CD
Chaince Digital Holdings Inc.
stock NASDAQ

You didn't quiet beat a 4% 6 Month CD.
But you beat all the people who are down like -20%.

$150,000 for a 5 year 4% isn't ideal - At least use a CD ladder
$150,000 in a money market 1.6% is even worse....just do 1 month revolving CDs and re-invest the interest in something

Those kinds of yields that you are looking for sounds like something you would find in a CD and not a Savings Account and IF one does exist it’ll be treated more like a Online Savings Account even though some Banks out there have a High Yield Savings Account and its different from other banks that gives you a ATM card for your use to your money. But others don’t have a ATM card and you have to contact the bank by phone and in person. So its more of a CD than a actual savings account and HOPEFULLY you have a stable interest rate for the life of the account unlike the money market account which couldn’t pay a substantial amount of money only to trickle less of money.

CD

Talk to a Schwab Fixed Income investment specialist. Mine set me up with a nice CD ladder for no fee and the windows and amounts I requested, less loss risk than bonds.

I’ve been nothing but cordial in dealing with your dumbass, but you want to try and get high and mighty with your smarts huh? You want to go juvenile and resort to insults, cursing and accusing me of having low intelligence? Ok. Game on. I’m even going to throw in name calling.
So let’s assume I have a brokerage account. I would like to own some bonds. How exactly do I get them? Do they magically appear in my account? Or do I PLACE A TRADE to acquire them? I didn’t say anything about TRADING bonds but you do have to PLACE A TRADE to acquire them.
Since you posted a completely irrelavent message from AI about buying at the treasury auction, you’re probably going to reply something along the lines of buying them there. Yes you can oviously do that. However as you so eloquently stated “bond funds are run by money mangers who only buy govt bonds and some sort of high end corporate bonds.” Good job buddy. You almost got there. If you look at BND it holds government bonds, munis, corporates, and securitized bonds - probably mostly MBS (I’ll help you out: [https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=what+are+MBS+in+a+bond+fund](https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=what+are+MBS+in+a+bond+fund)) as a diversified bond fund should. I’m not sure if all of those corporates are “high end” or not. That’s a highly technical term that only smart investors like yourself would understand so I’m not qualified to make such a determination. But I do know that you can’t get all of the types of bonds that are in a bond fund - and that investors should own - at a treasury auction. You have to PLACE A TRADE in your brokerage account to acquire them.
Have you ever even bought a bond fuckwad?
You are lecturing me on the difference between accumulation and preservation. However, you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the entire topic we are talking about. What you don’t seem to comprehend is the difference between saving and investing so I’ll spell it out for you. Saving is putting money into an account to SAVE it so that you can use it in the near future. In savings type accounts, you take no risk and earn a low return. In INVESTING, you take on varying degrees of risk in an attempt to earn a higher rate of return. Another new concept for you: Risk vs Return. In general, the higher risk you take on, the higher the return you expect to make. Stocks are at one end of that spectrum - high risk and high return. Bonds are at the other. Bonds are INVESTMENTS not SAVINGS. Therefore they carry risk. But they are low risk and low return.
Here’s what you stated:
Bonds are ‘guaranteed’ to not lose money. That is not true.
You will always have the same amount you started with and some lvel of interest to combat inflation. That is not true.
Bonds are very similar to a CD. That is not true.
For most investors a 2-3% OCCASIONAL decline in an asset IS asset protection - that’s the typical decline for bonds and bond funds. ALL investing comes with some risk. With bonds, it is very low, but not zero. If you’re looking for zero risk, you should be CDs (which is what you thought bonds were at some point in this disucssion).
The decline in 2022 was an outlier and was caused by the Fed pushing interest rates to zero, at which point bonds became return-free risk and should have been sold by ALL investors. If you think an individual bond portfolio didn’t decline in value just as much as bond funds in 2022 you’re displaying your impaired cognitive abilities my little friend.
