January 2020 ended with more than enough headlines to scare anyone into cash. Between Coronavirus spreading in China and the possibility that it may be a generation before the U.S. has a president not named Trump, there is a lot to be scared about. Friday, January 31 saw the Dow drop 600 points and the S&P go down by 58.

Just because you are moving to cash doesn’t mean you have to sit by and take any rate offered.

Most of the major online banks have recently lowered their rates, as the Fed has lowered its rate, to 1.70%. Since that rate still lies on the top end of the Fed Funds target rate of 1.50% to 1.75%, we think a 1.70% APY in an online savings account is fair. It just isn’t the best you can do.

Here are five ways to beat that rate:

First, as of February 1, 2020, BestCashCow shows several online savings rates above 2.00% and many more that are close to 2.00%. Some of these are new entrants and some of these banks have held their rates at or above the best savings rates for a while. In particular, Fitness Bank is offering 2.20% for those who are active (or looking to become active), and CFG Bank is still offering 2.15% in their online savings account.

Second, consider savings rates at local banks and credit unions near you.

Third, you may want to look to short-term CDs with that money in excess of that you require to maintain your liquidity. Many one-year CDs are still being offered above 2.00%, and they will protect you from the possibility of further declines in the savings rate as we work our way through 2020. Read this article for more of my thoughts on short-term CDs here.

Fourth, consider one-year CD rates at local banks and credit unions near you.

Fifth, if all else fails and you find earning so little in interest to be upsetting, infuriating, etc., this could be a good time to consider depositing money with a bank that pays you in American Airlines AAdvantage miles instead of interest. You can learn more about Bask Bank's AAdvantage miles-earning account here.

Have a great month!

There are very few things or people that get my attention on CNBC. I usually find myself switching over to Bloomberg when Joe Kernen or Jim Cramer start rambling. I guess neither were around on Christmas Eve morning because I ended up leaving the channel where it was to catch the tail end of a discussion between David Faber and Jim Stewart where Faber seemed to suggest that a lot of people on Wall Street were concerned about a debilitating cyber attack on our financial institutions.

This has been bothering me more than a little over Christmas. David Faber and Jim Stewart are serious journalists and they speak to a lot of people. They were suggesting the type of a cyber attack where you wake up and check your bank account and it is gone --the bank’s records and its back-ups have all been destroyed. They were not speaking about an attack where accounts cannot easily be recreated, where you log back in after a few minutes and everything is fine.

We all know that the banks – big and small – have multiple back ups, redundancies and active and passive protections. But, we also know that Kim Jong-un needs a win. Vladimir Putin does nothing but win and may feel newly emboldened by Moscow Mitch McConnell and the Republicans support to probe further and deeper into our society than he already has. In either case, these guys have teams of very talented people working to disrupt our lives and our financial systems. Either one would celebrate taking down Ally or Goldman Sachs in the same way that they celebrate Trump.

If nothing else, it seems to me that this is an awfully good time to download your latest bank and brokerage statements and to take screenshots daily of all your savings and CD account balances if you can. If we find ourselves in a situation where everything needs to be retraced, you will be way ahead of the game.

As I turn 50, I feel it is appropriate to look back and give some advice to a 30-year old me who was encountering a crazy bullish stock market like the current one in 1999.

Twenty years ago, I had just turned 30. I was a newly-minted MBA working in a dead-end job with GE in Connecticut. As the Century was drawing to a close, the internet bubble was raging (in spite of Bill Clinton’s impeachment). Having already moved most of my assets into high-flying technology and internet companies like Qualcomm and Akamai, I left my job to join a technology and telecom venture capital firm in Europe.

Everyone knows that the internet bubble popped in March of 2000 before finally hitting bottom in mid-2002. Those years hurt many. Fortunes were wiped clean.

But, technology is resilient and today some twenty years later it has lead the US stock market to new levels (and valuations that, in many cases, would be absurd even by 1999-levels). And, life refreshes such that our economy is now run by 30 year-olds who sit in positions like the one I held 20 years ago. For me, it is sometimes startling to speak with these 30-year olds who have no knowledge or understanding of what I and those like me went through some 20 years ago (they also have no knowledge of the 2008 – 2009 financial crisis).

So here, I write my advice to a younger me in the hope that maybe it will help other folks.

First, do not be afraid to take serious risks. Quit your cushy job with some stodgy old company to work for an innovative start up or to create your own company. You only live once.

Second, quantify the risk you are taking. Working in a job that can deliver tens of millions of dollars in options or stock appreciation and is exciting is a bet worth taking. But, if you are going to do that, then do what you can to pay down your mortgages, any outstanding loans you might have, and keep some cash on hand in case things go bad, because they inevitably do. Many smart young people went from wealthy to broke in the 2000 to 2002 timeframe. Committing to keeping 40% or more of your assets in cash will protect your lifestyle and save you years of anguish.

See the best online savings rates today.

Third, if you feel the need to stay heavily in the market all the time, then diversify, diversify and then diversify some more. If you just made a fortune on your company’s public listing, you may not want to sell but don’t become so wedded to the story that you start buying more at crazy prices and tons of shares in other companies in the same industry. Semiconductor investments really worked well in 2019, but if you work in the industry and have all of your exposure there, you might want to put new money to work in a biotech fund or even an oil and gas fund in 2020 (even though a market crash will sink all boats).

Fourth, stocks do not all go to infinity no matter what Jim Cramer and the other talking heads on CNBC may say. They are all pushing their own books and they are not experts. In fact, one fellow on CNBC’s Fast Money has spent 2019 shorting Tesla and buying cannabis. A monkey can throw darts better than most of these people. Do you own research, find your own experts, and never invest in what some talking head says – even if they promise that next year JDSU or AOL is a “lock to go up 30%”.

Fifth, no matter how rosy things get, financial markets can change on a dime. Commit to a portfolio and an asset allocation that reflects your risk tolerance levels and that you won’t need to adjust dramatically if things go seriously badly. Ultimately, you want to be able to sit on your hands for long periods when things go south without jeopardizing your happiness and your lifestyle.

Full disclosure: The author is ending 2019 with 50% of his assets in savings and short-term CDs and 50% in equities. He is long Qualcomm, Akamai and Tesla.