10 Comments

  1. The biggest factor most people overlook with HYSAs is the state tax drag. Under 31 U.S. Code § 3124, Treasury Bills are 100% exempt from state and local income taxes. If you live in a state like California (9.3%) or New York (6.85%), an HYSA advertising 5% is effectively yielding under 3.4% post-tax. Meanwhile, a 4-week T-Bill ladder lets you capture the direct wholesale government yield without handing the bank their 2% net interest margin spread.

  2. This is a useful video! I wanted to add: check with credit unions around your state.

    I currently have money in 3 credit unions that are giving very high interest in checking accounts. 1 gives 8% on the first $5000 (!), 1 gives 5% on the first $25,000, and the other gives 5.5% on the first $25,000.

    Each requires a certain amount of debit transactions per month, but I am willing to do a bit of legwork for that. I keep $5k in the first because the interest drop off is steep after that. 1 of the other accounts is for holding funds that pay credit cards in full each month and I am using the other for sinking funds.

    These are all credit unions with long histories and I feel good about keeping some of my money in the community.

    Every area will differ of course, but it is might be worth looking into.

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