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I have been recently sitting on a good deal of cash in my checking account which is over my 6-month reserve and am looking to put it into some sort of securities account. I don't really want it to be a retirement account (as I already have that taken care of), but more of a "medium term savings" with mid level risk and return. Any suggestions?
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Apr 26, 2010 16:03
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Cheesemaster200 posted:I have been recently sitting on a good deal of cash in my checking account which is over my 6-month reserve and am looking to put it into some sort of securities account. How do you define "medium term" A few years? 10 years?
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Apr 26, 2010 19:38
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Ravarek posted:How do you define "medium term" A few years? 10 years? A few years. Essentially a savings that should my roof collapses I have some money stored away. However also assuming that there is a 95% chance my roof wont collapse so I don't need my capital do be completely liquid.
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Apr 26, 2010 19:47
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Cheesemaster200 posted:A few years. A short-term investment grade bond fund might work, though rising interest rates do pose a threat in the near future (rising interest rates will knock down bond prices). A fund like VFSTX is reasonable; it has a low enough duration (sensitivity to interest rate changes) so that your money will be pretty safe in the short term.
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Apr 27, 2010 00:56
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Quick question for my wife's 401k, apparently she isn't 100% vested until she's been there for 6 years (kinda lovely) but that'll actually be on August 9th of this year. Right now she's 80% vested so 20% every year after your first year. Anyways my employer has decided to relocate me to Columbus Ohio. So she is going to quit her job and move with me but we want to time it correctly so when she leaves she gets the 100% 401k amount to rollover. Is this something her employer does or is it automatically in the plan so she could quit August 10th and there is nothing her employer can do to keep that money from her? If it helps her 401k is with Principal Financial Group
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Apr 27, 2010 16:34
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Koirhor posted:Quick question for my wife's 401k, apparently she isn't 100% vested until she's been there for 6 years (kinda lovely) but that'll actually be on August 9th of this year. Right now she's 80% vested so 20% every year after your first year. Anyways my employer has decided to relocate me to Columbus Ohio. You will want to check with the plan provider, but with mine, it vests each year that you have at least 1000 hours of service. So whenever she hits 1000 hours (probably in June), she may already be fully vested. But either way, once she is vested, they have no way to reclaim that money.
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Apr 27, 2010 19:35
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I have an old 401k from a previous employer with approximately $5,000 in it. I am trying to decide if I should roll this money over into my new 401k, or take the tax hit and roll it into my Roth IRA. Given the fact that I am relatively young (27) and the Roth is so much more flexible in addition to growing tax free, my inclination is to take the tax hit and roll it into the Roth, but are there any other considerations I am missing when making this decision?
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Apr 28, 2010 18:38
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NJ Deac posted:I have an old 401k from a previous employer with approximately $5,000 in it. I am trying to decide if I should roll this money over into my new 401k, or take the tax hit and roll it into my Roth IRA. Given the fact that I am relatively young (27) and the Roth is so much more flexible in addition to growing tax free, my inclination is to take the tax hit and roll it into the Roth, but are there any other considerations I am missing when making this decision? You could also roll it into a self-directed, traditional IRA. Most people are unhappy with the high costs and lack of diversity in their 401k plan account, and this would let you get access to other options. The general rule of thumb is that Roth IRA conversions are worth it only if you can afford to pay the taxes with new money.
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Apr 28, 2010 18:55
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var1ety posted:You could also roll it into a self-directed, traditional IRA. Most people are unhappy with the high costs and lack of diversity in their 401k plan account, and this would let you get access to other options. Given the relatively small amount of the rollover, I'm not terribly concerned with the taxes from the Roth IRA conversion. It seems like an easy way to get a bonus contribution into the account, since I'm planning on maxxing out my $5k contribution for the year anyhow. Theoretically, my income is high enough that I should only have a few more years to contribute to the Roth(assuming businesses start giving raises/bonuses again or I get a better job), so I'd like to get as much money as possible into that account while I still have that option. Assuming paying the taxes isn't a problem, does that mean the Roth conversion is probably the way to go?
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Apr 28, 2010 19:03
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NJ Deac posted:Given the relatively small amount of the rollover, I'm not terribly concerned with the taxes from the Roth IRA conversion. It seems like an easy way to get a bonus contribution into the account, since I'm planning on maxxing out my $5k contribution for the year anyhow. Theoretically, my income is high enough that I should only have a few more years to contribute to the Roth(assuming businesses start giving raises/bonuses again or I get a better job), so I'd like to get as much money as possible into that account while I still have that option. Either way, you should roll it over to a self-directed IRA. Whether you convert to Roth? Just do whatever you want. You can analyze the decision all day long but either way, with only a $5k balance to worry about, (converting or leaving it as a traditional IRA), you are not going to make a terrible mistake. If you convert, you will probably never even know whether it was a good decision or not because it would be silly to care or bother yourself after the fact with hypothetical future Traditional IRA distributions vs future tax brackets when that time comes around. Sounds like you want to convert to Roth. Go for it. 80k fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Apr 28, 2010 |
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Apr 28, 2010 19:11
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Why self directed?
