VBIL
Vanguard 0-3 Month Treasury Bill ETF
stock NASDAQ ETF

I would skip the mid and small caps myself, and just go with Fidelity 500 & Fidelity Total International. Personally I aim for a 25 or 30% international allocation, but there are all sorts of reasonable options.
In terms of balancing retirement investments and saving for a house down payment, I would not go below contributing 10% (including both your contribution and the match) for retirement. Especially since you are looking at a relatively long time horizon with your housing goal, you could be falling more and more behind for several years. Owning a home is optional, but all of us are going to retire at some point if we are lucky.
To the extent you are saving for a home and have a long time horizon, you could put, say, half of the amount you are saving into a brokerage account in equities to take on more risk for a hopefully higher reward. Just plow it into something like SPYM, VTI, or VT. Once you get a couple years away from your home purchase, start pulling the money out of equities and putting it somewhere safer.
If you live in a state with income tax, you could also potentially get a bit more bang for your buck with your savings by putting the money into something like VBIL, VUSXX, or just directly into treasury bills, since those options are exempt from state income tax.

I'm using VBIL, but partial to Vanguard and Sir Bogle may his soul rest in peace.

The Cash Plus account doesn't need to exist. You'd be very off in USFR/TFLO during rising rate environments like the present, and VBIL/SGOV in falling rate environments.
Unlike bank deposit products, these are exempt from state income taxes, too, which many people forget to discount these bank deposit products by for a fair comparison.
You can see the current compound rates of all the popular MMFs and MMF-like ETFs in the MMF Yields tab of my [rebalance calculator](https://invest.mcawesome.org/).

You just need to sell the VBIL 1 day ahead of time so it settles in time. It’s a manual process.

Sell the VBIL and transfer to an account you can pay from. Adds business 2 days max, so it's not a big problem. But is it worth it to you?

SGOV/VBIL/VUSXX are all cash equivalents and suitable for this purpose. If you want to be more adventurous you could look at noncompetitive Treasury Auctions which you can do at Vanguard/Fidelity/Schwab. I personally have 52-week Treasury Bills rolling over once a month; if I needed the money, I could stop reinvesting and it would come in every month. It seems complicated but makes sense once you get the hang of it. Of course, the further out you go beyond cash (2-year treasury note, 3-year treasury note) you risk losing principal if you need the money back early and interest rates go even higher. With a direct bank CD there is a defined early redemption penalty but with marketable securities it will drop however much it takes for the yield to be competitive.

I use the cash plus account to pay all my credit card and utility bills. Previously I had this amount in a 0% checking account. Is there a way to pay bills the same way through VBIL?

Just buy VBIL.

While a minor annoyance I am not sure why people just do not buy a Money market fund or something like VBIL/SGOV?

