What should I be doing with my down payment.
Girlfriend and I have saved a portion of our intial downpayment for a home. We are no where near ready to purchase yet (in SoCal) as we have only saved about 25k. We would however, like to put some of this money to work for us until we can save the remaining portion (About 40K more + Closing). What should we do with these funds? Just stick them in a savings account so they are easily accessible? Our timeline is 1-2 more years in savings to hit our goal. Any input would be appreciated.
Posted Jul 24, 2015, 12:46 AM UTC
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Do NOT get a 1 yr CD as the other poster says. You need your money liquid and ready to move if the right house comes up. (A 1 yr lock in period is too long.)
Instead, get 2 LMCU Max Checking accts - 1 in your name, 1 in your gf's name. Put in 15k max each, set up direct deposit, use the cards they give you 10x a month, and collect your 3%. Best deal for a small bit of work, should yield you $450 on the $15k acct and $300 on the $10k acct - plus your funds are mobile anytime.
More info on the Max Checking stuff here: https://www.lmcu.org/banking/checking/checking_max.aspx
Best of luck!
That's a pretty good rate of return for a checking account.
And more realistic, too. Actual rate of inflation is 5% when you factor in housing, education, medical. I can't believe most banks (Wells Fargo) are ripping us off with 0.05% "savings accounts".