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Gamesguy posted:Can someone with a Vanguard account see if you can login? I keep getting timed out after I hit the login button. They are changing their login flow, have you tried clearing your cache?
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Jul 16, 2015 04:29
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Apparently a problem with my account, the page they tried to redirect me to whenever I log on gets stuck an endless redirect loop. Thanks for the help guys.
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Jul 17, 2015 01:29
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We got a notice from our CFO that they're replacing 3 of the funds in our 401k plan...and one of the replacements is Vanguard Small-Cap, which I'd wished was available before, but only Vanguard Mid-Cap was.  Now if only they offered Vanguard Total International and Vangurd Total Bond.
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Jul 17, 2015 18:19
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Is it possible to have multiple Roth IRA accounts? I currently have one, but it's a variable annuity which I've learned was probably a bad idea (but I'm not entirely sure of that either...I'm pretty bad at money). I wanted to transfer it to Vanguard, but they can't transfer a variable annuity so I'd have to cash out first and there are still about three years left in the surrender period. So, can I just stop contributing to the variable annuity, open a Roth IRA with Vanguard mutual funds, and make my contributions to that account? Then once my annuity surrender period is up I can cash that out and transfer it to Vanguard with no penalties or taxes. I think. Is this even close to the right idea?
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Jul 17, 2015 22:44
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Soup in a Bag posted:Is it possible to have multiple Roth IRA accounts? I currently have one, but it's a variable annuity which I've learned was probably a bad idea (but I'm not entirely sure of that either...I'm pretty bad at money). I wanted to transfer it to Vanguard, but they can't transfer a variable annuity so I'd have to cash out first and there are still about three years left in the surrender period. The answer is yes you can do this, and yes you should do exactly what you detailed. How does the variable annuity perform? I'm just curious, I've done 0.00 research into them. I don't even know what my own companies variable annuity products pay - and I use to do (I got promoted) the accounting for the underlying assets.
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Jul 17, 2015 23:10
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SiGmA_X posted:How does the variable annuity perform? I'm just curious, I've done 0.00 research into them. I don't even know what my own companies variable annuity products pay - and I use to do (I got promoted) the accounting for the underlying assets. I'd avoid them since they tend to sky high expense ratios and also tend to be tax inefficient. Not to mention no control over your asset allocation in the annuity in exchange for really high management fees. The concept doesn't follow the recommendation of this thread to invest in low cost passive investments and also only pick investments you can understand. etalian fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Jul 18, 2015 |
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Jul 18, 2015 00:45
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Soup in a Bag posted:Is it possible to have multiple Roth IRA accounts? I currently have one, but it's a variable annuity which I've learned was probably a bad idea (but I'm not entirely sure of that either...I'm pretty bad at money). I wanted to transfer it to Vanguard, but they can't transfer a variable annuity so I'd have to cash out first and there are still about three years left in the surrender period. I did this many many years ago for my Dad without a hitch. An annuity inside an IRA is a really stupid idea, so definitely cash out after the surrender period and do as you described. Just coordinate it with Vanguard first and do it as a direct transfer, and if you need a special form from the existing custodian, go ahead and get that in. When I did it last, it took slightly longer than a typical direct transfer (i.e. from Fidelity) but if I remember correctly, it was done within 2-3 weeks.
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Jul 18, 2015 02:08
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Thank you all for the information. The guy selling it to me made it sound like such a good idea.  I'm slowly learning though now that I actually care about not being forced to work until I die.SiGmA_X posted:How does the variable annuity perform? I'm just curious, I've done 0.00 research into them. I don't even know what my own companies variable annuity products pay - and I use to do (I got promoted) the accounting for the underlying assets.
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Jul 18, 2015 03:34
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Hahaha. Ignore what the rep tells you. Get the amount and date of each contribution and compute the internal rate of return over the 5 years (XIRR function in Excel). You can compare that with a couple of different target retirement funds or something as a rough baseline. Not that it really matters - an annuity inside an IRA is pretty much the definition of getting screwed by your "advisor" and you should get out as soon as you reasonably can. In other words, do exactly what you proposed.
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Jul 18, 2015 03:44
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I guess I don't understand internal rate of return well enough to make the spreadsheet formula work. The most easily accessible data is contributions, fees, and investment returns by quarter. Anything I've tried ends up with the spreadsheet (a google sheet in case that matters) saying it tried to calculate the IRR and couldn't. Not that important, I guess. I'm not sure I want to know how bad a decision all that was. I'm just glad I'm finally getting on the right track.
