Financial Well-being

iShares® 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (SGOV) is ultra short term treasury bill ETF. It's expense ratio is near zero (just 0.07%) and it's latest (last 30 days) yield is 5.28%. Since it primarily holds US government bonds, this ETF is state and local tax exempt. Unlike CDs, there is no early withdrawal penalty. For saving money for emergency fund and short term goal expenses, SGOV seems like a good option. Since it is ultra short term bond fund, principal preservation is as good as any other money market fund.

PYMNTS’ research finds that 61%  of U.S. consumers lived paycheck to paycheck  in April 2022, a nine percentage-point increase from 52% in April 2021, making it the main financial lifestyle in the U.S. Source: https://www.pymnts.com/consumer-finance/2022/report-36-of-consumers-earning-250k-now-live-paycheck-to-paycheck/ This increase means approximately three in five  U.S. consumers devote nearly all their salaries  to expenses with little to nothing left over at the end of the month. Above excessive discretionary spending based lifestyle seems to be becoming common amongst privileged high earner millennials.  Even though they are not *likely to practice frugality* the way most of first generation immigrants have been practicing, let's keep nudging  our second generation millennial kids to avoid excessive discretionary spending and become savvy investors. Chances of success are quite slim, but trying is what we, as parents, have control over. One example ...