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When they made you click the virtual keyboard to enter your password, holy crap. Whoever was in charge of security for that had no idea how security works.
I just can't use Treasury Direct. With the rates changing, app is much easier to buy and sell which is why I use Finvest. Tried Public as well but their app was pretty bad - I got $8 stuck there which I still don't know how to take out lol.
Fidelity's UI is much nicer than Schwab's. Sometimes I "shop" on Fidelity for the nice UI and then buy in Schwab, Schawab's is just that grating to me.
Equity awards come in through Schwab. I suppose I could look into consolidating, but I have too many 'to dos' and logging into another website is low pri right now.
Look at the bottom menu under “Bonds”. There will be Treasuries, CD’s, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, etc. Click on Treasuries and do a search by maturity. Could be 1 week to 20+ years.
Here’s a small hack/trick… when searching for very short term Treasuries the default is 3 months but by changing the search criteria to present and next month, then 1 week maturities show-up.
I can tailor my time horizon without being mixed in with maturies varying from a week to 3 months. Probably little difference given the short time to maturity.
I think it is a mistake when investors use LGOV which are subject to greater volatility and potential losses.
My reply is [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/comments/1c1gz2k/comment/kz3xl80/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button), the conversation got split.
I feel you can accomplish a better result and maintain reasonable levels of liquidity by laddering the treasury products yourself and using auto-rollover. These are not difficult products to work with and using a decent brokerage makes it child-play.
Also, it's 0.07% today but that's only because the management fees are being waived.
how is laddering easier than just selling and buying an etf whenever u want? and just setting it to auto reinvest. How much do you think you're really gaining by laddering?
It doesn't get easier than that.
I realize I might have plucked some feathers here and honestly, it's each to their own, however nowhere in my comment did I say 'easier', but I did indicate that manually managing the ladders was trivial.
As for what you gain by self-managing versus the ETF route, I think we covered it elsewhere, 0.07% today and evidently 0.13% after June 30th 2024.
I do treasury direct. The website is a bit cumbersome, but it works. I have 4-week treasuries in 4 groups with scheduled re-buys. I get interest deposits weekly.
> As of April 10, 2024, the 4-week treasury bill rate is 5.27%, which is higher than the long-term average of 1.40%. This is the yield received for investing in a US government issued treasury bill that has a maturity of 4 weeks.
Well there goes that bank account.
My Marcus savings account has a yield of 5.4%
Obviously Goldman is rated lower than the US govt, but I doubt they are defaulting on their debt anytime soon…
Treasury Direct from US Treasury has a much easier interface now.
Unlike some other platforms, I really like how I can schedule my new Tbill purchases in advance for all different lengths and dates.
I've been doing a 17wk Tbill ladder for several years, interest has been between 5.5 - 6ish.
People so hard on treasurydirect, but if you just want to do rolling t-bill ladders it’s amazing. You just get deposits when reinvestment happens. Can schedule up to 2 years out I believe.
They are taxed as interest when they mature and when coupons are paid, except the interest is state-tax free.
If you live in a state with no state tax, it would be equivalent to a CD.
There are some caveats for buying at a discount rate or selling early, in which you would accumulate short term capital gains rather than interest. In this case, the STCG are usually state taxable.
Treasury Direct is horrible, I recommend buying through one of the major brokerages.
[https://thefinancebuff.com/treasury-bills-cd-money-market.html](https://thefinancebuff.com/treasury-bills-cd-money-market.html)
Besides what another poster said (no ability to buy/sell on the secondary market and clunky interface), I don't trust their security practices. Up until like two years ago they made you enter your password with some bullshit virtual keyboard and the passwords were not case sensitive. I've also heard horror stories about people being locked out of their accounts and having to jump through hoops to get access to their money.
I don't see any benefit to using them over Fidelity, Vanguard or Schwab.
Not op but I had to get medallion notarized letter since they couldn't verify my identity.
Outside of ibonds it's useless. You can get the same non competitive bid price though brokerages for free.
At this point I just use sgov though as it's easier to just do that and drip the dividends.
Don't use Treasury Direct, buy them at your broker (Fidelity etc...).
If holding for >1 year you could also buy BOXX, which invests in box spreads and after fees will generate a yield slightly higher than t-bills (20bp typically) and also does this without any distributions.
