Long Term Investing & Retirement: The second best time is now

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slap me silly: Nov 1, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Bluecobra posted:

What happens to the money in the traditional IRA? If I am making regular contributions to Roth IRA instead, wouldn't the money just set there and only gain from the investments I choose?

Yes, that is exactly what is supposed to happen. Contributions don't do some kind of magic on the existing balance. These two things are identical:
(1) Roll over to a traditional IRA. Add future contributions to the same IRA.
(2) Roll over to a traditional IRA. Add future contributions to a different traditional IRA with the same fund allocation.

This next choice will also build up the identical amount of money, but now the tax implications are different:
(3) Roll over to a traditional IRA. Add future contributions to a separate Roth IRA with the same fund allocation.

Huttan is right that you have to be aware of the income limits. Roth IRA starts to phase out at $112,000 AGI (for single filer).

# ? Dec 5, 2013 07:12

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# ? May 23, 2024 10:15

SlightlyMadman: Jan 14, 2005

Minty Swagger posted:

You happy with personalcapital? I use mint religiously and I'm trying to talk myself into making the switch. I tried it once and closed my account as I'd have to redo all of my transactions again (sorting and renaming etc) and it turned me off of it.

Adding to what Fancy Lad said, yeah PersonalCapital is great, but not as a replacement for Mint. I use Mint for budgeting (check it daily), and PersonalCapital to track my investments (which I check less frequently). PC does some transaction tracking, but it doesn't really do budgeting so it would suck to try to use for that. Just completely ignore the transaction stuff, and really you don't need to enter your bank accounts at all, since you don't get much out of it. I initially looked into it because Mint's investment tracking is just abysmal, and it kept dropping my accounts and showing misleading numbers.

I've had an account for about a year now, and have had the advisor guy call me twice but that's it. I also just don't answer because I can't imagine what he could possibly offer me that's useful.

# ? Dec 5, 2013 16:35

Tony Montana: Aug 6, 2005; by FactsAreUseless

When you're saying your using this site for your investment stuff, what does it do? Aren't we just talking about a list of asset classes and your exposure to each? Isn't a spreadsheet or even a text file enough for this?

# ? Dec 5, 2013 16:44

Guinness: Sep 15, 2004

Thanks for bringing up PersonalCapital, I'm looking at it and it looks like it might be a great counter-part to Mint. Mint is great for day-to-day transactional stuff, but is still after all these years just hilariously incompetent at tracking investments and displaying any meaningful info, even after manually correcting a bunch of transaction history and cost basis data.

Tony Montana posted:

When you're saying your using this site for your investment stuff, what does it do? Aren't we just talking about a list of asset classes and your exposure to each? Isn't a spreadsheet or even a text file enough for this?

Spreadsheets and text files don't automatically update from my various investment accounts, get (near) real-time price movement, do automatic asset class computation, compare performance versus major indices, display good historical data, or display pretty graphs. Because of Mint's terribleness when it comes to investments, to get anything more trustworthy than a total account balance I still need to go log in to each of my brokers to check on my various investments (401k, IRA, HSA, and taxable). Plus even some of those sites are still pretty crappy to actually use (like Fidelity's 401k site which I'm stuck with since its my current 401k).

Guinness fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Dec 5, 2013

# ? Dec 5, 2013 18:41

simble: May 11, 2004

I've tried personal capital, but I prefer sigfig.com. Personal capital was a bit too... personal for me. They called me out of the blue offering advice which I didn't really like. SigFig also integrates with Yahoo finance which is an added bonus for me. SigFig made legit automated suggestions, too. It basically said, hey, idiot, there's an ETF/mutual fund with very similar asset allocation that has much lower fees. You should switch to that. I looked into it and sure enough, it was right.

