LinuxWebLog.com

Updated April 2024. Navy Federal Credit Union is the nation’s largest credit union, with a long history of serving active military members. More recently, they have expanded their field of membership to include veterans and family members of veterans. NavyFed often offers special rates and/or features on their share certificates. Here’s a recent example:

• Limited-Time 18-month EasyStart Certificate at 4.70% APY. Open with as little as $50. No maximum balance. Make additional deposits any time. You also get a single early withdrawal with no penalty.

I opened one with the $50 minimum because I thought the optionality was neat. If rates drop drastically, I’ll have the ability to add unlimited additional funds at 4.70% APY. If rates rise drastically, I can withdraw it all at once with no penalty. If nothing big happens (most likely scenario), I’ll only have committed $50. I already have other products with NavyFed, so it didn’t require any additional paperwork.

“The editorial content here is not provided by any of the companies mentioned, and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone. This email may contain links through which we are compensated when you click on or are approved for offers.”

Navy Federal CU: 18-Month CD at 4.70% APY w/ Add-On Deposits & One-Time No-Penalty Withdrawal from My Money Blog.

Copyright © 2004-2022 MyMoneyBlog.com. All Rights Reserved. Do not re-syndicate without permission.

Vanguard recently announced that they are selling their individual 401(k), multiple-participant SEP, and SIMPLE IRA plan business to Ascensus (press release). They’ve already updated their small business retirement plan page. One-person SEP IRAs will stay at Vanguard.

Ascensus will provide custodial and trustee services, recordkeeping, client servicing, transaction processing, tax reporting, and other services, and plan participants will retain access to a diverse lineup of Vanguard mutual funds via the Ascensus platform.

This will affect a lot of small business owners who previously chose to open a Traditional Pre-Tax and/or Roth Solo 401k plan directly with Vanguard. The new stated fee schedule includes a $20 annual fee per Vanguard fund per account holder in the Individual(k) plan and a $20 annual fee per participant for custodial services. I believe the previous fee schedule was just the $20 annual fee per Vanguard fund per account holder, but it was waived if at least one participant had at least $50,000 in qualifying Vanguard assets.

I also find this move interesting in the context of the Vanguard company as a whole. This same week, Fidelity continued moving gradually towards being an “all-in-one” financial marketplace, recently adding a high-yield sweep option to their full-featured Cash Management Account. (I will note though, Fidelity does directly not offer a Roth Solo 401k option!) Fidelity is competing directly with the fintechs like Robinhood and SoFi that also want to be everything finance.

Meanwhile, Vanguard already shut down their own Cash Management option, VanguardAdvantage, in 2019. They made their Admiral Shares mutual funds more expensive than their ETF equivalents (they were initially the same expense ratio), which removed a major incentive to use a Vanguard brokerage account (as most other brokers won’t let you trade Vanguard Admiral mutual funds). There isn’t much reason to hold Vanguard ETFs inside a Vanguard brokerage account now that everyone has commission-free trades, and Vanguard seems perfectly fine with that. Now, they are no longer going to service their past Solo 401(k) clients, whether they wanted to stay with Vanguard or not.

Vanguard definitely seems to be narrowing their focus towards offering investment products like ETFs and mutual funds and simple investment advice. They appear happy to move away from anything that requires high-touch customer interaction like phone calls and paperwork. (I would note that my more recent customer service interactions with Vanguard have been more positive with lower hold times.) This is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if it leaves more resources for their other customers, but definitely a different direction than others.

“The editorial content here is not provided by any of the companies mentioned, and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone. This email may contain links through which we are compensated when you click on or are approved for offers.”

Vanguard Sells All Solo 401(k) Accounts to Ascensus from My Money Blog.

Copyright © 2004-2022 MyMoneyBlog.com. All Rights Reserved. Do not re-syndicate without permission.

A flexible alternative to a traditional bank account is getting better. The Fidelity Cash Management Account (CMA) is a brokerage account that also includes traditional bank features like ACH routing and account numbers, Billpay, mobile check deposit, physical checks, and ATM/debit cards.