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Jul 18, 2015 06:06
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slap me silly posted:Hahaha. Ignore what the rep tells you. Get the amount and date of each contribution and compute the internal rate of return over the 5 years (XIRR function in Excel). You can compare that with a couple of different target retirement funds or something as a rough baseline. Not that it really matters - an annuity inside an IRA is pretty much the definition of getting screwed by your "advisor" and you should get out as soon as you reasonably can. In other words, do exactly what you proposed. Yeah it's basically a plan to push a specialized stock investment as something which is worth a 1-4% extra expense ratio. Vanguard does offer variable annuity products but even for Vanguard the overall expense ration is in the 0.7% to 1.0% range. etalian fucked around with this message at 17:23 on Jul 18, 2015 |
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Jul 18, 2015 16:31
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Hey guys, I am about to make my annual IRA contribution into my Roth IRA, and I remember it being a bit complicated (I've only done it once), so I wanted to run my notes by you. 1. Buy shares in Traditional account (currently holding $0) 2. Wait until transfer completes (a couple of days) 3. Transfer all $$$ from Traditional account to Roth This is still how it's supposed to be done and it's still legal, right? Thanks.
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Jul 18, 2015 20:21
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theHUNGERian posted:Hey guys, This is how you do a 'backdoor Roth', which you need to do if you make too much money. If you aren't above the income cap, you can just buy shares in the Roth account.
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Jul 18, 2015 21:04
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Jul 18, 2015 22:18
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Bisty Q. posted:This is how you do a 'backdoor Roth', which you need to do if you make too much money. If you aren't above the income cap, you can just buy shares in the Roth account. Ah, poo poo. Now I remember. I bought shares in a traditional IRA for two years, but then realized that a Roth might be better which is why I converted to Roth last year. That income chart above is for MAGI, right? I only know my AGI because it's on my tax return and I might fall in the phase out category this year. WTF does that mean?
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Jul 18, 2015 23:40
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theHUNGERian posted:Ah, poo poo. Now I remember. I bought shares in a traditional IRA for two years, but then realized that a Roth might be better which is why I converted to Roth last year. It means you should do the backdoor method to be safe and still make sure you can contribute all $5500.
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Jul 19, 2015 03:20
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theHUNGERian posted:Ah, poo poo. Now I remember. I bought shares in a traditional IRA for two years, but then realized that a Roth might be better which is why I converted to Roth last year. If you think you're near the phase-out range, just backdoor it all. And the term you're looking for on the third step is exchanging shares from traditional to Roth. It's easy. Just remember, you get taxed on any gains from when you first buy into traditional and when you exchange them. Which should be somewhere close to 0, but you do have to include those close-to-zero gains on your taxes.
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Jul 19, 2015 04:40
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Henrik Zetterberg posted:If you think you're near the phase-out range, just backdoor it all. Thank you goons.
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Jul 19, 2015 04:53
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There was a small discussion about employee stock purchase plans earlier in this thread that ended up inconclusive regarding the amount of discount needed to make these plans worthwhile (it was mostly people complaining that their employer lowered the discount). My employer is probably in the top 10 US companies by market cap, offers a 5% discount with no lookback, purchases are made quarterly, no commissions/fees, and dividends are reinvested at a 5% discount. So I am being given 5% in alpha to compensate for taking on the non-systematic risk of a mega cap company as well as the opportunity cost of having my cash sit around doing nothing for 1.5 months on average - seems like a solid deal to me. I would of course sell all of my shares as soon as I am able to or as soon as any capital gains would become long term. Does this sound like a slam dunk or should I avoid it?
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Jul 19, 2015 23:48
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Swingline posted:There was a small discussion about employee stock purchase plans earlier in this thread that ended up inconclusive regarding the amount of discount needed to make these plans worthwhile (it was mostly people complaining that their employer lowered the discount). My employer is probably in the top 10 US companies by market cap, offers a 5% discount with no lookback, purchases are made quarterly, no commissions/fees, and dividends are reinvested at a 5% discount. So I am being given 5% in alpha to compensate for taking on the non-systematic risk of a mega cap company as well as the opportunity cost of having my cash sit around doing nothing for 1.5 months on average - seems like a solid deal to me. I would of course sell all of my shares as soon as I am able to or as soon as any capital gains would become long term. Does this sound like a slam dunk or should I avoid it? well it's more complex than that since the stock discount is considered a taxable benefit. Also the lookback is the other thing that makes a ESPP potentially lucrative since it allows you got the lowest possible price during the buy in period. I'd would avoid it, it's only a slamdunk IMO if it has a lookback provision and also offers a 10-15% discount.