# ? Dec 5, 2013 18:45

Guinness: Sep 15, 2004

simble posted:

I've tried personal capital, but I prefer sigfig.com. Personal capital was a bit too... personal for me. They called me out of the blue offering advice which I didn't really like. SigFig also integrates with Yahoo finance which is an added bonus for me. SigFig made legit automated suggestions, too. It basically said, hey, idiot, there's an ETF/mutual fund with very similar asset allocation that has much lower fees. You should switch to that. I looked into it and sure enough, it was right.

Hmm, that's a bit obnoxious. I'll take a look at sigfig, too. Thanks for these suggestions!

# ? Dec 5, 2013 18:48

Leperflesh: May 17, 2007

Are any of you guys at all concerned about providing connection/data access ability to your financial accounts, to websites like mint, sigfig, personal capital, etc.? I mean, obviously you're not that concerned since you're doing it, but I worry that if (say) Mint were to be hacked or compromised, the attackers would gain access to all of other financial accounts, and be able to wreak mayhem that way.

# ? Dec 5, 2013 19:04

SlightlyMadman: Jan 14, 2005

Leperflesh posted:

Are any of you guys at all concerned about providing connection/data access ability to your financial accounts, to websites like mint, sigfig, personal capital, etc.? I mean, obviously you're not that concerned since you're doing it, but I worry that if (say) Mint were to be hacked or compromised, the attackers would gain access to all of other financial accounts, and be able to wreak mayhem that way.

What could they really do? Know how much money I have in my 401k? It's not like you can transfer funds or anything. I've never understood why people have a problem with things like this, but not with letting a waiter walk away with their credit card or putting a check in the mail that has your account and routing numbers on it with your full name and address.

# ? Dec 5, 2013 19:16

Harry: Jun 13, 2003; I do solemnly swear that in the year 2015 I will theorycraft my wallet as well as my WoW

They all use Yodlee which has been around forever, and I think Mint.com uses some Intuit network now. Realistically though, in the event of some mass hacking of these accounts, I seriously doubt any account less than $50,000 will even be looked at and there's a bunch of other safe guards to make this all not really matter.

# ? Dec 5, 2013 19:19

Guy Axlerod: Dec 29, 2008

ING (Now CapitalOne 360) gives you a unique username and password for sites like this. It gives limited read-only access.

# ? Dec 5, 2013 19:23

Guinness: Sep 15, 2004

I'm not terribly concerned, though it is of course something to be aware of. I work in software and security, and while I am not an expert, I have experience in the realm of IT security. Nothing is 100% secure, but I'd say something like Mint is pretty close if they do everything they say they do.

If my Mint account (as in my mint.com login) got compromised, the attacker wouldn't actually have any way of doing anything destructive. Mint is read-only. Your bank/broker account numbers are always obfuscated. The usernames and passwords are never displayed and cannot be retrieved. You can't initiate any sort of transfer or buy/sell order from Mint. The only thing an attacker would gain from getting access to my Mint account would be the ability to see my transactions and account balances.

Now, if there were a deeper security breach within Mint/Intuit that something like the password database(s) for where they store your login info got compromised somehow, that would obviously be more of a concern, but is also a lot less likely to happen in the first place. I guess this is the point where you have to put some amount of faith in Intuit when they say they follow banking industry security policies like encrypting (and salting!) all your passwords so that they are NOT recoverable to anyone short of a massive brute force attack (would literally take decades/centuries or longer).

I'm also confident enough that were any sort of security breach to occur, Intuit would take appropriate measures to mitigate further compromises and notify users in which case I would change all my bank/broker passwords immediately. Considering that data security is basically what their entire service/business model depends upon for continued existence, I'm comfortable enough with it.

Personally, I'd be more concerned with some of the janky websites out there that smaller credit unions and brokerages operate getting compromised. But even that is a fairly small concern. You're much more likely to get defrauded by a lovely insecure e-commerce website or by some waiter/bartender skimming your credit/debit card number than an elaborate, highly-skilled hacking attempt on Mint/Intuit.

Guy Axlerod posted:

ING (Now CapitalOne 360) gives you a unique username and password for sites like this. It gives limited read-only access.

