Not everyone will be happy when the Federal Reserve begins lowering interest rates after it declares victory over inflation.

Remember, there is a large but low-profile flock of folks with money who like to profit in a very old-fashioned way – savings accounts.

For almost two years, these investors enjoyed the highest rates on these zero-risk bets since the turn of the century. But now it seems the “bull market” for no-brainer savings may be coming to an end.

So for fans of these less-than-sexy investments, it may be time to get busy locking in some longer-term deals with certificates of deposit. And I wish I could end this column right here and tell you to simply go to your neighborhood banking institution and load up on attractive CD rates.

But unfortunately, finding decent deals is not very simple. So let me walk you through the CD maze.

First a history lesson

Before the Fed’s war on inflation began in 2022 with rising rates, the post-Great Recession era was painful for savers. Yields crumbled to near zilch as the Fed used cheap money to ease the financial woes. Then they repeated the tactic to soothe the pandemic’s business challenges.

Think about rates on 1-year Treasury bills – a benchmark for typical savings rates. In the last 38 years of the 20th century, 1-year yields averaged almost 7%. But they paid barely 1% on average since the global financial crisis erupted in 2008 – until 2023.

So last year’s 5% rates – the highest 1-year yields since 2000 – made savers euphoric.

What’s your stash?

First, figure out how much money you can put away for a year or more. This sum can be split into buckets by years, and you can match any savings needs to the maturity length of the CD.

Please be realistic with your liquidity needs. Most banks and credit unions – but not all – charge significant fees if you have to exit your CD early.

Where to look

If you contact your bank or credit union, it’s unlikely they have the most exciting rates.

Get online. A simple search will offer you numerous lists detailing “best” CD rates. Sadly, you’ll have to wade through a half-dozen personal finance websites to find a CD or two that stands above the pack.

Be aware that many CD rankings promote partner institutions. So highlighted rates may not be the best available. Still, institutions paying for this kind of marketing often offer decent deals.

Online friendly?

You’ll increase your odds for a worthy rate if you are willing to bank remotely.

Still, my quick survey of recent high-rate CDs found several offerings from institutions with California branches for anyone who still needs to do face-to-face business.

Another geography factor is that certain must-have rates come with geographic or other limits.

There are banks that only do business in certain states. And many credit unions have odd membership requirements, where you live being one of them.

The caveats

There also are some too-good-to-be-true offers.

First, make sure you’re getting a certificate of deposit from a federally insured institution. Some “best rate” list are sprinkled with annuities – an insurance company product that looks and feels a lot like a CD.

Also, make sure an attractive account has a fixed rate. Some institutions sell variable-rate CDs with yields that will certainly change as rates go down as forecast in the coming years.

Don’t forget to check what size deposit qualifies for a high rate.

Some deals come with high-balance requirements. And believe it or not, some “wow!” rates are good only for modest amounts. Savings above the maximums often get paid mere pennies.

But there’s a but …

Allow me to note two twists on CDs worth considering — if your head isn’t already spinning from all the details required to get what is supposedly a boring investment.

No-penalty CDs: Fixed rates for an extended term with two catches: Savers can withdraw money from the account early without penalty, but rates run slightly below similar offerings that come with early withdrawal penalties.

Still, they provide comfort to the saver who is anxious about tying up money for an extended period.

Brokered CDs: These are bought on financial markets – just like stocks and bonds. Curiously, some of the giant banks that offer next to nothing on their branch CDs will be very competitive in the broker CD world.

The “but” is that these can be confusing to acquire.

For the do-it-yourself investor, online brokerage accounts don’t make it easy to find or buy these CDs.

And if you go to a financial adviser with your stash of cash, you’ll likely get a pitch about other investments – most containing some level of risk – that you may not want to listen to.

Bottom line

Locking in two to five years of near-5% yields doesn’t make for “financial genius” bragging rights.

But CDs are great for earning extra money on your spare cash – or folks who need to know economic gyrations or political hijinx won’t dent their nest egg.

And today’s CD rates look like a bargain that will evaporate soon.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com

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Second Sunday Series – Editor’s Note: This is the eleventh of 12 columns on making a career change which appear the second Sunday of each month, from September through August. Last month’s column discussed launching your job search, while the months before focused on networking; getting experience in your new career; LinkedIn for career-changers; resume strategies; the back-to-school decision; career-change steps in your 60s; 10 ideas for choosing a new career; a sample timeline; and questions to consider when changing careers.

