Who is buying T-Bills for their Emergency Fund?

[judu18]

@jane_doe Fidelity does auto roll i think

 

[compaq]

@resjudicata This might be a dumb question but, does treasurydirect list the APR or APY of the t bills?

 

[angeliq4]

@jane_doe Why not just buy them from Fidelity or Vanguard for an easier interface?

 

[jane_doe]

@angeliq4 Good point. I’ve always just bought them direct.

(EDIT: Just found out you cannot automatically reinvest at Vanguard like you can at Treasury Direct...deal killer for me. I'll stick with TD)

I guess my bigger point is why not T-bills? I see so many recommendations for high yield savings, but it doesn’t offer the returns of T-bills and the flexibility isn’t really needed if you can get your money in no more than 28 days via T-bills.

 

[johnnie4jesus]

@jane_doe I have about $30K laddered into 4-week T-bills (one quarter every week for four weeks), all on auto-reinvest. Every week, the interest drops into my bank account, and when it hits a couple hundred I put that into the ladder as well. When I hit the two-year auto-reinvest deadline (coming up pretty soon now), I’ll just restart the ladder, assuming rates hold.

As for the website: Once you get your account set up and linked to a bank account, the worst thing about the TD website is the proliferation of jargon. If you’re not familiar with the terminology, it can be a bit offputting.

It’s otherwise just a bog-standard website design from the early 2000s. Lots of radio buttons, font is kinda small, “submit” buttons, whatevs . It’s nothing that should cause one to consider self-harm—it’s just a less-than-modern UX.

 

[parmela]

@johnnie4jesus Thanks. The whiners about the TD site are annoying. It is functional.

 

[benjamind]

@johnnie4jesus You would think that they would make a great app since they are in desperate need for money. Make it easy!

 

[angeliq4]

@jane_doe I have a TreasuryDirect account - absolutely hate the interface. I’d rather eat glass than work with it.

… and for the record … I’ve been on the WWW since Netscape Navigator. I’ve seen a lot of sites. TreasuryDirect is easily one of the worst sites ive had to work with.

 

[tracy67]

@angeliq4 It’s a gov site, fixing it will cost tax payers billions and make some 2nd cousin of some senator wealthy.

 

[parmela]

@angeliq4 Hyperbole much (“rather eat glass than…”)?

 

[jesuscash]

@angeliq4 Hey, can you clarify buying T-bills at Fidelity? I have a Fidelity account. Can I sign up for auctions without paying a commission to Fidelity? I'm surprised to hear Fidelity can do for me what my Treasury Direct account does.

Tks

 

[athenaoo]

@jesuscash They're under the fixed income section. Can buy new issues or from the secondary market. https://www.fidelity.com/fixed-income-bonds/individual-bonds/us-treasury-bonds

 

[resjudicata]

@angeliq4 To my knowledge vanguard doesn't let you auto roll