Also this is becoming more common. My online savings, taxable brokerage, and IRA are all through CapitalOne/Sharebuilder and they all do this.

Guinness fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Dec 5, 2013

# ? Dec 5, 2013 19:26

SlightlyMadman: Jan 14, 2005

Wow, I hadn't heard of sigfig before, but just popped over and created an account. First of all, it was by far the easiest to set up, and also has a really nice look and feel. I haven't played with it much yet, but I think I might have to jump ship from PersonalCapital.

edit: Hmm, I'm questioning some of its advice though. It wants me to sell my VWENX (Wellington Fund) shares and buy VILLX. VILLX has admittedly seen a much better 3 year return, but the Wellington Fund is pretty highly regarded, and has much lower expenses (0.17 vs. VILLX's 1%). They seem to be falling into the trap that you can predict future performance from past returns, and making potentially poor choices because of it (like going to such a crazy expensive fund).

SlightlyMadman fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Dec 5, 2013

# ? Dec 5, 2013 19:31

Leperflesh: May 17, 2007

OK, that's all pretty reassuring.

SlightlyMadman posted:

What could they really do? Know how much money I have in my 401k? It's not like you can transfer funds or anything. I've never understood why people have a problem with things like this, but not with letting a waiter walk away with their credit card or putting a check in the mail that has your account and routing numbers on it with your full name and address.

My assumption is that if someone logged in to my brokerage or 401(k) account, they could initiate a cash-out transfer to themselves in some way. Probably I'm protected from fraud like that via some form of FDIC-like insurance, though? I have no concern about using checks and credit cards because I'm familiar with (and, unfortunately, have had to use) charge-reversal procedures through both types of entity, so I'm confident they work.

This was the sort of thing I was concerned about :

Guinness posted:

Now, if there were a deeper security breach within Mint/Intuit that something like the password database(s) for where they store your login info got compromised somehow, that would obviously be more of a concern, but is also a lot less likely to happen in the first place. I guess this is the point where you have to put some amount of faith in Intuit when they say they follow banking industry security policies like encrypting (and salting!) all your passwords so that they are NOT recoverable to anyone short of a massive brute force attack (would literally take decades/centuries or longer).

I'm aware that brute-forcing strong encryption is not practical, but my assumption is that at some point, Mint/Intuit must authenticate with my bank account in order to retrieve information, and in order to do so, it must send a login and password that has been decrypted. But if my bank supports some sort of exchange of public/private keys and hash comparisons, maybe that also doesn't actually happen.

In any case what rings warning-bells to me is centralizing a bunch of different login/password pairs (as I have now, with my various financial providers) under a single point of access (the login/password for Mint or whoever). Diversification of assets among different providers is one form of insurance against fraud, so centralizing them eliminates that insurance. (This is also why I do not use one of those password aggregation software tools, where you put one password into your tool and it manages a bunch across all your accounts; an attacker now only needs to learn your one password in order to access everything.)

I am probably overly paranoid about password safety, though. Thanks for the info.

# ? Dec 5, 2013 19:41

SlightlyMadman: Jan 14, 2005

They absolutely do not store your password. You enter your password once on the site and it is used at that point to generate a reusable authentication token that can only be used to read information through their API. Your password is transmitted in the communication, encrypted of course, but it is never permanently stored. The only real risk here is if somebody has a keylogger or initiates a man-in-the-middle attack, they could snoop your password, but that's also an issue if you use your bank's website.

An attacker could gain access to your account token, and if they could hide their attack then they'd be able to use those tokens to read your account balances and information, but there are a number of checks and balances in place to try to detect this sort of thing, and if it was ever suspected they'd likely invalidate the tokens and ask everyone to generate new ones, so the attackers wouldn't have this information indefinitely. Even if they did though, this is no more information (and in most cases probably less) than is mailed to you in your quarterly statements, which anyone can steal from your mailbox if they really want.