And it’s show time!

If you’ve been following this monthly series on changing careers, you’ve been learning strategies for everything from making training decisions to revising your résumé to launching a job search in your new field.

Now it’s time to finish up this project by meeting with employers — interviewing for a job, that is.

In fundamental ways, interviewing for a career-change job is no different from interviewing for any other position. You’re likely to have some virtual meetings and others in person, for example. You’ll certainly meet with the decision-maker and/or your prospective boss, while also likely talking with an HR recruiter or potential co-workers.

The questions will be similar as well, but with this key difference: Interviewers will want to know about your career change. Their interest will come not from curiosity (mostly) but from a concern about your commitment to the field, your ability to do the work, and whether they should take a bet on hiring you.

You’ll have concerns as well, especially since you’ve invested time and money in making this change. Following are some ideas to help improve your interviews.

Anticipate career change questions: “Why did you change careers?” would be the obvious query, along with, “Do you think you’re ready for this work?” and “What are your goals for this field?”

You don’t need to blurt everything out at once, but setting the tone at the beginning of the interview will help. For example, when asked “Tell us about yourself,” you might balance the answer this way: One-third about your past career, one third on your career-change decision, and the last third highlighting the blend of strengths you’ll bring from both parts of your background.

To avoid going on and on, practice speaking for a minute or less for each section; then you’ll be in the right zone for total length on this answer.

Do your research: As soon as your interview is scheduled, it’s time to call everyone you can who has insight into the company, the industry, and/or this role in particular. With luck, you already have some contacts from your career-change process.

As possible, augment these conversations with online research and a review of your own notes or training materials. Your goal is to familiarize yourself with the language and issues connected to this position so you can sound informed and ready during the interviews.

Ask your own questions: Key questions for a career-changer will focus on the path for growth and training opportunities. In addition, a good way to ensure you’re coming in at the right level is to ask what your work would be focused on for the first 90 days.

Remember to negotiate: Although you may be feeling relief or even gratitude to receive an offer, don’t let those emotions keep you from negotiating.

Unfortunately, if you had been working at a higher level in your past career, your new offer might be lower than your last pay. While that’s not ideal, it’s also not the new company’s “fault.” That is, they’re not bringing you on board based on your former position, but on what they expect from you in this job. And that’s at least partly an untested theory at this point.

Of course you can (and probably should) negotiate the pay. But assuming that won’t go as far as you’d hoped, remember there are other forms of compensation and reward to be considered as well.

For example, do they offer tuition reimbursement, professional memberships, admission to industry trade shows or conferences, or on-the-job training? These are all extremely important for a new entrant to the field and might provide more value to your career than the added pay would have.

Whatever offer you accept, this topic can (and probably should) be revisited once you’ve been on the job awhile. For help with that, come back next month. The final article in this series will discuss tips for settling in and succeeding in your new career-change position.

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Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.

Beginning around the end of the month, a major reconstruction project will knock the Third Street/Kellogg Bridge offline for three years, closing a key connection between downtown St. Paul and Dayton’s Bluff on the city’s East Side. The bridge will carry its last travelers on July 29.

It’s a project at least a decade in the making, with planning for a new bridge underway since lane and capacity restrictions rolled out in 2014.

The decision was made to limit bridge traffic 10 years ago after city engineers discovered, during pre-design research for repairs, that the bridge was “functionally obsolete” and “structurally deficient” under federal standards, and that its badly cracked cantilevers, or wing-like bridge supports, required costly repair or full replacement.

After years of asking the state to help back construction, the $2.5 billion statewide infrastructure package approved in the waning hours of the 2023 legislative session included $25 million for a new Third Street/Kellogg Bridge, the largest project funded at the time in St. Paul using state surplus or bonding dollars. A new bonding bill did not come together this year.

The final price tag for the new city-owned bridge — $91 million — will include $80 million in state bonds, $7 million in federal funds and $4 million in local funding.

In 2014, replacing the then-32-year-old city-owned bridge had been estimated to cost $30 million to $40 million, compared with $8 million to repair and strengthen the cantilevers. “In those last 10 years, we have also seen industry-wide cost escalations, the result of world conflicts, supply chain disruptions, and impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation,” said Brent Christensen, assistant city bridge engineer, on Friday.