I’m papering over risk? WTF are you even talking about? You’re the one papering over risk. Your argument is you can hold to maturity and get your money back. THAT DOES NOT MEAN THE INDIVIDUAL BOND PORTFOLIO DOES NOT DECLINE WHEN RATES GO UP you fucking idiot.
Here’s something you probably didn’t know: a bond fund holds bonds. An individual bond portfolio and a bond fund HAVE THE SAME RISK. You probably found this point about holding to maturity while studying (unsuccessfully) for your Series 65 exam and now you’re on Reddit trying to act like you’re a great investing guru when you’re flat out fucking wrong.
I’m sorry people are seeing how stupid you are. Virtually everything you’ve said in this thread is incorrect. You thought bonds perform “very similar to a CD.” They do not. You thought bonds had lost money over 20 years. They have not. You then extrapolated that error to say that target date funds are flawed because they use bond funds instead of individual bonds. They do not. Here’s breaking news for you. The companies that run those target date funds don’t own funds inside of funds. THEY ARE THE FUNDS dumbass. They have one big, consolidated account that has direct holdings in the underlying securities and allocate a portion of the account to different strategies.
I also asked you to ask AI about this issue and you post some inane (you probably need to look that one up) bullshit about buying a bond at a treasury auction that is completely NOT GERMANE (ooh, another big one there) in any way to the discussion.
So I had to ask ChatGPT for your dumb ass and post the answer and you’re too lazy and dumb to even read it to learn something.
Individual investors have no business trying to build a bond portfolio. Is it super difficult? No not really, but it does take a lot of capital to build a diversified portfolio. Plus they have no idea what risks they are taking regarding credit and duration (you do know what duration is, right)? Also an institutional investor gets way better executions (do I need to explain that to you) than an individual would. Individuals who are just learning to invest should not be buying individual bonds - just like they should not be buying individual stocks. Buying ETFs is a simple and effective way to get the investments they are looking for.
The issue you seem to be fixated on is a small, technical wrinkle and does not matter AT ALL to investor returns. You said you’re not sure if that’s true yet - you’ll figure it out someday little buddy. Well maybe, I’m not so sure actually that you are smart enough to figure it out. But it is true whether you can wrap your tiny brain around it or not.
Yes, it’s true that you can’t hold a bond fund to maturity. But you know what? The fund can (and does) hold it to maturity so they recieve the par value in the fund just like you would if you owned the bond itself. Wow, mind blown.
The advantage a bond fund has is that if rates go up (which is what causes declines in bonds - you may want to write that down), the bond fund can REINVEST the proceeds from bonds that do mature in the portfolio at the new, higher rates while you’re sitting over there waiting for your bond to get back to par. What a concept!
Do you have ANYTHING to back up your argument that is factually correct? I’m waiting with bated breath.
Sorry to let you down bud, but I do know what a 60/40 portfolio is. I’ve been investing since 1992 - I was going to say that I’m almost certain that’s longer than you’ve been alive but in looking at your profile I was very disappointed to find out you’re in your mid-50s and still this dumb. I have the CFA charter and an MBA in finance from a top 20 school. I worked in the business for 16 years and managed millions and millions of dollars. I’ve sat in the office in NYC of some of the largest bond managers in the world representing my clients - have you? Yeah, I know what a 60-40 portfolio is. I even know what the word conflate means…imagine that!!!
You’re a fucking idiot. Go back and study for your 65 some more. I never took it - I got an exemption for having the CFA. I could walk in to the exam center tomorrow and pass it.
I actually hope that you don’t pass it. You don’t need to be giving investment advice to anyone. You’re too fucking stupid.
You should probably go back to selling weed for a career. That seems much more in line with your mental ability.

AH MITCH LEGEND... good call CD. we appreciate you.