I'm not saying there's no risk at all, but there are dozens of other far more risky activities that you perform all the time, probably without thinking about it.

# ? Dec 5, 2013 19:53

Leperflesh: May 17, 2007

SlightlyMadman posted:

They absolutely do not store your password. You enter your password once on the site and it is used at that point to generate a reusable authentication token that can only be used to read information through their API. Your password is transmitted in the communication, encrypted of course, but it is never permanently stored. The only real risk here is if somebody has a keylogger or initiates a man-in-the-middle attack, they could snoop your password, but that's also an issue if you use your bank's website.

An attacker could gain access to your account token, and if they could hide their attack then they'd be able to use those tokens to read your account balances and information, but there are a number of checks and balances in place to try to detect this sort of thing, and if it was ever suspected they'd likely invalidate the tokens and ask everyone to generate new ones, so the attackers wouldn't have this information indefinitely. Even if they did though, this is no more information (and in most cases probably less) than is mailed to you in your quarterly statements, which anyone can steal from your mailbox if they really want.

I'm not saying there's no risk at all, but there are dozens of other far more risky activities that you perform all the time, probably without thinking about it.

Ah, OK. I was imagining that random banks and credit card companies did not have that sort of read-only authentication infrastructure already developed.

And yeah if someone gets a keylogger on to my machine, I'm hosed regardless. Don't install trojans, people.

# ? Dec 5, 2013 19:55

simble: May 11, 2004

SlightlyMadman posted:

Wow, I hadn't heard of sigfig before, but just popped over and created an account. First of all, it was by far the easiest to set up, and also has a really nice look and feel. I haven't played with it much yet, but I think I might have to jump ship from PersonalCapital.

edit: Hmm, I'm questioning some of its advice though. It wants me to sell my VWENX (Wellington Fund) shares and buy VILLX. VILLX has admittedly seen a much better 3 year return, but the Wellington Fund is pretty highly regarded, and has much lower expenses (0.17 vs. VILLX's 1%). They seem to be falling into the trap that you can predict future performance from past returns, and making potentially poor choices because of it (like going to such a crazy expensive fund).

Yeah, you should do your own research and not blindly follow what the computer says.

# ? Dec 5, 2013 20:00

SlightlyMadman: Jan 14, 2005

Leperflesh posted:

Ah, OK. I was imagining that random banks and credit card companies did not have that sort of read-only authentication infrastructure already developed.

And yeah if someone gets a keylogger on to my machine, I'm hosed regardless. Don't install trojans, people.

Actually, looking into it further, yodlee itself may be storing those passwords, although services like mint or personalcapital wouldn't do so themselves. The bottom line though, is yes it looks like it is theoretically possible that your password could be accessed by an attacker, but even then it would probably be easier to attack the bank directly.

simble posted:

Yeah, you should do your own research and not blindly follow what the computer says.

What? Where do you get the idea that I'm blindly doing what the computer says. Get the hell off your high horse dude.

# ? Dec 5, 2013 20:03

simble: May 11, 2004

SlightlyMadman posted:

Actually, looking into it further, yodlee itself may be storing those passwords, although services like mint or personalcapital wouldn't do so themselves. The bottom line though, is yes it looks like it is theoretically possible that your password could be accessed by an attacker, but even then it would probably be easier to attack the bank directly.

What? Where do you get the idea that I'm blindly doing what the computer says. Get the hell off your high horse dude.

Whoa whoa whoa, jokes on an internet computer humor forum? Holy poo poo man... take a step back and relax.

# ? Dec 5, 2013 21:17

Minty Swagger: Sep 8, 2005; Ribbit Ribbit Real Good

Yeah don't worry about people getting your passes on mint/personal capital. If someone somehow had the ability to break in and decrypt your passwords somehow, they're using their ability to do much more devious things than pull some dollars out of your IRA.

Also thanks FancyLad, I didn't even think about using sifig or PC for just investments and leaving my bank/credit accounts out; that makes it a no brainer. Duh!

