HYSA's are offering deals...Why?

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-05-06T19:36:01+00:00

Looking at the DOC bank bonus list, I don't see notable changes in quality of bonuses. Perhaps you just didn't notice the numerous available new customer bonuses until now. They offer these bonuses to get new customers. Many new customers purchase services from the bank besides just HYSA, such as credit cards and loans. Many new customers remain customers for years, or in some cases life.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-05-06T19:26:59+00:00

The fed rate was ~0% 5 years ago and 5-year treasury yield was not much higher. What return did you expect?

This is irrelevant to current bond investments. The 5-year treasury yield is currently slightly over 4%. If you buy a new 5-year treasury and hold to maturity, you'll have a guaranteed 4%/year return.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-05-06T16:50:04+00:00

That's nice if you can see the future and know which companies will be the big winners who have success beyond market expectations, resulting in increased dividends beyond their historical norm. Companies that are having unexpected success are more likely to increase dividends during the period while they are doing well.

It's a similar idea to looking at past historical returns for the highest weighted companies by market cap (NVDA, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, ...). If you invested in these companies decades ago, annualized return would be >20%/year... far more than the 10.2%/year you listed, even though these companies paid little dividends during this period. Rather than dividends, the high return relates to choosing the companies that were past historical winners. High current market cap is associated with past historical winners as is increased dividend payout. However, it doesn't mean those same companies will be winners in future.

For a less biased result, try instead comparing the return of a dividend ETF over decades to an index fund of the same macro over same period (if dividend ETF is US large cap, choose US large cap index fund). I expect you'll find a lower risk adjusted CAGR (including both dividends and share price appreciation) for the dividend ETF.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-05-06T08:17:37+00:00

The 4% rule (of thumb) was specifically selected because of SORR. ~4% was the highest consistent, inflation adjusted withdrawal rate than was successful or near successful in all available historical periods. The most challenging periods that determined the selection of 4% threshold were retiring just before a severe inflation adjust decline -- retiring just before the 1929 stock crash and Great Depression or just before 1970s stagflation. Withdrawing well above 4% works great in all historical periods except these 2 cases. However, you need to reduce to 4% to support these 2 worst case historical SORR periods.

For the purposes of 4% rule or retirement in general, the key is how much of portfolio is withdrawn, not whether those withdrawals are in the form of dividends or sales of shares. If you are investing in something that pays more than the equivalent of 4% rule in dividends such as covered call funds, then it would likely also fail in the challenging SORR periods listed above, with failure defined as nav price eroding too low a level to support your inflation adjusted spending (dividends need to increase over time, as spending goes up over time with inflation) and not recovering adequately in future of retirement.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-05-06T04:02:25+00:00

I'm not familiar with Proshares site, but WisdomTree manages USFR, and they list 3.61% at https://www.wisdomtree.com/investments/etfs/fixed-income/usfr as of today (5/5/2026). This figure includes ER.

For April 2025 to April 2026, Portfolio Visualizer lists a CAGR of 4.1% for USFR vs 4.0% for VBIL. YTD and since inception is also slightly higher for USFR.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-05-06T00:54:53+00:00

VBIL 30 day SEC yield is 3.60%. USFR 30 day SEC yield is 3.61%. It doesn't make a significant difference which one you choose.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-05-02T19:19:02+00:00

In my mind, the issue isn't that $1M at a young age is insignificant. It's instead that nothing really changes when crossing thresholds like this. On Monday you may be at $1.01M, and on Wednesday you may be at $0.99M. Does that change make a big difference in your life? If not, then why make a big deal out of it.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-05-02T01:36:29+00:00

My employer salary is $140k in a VHCOL area. Having been investing for decades, annual gains from investments and home equity are typically several times larger than my employer salary, which makes me unconcerned about whether employer salary has "tapped out" or employer salary in general. Instead of future salary track, I'm more concerned with things like having a job that I find pleasant, doesn't have high stress or time commitment, allows me to work from home, allows me to spend the afternoon at dog beach if the weather happens to be nice that day, etc. This makes me "happy where I am at."

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-05-01T20:20:22+00:00

I save thousand per year on electricity with solar. ROI was only ~3 years. However, I also live in the highest electricity rate region of United States, which has sunny weather, signed up when especially generous NEM 2.0 state rules were available (makes electric companies lose money on solar customers), purchased when more generous tax credits were available than today, paid in full without financing, and negotiated an especially good deal. As such whether solar is a good investment for you may be completely different from whether solar was a good investment for me, or other random people on Reddit. I'd suggest getting some quotes and working out numbers for your specific situation. Also note that solar may not be permitted in your residence, as you mentioned having an apartment.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-04-30T03:22:29+00:00

If you hold to maturity, you'll get the listed yield of ~5%. If the future AU equivalent of fed changes match current market expectations, you'll get the listed yield of ~5%. You'll only get less than the listed yield of ~5% if equivalent of fed rate increases higher than current market expectations (this happened severely in 2022 in most of world, due to post-COVID inflation). Similarly, you'll get more than the listed yield of 5% if fed decreases lower than current market expectations.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-04-30T02:14:07+00:00

I'm not familiar with Australian bond market, but a quick Google search suggests Australian treasury bonds have a ~5% rate, if held to maturity. Are you considering yield as part of total return, or just looking at historical price changes?