Perhaps a lesser-known fact is that the standard “Fidelity Account” is a brokerage account that also offers ACH routing/account numbers, Billpay, mobile check deposit, checkwriting, and an ATM/debit card. One of the major additions to the CMA (and missing from the standard Fidelity Account) is that you get unlimited ATM fee rebates, worldwide:

Your account will automatically be reimbursed for all ATM fees charged by other institutions while using a Fidelity® Debit Card linked to your Fidelity Cash Management Account at any ATM displaying the Visa®, Plus®, or Star® logos. The reimbursement will be credited to the account the same day the ATM fee is debited from the account. Please note that there may be a foreign transaction fee of 1% that is not waived, which will be included in the amount charged to your account.

One of the major drawbacks to the CMA was that the only option for the core position was their “FDIC-insured Deposit Sweep”, currently paying 2.72% APY (as of 4/21/24). While better than the 0.01% many other brokers offer on cash sweeps, this yield is much lower than that of the money market fund options available in the standard Fidelity account. To get around this, many people used the auto-draft feature that lets you set the standard Fidelity brokerage account as the backup funding source, and then kept a minimal or zero balance inside the CMA.

Perhaps Fidelity noticed this activity as well, or perhaps they noticed certain 5% APY cash offerings from competitors, because in less than two months (June 15, 2024), the CMA is adding the Fidelity Government Money Market Fund (SPAXX) an a core position option. If you have a Fidelity Cash Management Account and look at the “Additional Information and Endnotes” section of your March 2024 statement, you should find the following notice. This has also been confirmed by an official Fidelity representative on the r/Fidelity Subreddit. From my statement:

Please note that on or around June 15, 2024, you’ll have the option to elect Fidelity(R) Government Money Market Fund (SPAXX) as your core sweep investment vehicle. You will not need to take any action if you wish to retain the Bank Sweep as your core position. For additional information on your core position options, including the current yields on the Bank Sweep and money market funds, please visit Fidelity.com/spend-save/fidelity-cash-management-account/overview and FundResearch.Fidelity.com/mutual-funds/summary/31617H102.

The 7-day yield of SPAXX is 4.95% as of 4/19/24, significantly higher than the 2.72% FDIC-insured sweep. Money market mutual funds are unable to offer FDIC insurance, but they are still heavily-regulated by the SEC to hold very conservative and liquid investments. “Government” money markets have even stricter requirements, and that is why they are used as cash sweep funds. I personally lose zero sleep over holding cash in a money market fund run by a reputable firm like Fidelity, Vanguard, or Schwab.

This is a positive development for those that use the Fidelity CMA, especially if your state doesn’t have income taxes on investment interest that create an incentive to hold money market funds with mostly interest from Treasury bonds. If you do live in such a state, you should know that in 2023 neither Fidelity Government Money Market Fund (SPAXX) nor Fidelity® Treasury Money Market Fund (FZFXX) met the minimum investment in U.S. government securities required to exempt the distribution from tax in California, Connecticut, and New York. (Despite having Treasury in the name, FZFXX only had about 20% in eligible Treasury interest.) These are the core positions available in the standard Fidelity Account.

As such, residents of California, Connecticut, and New York may want to hold the Fidelity Treasury Only Money Market Fund (FDLXX), as it did meet those requirements in 2023 with roughly 90% of interest eligible for exemption. This is not a core option so you do have to buy this mutual fund manually, although the CMA account will sell it automatically to meet any cash demands that come up later. But still, if you forget for a few days, the interest difference is much smaller between SPAXX and FDLXX.

I am definitely switching over my core position as soon as I can. June 15th, 2024 is a Saturday, so I’ll check on Friday the 14th and then Monday the 17th. You can switch over manually by logging into Fidelity.com, going to “Accounts & Trade”,” Account Positions”, and then “Cash”. You should then see the button to “Change Core Position”.

“The editorial content here is not provided by any of the companies mentioned, and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone. This email may contain links through which we are compensated when you click on or are approved for offers.”

Fidelity Cash Management Account To Add New Core Money Market Fund Option (SPAXX @ ~5% APY) from My Money Blog.

Copyright © 2004-2022 MyMoneyBlog.com. All Rights Reserved. Do not re-syndicate without permission.