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Good points and I appreciate the advice. I'll stay out. Partly I was curious how this works at all, I always hear about IPOs becoming publicly available but hadn't thought about the fact that they only become available to idiots like me long after they've been traded by people with much more money to throw around. Time to open a rewards checking account.
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Nov 14, 2011 16:31
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Best advice I ever received was in college from a Finance professor. Something along the lines of, "If you're worth less than $10M and get a call for a hot IPO, pass, everyone else ahead of you already did."
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Nov 14, 2011 16:43
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TraderStav posted:Best advice I ever received was in college from a Finance professor. Something along the lines of, "If you're worth less than $10M and get a call for a hot IPO, pass, everyone else ahead of you already did." Truth. Add in Warren Buffet's "Don't invest in anything you couldn't explain to a 4th grader" and you'll save yourself a whole lot of headache and heartache.
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Nov 14, 2011 16:53
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Moniker posted:I have a traditional IRA from my previous job that has $4,500 in it. I no longer put into that IRA. One question: Will the IRA continue to grow even though I no longer put into it? This is mainly out of curiosity. Not disagreeing with anything that was said, but wanted to clarify. If your employer was putting money in, you are probably have a 401(k) (or 403(b)). If that’s the case, turning this into a Roth is smart, but becomes a 2 step process. You first convert it into traditional rollover IRA. That is not a taxable event. It does become taxable when you convert it into a Roth. If you have $450 for the anticipated taxes, or can take the hit and pay a balance due come tax time, this is a good time to do it. As far as it continuing to grow if you leave it as it is, that depends entirely how the investments within it do.
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Nov 14, 2011 17:31
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Zeta Taskforce posted:Not disagreeing with anything that was said, but wanted to clarify. If your employer was putting money in, you are probably have a 401(k) (or 403(b)). If that’s the case, turning this into a Roth is smart, but becomes a 2 step process. You first convert it into traditional rollover IRA. That is not a taxable event. It does become taxable when you convert it into a Roth. If you have $450 for the anticipated taxes, or can take the hit and pay a balance due come tax time, this is a good time to do it. As far as it continuing to grow if you leave it as it is, that depends entirely how the investments within it do. This is a really great post. As far as I know it's a traditional IRA. Not a 401(k) or 403(b). I haven't been at the job in a few years and don't wish to contact them to ask. I guess the best thing to do is get the new fund set up and get everything rolled over. Is there anything that an uninformed investor should look for when trying to find an IRA?
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Nov 14, 2011 18:22
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Moniker posted:Is there anything that an uninformed investor should look for when trying to find an IRA? IRA is a tax classification for holdings, many different things can be put into IRA classification. Most consumer IRA's seem to consist of equity and bond holdings, and a number of companies have a large number of offering in these areas.
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Nov 14, 2011 18:44
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NEWBIE question here... First off, I don't have any credit cards and want to get my first one. I already graduated college in May and have a full-time job with the DoD starting out at $60,000/yr. I also have about $40,000 sitting in investments. What would be my best bet for getting a credit card? I'd like to get a PenFed Platinum Cash Rewards card, but I'm afraid I'd get declined because I have no credit history. I've always used my Credit Union and Banks' debit cards. Am I stuck getting one of those secured $500 cards or can I get something better? Thanks in advance. EDIT: I should note that since I've always used a debit card, I'm used to not carrying over a balance from month to month. I'm looking for rewards rather than low rates.
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Nov 15, 2011 04:44
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You should be able to get one unless you have some real bad negative credit history. Might not be for a lot, but enough to get you started. I'd look for one that has no annual fee. There is a credit card thread somewhere in this forum as well which could offer more advice on specifics.
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Nov 15, 2011 05:03
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mahill posted:NEWBIE question here... I was in the same situation (with less investments) and got a Bank of America cash rewards card instantly with a 3k limit (I think, at least 3k because I know I put that much work expenses on it one month). I had absolutely zero credit history, my biggest debt ever before I got it was probably 50 bucks to a friend. I did have a Bank of America account for about 8 years when I applied, not sure if that matters though.
