401(k) Coach  

Want to get more return on your savings?
What if you didn’t have to pay taxes on the interest you earned?
And you could still sleep at night, knowing that your savings are…..safe?

Sound too good to be true? Well, municipal bonds do all of that. Munis have long provided funding for projects such as libraries, hospitals, schools, airports, and roads. They are a fantastic bargain right now, paying you a much better return on your savings than CDs.

According to www.bankrate.com as of July 22, 2009, the highest CD rate I found was 3.46% for 5 years, and 2.25 for 1 year. Dave Ramsey, Financial Talk-Radio host, likes to refer to CDs as “Certificates of Depression”, and its easy to see why.

You can easily find investment grade (safe, not junk) Municipal Bonds through a good advisor, paying 5% or better, for a period of 5 years or less. When you consider that you don’t have to pay Federal income taxes on the interest, 5% is an excellent return!

If you live in Indiana, where I’m located, you are also exempt from state and local taxes. That can be similar to earning at least 7% on your savings if you paid taxes on the interest.

So why do people still buy CDs? I guess its like the story about the railroad track width measurement. The width is 4 ft 8 1/2 inches. Why? That’s what it was in England. Why? That was the measurement the tramways used before railroads. Why? Tramways were built using the same width as wagons and that was the spacing between wagon wheels. Why? The wagons had to fit the ruts in the road made by Roman Chariots. Chariots were built to accommodate the width of 2 horses. In other words, "We've always done it that way."