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Apr 28, 2010 19:18
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waar posted:Why self directed? Because you can choose pretty much anything to invest it in, instead of being limited to the (generally) horribly expensive choices of your employer's 401(k) plan.
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Apr 29, 2010 00:36
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flowinprose posted:Because you can choose pretty much anything to invest it in, instead of being limited to the (generally) horribly expensive choices of your employer's 401(k) plan. Exactly rolling it over to some Vanguard IRA would save you a ton alone on expense ratios, then start a new job and enroll in their 401k, when you eventually leave that job roll that into your already existing IRA and keep building it as you go along through life. This was my understanding at least but I could be missing something here.
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Apr 29, 2010 11:32
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Does Vanguard offer self-directed IRAs?
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Apr 29, 2010 14:31
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waar posted:Does Vanguard offer self-directed IRAs? self directed in the context we are talking about is simply going away from the employer sponsored plan (401k) and opening your own IRA. So decision to open a Vanguard IRA (or Fidelity or Wells Fargo or your local credit union or whatever) = self directed. It's not a special category or anything.
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Apr 29, 2010 21:47
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Ah my bad thought y'all were talking about thishttp://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki?search=Self+directed+Ira
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Apr 29, 2010 22:25
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waar posted:Ah my bad thought y'all were talking about thishttp://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki?search=Self+directed+Ira Actually that is what we're talking about. The "trustee" or "custodian" it is referring to in that link would be the company that you use to open the IRA, such as Vanguard, Fidelity, etc.
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Apr 29, 2010 22:53
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It's a misunderstanding I thought you were originally suggesting an SDIRA as in a simple custodian that people primarily use to invest in stuff like real estate, llc's, private stock, promissory notes, tax liens, peer to peer lending groups, etc
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Apr 29, 2010 22:56
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So for you guys who have a Roth IRA with Vanguard - are you guys doing their Target Retirement Funds or are you actually picking the funds yourself? EDIT: I was reading through the thread and I just see people saying how they're invested in "30% VISDE and 20% VIEXE" etc and I just wasn't sure if these guys were talking about their actual IRA accounts or normal shorter-term investing. AndrewP fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Apr 30, 2010 |
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Apr 30, 2010 17:36
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I just dropped my 5k into Target 2050 but I'm lame
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Apr 30, 2010 17:57
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Target 2050 hasn't been too bad I don't think.
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Apr 30, 2010 18:04
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I have a Vanguard IRA and am invested in their actual funds.
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Apr 30, 2010 18:06
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Putting everything into Target Retirement 2050 is perfectly fine if you want a hands off approach. Plus when you first open an account you don't really have a choice due to Vanguard's fund minimums. Off topic: on my account page with Vanguard it says I have $xxxxx.xx in my Roth and $0.00 in STAR Fund. When I opened the account I put some in the Star fund first to open an account but then I eventually moved it all to the Target Retirement Fund, does anyone know how to get the account page to stop displaying the zero balance for the STAR Fund? Just a personal preference.
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Apr 30, 2010 18:44
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Koirhor posted:does anyone know how to get the account page to stop displaying the zero balance for the STAR Fund? Just a personal preference. Look in the top right of the Accounts and Activity page. There's a check box for "hide zero balance holdings".
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Apr 30, 2010 18:50
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I am 50% Target 2050 and 50% international, but I'm pessimistic about the long term prospects for the US economy. YMMV.
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Apr 30, 2010 19:02
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sanchez posted:I am 50% Target 2050 and 50% international, but I'm pessimistic about the long term prospects for the US economy. YMMV. I hope that international isn't too heavily weighted in Japan and Europe! 
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May 1, 2010 09:27
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24 year old male with a 6 month emergency fund in ING savings, $5500 in VFIFX under a Roth IRA, no debt which is loving great, and I have about $500/mo left over after my monthly expenses. I can put $2000 more in my 2010 Roth IRA which I plan on doing before the end of summer, simply putting this money into VFIFX. In September I'll have a 401k at work, and I'll contribute up to the company match. However I'll still have excess funds and I'd like to hear some suggestions about where to put my extra cash - say, $300/mo. Thoughts?
