A young guy can afford to invest aggressively because they can
fall back on employment. So I'd put a three months living expenses
in cash, the rest in an age-appropriate portfolio. Then withdraw up
to 0.5-1.0% a month from that portfolio for living. Adjust your living
style
to that 0.5% if the market stagnates.

me[at]privacy.net wrote:
- quote -

For general information on health insurance, a site I've found that is
very good is:
http://www.healthinsurance.org/aboutsite.lasso

They forward you to http://www.ehealthinsurance.com, which as they note
will provide immediate pricing and policy details online.
EHealthInsurance will not pester you with calls, but has agents
available by phone as needed (I've found them very helpful with no
pressure).

You can look through literally scores of policies to see what best fits
your needs, and just walk away if you you don't see what you like.

As to which insurance company is best, that varies from state to state,
and also can vary depending on the individual's needs. EHealthInsurance
indicates clearly which plans are advertising on their site, and which
are the best selling plans.

I'm not trying to make this sound like a sales pitch - I've just been
impressed with the amount/quality of information, and relative openness
of the site(s).
--
Mark Freeland
nNeEwTs[at]sonic.net

Tad Borek <borekfm[at]pacbell.net> wrote:

- quote -

Agree

But any advice on what company to get it from?

The higher the yield, the greater the risk. IOW, one does
not get that higher yield for nothing.

You can diversify and have some of these notes paying better
than CDs now, along with no risk to lower risk CDs, bonds
etc. One catch may turn out to be the size of the bond you
purchase. To keep the commission from eating too much into
the yield, one typically needs to purchase a pretty large
bond. But then, because you have only so many dollars to put
into your fixed income "one year off" fund, this may limit
you to only a few companies and so hurts your
diversification. A bond mutual fund can help, but at some
cost if interest rates rise.

It really just depends on your risk tolerance.

I would not touch anything rated at junk level. Google for
{junk bonds ratings} for a discussion of what that means, if
necessary.

"dan" <dan.gosser[at]gmail.com> wrote
- quote -

dan wrote:
- quote -

Dan,
My suggestion would be to keep it simple and focus on the main goal
which is making it through 12-15 months - not "maximizing returns".
Especially b/c this is a unique time for fixed-income investors, where
there is little or no reward for taking on additional risk by moving
from say a money-market account or short-term CD, to even a short-term
corporate bond or bond mutual fund. Those can drop in value, unlike say
a CD, but don't really pay much more at the moment.

Your principal concern is covering rent and living expenses over the
next 12-15 months or so. Why not just lock that down with 100% certainty
instead of trying to eke out another 1% on your money (which probably
isn't much - you could work 30 hours as a temp and earn about that much,
perhaps)? All of the alternatives discussed have issues with them that
involve a greater-than-1% downside, and downside means you might have to
cut short your time off. Savings bonds aren't intended for such
short-term use and you give up some interest by cashing in so early.
REITs are stocks, fundamentally, and can easily fluctuate in value 10%
or more (even much more) over the course of a year. Corporate bonds
yielding in the 6%+ range may be easy to find & purchase, but unless
they are going to mature by the time you need the money, you might take
a haircut greater than the additional yield when you go to sell. You
might avoid that by buying US Treasury bills (which are much easier to
sell at a good price) but your yields there are probably comparable to
the other/simpler things being discussed.

Keep it simple - I'm not familiar with that GMAC account but something
in the 5% to 6% range should be easy to find. Some of the money in money
market funds, your 5-month money in a teaser-rate CD that comes due
around then (check newspaper ads), some in that GMAC thing, etc...and
start planning the fun part of your move instead of trying to squeeze a
couple bucks out of your cash.

You may find the cost of living to be really low in AZ, depends where
you're coming from back east. Note other thread going, from realtors who
are seeing a cooling of the market - I've certainly seen signs of this
too from people who had speculated in that market. What does that say
about the rental market? Probably a pretty good time to be a tenant.

And buy health insurance! Even just a high deductible plan. A cell phone
is optional, cable is optional, even collision & comprehensive on your
car are optional, but health insurance should be a top of the list item
once you cover basic living expenses. We're all one week away from an
appendectomy that would blow out most people's entire net worth.