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Nov 15, 2011 15:11
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I am not positive that this is really a personal finance question, but I couldn't find another thread for it and it didn't seem like it warranted one of its own. I am trying to become a responsible adult, and part of that is that I need to get some insurance - specifically, life and renters. This is something that I've had knocking around in my head as a 'to-do' for a while, and never really got to it. The problem is that I don't really know the best way to find either of these. If I had any other insurance, I would start with my current company, but I don't have any car/etc to begin with. What is the best way to shop for these? Is there a generally good go-to company? Should I be looking for a broker, or are they just going to charge me a fee to pull the same stuff online that I can look at myself?
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Nov 15, 2011 20:45
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You should be looking for a local insurance agent. I would start by asking any friends and family in the area for recommendations. They will not charge you a fee for anything, if they try too get up and walk out. You will fill out some fairly simple applications and in a day or 2 they will present you with one or more quotes. They earn their money by taking a commission on the policy premium, not fee based. Going directly to a company will not inherently save you that commission by the way. There is no harm in getting quotes directly from companies like Geico etc, but if you don't know much about it having a professional involved can be helpful, and it does not cost anything here. Renters insurance tends to be pretty cheap and should be easy to get. It basically offers you two things, personal liability protection and coverage for your personal property. Are you sure you need Life Insurance? Do you have kids or are you supporting someone? Since you are renting it would seem there is not a mortgage that you would be responsible for. Remember that life insurance is money paid out to someone else if you die and until you have people dependent on you there is no need for it.
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Nov 15, 2011 21:24
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Do you have car insurance? Get your renter's insurance through your car insurance provider if they have it. You'll probably get a discount for having multiple policies and the net effect will probably be that you get renter's insurance for free or something close to it. (car) Insurance thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3427127
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Nov 15, 2011 21:29
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emocrat posted:Are you sure you need Life Insurance? Do you have kids or are you supporting someone? Since you are renting it would seem there is not a mortgage that you would be responsible for. Remember that life insurance is money paid out to someone else if you die and until you have people dependent on you there is no need for it. Yes to both - I have a kid (six months old!) and my wife isn't working at the moment. So if I was hit by a bus or mauled by an escaped lion, it would leave them in a pretty bad way. We do have savings, but I wouldn't want her having to burn through those just dealing with the immediate problems, and it's not enough to replace my earnings for years. I will look around for a local agent, maybe check with some colleagues if they have an recommendations (we're pretty new to the city, so we don't have many friends or family here). Does it make sense to work out the Life Insurance and then see if the same company has renters? Is there any particular benefit to keeping them in the same place besides, maybe, convenience? Edit: Thanks totalnewbie, but we don't have a car and so don't have any car insurance. I will take a look at that other thread though, see if it offers any insight.
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Nov 15, 2011 21:49
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Ashcans posted:Yes to both - I have a kid (six months old!) and my wife isn't working at the moment. So if I was hit by a bus or mauled by an escaped lion, it would leave them in a pretty bad way. We do have savings, but I wouldn't want her having to burn through those just dealing with the immediate problems, and it's not enough to replace my earnings for years. Gotcha, those seem like good reasons. Ashcans posted:I will look around for a local agent, maybe check with some colleagues if they have an recommendations (we're pretty new to the city, so we don't have many friends or family here). It is possible that keeping them inside the same company would offer some multiline discount but that should probly not be your first criteria to asses. Start with looking for coverage that does what you need, then compare options. That can certainly give one company a leg up when comparing, but it should be secondary. It makes more sense to work with 1 agent though, you want someone who can assess your situation and help you get the coverages you need, explain what they are and answer questions and be your advocate in the case of a claim. Of course, there are a million agents out there and a lot of them are not good, hence the idea of looking for recommendations. One thing to note, your agent does not necessarily need to be local. They need to be licensed in the state your in, but not necessarily located in the same city. If you lived elsewhere in the state before or even in a neighboring state then you could look for recommendations from friends/family outside your city. I like to be able to go to my agents office physically, but I would give that up to go with a really strong recommendation from someone I trusted rather than go blind through the phone book.