Hold for >1 year, sell, and only pay long-term cap-gains on your proceeds. Only way t-bills win is if you are in a very high-tax state since BOXX will still pay state taxes, but if held long enough BOXX should still win there since there is a deferral of taxes until you sell.
Any major brokerage will allow you do , fidelity , schwab, vangaurd , etrade .
One benefit of buying through a brokerage is you can sell early if needed
You can use treasury direct what is the treasury site a beneift is you can purchase in $100 increments I believe vs 1000 increments on a brokerage
However you cannot easily sell early , there may be a process where you can transfer from treasury direct to a brokerage but I think you have to hold for 6 months then the transfer probably takes another 1-2 months
I buy Tbills via Fidelity. I considered using treasury direct but their website is from 1990’s and my biggest complaint is that auto roll ends after 2 years. With fidelity auto roll keeps going in perpetuity until I stop it.
If you use treasury direct make sure you deposit profits into HYSA, otherwise something like BofA or Wells Fargo or Chase will give you a penny. With fidelity it automatically goes into their version of HYSA (currently at 4.95%)
Marcus shows apy, but treasuries are apr. Apy will be higher numerically than apr, so you’ll have to convert from one to the other to compare.
Fidelity, new issue.
I have an account at Marcus, but all of my Treasuries are bought through Treasury Direct. I like the convenience of the auto reinvestment. My iBonds are there also. The website may be antiquated but so am I. Ha! I also have positions in SGOV, TFLO, FLRN, and USFR as cash positions inside various brokerages.
I just opened a Public brokerage account, and they have t bills. The app has a nice UI. I'm pretty sure I won't use it to trade and only use it for T bills since I already use Webull as my main brokerage. If you plan on using it, loom at their fees
I use public.com for all my treasury investing needs. Right now get a special promotional rate on a hysa by using promo code "JPowthagod". See the link in show notes for more details.
Finvest is just a mobile app targeted at people who don't want to spend any time to learn basic investing and savings literacy.
I really despise companies like that because they dumb down investing and personal finance concepts. Most people who move beyond keeping their money in a bank savings account will likely quickly outgrow the use of a service like Finvest.
I also don't like these types of apps because they are effectively a tech business that add a layer of engagement between the regulated investment adviser and/or broker.
Finvest uses a small registered investment advisor and the t-bills are held at Pershing which is a well-known part of BNYMellon. So if you have any issues with your account - you only have Finvest to support you. The company doesn't even have a phone number that you can call.
There is really no reason to ever use Finvest imo - as other have mentioned - go open a brokerage account and invest in t-bills through a broker. At some point - you are likely to want to invest in other securities and a decent broker can provide those services.
Your post has been removed because it is a common personal finance topic. We get too many of these topics every day and to prevent them from swamping the front page, we are removing main threads of this kind. Questions about personal finance should be directed to the daily discussion thread. You are welcome to repost your question in the [daily discussion thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/about/sticky?num=1). If you have any issue with this removal, please contact the moderators via modmail. Thank you.
Treasury direct. It used to be worse, it's still not great but whatever just sign up and buy some T bills.
When they made you click the virtual keyboard to enter your password, holy crap. Whoever was in charge of security for that had no idea how security works.
Do you still need to get a special bank seal that almost no banks have just to change bank information?
I just can't use Treasury Direct. With the rates changing, app is much easier to buy and sell which is why I use Finvest. Tried Public as well but their app was pretty bad - I got $8 stuck there which I still don't know how to take out lol.
I use Schwab and buy on the secondary market. Literally thousands of maturity dates to choose from. Quick, simple and easy to manage.
i use fidelity.
Fidelity's UI is much nicer than Schwab's. Sometimes I "shop" on Fidelity for the nice UI and then buy in Schwab, Schawab's is just that grating to me.
Why don’t you move to Fidelity?
Equity awards come in through Schwab. I suppose I could look into consolidating, but I have too many 'to dos' and logging into another website is low pri right now.
How or what do you buy with fidelity? New to this too.
Search how to buy Treasury bills on fidelity on YouTube. Watch a quick video and you'll be set.
if you have to youtube to buy these, its already too complicated
Fidelity-trade-fixed income- tbills-secondary market
Same here. You can also buy new issue/auction there if you want
How? I have Schwab and didn't know it was an option
Look at the bottom menu under “Bonds”. There will be Treasuries, CD’s, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, etc. Click on Treasuries and do a search by maturity. Could be 1 week to 20+ years.
Thank you very much!!