Lock 2 million in a Bank CD at 3.5 percent yield that’s 70K, then put remaining 200K into safe
monthly paying etf, I’d do 100K GPIX and 100K GPIQ, work part time, whatever is left over reinvest

Hello! I was recently gifted shares in JPM from my grandmother (around 2ish years ago now). I never paid much attention to it as I had some transitions in life, moved, new position at work etc. Recently, I found out that my shares have more than doubled since gifted and is now more than my yearly salary. I guess my question would be should I get a financial advisor/planner to assist?
I have a full time job, max contribute to my retirement plan (12% + employer match), have a HYSA that I contribute to monthly, and a CD through a credit union that I've had since I was a child. I have no other investments. I have no credit card or student loan debt and paid my vehicle off two years ago. Finances will change as I am getting married soon and my fiance makes 6 figures, he owns our home as it was purchased before we met (I will be added to the mortgage after we are married)
Any information on where to go from here would be much appreciated.

People need to stop treating QQQI like a guaranteed high-yield CD. QQQI is not a risk-free investment. The underlying holdings are stocks which go up/down with the market. I cringe every time I see a post like this.

I'd put 200k in a high yield savings account, money market, CD ladder or similar. This is your down market / sequence of withdrawls protection. If you are getting inflation matching returns here you shouldn't need to top it up.
Park the rest in VOO(Which will still yield 20k in annual dividends). Trim 50k every year to get your 70k. You should be seeing about 100k or better annually in capital appreciation after trimming.
For your tax situation this will be more advantageous than an actual dividend set up.
After about 10-15y you'll be pulling 70k in VOO dividends even at its 1% yield.
Alternative take the annual VOO appreciation after trimming and send it over to SCHD or a similiar every year. Basically every year you'd turn those gains into an extra 3k-4k in annual dividends. Which should let you hit 70k/y in a decade or so.

I've maintained a ladder of 4 and 6 week TBills purchased through Fidelity for the last few years. You can also look at their brokered CD offerings as well. I currently have two 1-month brokered CDs - one @ 3.9%, the other one @ 4% - both in a tax-deferred account.

If you knew that you had enough risk tolerance to cope with the stock market going down while everything is in stocks, I'd say put it all in an appropriate ETF almost immediately. Maybe 50K every day for three days, then the same again when the CD matures.
I say "every day" instead of all at once, because that's what I would do--I worry that some huge one-day event will happen on the very day that I invest everything, so I break up big amounts into a few slightly less big chunks, one per day. This is what I did when I broke up my Target Date Fund into its component parts, in my 401K.
But risk tolerance matters. If you fear that you might sell your stock in a panic if the market goes down, then you might want to ease your way in. In that case, I'd probably suggest that you put 50K in that appropriate ETF, and then move the remaining 100K into a better money market--1.6% is really low.
Then wait a month or two. See if you're watching the market every day and itching to sell every time it falls a fraction of a percent. If you're fine, then after that month or two put another 50K in. Then you might put in the other 50K or you might declare it to be your emergency fund, since you don't want to have to figure out a way to break that CD in an emergency.
Then, when the CD matures, you'll have a better idea of your risk tolerance.

High yield CD for now while market turmoil gets sorted a bit...
No reason to go all in on red in the current casino environment!

Exactly, or maybe a very short term CD.

Nice. Cash-plus is a good tool. Bank CD rates don’t float. 3.5% with Ally. Ibonds float every 6 months on inflation. 4.26% presently.

Hey yall, i’m new to investing. I was recently involved in a work accident and received a pretty handsome payout. Coming from a poor family, I really want to make the most of this money and create a future for myself with it. I currently have $150,000 in a 5 year CD with 4.5% APY. I have another $150,000 sitting in a money market account (1.6% APY) and I really want to start investing to set myself up in the future.
I have no problems playing the long term game and I make good money at my job. I’m pretty cautious about investing as i don’t have anyone in my life who has invested before.
My current starting idea is to put 15,000 into VOO and invest a little more into it ($500-1000) each month. But I’m starting to think I should invest more from the get go. As I learn more about investing I’d obviously like to compliment this with other investments, but I just want to get the ball rolling as I’ve been sitting on this money for a minute.
Is this a good way to get the ball rolling or would you guys recommend something else ? Thanks in advance

Here's the key difference, ""bonds are 'guaranteed' to not lose money"" you will always have the same amount you started with and some level of interest to combat inflation. Very similar to a CD.