“It’s really exciting that it’s finally happening,” said St. Paul City Council member Rebecca Noecker, who represents downtown and chairs the city’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority. “It’s been a decade. … I think the best thing we can do is get the work done as quickly and efficiently as we can. It will really be a new and improved Third Street bridge.”

Drivers cross the Third Street/Kellogg Boulevard bridge in St. Paul on Friday, July 5, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

‘Long overdue’

Council member Cheniqua Johnson, who represents Dayton’s Bluff, said that while three years of traffic detours will require patience, the alternative to bridge replacement could be even costlier at a later date.

“We need to make proactive repairs rather than reactionary ones,” she said. “I’m willing to wait three years if that means repairing something that is long overdue.”

Public Works staff held a virtual public presentation on June 26, and outreach to impacted properties is underway.

A long road to a new bridge

By early August, bridge work will close Kellogg Boulevard from Broadway Street to Mounds Boulevard. Vehicular traffic will be detoured north to East Seventh Street, though pedestrians and bicycles can use Fourth Street. The downtown St. Paul Union Depot, a transit hub for Amtrak, interstate bus services and the Green Line light-rail corridor, will remain accessible from Lowertown.

Undated courtesy rendering, circa July 2024, of the new Third Street/Kellogg Bridge, which will be constructed over the course of three years beginning around August 2024. The bridge will feature two travel lanes in each direction and a 12-foot-wide bicycle/pedestrian path on each side. It will replace the old bridge, constructed in 1982, which has been deemed structurally deficient and limited to three travel lanes. (Courtesy of City of St. Paul)

The new bridge will have two vehicle lanes in each direction, taller concrete beams and a 12-foot-wide shared-use bike/pedestrian trail on each side, protected by barriers, as well as custom railings with artistic designs. Under the bridge, etchings in the concrete will attempt to evoke the Lakota theme of “Kapemni,” a symbol for intertwining and balance in the universe, according to Public Works officials.

Some public transit advocates had hoped for a dedicated bus lane for Metro Transit’s bus rapid transit services like the Gold Line, which will connect St. Paul to Woodbury when it debuts next year. That won’t be the case.

“I think we achieved BRT goals and needs without providing a dedicated lane,” said Christensen, noting that even at peak periods a dedicated lane would not carry any vehicles on it between 10-minute bus trips. “Over the course of this 2,200 foot bridge, there are no intersections. It’s free flowing. It’s kind of a win-win. The BRT needs are being met and the public also benefits from having a second lane.”

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Demolition to begin this year

Bridge demolition will begin this year, making room for a new foundation and substructure to be installed by the end of 2025. Beams and decks, and then railings and lighting, will be added into 2027, when the new bridge is scheduled to come online by that summer, according to the city.

City engineers had been monitoring the long, linear cracks on the bridge supports with limited concern until they began poking into federal design standards a decade ago, during pre-design work for repairs. That’s when they learned exactly how out of step the structure was with updated standards, which rated the Third Street/Kellogg Bridge “structurally deficient” and “functionally obsolete.”

Cracks found along the bridge’s cantilevers — the support arms extending from the structure’s piers — raised concerns about overloading, inspiring the city to limit traffic in September 2014 to two lanes westbound and one lane eastbound, instead of two lanes in either direction.

A 2014 inspection report by the city noted “extensive cracking at cantilevers” and “longitudinal cracks” at the top of six piers near where the columns meet the cantilevers. Even prior annual inspections had been moved up to about every four months.

Built in 1982

The city-owned bridge was built in 1982 by the Minnesota Department of Transportation and carried about 10,000 cars daily at the time lane restrictions were imposed. Most bridges built in that era have a life expectancy of about 50 years or more.

The bridge design, known as a T-pier, is not uncommon among the state’s 20,000 bridges, according to MnDOT, but state officials have said its cantilevers are somewhat longer than average, making it more susceptible to impacts from heavy loads.

More information about the project can be found online at stpaul.gov/Kellogg-3.

Goodbye Bridge Walk

What: People can take a final walk across the bridge before the deconstruction process begins. The public is welcome to walk on the separated sidewalk area at their own pace and time. St. Paul Public Works will have tables with project information at both ends of the bridge.
When: 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, July 21
Where: Meet at Eagles Club (287 Maria Ave.) or start at the west end of the bridge at the intersection of Lafayette Street and Kellogg Boulevard.

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