Treat these cash vehicles as places to park money for specific purposes: A) as a contingency fund, and B) for money you know you'll spend in the next 24 to 36 months, depending on your risk tolerance.

A cash or deferred arrangement (CODA) is a specific method of funding a qualified profit-sharing, stock-bonus, pre-ERISA money-purchase pension plan, or rural cooperative plan.

As of Sept. 30, the plan had accumulated $26 million in assets, according to data provided by Southwest. Southwest’s cash balance plan follows IBM’s implementation of a similar plan in January.