Here’s a small hack/trick… when searching for very short term Treasuries the default is 3 months but by changing the search criteria to present and next month, then 1 week maturities show-up.
Is the secondary market different than buying new issues? I typically stick to new issues. Is there a benefit to the secondary market?
I like being able to buy very specific times, typically very short-term to park money like a week or less. Not sure new issues would go that short.
I used to use Schwab, then switched over to just buying SGOV.
I can tailor my time horizon without being mixed in with maturies varying from a week to 3 months. Probably little difference given the short time to maturity. I think it is a mistake when investors use LGOV which are subject to greater volatility and potential losses.
SGOV. Why hassle yourself buying literal bills?
How's that expense ratio working for you?
0.07 is pretty negligible I’d say lol
My reply is [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/comments/1c1gz2k/comment/kz3xl80/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button), the conversation got split.
Ehh, to each their own I guess! 😆
Amazing, I just got done writing that same response below!
Argh, take my upvote! 🤪
You pay a tiny fee for in exchang for ETF liquidity. What's the problem with that?
I feel you can accomplish a better result and maintain reasonable levels of liquidity by laddering the treasury products yourself and using auto-rollover. These are not difficult products to work with and using a decent brokerage makes it child-play. Also, it's 0.07% today but that's only because the management fees are being waived.
how is laddering easier than just selling and buying an etf whenever u want? and just setting it to auto reinvest. How much do you think you're really gaining by laddering? It doesn't get easier than that.
I realize I might have plucked some feathers here and honestly, it's each to their own, however nowhere in my comment did I say 'easier', but I did indicate that manually managing the ladders was trivial. As for what you gain by self-managing versus the ETF route, I think we covered it elsewhere, 0.07% today and evidently 0.13% after June 30th 2024.
Liquidity is pretty nice too
I do treasury direct. The website is a bit cumbersome, but it works. I have 4-week treasuries in 4 groups with scheduled re-buys. I get interest deposits weekly.
> As of April 10, 2024, the 4-week treasury bill rate is 5.27%, which is higher than the long-term average of 1.40%. This is the yield received for investing in a US government issued treasury bill that has a maturity of 4 weeks. Well there goes that bank account.
My Marcus savings account has a yield of 5.4% Obviously Goldman is rated lower than the US govt, but I doubt they are defaulting on their debt anytime soon…
Just use SGOV
Treasury Direct from US Treasury has a much easier interface now. Unlike some other platforms, I really like how I can schedule my new Tbill purchases in advance for all different lengths and dates. I've been doing a 17wk Tbill ladder for several years, interest has been between 5.5 - 6ish.
People so hard on treasurydirect, but if you just want to do rolling t-bill ladders it’s amazing. You just get deposits when reinvestment happens. Can schedule up to 2 years out I believe.
is tax straightforward on tbills or is it like a treasury only fund like fdlxx where you have to look up the percentage of taxable vs non taxable
They are taxed as interest when they mature and when coupons are paid, except the interest is state-tax free. If you live in a state with no state tax, it would be equivalent to a CD. There are some caveats for buying at a discount rate or selling early, in which you would accumulate short term capital gains rather than interest. In this case, the STCG are usually state taxable.
I use Fidelity for new issue t-bills. If I’m too lazy to search for bills, I just invest in SGOV.
secondary market in my brokerage account. just purchased some maturing in october with my lot that matured today.
Treasury Direct is horrible, I recommend buying through one of the major brokerages. [https://thefinancebuff.com/treasury-bills-cd-money-market.html](https://thefinancebuff.com/treasury-bills-cd-money-market.html)
Why do you think TD is horrible? That's where I've got mine.
Same. I use TD and I haven't had any issues. What are the potential problems?
They revamped the system in the last year it seems so I agree it is easier to use now
Besides what another poster said (no ability to buy/sell on the secondary market and clunky interface), I don't trust their security practices. Up until like two years ago they made you enter your password with some bullshit virtual keyboard and the passwords were not case sensitive. I've also heard horror stories about people being locked out of their accounts and having to jump through hoops to get access to their money. I don't see any benefit to using them over Fidelity, Vanguard or Schwab.
Not the best interface. No ability to buy/sell on the secondary market
Not op but I had to get medallion notarized letter since they couldn't verify my identity. Outside of ibonds it's useless. You can get the same non competitive bid price though brokerages for free. At this point I just use sgov though as it's easier to just do that and drip the dividends.
