I have a online account with Ameritrade and noticed that they only pay ~1% on the cash one has with them. Is there a better place to put the cash in ?
Right now it's a common problem all over - with the Fed's historically low interest rates of late, money market funds overall are paying bupkiss. Depending on where you are, if you're willing to risk some of the cash in exchange for a greater return you might want to look at closed-end municipal bond funds. I live in New York and have moved some of the cash into Nuveen closed end munis. Some are paying an after-tax equivilent of 9%+ Granted, they do gpo up-snd-down in value, but I'm using AIM on these too so they should grow pretty well in the long term.
Here's a listing of their closed end funds, by state:
Another safe choice if the Nuveens aren't for you might be the new iShares fixed income ETF's. Symbol SHY for example is for short term Treasury bonds which should be stable enough!
Happy hunting for alternatives! They are out there if you're willing to give up the fixed $1 per share that the money markets offer.
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