EDIT: Looks like Sigfig is a better option for me since I'll just be using mint for my day to day and just need a tool for investment. Anyone else using it and like it long term after the shine wears off?

Minty Swagger fucked around with this message at 21:23 on Dec 5, 2013

# ? Dec 5, 2013 21:19

SlightlyMadman: Jan 14, 2005

Minty Swagger posted:

EDIT: Looks like Sigfig is a better option for me since I'll just be using mint for my day to day and just need a tool for investment. Anyone else using it and like it long term after the shine wears off?

As far as I can tell it's pretty much the same thing as PC. The tradeoff is either PC will call you once every few months, or SigFig will try to give you bad investment advice with alerts on the screen. I might stick with PC just because there's no annoying alerts when it's not calling you, but I'll give SigFig some more time before I give up. I'm also a little suspicious because I can't tell exactly what their profit angle is. My best guess is they're getting commissions when they can transfer people to high-expense funds, which bothers me a bit.

# ? Dec 5, 2013 22:43

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

These are the funds my new Roth 401k has access to. I am 27 and have quite minimal retirement savings (Roth, very low funding

) What do you guys suggest?

code:

Asset Class			Fund				Ticker	Total Expense
Large Cap Blend			Vanguard Institutional Index	VINIX	0.17%
Balanced			Vanguard Wellington Admiral	VWENX	0.28%
Mid Cap Blend			Federated Mid-Cap Index		FMDCX	0.31%
Inflation-Protected Bond	Vanguard Infl Protected Sec	VIPSX	0.32%
Large Cap Value			Vanguard Windsor II Admiral	VWNAX	0.34%
Lifestyle			Vanguard LifeStrategy Cons.	VSCGX	0.38%
Lifestyle			Vanguard LifeStrategy Mod.	VSMGX	0.38%
Large Cap Blend			Vanguard LifeStrategy Growth	VASGX	0.39%
Large Cap Growth		T.Rowe Price Growth Stock	PRGFX	0.64%
Small Cap Growth		BlackRock SmCp Grw Equ Inst	PSGIX	0.64%
Foreign				Dodge & Cox Intl Stock		DODFX	0.67%
Intermediate Bond		Harbor Bond			HABDX	0.67%
Large Cap Growth		Turner Core Growth II		TCGFX	0.71%
Large Cap Growth		T.Rowe Price Blue Chip Grow	TRBCX	0.74%
Mid Cap Growth			T.Rowe Price Mid-Cap Growth	RPMGX	0.74%

I was thinking something perhaps like this:

code:

Asset Class	Ticker	ER	Allocation
Bonds		VIPSX	0.32%	10%
Large cap	VINIX	0.17%	50%
Small cap	PSGIX	0.64%	20%
International	DODFX	0.67%	20%

Weighted ER		0.38%

I'd love your input.

# ? Dec 6, 2013 00:47

Dazzo: Jun 22, 2006

SlightlyMadman posted:

They absolutely do not store your password. You enter your password once on the site and it is used at that point to generate a reusable authentication token that can only be used to read information through their API. Your password is transmitted in the communication, encrypted of course, but it is never permanently stored.

Assuming that you are talking about Mint, then this is opposite of what they say they do.

Mint posted:

Do you store my bank login information on your servers?

Your bank login credentials are stored securely in a separate database using multi-layered hardware and software encryption. We only store the information needed to save you the trouble of updating, syncing or uploading financial information manually.

Encrypting instead of hashing passwords has worked so well in the past.

# ? Dec 6, 2013 00:50

slap me silly: Nov 1, 2009; Grimey Drawer

SiGmA_X posted:

Roth 401k

I'm a bit simple minded, but I would just put everything in VASGX and be done with it.

lol edits. You could add a little bit of VINIX if you're not happy with the 80/20 ratio.

slap me silly fucked around with this message at 01:10 on Dec 6, 2013

# ? Dec 6, 2013 01:08

moana: Jun 18, 2005; one of the more intellectual satire communities on the web

slap me silly posted:

I'm a bit simple minded, but I would just put everything in VASGX and be done with it.