-Tad

What do you guys think about more corporate notes, just diversified
among many?
Fidelity has a whole list of well known corporations that pay around 6%

"dan" <dan.gosser[at]gmail.com> wrote:

- quote -

Use this:

me[at]privacy.net

dan wrote:
- quote -

It's pretty hard to do, and not really worth the trouble. It's better
to create a "throwaway" account - a real, functional email address
which you don't ever monitor. You can get these for free from
yahoo.com, hotmail.com, etc. Don't ever put your real email address on
usenet, as it will be "harvested" and used to send you spam. It's
probably too late for the address that you have already used here.

Another less reliable method is to "munge" your real email address, and
use that. This means to add extra characters to your address, or to
make it different in some way from the real address. The problem there
is that the harvesting programs can sometimes see through this and
deduce your real address.

John Cowart

"dan" <dan.gosser[at]gmail.com> wrote
- quote -

I'll say.

- quote -

Plus, even the catastrophic plans get you the discounted
rate that insurance companies have "pre-negotiated" with
hospitals, docs, etc. So even though you may not exceed the
deductible for a given accident, you may still pay less
because you have a contract with xyz insurer.

Though twice now, sans health insured and "self-indemnified"
(at some risk), in the past year I have obtained what
appears to be some sort of significantly discounted rate
from medical labs (blood work) and an endodontist. Lot of
monopoly money going around, it would seem. The docs and
hospitals say the fee is X; the insurers negotiate to
something less than X; but the fee is not actually X, it was
just hyped up to get the insurers to pay more.

A health savings account might be something to consider,
especially if you will be self-employed for the long run.

- quote -

Fidelity.com let's anyone (customer or not) search their
corporate bond offerings. Those listed may give you some
ideas.

Thanks for the feedback,

It looks to be Arizona, so i'm figuring it will be all around cheaper
then CA. As far as health insurance, its a good point, and something
i've been concerned about. I got some quotes online from the big
companies, and for less then $100/month I can get basic coverage in
case of a serious incident (granted the low premiums dont give me
prescription plans and have high deductibles and about 3-4k out of
pocket/yr) but thats all i need at my age, I almost never see a doctor,
and i have no problem pay for appointments out of pocket.

I thought about the CD laddering, but even they don't beat this darn
demand notes account [at] 6%. I suppose mid 5%'s is still pretty decent
if there's 0 risk.

Unfortunately I have no military or USAA affiliation,

but ill check out the corporate bonds, i still have much to learn

Thanks Again,

Dan

I recommend one or some of the following:

-- A CD ladder, 3-month rungs or similar, longest maturity,
one-year. Dissolve the ladder rung by rung as they mature
and principal is needed. It will combine the advantages of a
slightly longer term (one year) with the expectation that
we'll see at least one more interest rate hike in the next
12 months.

-- A few high grade individual corporate bond positions is
something to consider, if you have a broker that does not
charge you an arm and leg for commissions on them.

-- By any chance are you former military and so eligible to
become a USAA member? Its bank is offering a promotion for
the first six months, paying over 5.6% IIRC, then dropping
to the normal money market rate which is 4.6% or so at the
moment.

I don't think you can hit a 6% yield within the next few
months without more risk.

Because another interest rate increase from the Fed is
expected around August 8, I would still stay away from bond
mutual funds of any kind and preferred (hybrid) stocks. REIT
stocks are bloated in my estimation now so I think they're a
bit risky. Also, IIRC there are a lot fewer ones paying
upwards of 6% these days anyway (due to the bloat).

Watch out for health insurance. Not having it is a gamble.
You at least should have some serious dough for
"self-indemnification" for that spontaneous accident that
happens when we least expect it.

California taxes are among the highest in the nation. Plan
accordingly.

So here's the deal, im considering resigning from job and relocating
from the east coast to the west coast. I'm going to sell my house and
pretty much everything I own, and rent a small apartment. I'm planning
on taking some time off, maybe a year or so, before i look for a job or
explore some self-employed avenues.

My hope is to be able to take all the $ I have, and live off
interest/dividends during that time.

I'd like to see around 6-7%. I am a GMAC Employee and I opened a
"Demand Notes" account which pays 6.00% and provides a checkbook &
debit card. I also have a GMAC bank money market which I think now
pays 5.05%. I've heard that I-Bonds can also provide a good rate of
return in this range. I've looked at REITS that pay dividends in this
range, but I'm a little wary with real estate market slowing down a
bit.

Basically, I need some other ideas as to where to put my money. I'd
love to stick it all in that demand notes account, but its not FDIC
insured. GM isn't too hot, but GMAC is pretty stable, nevertheless,
anything is possible.

Thoughts?

Oh, and how do I stop my email address from appearing on these posts?

Thanks!