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Nov 15, 2011 22:05
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Ashcans posted:What is the best way to shop for these? Is there a generally good go-to company? Should I be looking for a broker, or are they just going to charge me a fee to pull the same stuff online that I can look at myself? As others have mentioned, you can sometimes get a nice discount if you bundle it with your auto insurance. Otherwise, I'd look for a local agent in your area from one of the bigger insurance companies. You can shop around a bit, but I've found that life insurance doesn't differ a whole lot from company to company. One important note, stay away from Whole life. You're looking for a term policy.
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Nov 16, 2011 01:47
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Niwrad posted:One important note, stay away from Whole life. You're looking for a term policy.  WHOLE LIFE INSURANCE IS A SCAM(Also, since you have a 6 month old, The Gerber Grow Up Plan should be a honeypot for Child Protective Services) Figure out how much you need in life insurance and buy a term policy, good rule of thumb is to have it last at least into your 50's http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/insurance/life-insurance-calculator.aspx - I disagree that finding an agent is the way to go. Insurance agents are like used car salesmen. SO SLIMY! "No, I don't want to hear what a great investment your permium crazy select mega life policy is." I also disagree that multi-policy is such a great deal. Fire up your favorite browser and hit the usual suspects. I bet a mix and match is cheaper than a multi-policy of any carrier. I save 15% off the multi-policy by going with State Farm/Progressive for renters and Auto instead of doing both at either one. Life insurance usually requires a physical, so you'll need to deal with an agent for that, but I went with a multi-vendor broker to reduce some of the hassle (selectquote.com). Be prepared for a deluge of calls, I recommend Google Voice and a disposable email. KennyG fucked around with this message at 04:40 on Nov 16, 2011 |
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Nov 16, 2011 04:38
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KennyG posted:I also disagree that multi-policy is such a great deal. Fire up your favorite browser and hit the usual suspects. I bet a mix and match is cheaper than a multi-policy of any carrier. I save 15% off the multi-policy by going with State Farm/Progressive for renters and Auto instead of doing both at either one. Right but okay, if you have car insurance currently, that's going to be the bulk of the cost. So assuming your car insurance is a good price then adding a renter's insurance will get you a discount on both. Sure, maybe a different arrangement would be cheaper, but that would probably involve changing your car insurance carrier.
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Nov 16, 2011 05:01
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KennyG posted:
Mind explaining this?
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Nov 16, 2011 07:21
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Zeta Taskforce posted:Not disagreeing with anything that was said, but wanted to clarify. If your employer was putting money in, you are probably have a 401(k) (or 403(b)). If that’s the case, turning this into a Roth is smart, but becomes a 2 step process. You first convert it into traditional rollover IRA. That is not a taxable event. It does become taxable when you convert it into a Roth. If you have $450 for the anticipated taxes, or can take the hit and pay a balance due come tax time, this is a good time to do it. As far as it continuing to grow if you leave it as it is, that depends entirely how the investments within it do. Just an update: I made an appointment with a financial advisor and his assistant did a conference call with my existing investment company who seemed to know very little about who I am and what company I used to work for. So she found out all of the necessary paper work needed to get it switched over to their control and the paper work (and signatures required) to get it converted into a Roth. I'm meeting with him next Wednesday and I'm really excited.
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Nov 16, 2011 14:39
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FISHMANPET posted:Mind explaining this? It’s been explained before, but pretty much KennyG is right. To summarize, For the same amount of coverage, you pay probably one tenth as much with term as whole life. This could be hundreds of dollars difference a month, which even if you put under a mattress, would build up, say nothing if it was properly invested. At the end of 20 years, $100 invested monthly at 7% is worth $50,000. 10% you are at $70,000. This is your money. These are very conservative assumptions. You can imaging what $200/mo at 10% over 30 years becomes $412,000. Whole life will try to sell itself as an investment, you are paying so much more because a lot of it goes into an investment account that you can borrow against. What they don’t like to tell people is that in the end they keep it. When you die, they pay out the policy, they keep the investment. If you had any outstanding loans, those loans get paid before your beneficiaries see a cent. The only people who will tell you otherwise are insurance salespeople, and when you look at the commissions and fees, it’s obvious why.