That would be okay. I hate that higher expense ratio, though, for what's essentially a collection of indices. If it were me and I had extra money to also invest in an IRA outside, I'd probably do 100% VINIX here and supplement it with Vanguard's extended market fund (VEXMX), an international index, and a bond index in the outside IRA to get the right allocations.

# ? Dec 6, 2013 01:30

slap me silly: Nov 1, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Yeah, easy and makes sense. I'm entertained that we talk about the "high" expense ratio of 0.4% nowadays

# ? Dec 6, 2013 01:35

Bluecobra: Sep 11, 2001; The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades

slap me silly posted:

Yes, that is exactly what is supposed to happen. Contributions don't do some kind of magic on the existing balance. These two things are identical:
(1) Roll over to a traditional IRA. Add future contributions to the same IRA.
(2) Roll over to a traditional IRA. Add future contributions to a different traditional IRA with the same fund allocation.

This next choice will also build up the identical amount of money, but now the tax implications are different:
(3) Roll over to a traditional IRA. Add future contributions to a separate Roth IRA with the same fund allocation.

Huttan is right that you have to be aware of the income limits. Roth IRA starts to phase out at $112,000 AGI (for single filer).

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I will end up rolling my old 401k into a traditional IRA, separately open a Roth IRA and make contributions to it, and contribute in my employer's 401k (up to their maximum match). From what I understand, you have to pay for capital gains on a traditional IRA so I rather actively contribute to a Roth IRA. If I ever get a new job, I can use my traditional IRA as my rollover account.

# ? Dec 6, 2013 03:39

WarMECH: Dec 23, 2004

I just signed up for SigFig but I'm having trouble getting it to sync with my TSP. Works fine for my Vanguard accounts but fails to get anything for TSP.

Mint has no problem accessing my TSP info, though.

# ? Dec 6, 2013 16:11

Errant Gin Monks: Oct 2, 2009; "Yeah..."
- Marshawn Lynch

Alright GOONS here it goes.

I will be switching jobs after 6 years here. I have a 403b I havent contributed to at all, but my employer has, which is at about 11k. My new company does nto have a 401k or anything, so I can not roll it over to them. I could roll it over to an IRA or leave where it is.

I am 33 currently and have about 11k in the 403b. I owe approximately 7k in credit card debt. Both my cars and motorcycles are paid off and bought a house in 2012. I am getting a decent raise (to the tune of an extra 1500 bucks a month) when I switch jobs.

Should I-

1) Cash out the 403b, pay off all my debt but my house and start again
2) Roll it into an IRA, start contributing and slowly pay down my credit cards as I am doing

My main card sitting at 5k is at 12%
My small cards totaling about 2k are at 21%

# ? Dec 6, 2013 21:20

Harry: Jun 13, 2003; I do solemnly swear that in the year 2015 I will theorycraft my wallet as well as my WoW

Roll into an IRA. No reason to cash it out and take the tax hit if you're really going to be making $1500 a month extra.

# ? Dec 6, 2013 21:41

Kilty Monroe: Dec 27, 2006; Upon the frozen fields of arctic Strana Mechty, the Ghost Dads lie in wait, preparing to ambush their prey with their zippin' and zoppin' and ziggy-zoop-boppin'.

Errant Gin Monks posted:

Alright GOONS here it goes.

I will be switching jobs after 6 years here. I have a 403b I havent contributed to at all, but my employer has, which is at about 11k. My new company does nto have a 401k or anything, so I can not roll it over to them. I could roll it over to an IRA or leave where it is.

I am 33 currently and have about 11k in the 403b. I owe approximately 7k in credit card debt. Both my cars and motorcycles are paid off and bought a house in 2012. I am getting a decent raise (to the tune of an extra 1500 bucks a month) when I switch jobs.