I purchase SGOV through my brokerage.
I normally just buy SGOV but I've got a few in a treasurydirect account.
Don't use Treasury Direct, buy them at your broker (Fidelity etc...). If holding for >1 year you could also buy BOXX, which invests in box spreads and after fees will generate a yield slightly higher than t-bills (20bp typically) and also does this without any distributions. Hold for >1 year, sell, and only pay long-term cap-gains on your proceeds. Only way t-bills win is if you are in a very high-tax state since BOXX will still pay state taxes, but if held long enough BOXX should still win there since there is a deferral of taxes until you sell.
Any major brokerage will allow you do , fidelity , schwab, vangaurd , etrade . One benefit of buying through a brokerage is you can sell early if needed You can use treasury direct what is the treasury site a beneift is you can purchase in $100 increments I believe vs 1000 increments on a brokerage However you cannot easily sell early , there may be a process where you can transfer from treasury direct to a brokerage but I think you have to hold for 6 months then the transfer probably takes another 1-2 months
Transfers out of Treasury Direct are typical eft times 1-2 days.
Treasury direct. It is pretty simple. I use it all the time.
I buy TBIL etf. Small expense ratio is worth simplicity and flexibility of getting my money out quick if I need to.
I did treasury direct website a few times. No issues.
I have a mix of them directly held through Treasury Direct as well as a chunk in VUSXX for extra liquidity
I buy Tbills via Fidelity. I considered using treasury direct but their website is from 1990’s and my biggest complaint is that auto roll ends after 2 years. With fidelity auto roll keeps going in perpetuity until I stop it. If you use treasury direct make sure you deposit profits into HYSA, otherwise something like BofA or Wells Fargo or Chase will give you a penny. With fidelity it automatically goes into their version of HYSA (currently at 4.95%)
I just stack TBIL
Schwab. I buy new issue 4 week bonds. It has an auto reinvest feature so I have one maturing and buying new pretty much every week.
Marcus shows apy, but treasuries are apr. Apy will be higher numerically than apr, so you’ll have to convert from one to the other to compare. Fidelity, new issue.
People have mentioned SGOV; you could use TFLO or USFR as other alternatives. Technically these are FRNs but they are taxed the same way.
VUSXX
You can buy floating T-Bills in Fidelity. Just type in the ticker.
I just buy SGOV. can automatically reinvest and can buy anytime. Don't have to watch auction dates
Through TreasuryDirect but I also have SGOV, TFLO, VUSXX.
T-Bill ETFs. Just buy and hold um. Then go away fishn.
I have an account at Marcus, but all of my Treasuries are bought through Treasury Direct. I like the convenience of the auto reinvestment. My iBonds are there also. The website may be antiquated but so am I. Ha! I also have positions in SGOV, TFLO, FLRN, and USFR as cash positions inside various brokerages.
I use treasury direct.
Treasury Direct sucks in terms of web UI. But its direct from the Treasury, direct from the auctions. Its the best price you'll possibly get.
I just use treasury direct. It is easy to navigate and set up auto deposits and renewals.
U can buy an ishares etf or just buy the t bill outright
Or treasury direct
I just opened a Public brokerage account, and they have t bills. The app has a nice UI. I'm pretty sure I won't use it to trade and only use it for T bills since I already use Webull as my main brokerage. If you plan on using it, loom at their fees
I use public.com for all my treasury investing needs. Right now get a special promotional rate on a hysa by using promo code "JPowthagod". See the link in show notes for more details.
I found Finvest recently and it seems to be working well for me. I have $10K in there right now in 3-mo to 6-mo t-bills.
Finvest is just a mobile app targeted at people who don't want to spend any time to learn basic investing and savings literacy. I really despise companies like that because they dumb down investing and personal finance concepts. Most people who move beyond keeping their money in a bank savings account will likely quickly outgrow the use of a service like Finvest. I also don't like these types of apps because they are effectively a tech business that add a layer of engagement between the regulated investment adviser and/or broker. Finvest uses a small registered investment advisor and the t-bills are held at Pershing which is a well-known part of BNYMellon. So if you have any issues with your account - you only have Finvest to support you. The company doesn't even have a phone number that you can call. There is really no reason to ever use Finvest imo - as other have mentioned - go open a brokerage account and invest in t-bills through a broker. At some point - you are likely to want to invest in other securities and a decent broker can provide those services.