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Nov 16, 2011 15:47
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Zeta Taskforce posted:At the end of 20 years, $100 invested monthly at 7% is worth $50,000. 10% you are at $70,000. This is your money. These are very conservative assumptions.  How is 10% at all conservative?
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Nov 16, 2011 18:41
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Chin Strap posted:
7% is, 10% isn’t, monthly savings of $100 is. Like the mighty Meatloaf once said, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.
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Nov 16, 2011 19:30
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I have a question about collectors. I have three accounts with a hospital that got sent to a collection agency about a year ago. I paid one of them directly to said agency. I now have two left, but they have never sent me anything past the original bill. They also called me up until I got sick of it and told them they had the wrong number. I would like to pay this off to improve my credit, but I am not sure how to go about doing it. I heard of asking them to delete the accounts of my credit report if I pay it. Is this possible; and, if so, how do I ask them to do it? Also, since they haven't sent me any bills since the first one, what should I make of this? Should I ignore them and not pay it, or will they sue me? I don't want to call them because that would be admitting guilt, as well as giving them my contact information, which I do not want to do just yet.
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Nov 16, 2011 19:48
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JoeyJoJoJr Shabadoo posted:I have a question about collectors. I have three accounts with a hospital that got sent to a collection agency about a year ago. I paid one of them directly to said agency. I now have two left, but they have never sent me anything past the original bill. They also called me up until I got sick of it and told them they had the wrong number. I would like to pay this off to improve my credit, but I am not sure how to go about doing it. I heard of asking them to delete the accounts of my credit report if I pay it. Is this possible; and, if so, how do I ask them to do it? Also, since they haven't sent me any bills since the first one, what should I make of this? Should I ignore them and not pay it, or will they sue me? I don't want to call them because that would be admitting guilt, as well as giving them my contact information, which I do not want to do just yet. If you pull your credit report from all 3 bureaus at https://www.annualcreditreport.com you will get contact information for all your accounts. Usually an address and a phone number, and if you call it, they will be able to locate your account. The credit report will either have the account number of the original account and/or the number within the collection agency. Call only if you have the money to pay it. Otherwise you are only waking up a sleeping dog. If they are smallish, just pay them in full, if money is tight and/or if they are largish, offer them a settlement. Don’t be embarrassed to call them. You might feel guilty about it, but you are talking to people who all day, every day, do nothing but deal with collection accounts. To them, your issue is about as mundane as buying a gallon of milk. I don’t know about pay for delete letters. They are like cow tipping. Everyone claims to know someone who did it, but I’ve yet to see real proof. I’m not even 100% sure if it is legal for a lender to do it. I don’t care what you do, but personally I would just pay them.
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Nov 16, 2011 20:06
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Zeta Taskforce posted:7% is, 10% isn’t, monthly savings of $100 is. Like the mighty Meatloaf once said, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad. I think I would go with 1/3, because a 7% return moving forward requires a degree of risk and optimism moving forward that I wouldn't associate with a "conservative" approach. Hell, I'd be happy with 5% in this reality.
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Nov 16, 2011 20:07
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Zeta Taskforce posted:I don’t know about pay for delete letters. They are like cow tipping. Everyone claims to know someone who did it, but I’ve yet to see real proof. I’m not even 100% sure if it is legal for a lender to do it. I don’t care what you do, but personally I would just pay them. It's not legal, and it is against the service agreement with the CRAs. You cannot selectivly provide information if you use the CRAs for lending purposes. Doing so indirectly has the potential to violate a bunch of lending laws (HMDA, fair lending, ECOA, etc). Collection agencies don't have the same legal issues as they are not using CRA data to lend, but they can be barred from using the CRA if they are caught doing it as it is still against the user agreement.
