7 Reasons Why You Should Keep Your Savings In Money Market Mutual Funds

1. Keep your checking account at your local bank but not your extra savings, such as what you keep in bank savings accounts - or worse - in your checking account. Money market funds, which are a type of mutual fund (other common funds focus on bonds or stocks), are a great place to keep your extra savings. Money market funds are a higher yielding alternative to bank savings and bank money market deposit accounts.

2. Money market funds are unique among mutual funds because they do not fluctuate in value and maintain a fixed $1 per share price. As with a bank savings account, your principal investment in a money market fund does not change in value while you're earning dividends (same as the interest on a bank account). However, money market mutual funds offer several significant benefits over bank savings accounts. The biggest advantage is higher yields.

3. Money market mutual funds are able to pay higher yields because they don't have the high overhead that banks do. The most efficient mutual fund companies, such as Vanguard, T. Rowe Price, and USAA, don't have scads of branch offices on every street corner. Another reason that banks pay lower yields is that they know that many depositors, perhaps including you, believe that the FDIC insurance that comes with a bank savings account makes it safer than a money market mutual fund.

4. Another advantage of money funds over bank accounts is that money funds come in a variety of tax-free versions. So if you're in a high tax bracket, tax-free money funds offer something bank accounts don't.

5. Another useful feature that comes with money market mutual funds is the ability to write checks, without charge, against your account. Most mutual fund companies require that the checks that you write be for larger amounts - typically at least $250. They don't want you using these accounts to pay all your small household bills because checks cost money to process.

6. Money market funds are a good place to keep your emergency cash reserve of at least three to six months' living expenses. They're also a great place to keep money awaiting investment elsewhere in the near future. If you're saving money for a home that you expect to purchase soon (next year or so), a money fund can be a safe place to accumulate and grow the down payment. You wouldn't want to risk placing such money in the stock market, which can get clobbered in a relatively short period of time.

7. Just as you can use a money market fund for your personal purposes, you can open a money market fund for your business. This account can be used for depositing checks received from customers and holding excess funds as well as for paying bills via the check-writing feature.

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