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December 2019 Savings and CD Account Update – Cash Is Safe
I began BestCashCow’s November newsletter by saying that it was hard to get excited about cash. It is still hard to get excited about cash with the Fed Funds target remaining at a range of 1.50% to 1.75%. But, in the last month,... Read →
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Bask Bank, American Airlines AAdvantage Miles, Silliness?
Editor's Note: This article was originally written in December 2019 when Bask Bank had a soft launch of its new American AAdvantage product. In January 2020 after Bask Bank released the full details of the product, the author realized... Read →
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TD Ameritrade Acquisition By Charles Schwab Causes Concern for Active Customers
Sophisticated stock traders have gravitated towards TD Ameritrade over the years. For over a decade, TD Ameritrade has had the best trading platform in the online trading business, and with the Sink or Swim acquisition they also have a... Read →
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Be Careful With Savings Products from Credit Karma, Wealthfront, Betterment and SoFi
The last few months have seen the emergence of non-bank savings products that purport to be FDIC-insured often to amounts higher than the FDIC limits that online banks are able to offer ($250,000 for individuals, $500,000 for... Read →
November 2019 Update – Getting Harder and Harder to Get Excited About Cash
The Federal Reserve lowered the Fed Funds target to 1.50% to 1.75% on October 31, marking its third rate cut this year and causing many of the most recognized online banks to lower their savings’ offers below 2%. The paradox is... Read →
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The Federal Reserve Lowers The Fed Funds Rate to A 1.50% to 1.75% Target
The Federal Reserve moved to lower the Fed Funds target rate today by 25 basis points to a range of 1.50% to 1.75%. This move marks the third rate cut this year. The Federal Reserve has now "reversed" three of its four hikes... Read →
The Democrats Should Suspend All of Their Debates
Here are some things that could be interesting in a normal environment: Hearing Joe Biden defend himself and his son Hunter from allegations of misconduct. Seeing Elizabeth Warren’s latest handout proposals to generate... Read →
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Dark Days for U.S.’s International Standing; Consequences Coming
These are dark days for our country, if not yet for financial markets. While we have survived and even prospered with President Trump for three years, he is now highly unsteady. Putin recognizes this. So too does Erdogan. Their... Read →
October 2019 Update - Hard to Get Excited About CDs and Even Harder to Get Excited About Savings
This time last year, everyone was getting very excited about savings rates moving well above 2%, about 1-year CDs at 2.85% and above, and 5-year CDs at 3.50%. Those with cash were finally finding risk-free opportunities for their savings... Read →
The Federal Reserve Lowers The Fed Funds Rate by 25 bps to a 1.75% to 2.00% Target
The Federal Reserve acted today to lower the target Fed Funds rate by a quarter point. This follows the July 31 quarter point reduction of the rate. The Fed Funds rate had stood at a post-crisis high of 2.25% to 2.50% earlier this year,... Read →
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Hot Money - A Defense
A well-known online bank recently dropped its savings rate by 15 basis points, and that action prompted me to close my account there and move the entire balance into a one-year CD at another bank. When the bank’s manager called to... Read →
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Trump Is Preparing to Fire Jay Powell and Replace Him with Jim Cramer
Trump tweeted at 8:22 AM this morning: "I agree with @jimcramer, the Fed should lower rates. They were WAY too early to raise, and Way too late to cut - and big dose quantitative tightening didn’t exactly help either. Where... Read →
Steer Far Away from Long Bonds and Preferred Stock Right Now (and from Anyone Pushing These Securities)
A good friend of mine in money management who I ordinarily think very highly of told me this weekend that he likes the 15-year US Treasury bond. I’ve also seen this same endorsement of the longer term US Treasuries from money... Read →
September 2019 Savings and CD Update – Where to Find Safety
It is the end of the summer and Labor Day is upon us. It is a nice time of the year. Unfortunately, conservative savers this year are faced with a dilemma of declining savings rates ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting in September where... Read →