sounds good, but this is money I can't have locked up for a long haul maturation period. I have other investments for that. This is the money I may have to live on for up to 6 months after I get out of the military and rejoin the realm of normal existance. If I get a stable income/and or go back to college right off and tap the GI Bill etc the money will get either rolled back into a longer term investment or it going to be used as a down payment on my first home.

The short term investements I see everyone talking about here just seem to be a vehicle to stuff away your money in a guaranteed haven where you eek out a meesly 4%. If you want to go conservative then this is definatly the route, but it won't do much for your bottom line when they mature, they will just keep your money safe during a volitile time.

I ALWAYS think long term with investments. I use some short term vehicles like GICs (Canada) and a 3.4% ING account to keep a certain amount of money liquid and semi liquid.

But the rest goes into long term.

Over the last couple of years I have been dropping a good % of my after tax dollars into a Real Estate Management corporation. Bricks and mortar, over a long period of time are netting me the best growth in my portfolio far and away.

If I was handy I would slowly be buying up properties and renting them out. I'm not handy so there would be a lot of risk there for me and extra cost by bringing in trades to do small fix up jobs.

Over time Real Estate wins out big.

I have a financial advisor that keeps my RRSPs (Canada - tax shelter investment) in line. I meet with him twice a year to realign the funds I am invested in to make sure the fund is healthy and has a good outlook. I have always been 75% semi conservative, 25% higer risk with my market funds.

Now is the time to NOT pull out of the market if you are invested in funds. Make sure you are up (or find a financial advisor who is) on the fund managers. Is it a new fund manager, did the fund manager just quit? Has the fund manager been there for 10 years and has consistent performance, is the fund manager's risk threshold align with yours?

Long term, buy low sell high.

Over the long run the market steps up with major corrections. Your ability to weathers the corrections is what makes or breaks your portfolio.


Anyway, 2cp.


Cheers,

I believe he was originally talking about only holding the money in savings for 2 years before he moves again and gets out of the military and such. Anything like that where there is the risk you could lose money 2 years from now (despite it maybe going back up in 5 years) won't help him when he needs the cash available.