# Today is Thursday, the 1st of October
## Upcoming events for Thursday, October 1st
- Stock splits:
- BGM @ **1:30**
- KUST @ **1:10**
- MYPS @ **1:10**
- Expected earnings:
ACN, ALAR, AYI, BTTC, CMMB, DAVA, EONR, HUBG, IPST, ITP, MKC, MKC.V, NKE, SMXT, VFS, VRAX
- Ex-div:
ACQQ, ACRT, ACSP, ADAML, ADAMM, ADAMN, ADAMZ, AGNCL, AGNCM, AGNCN, AGNCO, AGNCP, AGNCZ, AMUN, ANDE, ANGL, BALQ, BCLO, BEDY, BGRN, BKMI, BKMS, BMOP, BND, BNDP, BNDW, BNDX, BREM, BRHY, BRTR, CAIQ, CALI, CANQ, CHAD, CLOA, CPB, CPLS, CWCO, DVAL, EMB, EYEG, FALN, FIMU, FSTB, FULT, GNMA, GOLI, GPIQ, GPIX, GPRF, HBANL, HBANP, HOVNP, HYXF, IBGA, IBGB, IBGC, IBGK, IBGL, IBGM, IBTG, IBTH, IBTI, IBTJ, IBTK, IBTL, IBTM, IBTO, IBTP, IBTQ, IBTR, IEF, IEI, IGIB, IGSB, INBK, IQQQ, ISTB, IUSB, JEPQ, MBB, MULT, MYCF, MYCG, MYCH, MYCI, MYCJ, MYCK, MYCL, MYCM, MYCN, MYCO, MYCP, MYHA, MYHB, MYHC, MYHD, MYHE, MYHF, MYMF, MYMG, MYMH, MYMI, MYMJ, MYMK, MYML, NCPB, NPFI, NUSB, ODTE, PCMM, PEGA, PFF, PLPC, PMBS, PPH, PSC, PSET, PY, QQQT, QQQY, ROCQ, ROCY, SATA, SHY, SKOR, SLQD, SUSB, SUSC, TAXI, TAXS, TAXT, THFF, TLT, TRUC, TRUD, TRUF, TRUH, TRUI, TRUM, TRUN, TRUO, TRUR, TRUT, TRUU, ULTI, USFI, USIG, USMC, USOY, VBCA, VBCB, VBCC, VBCD, VBCE, VBCF, VBCG, VBCH, VBCI, VBCJ, VBIL, VCIT, VCLT, VCRB, VCSH, VGIT, VGLT, VGSH, VGUS, VLGEA, VMBS, VPLS, VSNT, VTC, VTIP, VWOB, WABF, WASH, WTFCN, YLDE, YQQQ
- Economic events and announcements:
- ADP Nonfarm Employment Change (actual: 90K, consensus: 73K, previous: 36K)
- Atlanta Fed GDPNow (actual: 3.7%, consensus: 5.0%, previous: 5.0%)
- Chicago PMI (actual: 58.8, consensus: 51.2, previous: 47.1)
- Core PCE Price Index (actual: 0.2%, consensus: 0.3%, previous: 0.1%)
- Core PCE Price Index (actual: 3.0%, consensus: 3.3%, previous: 3.0%)
- Core PCE Prices (actual: 3.30%, consensus: 3.60%, previous: 4.40%)
- Corporate Profits (actual: 7.7%, consensus: 8.2%, previous: 0.5%)
- Crude Oil Imports (actual: -0.468M, previous: 0.369M)
- Crude Oil Inventories (actual: 0.922M, consensus: -0.700M, previous: 2.969M)
- Cushing Crude Oil Inventories (actual: 0.553M, previous: 2.266M)
- Dallas Fed PCE (actual: 1.90%, previous: 1.90%)
- Distillate Fuel Production (actual: -0.156M, previous: -0.068M)
- EIA Refinery Crude Runs (actual: -0.554M, previous: -0.519M)
- EIA Weekly Distillates Stocks (actual: -2.251M, consensus: -0.200M, previous: -0.428M)
- EIA Weekly Refinery Utilization Rates (actual: -1.5%, previous: -2.8%)
- FOMC Member Barkin Speaks
- FOMC Member Kashkari Speaks
- Fed Goolsbee Speaks
- Fed Governor Cook Speaks
- GDP (actual: 2.2%, consensus: 1.5%, previous: 2.1%)
- GDP Price Index (actual: 6.1%, consensus: 6.4%, previous: 3.6%)
- GDP Sales (actual: 2.8%, consensus: 2.2%, previous: 1.9%)
- Gasoline Inventories (actual: -1.684M, consensus: -0.500M, previous: -1.686M)
- Gasoline Production (actual: -0.124M, previous: -0.054M)
- Goods Trade Balance (actual: -132.60B, consensus: -116.30B, previous: -118.80B)
- Heating Oil Stockpiles (actual: -0.620M, previous: 0.346M)
- MBA 30-Year Mortgage Rate (actual: 7.30%, previous: 7.12%)
- MBA Mortgage Applications (actual: -6.0%, previous: -1.5%)
- MBA Purchase Index (actual: 148.2, previous: 154.9)
- Mortgage Market Index (actual: 213.6, previous: 227.3)
- Mortgage Refinance Index (actual: 557.8, previous: 611.0)
- PCE Price index (actual: 3.4%, consensus: 3.7%, previous: 3.4%)
- PCE Prices (actual: 5.0%, consensus: 5.3%, previous: 4.6%)
- PCE price index (actual: 0.3%, consensus: 0.4%, previous: 0.1%)
- Personal Income (actual: 0.2%, consensus: 0.5%, previous: 0.3%)
- Personal Spending (actual: 0.9%, consensus: 0.8%, previous: 0.1%)
- Real Consumer Spending (actual: 3.8%, consensus: 3.4%, previous: 0.5%)
- Real Personal Consumption (actual: 0.6%, previous: 0.1%)
- Retail Inventories Ex Auto (actual: 0.1%, previous: 0.8%)
- U.S. President Trump Speaks
- Wholesale Inventories (actual: 0.7%, consensus: 0.5%, previous: 1.3%)
## Upcoming events for Friday, October 2nd
- Stock splits:
- RETO @ **1:20**
- ZCMD @ **1:2**
- Expected earnings:
CELU, ENLV, HTLM, LNAI
- Ex-div:
ALCO, ATNI, CHAD, CSCO, HBNC, LFMDP, MORN, PKBK, RGLD, ROP, SATA, THRM
## Upcoming events for Saturday, October 3rd
- Economic events and announcements:
- Average Hourly Earnings (YoY) (previous: 3.1%)
- Average Hourly Earnings (consensus: 0.3%, previous: 0.3%)
- Average Weekly Hours (consensus: 34.3, previous: 34.4)
- CFTC Aluminium speculative net positions (previous: -0.8K)
- CFTC Copper speculative net positions (previous: 90.5K)
- CFTC Corn speculative net positions (previous: 535.8K)
- CFTC Crude Oil speculative net positions (previous: 141.1K)
- CFTC Gold speculative net positions (previous: 225.9K)
- CFTC Nasdaq 100 speculative net positions (previous: 56.1K)
- CFTC Natural Gas speculative net positions (previous: -216.5K)
- CFTC S&P 500 speculative net positions (previous: -133.2K)
- CFTC Silver speculative net positions (previous: 25.4K)
- CFTC Soybeans speculative net positions (previous: 281.6K)
- CFTC Wheat speculative net positions (previous: -7.4K)
- Durables Excluding Defense (previous: 0.1%)
- Durables Excluding Transport (previous: 0.3%)
- Factory Orders (consensus: 0.1%, previous: 0.9%)
- Factory orders ex transportation (previous: 0.6%)
- Fed Logan Speaks
- Government Payrolls (previous: 35.0K)
- Manufacturing Payrolls (consensus: 10K, previous: 16K)
- Nonfarm Payrolls (consensus: 89K, previous: 162K)
- Participation Rate (previous: 61.6%)
- Private Nonfarm Payrolls (consensus: 82K, previous: 127K)
- Total Vehicle Sales (consensus: 16.30M, previous: 16.80M)
- U.S. Baker Hughes Oil Rig Count (previous: 455)
- U.S. Baker Hughes Total Rig Count (previous: 599)
- U6 Unemployment Rate (previous: 7.7%)
- Unemployment Rate (consensus: 4.1%, previous: 4.1%)
^^^^2026-10-01