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Nov 16, 2011 20:31
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I'm looking at where my wife and I will be for retirement one day. Our 401k company, Vanguard, was at work today and showed us some financial calculators, etc which are saying that I'll need millions and millions of dollars to retire. For instance, it says I'll need $4600 / month at retirement. With my current savings plan, I'll be at $2708 at retirement. My wife and I both save 14% of our income (5% 401k, company matches 5%, and an additional 4% deposited by the company into a SDRP). How accurate are these calculators? I don't know how much we can throw at saving for retirement but I don't want to be boned like my grandparents are when I retire.
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Nov 16, 2011 21:32
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The calculators aren't accurate because they can't predict your future situation. Will you and your wife have a home that is paid for? If so, you won't be paying a monthly mortgage and will have the home as an asset. Will you have savings of your own through the years? Is there a potential inheritence from a relative in your future? Did the calculator factor in social security checks? The Vanguard guy wants more of your money invested and is going to scare you into it. That doesn't mean he's wrong per say, but just know his intentions aren't pure. I think 14% of your income is a rather strong savings plan. But just know that other things can count as an investment toward your retirement (home for instance).
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Nov 17, 2011 00:32
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Niwrad posted:The Vanguard guy wants more of your money invested and is going to scare you into it. That doesn't mean he's wrong per say, but just know his intentions aren't pure. I think 14% of your income is a rather strong savings plan. But just know that other things can count as an investment toward your retirement (home for instance). 15%+ should be invested regardless of home ownership, IMO. -Ramseyfan
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Nov 17, 2011 00:56
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Dead Pressed posted:15%+ should be invested regardless of home ownership, IMO. But isn't that overdoing it though for some? Lets say you make $100,000 a year. Putting $15k in a year from 25 till 65 with a rate of return of 8% would leave you with nearly $4 million at retirement. Now that $4 million isn't just going to sit there, it will continue to grow while you are retired. If you place that in safer investments and just take a 4-5% return, you're still looking at making $200k a year in just investment returns. That's a nice chunk without even touching your principle.
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Nov 17, 2011 02:03
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In 40 years, $200,000 will approximately have the purchasing power of $50,000 today. Even if that is entirely tax free that's not going to be a particularly extravagant life style depending on your medical bills, property taxes maintenance, etc.
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Nov 17, 2011 02:13
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Niwrad posted:But isn't that overdoing it though for some? Lets say you make $100,000 a year. Putting $15k in a year from 25 till 65 with a rate of return of 8% would leave you with nearly $4 million at retirement. This brings up something that I'm always curious about - people always talk in terms of percentages and a lot of people on SA are young, how much, in monetary terms, and not percentages, do most people here save each year? Is there a chart that shows by age or salary how much people save? I'm always scared that I'm not saving enough because the money that I have put in over the last 8 years has not necessarily had a great rate of return - its hard to see it one day being worth millions. I know for me, it's generally been up and down. I always put $5k away each year in my IRA but some years that's all I've done, some years I've put away the $5k plus the full $16,500 into my 401k and some years $5k and just some contribution.
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Nov 17, 2011 02:41
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This year I'm on track to save ~$20,000 on top of paying down the remaining ~$15,000 of outstanding student loans that I had left at the beginning of the year. I make about 80k/yr.... so almost 50% of gross if you count loan payoff. But I'm young, single, and renting so living expenses are relatively low.
Guinness fucked around with this message at 03:33 on Nov 17, 2011 |
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Nov 17, 2011 03:24
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Guinness posted:This year I'm on track to save ~$20,000 on top of paying down the remaining ~$15,000 of outstanding student loans And that $20k is all going into your retirement accounts? Do you also put anything into personal accounts? Obviously people spend their personal savings in their lifetime usually vs. keeping it til retirement, so if some are in your personal accounts, how much is going towards retirement?