Bond funds are funds run by money managers who only buy govt bonds and some kind of high end corporate bonds. They are designed to service the general public and be liquid but ""they can lose money"", and over the last 5-10 years they have underperformed saving accounts

AFIF
BND
AGG
FXNAX
These are typical bond funds that are found in target funds but if you look at their 5 year performance they have all lost money some of them up to 15%. Which is a ridiculous.

Assuming you are in the US (mentioned SSI)... only tool not on your place is HSA, if appropriate. Not knowing your income, but whatever you have extra --- and you automate more into a dedicated HYSA that could feed a building CD and I-bond ladder to help fatten an emergency fund? Automating everything is really the way to stress-free autobuilding. So you didn't start at 20... you have started before today and that is a win.

Solid foundation — \~$390K net worth at 34 with a high savings rate puts you ahead of most people your age. Here’s my take on each piece:
**The “tier” cash (30K)** Worth doing the math explicitly: what does the bank tier actually save you (fee waivers, better rates, perks) vs. what you’d earn keeping that 30K in FDLXX or a HYSA (\~4-5%)? If the tier perks are worth less than $1,000-1,500/year, it’s probably not worth parking $30K uninvested for it.
**CD (27K)** Once it matures, moving to FDLXX/brokerage makes sense — CDs rarely beat money markets right now and lock up liquidity for little benefit.
**Brokerage overlap (VOO/VTI)** You’re right to flag this — VOO (S&P 500) and VTI (total US market) overlap \~85%. Not harmful, just redundant. Most people who want “VOO + VTI” just pick one; VTI is the slightly more complete version since it includes mid/small caps VOO excludes.
**DCA vs. lump sum** Statistically, lump-summing right away outperforms DCA about 2/3 of the time historically, since markets trend up over time. DCA is really a psychological tool to reduce regret, not a mathematically superior strategy. If watching a lump sum drop after investing would genuinely stress you out, DCA over 6-12 months is a reasonable compromise — but it’s not “safer” in expectation.
**Roth IRA fund choice** For a 62K Roth with decades to grow tax-free, this is the account to be most aggressive in, since all growth is tax-free forever. Common choices: a total market fund (VTI) or a total market + international split (VTI/VXUS), sometimes tilted toward growth (VUG) if you want more tech/growth exposure. Given you already hold VUG/VXUS in brokerage, consistency across accounts simplifies rebalancing later.
**Target date fund vs. more aggressive (401k)** Target date funds de-risk over time by assumption of retirement at 65. If your goal is retiring early, that glide path doesn’t match your actual timeline — it’ll get conservative years before you need it to. A more aggressive equity-heavy allocation (similar to your Roth) is worth considering, then manually dialing back risk as you approach your real retirement date.
**Converting pre-tax to Roth** This is the one place I’d slow down. Converting $67K + $18K pre-tax balances all at once creates a large taxable event in the conversion year — that money gets added to your ordinary income and taxed at your marginal rate. Given you’re already at $89K income, converting a large lump sum could push a big chunk of it into a higher bracket. Most people who do this do it gradually, in chunks sized to stay within a target tax bracket, sometimes concentrated in lower-income years (e.g., between jobs). Worth running the numbers with a tax preparer before converting, since this can be a meaningfully expensive decision to get wrong.
**Home purchase in 5-10 years** If this is a real goal, that portion of your money probably shouldn’t be in equities — a market crash right before you want to buy is exactly the scenario that hurts. A separate bucket in something stable (HYSA, money market, short-term bonds) sized to your expected down payment is the standard approach.
**Employer/pension uncertainty** Given you’re unsure you’ll stay, it’s worth checking your pension’s vesting schedule now — leaving before vesting often means walking away with little or nothing.