Brief background:
I’ve been holding onto some stock investments for the last couple of years, with the intention of being able to use them as sort-of a rainy-day fund or startup money when I graduate from school and need to be able to pay for some food or a month’s rent while starting a job. While the investments have done fairly well over the years, I would like to convert the stocks to cash and then place them in a more conservative investment.
I was thinking of getting a 6-month CD (that will put the maturation date near when I’ll graduate) and then figure out whether to keep the money liquid or keep going with short-term investments, depending on my situation. I would love to get the CD through my credit union, but they have a minimium of $1000. Same problem with getting government bonds. $1000 and a 1-year minimum. Looking at other financial institutions, it looks like the $1000 minimum is pretty consistent. Another option is to liquidate but keep the money in my brokerage’s money market fund, for slightly more than about 1% interest. Or I can pull the money and put it into my savings account at about the same interest rate as the money market. Or I can find a CD with a $500 minimum. I could leave the stocks alone and hope that they will continue to maintain value in the short-term. I could convert to a bond if I could find a good bond to invest in that would be a short-term bond. I could sell the stock, place it in the money-market or savings account and hang onto it for a couple of months until I can get together another $500 to invest for $1000 (not a bad idea, in my opinion.) I could ask my parents for a matching investment to take me up to $1000 (but I hate to do that.) Or I could even take it to the casino (kidding, kidding.)
Does anyone have any advice or a place where I could get a 3 or 6 month CD for $500? With preferably at least 3% interest?