Money Market Mutual Funds: Pain That Won't Yield

August 20, 2009
By Kevin Cafferty

Great column by Steven Syre in the Boston Globe this week about money market mutual funds.

Pain that won't yield


Start with yields: We are living through what surely feels like the Dust Bowl of short-term investing. The average taxable money fund offered a yield of 0.07 percent last week, according to iMoneyNet of Westborough. The company, which has been tracking money market yields since 1975, never recorded a lower number. You could grow old waiting to earn just 1 percent.

Syre goes on to mention that while yields have dipped to near zero, the safety of money market mutual funds is in question as well after the Reserve Primary Fund "broke the buck" last year.

A suggestion if you're looking for better returns coupled with investment safety - certificates of deposit. While the national average cd rate yield is also fairly low, with MoneyAisle.com's reverse auction platform you can get a much higher rate than the national average. You can see what the overnight MoneyAisle CD Rates are here: MoneyAisle CD Rates. It's free, it's safe, and it's easy to use.

In fact, it's the opposite of Syre's column title: it's not painful, and it will yield.

Add a Comment

  • Featured In:

  • The New York Times: Do I Hear 4%? On This Site, Banks Bid for Your Cash
  • CNN: Auction money for best rates
  • The Wall Street Journal: Want the Best CD Rates? Hold an Auction.
  • AARP Bulletin: Save a Buck: Find Highest Interest Rates Online
  • Safe CDs, checking accounts for investors scared of stocks
  • O: The Oprah Magazine
  • Boston Globe: Website lets banks bid for customers
  • CNBC: Banks Bid for Your Cash
  • MIT Technology Review
  • Money Magazine
  • Reader's Digest
  • FOX Business: Bidding for Your Money

Recent Awards: Finovate Best of Show and Online Banking Report Best of the Web