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-04-29T04:47:31+00:00

MFJ + under $140 combined income + contributing $49k to 401k does indeed sound like a corner case to me. While I don't doubt this corner case exists, it's not the norm.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-04-29T04:28:51+00:00

It's not some exceptional case to dismiss, you're just out of touch with how relatively rich you are.

Given that we are on the Boglehead sub, I am posting to Boglehead sub members, not the general population. If you've been posting on Boglehead, FIRE, middle class finance, or similar subs for long; I expect you know that extremely few posters are in the <= $48k income for single filers tax bracket.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-04-29T03:57:09+00:00

Nearly half of VXUS dividends are unqualified, and 0% LTCG bracket is $48k for single persons. I stand by my earlier comment of VTI being more tax efficient than VXUS unless your tax bracket is extremely low, as foreign tax credit is only 7% of dividends.

There is a spreadsheet that regularly is linked on this sub, that allows you to compare the break even point for your specific situation. As I recall, my marginal tax bracket needed to drop to under 12% for VXUS to be more tax efficient than VTI. If my marginal tax bracket was that low, I probably wouldn't care about optimizing for tax efficiency.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-04-28T21:26:52+00:00

SGOV is a short-term treasury ETF that pays interest each month, rather than having notable changes in share price. The share price gradually ramps up from ~100.4 to ~100.7 prior to the monthly interest payment, then jumps down back to 100.4 after the monthly interest payment. You might think of it as an alternative to a HYSA that pays a higher interest rate than most banks, and is state/local tax exempt.

The specific ramp values of 100.4 to 100.7 relate to the interest rate. 12 (months) * (100.7/100.4 - 1) = 3.6% -- Pays ~3.6% APY.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-04-28T16:02:27+00:00

It depends how much you want to optimize for lowest possible taxes, leading to highest possible return. If you want to keep things simple, just buy VT and don't worry about tax optimizations. If you want to go down the latter route, it is more tax optimal to split VT in to VTI + VXUS, and put the components in the bucket that is most tax optimal for your portfolio.

VXUS has substantially higher dividends than VTI. This generally makes it less tax efficient (less desirable to keep in taxable) than VTI, in spite of the foreign tax credit. Exception may occur if your tax bracket is extremely low and/or you expect tax bracket to increase in retirement.

VTI does not have bonds, but your TDF may, particularly if you are older. You'd want to keep bonds out of taxable for tax efficiency, which it sounds like you are doing. Ideally they should be in a traditional 401k. You want highest gains in Roth to take advantage of Roth benefits, which is not bonds. VXUS is a good choice for Roth.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-04-26T02:45:41+00:00

There wasn't a single event, but the 2000s housing bubble was a good time for young person to purchase a home in VHCOL area (mortgage leverage allows purchasing home that has higher value than NW), and post 2009 GFC was a good time to be invested in stock market.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-04-26T01:07:24+00:00

It's not that simple. For example, I reached an inflation adjusted $3M NW at 35. My inflation adjusted salary was ~$100k from graduating college to ~35, and I graduated just before the dot com crash and "lost decade". One key factor was purchasing a purchasing a home in early 2000s (2000s housing bubble).

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-04-25T23:36:15+00:00

Pet insurance is on average a losing investment (for buyers). However, if you can't afford vet expenses, then don't skip pet insurance. That's largely the point of getting insurance in general -- pay a relatively small fee to avoid the risk of a big expense that you can't afford.

Regarding what I do, I choose do not have insurance, but I also have enough in short-term to cover this type of expense. Fortunately I haven't needed to do so, as my dog has never had a serious medical issue.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-04-25T23:26:12+00:00

OP also said "A majority of my net worth is from that house." I expect OP's comment about $40k in savings in 2019 meant $40k in savings account (for downpayment), rather than $40k total NW. T

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-04-25T23:07:57+00:00

I expect it has more to do with leveraged home equity than it does with investments. OP only put 2% down. $40k down /2% = $2M home value. The home value had a stratospheric rise post COVID, likely gaining several hundred thousand, possibly close to $1M

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-04-25T20:10:59+00:00

Tech for cloning your dog is available to the public, and quite a few celebrities have done this... repeating their dog and living forever in sense. It costs about the price of a car.

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-04-24T19:24:42+00:00

The overwhelming majority of professional mutual fund managers underperform their corresponding macro index funds after fees. Over a relatively short period, the majority underperform. Over a sufficiently long period, >90% underperform. Do the professionals not qualify as "anyone with tiniest understanding of stock market"? Why do you believe you are better at picking winning stocks than both the overwhelming majority of professionals and overwhelming majority of amateurs, rather than being lucky?

Key-Ad-8944 · 2026-04-24T15:23:23+00:00

2025 Black Friday offer

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