Originally Posted by sdflyer04
I've been holding off on the Ameritrade/Starwood deal because I'm not sure where to put the money at Ameritrade. I called them about putting the money in a money market and they gave me a very complicated answer about a 3rd party vendor whose webpage seemed even more complex. I couldn't find the answer to the simple question of what interest rate they would offer on a money market for $25,000.00. For ease of tax reporting, I prefer not to transfer my stocks and mutual funds to Ameritrade and that leaves me with cash or cash equivalent (I don't plan on doing any trading at Ameritrade).
I don't know your specific situation, but transferring exsiting stock/fund holdings does not create a taxable event.
Most of my Ameritrade account is in stocks, but the annualized interest rate on my univested cash balance last month (about $4k) was about 1/10th of 1 percent. Frankly, I wouldn't expect the rate on $25k to be all that much higher. I haven't looked into the money market option, but I know it's not as simple as it is at Fidelity and other brokers where univested cash is automatically swept into a money market option that you choose.