If you were looking to do a home improvement project in the next 2 to 3 years with a cost of approximately $100k, and you had $100k liquid, would a bond ladder be a good place to invest it?

I assume you could pay your contractor in waves and/or just not reinvest some of the funds as they get freed up and then pay half up front and half later or something of that nature.

If using Fidelity, is there any reason to not go with the option they offer up front if you aren't an expert financial investor? Anything to avoid/worry about there?

CC09LawAg said:

---

If you were looking to do a home improvement project in the next 2 to 3 years with a cost of approximately $100k, and you had $100k liquid, would a bond ladder be a good place to invest it?

I assume you could pay your contractor in waves and/or just not reinvest some of the funds as they get freed up and then pay half up front and half later or something of that nature.

If using Fidelity, is there any reason to not go with the option they offer up front if you aren't an expert financial investor? Anything to avoid/worry about there?

---

At today's rates, I'd certainly investigate laddered CDs instead, to remove some of the interest rate risk. Initial tranche could even be kept in money market instruments.

Crunch the numbers, and see if the laddered-bond additional risk is worth it.

You can buy t-bills inside of a fidelity brokerage account and set them to auto roll. I would just buy a 4 weeks t-bills and set it to auto roll. Currently paying a little over 5.3% I believe.