End of High Interest Rates???

[gavinmccallister]

Dr. Marc Faber this week told Bloomberg he is a buyer of gold at and below $580 an ounce. But traders in gold have recently suffered a mauling because central banks are manipulating the market. The Federal Reserve wants to contain inflation to engineer an interest rate cut before the November US elections.


Should we lock in our high rates now, I heard someone talking earlier this week at work that the interest rates have peaked and they will start heading down, now after seeing this article I am getting concerned.

[boefixepa]

Way over my head...but if you find the crystal ball, do let me know what it says.

[Broken Arrow]

Gavin, I... and please understand that I say this with the greatest of respect... but I don't understand why the fascination with speculating on... precious metal of all things, and chasing interest rates on money market accounts? You've been here for much longer than I have, and surely you have seen all the great advices for much better investment vehicles and strategies written here. So, why stick to these two?

Well, whatever it is, I won't bother you anymore with this sort of questioning. Your money is your business, of course, but surely there are better ways to invest your money.

[Ima saver]

I certainly hope the savings interest rate stays up in the 5% range. I am enjoying earning this interest!

[slimcustomer]

If you open up a long term certificate of deposit at a financial institution that allows you to borrow at a small premium to your cd rate, you can hedge against long term rates spiking above your guaranteed certificate rate. Many credit unions will let you take out a loan against your certificate for 1% above your certificate rate. If rates rise more than 1% above your certificate rate, just take a loan out and invest at the new higher rate. The risk is that the institution will raise the margin for cd secured loans after you've made you investment. Another hedging alternative is to look for certificates with short penalty periods for breaking a cd early.

[WellManicuredMan]

Originally Posted by Ima saver

I certainly hope the savings interest rate stays up in the 5% range. I am enjoying earning this interest!

So am I! Ever since I opened my ED account it has gradually gone up. It will be painful to see it drop, which most likely will happen sometime next year when inflation is in check. The Fed has paused twice and gas prices have dropped considerably so I'd say we've hit the peak for our high-yield savings accounts and money market accounts.

[PRICEPLUS]

I concur.

[Ima saver]

You think we are at the peak? Well, I hope we stay here for a little while. I think the cost of building material is coming down too.

[gavinmccallister]

Are any of you going to start locking in your rates now?

[Mathew Green]

Originally Posted by Broken Arrow

Gavin, I... and please understand that I say this with the greatest of respect... but I don't understand why the fascination with speculating on... precious metal of all things

FWIW I had the same reaction as you to recent goldbug messages in these forums.

Why speculate on gold prices when they're at near historic highs? It seems to me there are less risky places to invest your money where the long-term payoff will probably be just as good.

But then, I've always been puzzled by savingadvice.com having a "Featured Website" link that promotes speculation in penny stocks -- a notoriously risky investment if there ever was one. That too seems totally contrary to whole idea of frugality and wise money management.

P.S. Nothing personal gavinmccallister. I too respect your longevity, and am simply puzzled.

[jmjj215]

Originally Posted by Mathew Green

FWIW I had the same reaction as you to recent goldbug messages in these forums.

Why speculate on gold prices when they're at near historic highs? It seems to me there are less risky places to invest your money where the long-term payoff will probably be just as good.

But then, I've always been puzzled by savingadvice.com having a "Featured Website" link that promotes speculation in penny stocks -- a notoriously risky investment if there ever was one. That too seems totally contrary to whole idea of frugality and wise money management.

P.S. Nothing personal gavinmccallister. I too respect your longevity, and am simply puzzled.

I would look at the "partners" list as sites savingadvice.com endorses -- see the featured sponsors list as the people who pay the bill so we can continue to suck up costly bandwidth Glad they're there, but don't believe for a second that SA advocates that stuff. That's my take at least.

[Mathew Green]

Originally Posted by jmjj215

I would look at the "partners" list as sites savingadvice.com endorses -- see the featured sponsors list as the people who pay the bill so we can continue to suck up costly bandwidth Glad they're there, but don't believe for a second that SA advocates that stuff. That's my take at least.

I too am glad they're here to help pay the cost of running this site, and I have no objection to clearly labeled ads for any product -- not even ones I dislike. What I was puzzled about is their designation as "Featured Websites" on the lefthand side of the main page. The sponsors are listed there in the same font, etc as the rest of the menu, as though they were part of the website content, rather than advertisers. The "Featured Sponsors" designation used on other pages makes their status as advertisers clear to even casual visitors. I'm sure there's a reason for it being done the way it is, I just found it puzzling.

Fwiw, I'm sure some people here find it equally puzzling that I openly admit to playing the lottery in spite of knowing I'll probably lose 75% of the money I bet, but for me the lottery is cheap fun and I win often enough to keep it interesting. Hopefully the people who invest in penny stocks or commodities take an equally pragmatic view of those admittedly fun pastimes.

[jeffrey]

Originally Posted by Mathew Green

But then, I've always been puzzled by savingadvice.com having a "Featured Website" link that promotes speculation in penny stocks -- a notoriously risky investment if there ever was one. That too seems totally contrary to whole idea of frugality and wise money management.

Featured websites pay the bills. In the best of all possible worlds, we wouldn't need advertising, but Nate and I decided that the time that the advertising allows us to spend on the site and make it a worthwhile place to visit is a tradeoff that is worth making at this point. They allow me to work on the site(s) full time rather than as a part-time hobby.

[greedy4chips]

Originally Posted by Mathew Green

The sponsors are listed there in the same font, etc as the rest of the menu, as though they were part of the website content, rather than advertisers.

Perhaps that was a coding oversite.

On the other hand if you use too many font styles/sizes it begins to look chaotic.

I like the sponsors whether I use them or not. They pay the bills and I will use them if I need them to help support this site, which obviously provides needed information and has made many customers financially better off!

[Mathew Green]

I already knew the many benefits of this website having sponsors. I just wondered why they were identified as "Featured Websites" rather than "Featured Sponsors" in that one location. It's not a big deal and is probably just the default seting for this software. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming....