Realcent.org

I wrote this in a response on another board, but thought some here would find it useful as it's own topic.

From time to time I read about searchers that would like to "up their volume" but their wife/husband wouldn't let them dip into the savings at the bank. Understand that I'm not advocating tapping out the account, but if explained correctly the spouse may be able to see that it isn't such a bad thing to do.

I don't pretend to know how much savings anyone has, or what their monthly budget is, so my numbers are purely random. After reading this you will understand my theory, and then you can apply your own numbers when you speak to your wife/husband.

Using $12,000 as the amount in your savings account, and $4,000 as the amount of your monthly expenses (rent/mortgage, utilities, car payment/ins., etc....) let's view this chart I made. It's like a stop light (stop, caution, go)



I broke up the $12,000 savings into 3 sections.

The red is the top layer that gets used monthly and replenished by your paycheck(s). This is the most active, and never gets touched other then expenses.

The yellow is the middle layer, and the cushion, should any emergencies arise (water heater, leaky roof, etc...). It is an exact full increment of the red so that it could also cover a full month of the budget if need be.

The green is the bottom layer, and in normal conditions is never called to action, so that's where you would draw your additional hunting money from.

Once that money is out of the bank and into your hunting funds, the good part is that if through unforeseen circumstances red and yellow are both end up in play and things are looking tight, the green is no further that your pocket and ready to go back into the original mix to save the day

To my knowledge right now Capital One is offering a strong interest rate which works out to about 1/10th of 1% ($1 per $1,000 in the bank every month), so the $4,000 (green area) that you would be removing from the savings would only be costing you $4 per month which is currently less that a 40% half dollar.

If $4,000 extra hunting money can't make you one 40% half dollar in a month, then maybe you should not be hunting in your area anyway.

Disclaimer: If you get robbed, or somehow lose the $4,000 somewhere along the way, then everything I wrote no longer applies.

Nick

Nick,
Provided someone had access to thèse funds the theory is sound. When I first started back roll hunting I used every dollar available. I even stopped funding my 401. No problem with that as the gains made searching should equal or beat the "missed opportunity of the 401. In upping the hunt you need consider sourcing, searching time, recycling sorted coin. If this can be accomplished I feel there shouldn't be much to consider. Done deal. Funds are always liquid if you can keep up.

For the most part, CRH funds never deplete, besides finds, of course. I tend to think of my CRH funds as savings or an emergency fund. As you said, much better to have money to search with, making you money rather than money sitting in the bank making sh!t for interest.
Best of luck sorting!

Amex and Ally both have very strong interest rates for savings accounts. However, given they are not ot brick and mortar establishments I can understand people's aversion.

I like Ally quite a bit though. They refund all ATM fees so it's a great checking account. A good place for your cash that is going to be sticking around awhile, or the 'green zone' you refer to.

Nick,
Thanks for your helpful advise. This is exactly the arguement I presented to my wife a while back. Being an accountant, she couldn't hardly say no and reluctantly signed off on it. My biggest obstacle has been opening new accounts and working up the courage to ask them to "place an order" for me. I guess if they say no, I close the account and move down the road.

You guys have $12,000 in your checking accounts? Who are you 1%ers?

How fast are you churning coin that you need to increase your float by $4000?

Using Nick's interest rate of .1%, $4K would only earn $4/year, so you'd actually only need to earn 33 cents/month to break even.

From the numbers I've seen, you should be able to earn 50%/year sorting if you can turn your money over once a week...so $4K would turn into $6K if you could find a way to source and dump that many halves.

A couple of things come to mind.

First - you folks may have more faith in banks than I do, but anything more than what will be spent in the very short term is safer in the old coffee can out in the garage than in the bank.

Second - Your coins stacked up around your desk are a savings account of a type. Something unexpected comes up cash some of those clad halves in - aren't you doing that on a regular basis anyway?

Third - what do you mean ask the wife?????? The most input she should have on your sorting practices is whether she massages your neck or feet while you do it.

Engineer wrote:Using Nick's interest rate of .1%, $4K would only earn $4/year........

Capital One's "5 times the national average" gives .1% monthly, not for the whole year.

CardsNCoins wrote:

Engineer wrote:Using Nick's interest rate of .1%, $4K would only earn $4/year........

Capital One's "5 times the national average" gives .1% monthly, not for the whole year.

That isn't bad! Well...it's still pretty bad, but it's 12 times better than I'm getting.

Engineer wrote:That isn't bad! Well...it's still pretty bad, but it's 12 times better than I'm getting.

They guarantee the rate for 1 year after opening, and then I'm sure it falls off a cliff on day 366.