2 things:
1. Stocks will go up and down but over the long run the market as a whole has tended to go up. It is not “guaranteed” and one can certainly make arguments that valuations are high, etc, but there are some articles out there explaining that even if you were the worst market timer out there, over the long run you still tend to make money because…over the long run the line goes up and to the right.
People who are used to just stashing their cash under the mattress or in a savings account see only the downside risk of investing, but there’s also appreciable risk and opportunity cost of NOT investing - the value of your money slowly erodes due to inflation. If you’re in a regular savings account getting pennies on the dollar in interest, your money is (slowly) losing value. There’s a long term opportunity cost. If your parents had, say, an extra $10,000 sitting around in a savings account in 1990 or whatever and they didn’t invest because they were worried it might go down…well, you can google it (a $10K investment in the S&P 500 in 1990 would be worth about $457K today).
2. That said, you probably should not be investing money you might need in the next year (some people might say longer). If the savings you invested are your emergency fund, or money you might need to buy a new car, etc then the fear makes more sense. So only invest money after you’ve got your emergency fund and other needs seen to.
Bonus thing: you mention that this money was just in your bank account. If it was in a checking or a regular savings account earning nothing, now is a great time to learn about SGOV and VBIL. I keep as little in my bank account as possible, and put any extra “cash” (emergency fund, sinking funds for other expenses) into one of these short-term treasury backed ETFs that will at least return a little something for letting your cash sit there.

