$200,000

[Cubswin]

If you are bonus whore and dont mind putting in a little extra effort, this is what I would do:

Deposit 50k in Fidelity through either United or American airlines frequest flyer account. You'll get 25k bonus miles. Lots of money market and CD options at Fidelity earning over 5%.

Deposit 25k in TDAmeritrade through Starwood Preferred Guest sign up program. Get 20k SPG points which can be converted into 25k airline miles on most airlines. TD has CD options for 9-12 months that earn over 5%

95k in a 1 year CD earning 5.4% AmTrust Direct First Fed Direct

Keep the remaining 30k in a high interest savings account earning 5% or better. Be on the lookout for other promos/bonuses that may pop up (for example, Fidelity had a $100 depsoit bonus for a 10k new money deposit for existing accounts some time back).

If you travel and know how to use miles wisely, you can usually book flights where the value of a mile is over 2 cents a mile. You could take the 75k you would invest at Fidelity and Ameritrade and earn .25-.5 higher elsewhere which would result in $187.50-$375 more interest income, but you will be taxed on this amount. I put the value of 50k miles at around $1000 and they are not taxed.

Of course, all this assumes you are in not in the highest tax brackets.

[prohornblower]

Cubs,
Clean out your PM's...I wanted to ask you more about the airline miles.

Thanks.

[Cubswin]

All cleaned out. Wow... last PM was received October 2005 when they capped the number of PM you could have. Ask away...

[I.Rowboat]

Does the FDIC insure accounts for more than $100k? I was under the impression that this was the max they would insure per individual account.

Edit: According to Wikipedia, the limit is $100,000 per depositor per bank:

The FDIC provides deposit insurance which currently guarantees checking and savings deposits in member banks up to $100,000 per depositor.

[gobbomom]

[ QUOTE ]
Does the FDIC insure accounts for more than $100k? I was under the impression that this was the max they would insure per individual account.

Edit: According to Wikipedia, the limit is $100,000 per depositor per bank:

The FDIC provides deposit insurance which currently guarantees checking and savings deposits in member banks up to $100,000 per depositor.

[/ QUOTE ]

My guess is these are the key words. Gobbo is getting a high- yield money market account , FDIC protected.

[I.Rowboat]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Does the FDIC insure accounts for more than $100k? I was under the impression that this was the max they would insure per individual account.

Edit: According to Wikipedia, the limit is $100,000 per depositor per bank:

The FDIC provides deposit insurance which currently guarantees checking and savings deposits in member banks up to $100,000 per depositor.

[/ QUOTE ]

My guess is these are the key words. Gobbo is getting a high- yield money market account , FDIC protected.

[/ QUOTE ]

I may be overly paranoid, but I think it's still a good idea to verify with the institution that the entire amount is being insured, and not just the first $100k.

The FDIC has some useful information on their web site:

http://www.fdic.gov/deposit/deposits/index.html

and here:

http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consum.../fdiciorn.html

From the last link, this seems to be on point:

Banks also may offer what is called a money market deposit account, which earns interest at a rate set by the bank and usually limits the customer to a certain number of transactions within a stated time period. All of these types of accounts generally are insured by the FDIC up to the legal limit of $100,000 and sometimes even more for special kinds of accounts or ownership categories. For more information on deposit insurance see FDIC brochure "Your Insured Deposits."

From a brief reading of the FDIC material, it seems the ownership type of the account plays a large role in determining the ability to insure deposit amounts over $100k. My suggestion is just to verify the total amount of coverage being offered for the account, and make sure it matches the level of risk Gobbo is willing to assume. An account may be advertised as being FDIC insured, but that insurance may only apply to the first $100k in the account.

[gobbomom]

I appreciate what you're saying I. Rowboat; it's better to be safe than sorry. I'll check this out before he signs the papers. Thanks.

[Statutory]

I'd suggest not keeping all the money liquid. Lets assume his BR is 300K. Hes looking to keep 100K to play poker with and wants to make the other 200K work for him. This is a great idea.

But why does he need access to the 200K? If you look around these boards, many a poker player has lost their six figure bankrolls. In my opinion, taking a 100K down swing should be a sign that you are doing something wrong, especially for an MTT player, and you should drop down stakes to fix your game and regrow your bankroll. The answer isn't reload the 200K and move up.

Combine poker players' tendency to chase their losses with Gobbo's generosity (Vig), 100% liquidity is probably a bad idea.

Invest in a balanced portfolio and he'll have an early retirement.