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Nov 17, 2011 03:32
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KarmaCandy posted:And that $20k is all going into your retirement accounts? I have $15,000 cash in emergency savings (~1 year's worth of essential living expenses) in a "high-yield" savings account with ING and I max out my IRA contribution each year ($5000). Almost everything beyond that goes into my personal brokerage account, which is basically my long-term/retirement savings. My employer's 401k plan is pretty lovely and has no match, so I have not opted into it. Theoretically, once money goes into my brokerage account it will never come out short of a huge emergency or if I start thinking about buying a house (not anytime soon). Investing is kind of a hobby of mine and I spend a lot of time reading and researching, but I'm not at all a day trader trying to make short-term gains. The core of my portfolio are mostly DRIP investments. Guinness fucked around with this message at 03:45 on Nov 17, 2011 |
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Nov 17, 2011 03:35
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Guinness posted:I have $15,000 cash in emergency savings (~1 year's worth living expenses) in a "high-yield" savings account with ING and I max out my IRA contribution each year ($5000). Almost everything beyond that goes into my personal brokerage account, which is basically my long-term/retirement savings. Investing is kind of a hobby of mine, I spend a lot of time reading and researching, and I'm far from a day trader trying to make short-term gains. My employer's 401k plan is pretty lovely and has no match, so I have not opted into it. While I know you may have intentions of saving for retirement, since you still have things like a house to purchase (and I assume there are other long term things that could come up like children and tuition, etc), I'm assuming that those funds aren't really "permanently" earmarked for retirement in the same way your IRA account is (assuming you don't plan to tap into it), so I wouldn't necessarily consider that saving for retirement vs. just "long-term" savings so they're not really what I'm curious about. I know you said investing is a hobby, but if you don't plan on staying with your employer for the rest of your life, you'll be able to roll that over at some point into an IRA and choose to invest it in anything at some point. This is my first job with a 401k match and I've never had great choices, but unless they're really, really bad, there's usually one low rate boring fund you can put all your money into and then roll it over. My Roth now has over $50k in it and I have complete freedom over it thanks to rollovers and by putting it away, I know it's truly meant for retirement and not for something like a house (that's a separate savings account)
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Nov 17, 2011 03:47
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Niwrad posted:But isn't that overdoing it though for some? Lets say you make $100,000 a year. Putting $15k in a year from 25 till 65 with a rate of return of 8% would leave you with nearly $4 million at retirement. If being too secure in retirement is an issue for you, then yes...I guess it could be overdoing it. As with everything financial, circumstances change dependent upon with whom you speak. To whomever asked: Personally, my wife and I, ~64k + 40k respectively, each put 5k into our ROTHs. She isn't able to do any 401k, but I contribute 5% ($3.2k) with a 4% match (2.55k). So....that's about 16% of our income. I'm then eligible for a variable percentage 'pension' replacement contribution of 1%-7% (of which I only qualify for 1%). 17% annual contribution, I can honestly say I think we should be putting more away. I would be if it wasn't for $50k in student debt (already paid about $25k off in six months, whoo!) Dead Pressed fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Nov 17, 2011 |
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Nov 17, 2011 03:57
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Wow, 200k will have the buying power of 50k? Ugh. My wife and I both make ~$65k a year, so we're basically saving ~$18500 / yr towards retirement. We can bump that up a bit, but with childcare, house, cars, student loans, etc, I don't see saving 25% or anything to be an option at this point. Thanks for the responses, guys!
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Nov 17, 2011 17:30
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Daeus posted:In 40 years, $200,000 will approximately have the purchasing power of $50,000 today. Even if that is entirely tax free that's not going to be a particularly extravagant life style depending on your medical bills, property taxes maintenance, etc. New retirement plan: Work until I die Backup plan: Hope that they still have bottle and can deposits in 2050. 
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Nov 17, 2011 18:03
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My plan is just to assume we'll all be dead by then from peak oil/climate change or President Bachmann starts WW3 or something.
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Nov 17, 2011 18:21
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