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May 2, 2010 05:36
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Want it for retirement? Back to the 401k if you have decent options. Want it sooner? Start saving cash for your next car or house. Or buy an ipad. Or give it away
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May 2, 2010 08:43
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I'm just starting out with my non-retirement investing and I'd like to follow the advice of "the random walk" investing 20% bonds, 70% stock and 10% reit, but I'm absolutely not sure what the best deal out there is for total market index funds. From what I understand, since a TMI requires literally no brainpower or management, I should be looking at fees and rates that are as low as possible. For example I should be looking for the cheapest wilshire 5000 fund I can possibly find. How can I compare costs and various hidden fees of all funds out there? Morningstar looks complicated 
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May 3, 2010 06:55
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So I want to roll my wife's 401k to a Vanguard IRA when she leaves her job. She has about 21-22k in the account right now. What would be a good balance of funds in Vanguard to start out with and what would be a good properly diversified Vanguard IRA Portfolio look like? I found this article but not too sure how good the advice is, basically I do want to try to start making my money work a little better than just generic target retirement funds. http://www.fundadvice.com/fehtml/investingbasics/0212a.html
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May 3, 2010 15:47
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DreadCthulhu posted:looking for the cheapest wilshire 5000 fund I can possibly find. How can I compare costs and various hidden fees of all funds out there? You could start by comparing them with Vanguard's VTSMX: no load, 0.18% expense ratio, and turnover of 5.3%. Koirhor, you should read the 4 Pillars book. You can get very good diversification with three index funds: bonds, US stocks, non-US stocks. The page you linked is a refinement that tweaks the value/growth weighting and adds REIT.
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May 3, 2010 16:54
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slap me silly posted:You could start by comparing them with Vanguard's VTSMX: no load, 0.18% expense ratio, and turnover of 5.3%. Funny you should say that my copy of 4 Pillars should be arriving today via Amazon. I'll get to absorbing that quickly.
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May 3, 2010 18:18
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Chernori posted:I hope that international isn't too heavily weighted in Japan and Europe! How come? I know they both have their own problems, but the Target 2050 fund is so heavily biased towards the US, it seemed like some diversification was needed.
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May 3, 2010 19:12
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So what is the Goon wisdom for setting up DRP's and folding the dividends into more shares on a quarterly basis and just letting it run? Is there any reasons I should not consider a handful of 4-5% performers with 10+ years of good history to be the basis of my long term plan and just grow them until I can warren buffet it and live on the incomes?
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May 3, 2010 21:35
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KingFisher posted:So what is the Goon wisdom for setting up DRP's and folding the dividends into more shares on a quarterly basis and just letting it run? Nothing wrong with them per se, but you need a rather substantial investment to diversify properly while putting more than a couple hundred dollars in each company. Something like VFINX or VTSMX is a cheap option that gives you a lot more diversification with a lot less administrative hassle.
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May 3, 2010 21:55
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AreWeDrunkYet posted:Nothing wrong with them per se, but you need a rather substantial investment to diversify properly while putting more than a couple hundred dollars in each company. Something like VFINX or VTSMX is a cheap option that gives you a lot more diversification with a lot less administrative hassle. Right but to get value out of VFINX I would have to sell shares. My goal is to build positions that are self funded growth until they could support a Permanent Tourist type lifestyle.
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May 3, 2010 22:14
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KingFisher posted:Right but to get value out of VFINX I would have to sell shares. My goal is to build positions that are self funded growth until they could support a Permanent Tourist type lifestyle. Equity index funds still distribute their dividends, reinvestment is up to you. Besides, if you don't need the income now, you should be looking at returns rather than income (while being mindful of risk, of course). When you want to rely on income from your portfolio, you can reinvest it into bonds and equities with higher dividend yields.
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May 3, 2010 22:22
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AreWeDrunkYet posted:Equity index funds still distribute their dividends, reinvestment is up to you. Besides, if you don't need the income now, you should be looking at returns rather than income (while being mindful of risk, of course). When you want to rely on income from your portfolio, you can reinvest it into bonds and equities with higher dividend yields. Maybe I am being pretty blind here but i don't see any dividends listed on: http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=MUTF:VFINX for example, so how will I know what I am getting quarterly?
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May 3, 2010 22:27
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alreadybeen posted:I have a Vanguard IRA and am invested in their actual funds. I keep getting hung up on if I should be investing in something closer to the metal, that my balanced portfolio still only has 4 distinct investments in it... but really, the funds have diversification built into them anyways, so that should be just as secure and diverse as some more traditional portfolio, correct? Seemingly, all I would get by going lower-level would be increased volatility for (somewhat, debatably) increased profit? (last year, I doubled my money entirely with their emerging markets fund - it was fun  )
Shalinor fucked around with this message at 22:31 on May 3, 2010 |
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May 3, 2010 22:28
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KingFisher posted:Maybe I am being pretty blind here but i don't see any dividends listed on: There was a dividend issued on March 29, 2010 according to Google Finance.
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May 4, 2010 00:15
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