My husband and I are buying an older home so we'd like to increase our immediately available liquidity from 8k to 30K in case we have any unexpected repairs. The current balance just sits in my checking account, but I'd like to shift it somewhere easily accessible and highly liquid, while also have it earning enough to at least keep up with inflation. Possible options I'm aware of:

HYSA (not available at my current banker, boo, but I could open another account)
Money market fund
Money market account
more VTSAX and chill (accepting the risk that we might have to sell in the future if something does come up).
???

Curious to hear people's thoughts and philosophies on the topic. This is our first house and we've both always rented, so not something I've really considered in depth before.

[–] Sniffy 6 points 1 year ago

HYSA would be my first choice (4% APY). Highly liquid and hassle free, and literally the purpose of it is for what you are describing. Second would be SPAXX/VUSXX (>5%) which is where I also keep my emergency fund. Though these take like an extra day to cash out compared to HYSA, at least for my bank. I wouldn't keep in index funds as you described there is a risk to it.

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