Should I-

1) Cash out the 403b, pay off all my debt but my house and start again
2) Roll it into an IRA, start contributing and slowly pay down my credit cards as I am doing

My main card sitting at 5k is at 12%
My small cards totaling about 2k are at 21%

Those rates are awful but the actual amount of the debt is small. With that raise, you wouldn't even have to change your current budget to wipe out that debt in six months. It's probably not worth the opportunity cost to cash out the 401k, assuming that you do the responsible thing and get that debt taken care of and then max your IRA contributions from now on.

# ? Dec 6, 2013 21:50

Errant Gin Monks: Oct 2, 2009; "Yeah..."
- Marshawn Lynch

I was leaning towards just rolling it over. Although keep in mind the 1500 is gross, not net, so I will actually only be bringing in about 600-700 a month extra after taxes and insurance (new employer only covers half, where as my current one covers it all). So it would still take more than a year if I do full contributions and send the rest to the cards.

edit: terminology mistake corrected

Errant Gin Monks fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Dec 7, 2013

# ? Dec 6, 2013 22:54

Kilty Monroe: Dec 27, 2006; Upon the frozen fields of arctic Strana Mechty, the Ghost Dads lie in wait, preparing to ambush their prey with their zippin' and zoppin' and ziggy-zoop-boppin'.

Errant Gin Monks posted:

I was leaning towards just rolling it over. Although keep in mind the 1500 is net, not gross, so I will actually only be bringing in about 600-700 a month extra after taxes and insurance (new employer only covers half, where as my current one covers it all). So it would still take more than a year if I do full contributions and send the rest to the cards.

Well, since you got into credit card debt in the first place, perhaps there's also some room for improvement in your spending habits. Check out the budgeting thread.

# ? Dec 6, 2013 23:48

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Re: my 401k feedback - I'm going to figure out how to allocate existing Roth against my upcoming Roth 401k to keep the ER as low as possible. Good call guys. I only have about 3k in my Roth (which will be increasing a little slower than the 401k, 6.5% gross into Roth vs 9% gross including match into 401k) so my fund options are a bit limited. I did say I didn't have jack in retirement, right? Cuz I don't have jack in retirement.

Do you guys agree with my rough allocation of 50/20/20/10 large cap/small cap/intl/bond?

Errant Gin Monks posted:

I was leaning towards just rolling it over. Although keep in mind the 1500 is net, not gross, so I will actually only be bringing in about 600-700 a month extra after taxes and insurance (new employer only covers half, where as my current one covers it all). So it would still take more than a year if I do full contributions and send the rest to the cards.

You're confusing net and gross.

Either way don't cash out your retirement. A 20% penalty isn't worth it. Don't pay stupid taxes. Pay off your debt quickly and be done with it.

# ? Dec 6, 2013 23:52

Errant Gin Monks: Oct 2, 2009; "Yeah..."
- Marshawn Lynch

SiGmA_X posted:

Either way don't cash out your retirement. A 20% penalty isn't worth it. Don't pay stupid taxes. Pay off your debt quickly and be done with it.

Yeah I got those backwards, its what happens when trying to type a reply while on the phone I suppose.

Kilty Monroe posted:

Well, since you got into credit card debt in the first place, perhaps there's also some room for improvement in your spending habits. Check out the budgeting thread.

I dont use them anymore, the large card was a consolidation of small cards and dell financing when my computer I was using for my business got stolen years ago. Of the small two, it was bad decision making years ago. I plan on budgeting 500 a month to pay the cards off when I start the new job if I keep the 403b money, but it will mean I wont be able to contribute the max to the IRA for the first year. If I do contribute the IRA limit I can add an extra 100 or so to the 250 a month I pay right now on the cards, which will get them paid off in 18 months or so.

Well I guess I will just roll the 403B over then. Time to start looking at IRA options.