For very short-term goals, SGOV and VBIL are popular choices. For goals closer to a year, I like PULS and ICSH.
[iShares iBonds ETFs](https://www.ishares.com/us/strategies/bond-etfs/build-better-bond-ladders) are great for saving towards big expenses a few years away. For example, you can use IBDU (2029), IBDV (2030), or IBDW (2031) for expenses around those years. If you want to take a bit more risk, you can use the high-yield bond funds (IBH_). If your state income tax rate is pretty high, you can use the Treasury bond funds (IBT_). (Remember to [claim state tax exemptions when you file](https://thefinancebuff.com/state-tax-exempt-treasury-fund-etf.html).)
If you want to start saving towards something roughly 2-4 years away, but you're waiting to set your timeframe, a short term bond fund would make sense:
- If your state income taxes are low or zero: VCSH, SCHJ, IGSB, or SPSB (yielding ~5.2%)
- If you're in a high income tax state, a short-term Treasury fund may be preferable: VGSH, SCHO, or SPTS (yielding ~4.6%). (Remember to [claim state tax exemptions when you file](https://thefinancebuff.com/state-tax-exempt-treasury-fund-etf.html).)
If you want to start saving towards a medium-term goal (~3-6 years), but you're not sure how much you will need or when, AOK (a 30/70 mix of stocks and bonds) is a good default. Or, similarly, 70% in SPIB/SPTI + 20% VTI + 10% VXUS.

Tax advantage is the same for both, surely? The lower expense ratio/higher yield is the draw, they're both within 3% of 100% U.S. Treasuries.
I'm using VBIL for my father's (purely Fidelity) assets, but for myself, I already had a Vanguard account so I hide savings from myself over there in VUSXX (which, confusingly, seems to perform meaningfully better than VBIL, despite similar fees and composition?).

Anything five years and under should stay in cash equivalents like VBIL or SGOV. If you are willing to postpone or revise your goals, you could get a bit more growth with a moderate or conservative balanced fund like AOR, AOM, or IRTR.

You could venture into individual Treasury auctions but I don't believe you can do that at Robinhood. Cash equivalents are about 4% currently; on a 52-week Treasury Bill, where you'd get your money back about a year from now, 4.54%, and on a 2-year Treasury Note, where you receive semiannual simple interest payments and receive your principal back in two years, 4.88%. But if you need your money early and interest rates go up, you'll lose some principal; if interest rates go up but you hold for two years, you'll get all your money back but will have paid an opportunity cost by being locked into that rate rather than cash; if interest rates go down and you need the money early, you'll be rewarded with a small capital gain.
All that complexity is entirely optional. Just holding VBIL and reinvesting the dividends is fine. When you do your state income tax return, you can take a benefit for the US Government Obligation Interest contained within the dividend; many tax preparers miss that if you don't do them yourself.

What are your timelines?
General rule of thumb is to not invest anything you need to spend in the next few years, because while the market generally goes up in the long term, in the short term it can be quite erratic.
For within a few years, I personally would prefer treasury ETFs like VBIL or SGOV. They're just going to slowly collect interest.
The problem, is that you probably don't want them sitting in cash in the long term cause they'll lose value relative to inflation.
Also, your multiple account type brings up questions. Is your existing RH account a IRA or Roth IRA or are you saving beyond IRA/401k?

Thanks. Would you personally recommend VBIL over manually entering orders every week?

I use a total return approach and just sell whatever is up most or sell to rebalance once a year. I replenish cash at that time using cash replenishment effectively to rebalance. I keep a simple mix of VTI, VXUS and VGIT …my cash reserve is mostly in VBIL

Thanks for the reminder to watch Robs video. 🙂️ I'm currently using SPAXX/FDLXX and SGOV. I think it's a tossup between SGOV & VBIL, but VBIL has a lower ER. 🤷‍♂️️ Been thinking of switching completely from SGOV to BOXX and possibly a little CAOS too, primarily based on [this article](https://riskparitychronicles.substack.com/p/risk-parity-best-in-class-cash-equivalents).
I also got Schwab to approve auto-sweep on all my accounts into SWGXX. So I do have a little sitting in that whenever dividends are paid out, but I usually buy more SGOV when I notice "cash" sitting.

Can you please elaborate FDLXX and VBIL interest being exempt from state income tax?