What investment would be best? We have $4K for our emergency fund--$ needs to be liquid but earn interest?

Question

We have $4,000 we want to keep reasonably liquid as an emergency fund but we'd like to earn the best interest on it that we can without risking losing the principal. The stock market is out--too risky for us. Savings bonds are not liquid enough for us plus interest is not that good. Interest on T-bills is not that good either. Seems like CDs or money market are the only real options...with CDs perhaps being the better of the two options for us. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Answer 1

Put the money into an internet bank. They pay as much interest as a CD would, but you can get the money anytime you need it. There are no fees, which you would have to pay if you put the money into a money market fund. It is also very easy to transfer money in and out of the account. For more on this including links to internet banks, click on http://www.vilkri.com/pubreader.php?page...

Answer 2

www.bankrate.com

Answer 3

paypal.com is paying about 2.4% (changes daily) (was paying 5% a year ago)- you can get the money back into your checking acct within a couple of days - no interest penalty like  a CD if you have to pull it out quickly - I use Paypal as my savings acct basically

Answer 4

WaMu and Shamu

both took a dive.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=WM

Only one of them

came up alive.

Answer 5

money market or just a plain old savings account

Answer 6

Check out the following website:  http://www.bankaholic.com/

for the best CD/Money Market rates.  Also, USAA ( http://www.usaa.com) offers very favorable rates.  You should also check to see if you are eligible to join a credit union.  One of mine is horrible, but the other, American Airlines FCU offers some of the best rates on savings I have ever seen.  Check their website to see if you are eligible (any work in transportation?)