Errant Gin Monks fucked around with this message at 00:13 on Dec 7, 2013

# ? Dec 7, 2013 00:05

Harry: Jun 13, 2003; I do solemnly swear that in the year 2015 I will theorycraft my wallet as well as my WoW

If you don't use them, I would try to balance transfer them to a 0% card and spread it over 18 months (or whatever).

# ? Dec 7, 2013 00:18

Kilty Monroe: Dec 27, 2006; Upon the frozen fields of arctic Strana Mechty, the Ghost Dads lie in wait, preparing to ambush their prey with their zippin' and zoppin' and ziggy-zoop-boppin'.

SiGmA_X posted:

Re: my 401k feedback - I'm going to figure out how to allocate existing Roth against my upcoming Roth 401k to keep the ER as low as possible. Good call guys. I only have about 3k in my Roth (which will be increasing a little slower than the 401k, 6.5% gross into Roth vs 9% gross including match into 401k) so my fund options are a bit limited. I did say I didn't have jack in retirement, right? Cuz I don't have jack in retirement.

Do you guys agree with my rough allocation of 50/20/20/10 large cap/small cap/intl/bond?

When slicing and dicing your domestic stock by market caps, use Morningstar Instant X-Ray to figure out the appropriate mix to approximate the total stock index the you're trying to emulate. For international stock, I follow Vanguard's lead of having 30% of equities be international (so 27% of your whole portfolio here).

You can still build a good mix despite your low balance by buying ETFs. They're a little more involved than ordinary mutual funds, since you have to put in an order through a brokerage the same way you would to buy individual stocks, but there's no minimum investment requirement aside from not being able to buy fractional shares, and the expense ratios are pretty low, too. Vanguard waives commission fees on their own ETFs, and Fidelity does too for 65 iShares ETFs, if your IRA is at either institution (and if not, why?).

Harry posted:

If you don't use them, I would try to balance transfer them to a 0% card and spread it over 18 months (or whatever).

This is a good idea. Chase Slate is the card I see mentioned in the rewards card thread all the time for balance transfers.

# ? Dec 7, 2013 00:48

Harry: Jun 13, 2003; I do solemnly swear that in the year 2015 I will theorycraft my wallet as well as my WoW

Slate is 15, Citi has a card that anywhere from 18-21 if you really want to stretch it out.

# ? Dec 7, 2013 00:51

Huttan: May 15, 2013

Errant Gin Monks posted:

1) Cash out the 403b, pay off all my debt but my house and start again

No. Never cash out your 401k/403b unless you've got catastrophic bills. Or, if it is an inherited IRA which has such complicated rules that it would take a couple thousand words to explain the possible combinations of things.

The $11k ends up getting added to your income for the year, so your marginal income tax rate is how much vanishes in a poof of taxes.

Errant Gin Monks posted:

2) Roll it into an IRA, start contributing and slowly pay down my credit cards as I am doing

Yes.

# ? Dec 7, 2013 02:43

curried lamb of God: Aug 31, 2001; we are all Marwinners

I'm going to receive a $5,000 windfall from selling my car later this month. Which is the better option: funneling everything directly into my Roth IRA for 2014, or putting the money into a savings account while continuing my regular monthly contributions ($5,500 split over 12 months)? I have my Roth with Vanguard in their 2050 target fund, if that matters.

# ? Dec 7, 2013 19:53

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# ? May 23, 2024 10:15

obi_ant: Apr 8, 2005

surrender posted:

I'm going to receive a $5,000 windfall from selling my car later this month. Which is the better option: funneling everything directly into my Roth IRA for 2014, or putting the money into a savings account while continuing my regular monthly contributions ($5,500 split over 12 months)? I have my Roth with Vanguard in their 2050 target fund, if that matters.

I've asked this question twice in this thread, the general consensus seems to be, max it out as soon as you can, the difference you can "make" is not that different. I max mine out every January 1st.

# ? Dec 7, 2013 20:01

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Long Term Investing & Retirement: The second best time is now

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