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Jul 20, 2015 02:00
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Stock in the company you work for is particularly unattractive given that you work for them, so your future pay/benefits/chance of redundancy are more highly correlated with the stock price than with the price of a randomly chosen equivalent. It's like the opposite of a heded investment.
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Jul 20, 2015 10:38
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I'd agree with the "not a slam-dunk" comment, but a ~3.75% after-tax alpha on a Very Large Cap stock is still pretty attractive if you're venturing into taxable investments. I'd definitely contribute to it in some amount inside a taxable portfolio after all the tax-advantaged space I had was used up... but not before that point.
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Jul 20, 2015 13:47
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I'm 29 and in the next year I have several inheritance accounts coming in. I'm looking to dump a large lump sum or two in Vanguard funds. I'm a grad student with no substantial income from job-based sources, so it's all taxable accounts for me. The thing I'm concerned about is the difference between admiral shares (I'd qualify for based on the investment amount) and ETFs. What concerns me is that, for instance, the expense ratios are exactly the same for VTI & VTSAX, but: 1) The ETF has double the price per share as the admiral share for buy-in. 2) Per the site, "Vanguard ETFs are not redeemable with an Applicant Fund other than in Creation Unit aggregations. Instead, investors must buy or sell Vanguard ETF Shares in the secondary market with the assistance of a stockbroker. In doing so, the investor may incur brokerage commissions and may pay more than net asset value when buying and receive less than net asset value when selling." As someone who has never dealt with ETFs, this makes me concerned the ETFs are more difficult to buy/sell, whereas the traditional funds are more "what you see is what you get." How does the practice of buying/selling ETF funds actually play out in practice? 3) When dealing with basic, low ER, long-term funds like this (no intention of buying/selling often), do the ETF's tax advantages really matter that much? I guess the TLDR is, If I'm going to be purchasing large amounts of basic, low expense index funds for taxable accounts, what are the pros and cons of going with ETFs or admiral shares? Bonus question: Is there any problem with keeping funds in a MMSA as an alternative to buying bond funds? My thinking is this could let a a very sizable emergency fund pull double duty as portfolio diversification. Thank you for looking at this mess of a post, and I appreciate any help. 
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Jul 20, 2015 16:28
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My wife and I have some money in a savings account earning 0.95%. We'd like to put it in something that can earn more, but still be moderately-accessible, if there is such a thing. We don't foresee any reason why we'd need instant access to it in the near future, but we are conservative/paranoid. We already have a proper emergency fund in savings, so this money would be what we have over and above that emergency amount. What would you all recommend we do? Should we be looking at something more aggressive but less accessible, since we don't think we'll need it any time soon? Also on a totally unrelated note, is there a "just get this one" recommended 529 plan? This whole system of them being run by the states but managed by various companies situation is confusing.
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Jul 20, 2015 16:42
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For something slightly better than a savings account, you could check out Savings I Bonds from the Treasury. They have an interest rate that keeps pace with inflation for 30 years, plus a real interest rate on top (which is currently 0%, alas). You have to hold them for a year, but after that they can be redeemed at any time with only a few month's interest penalty. Plus the interest is state tax exempt and federal tax deferred. They're not super exciting, but if all you want to do is keep pace with inflation, and you can stand to not have access to the money for a year, they are a good option. I personally prefer them to online high-interest savings accounts.
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Jul 20, 2015 17:00
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bloodysabbath posted:I'm 29 and in the next year I have several inheritance accounts coming in. I'm looking to dump a large lump sum or two in Vanguard funds. I'm a grad student with no substantial income from job-based sources, so it's all taxable accounts for me. There is zero tax advantage of ETF's over Vanguard's corresponding index fund, since in Vanguard's case, ETF's are just share classes of the index fund, making any tax advantage of ETF's (redemptions "in kind", ability to select lots with highest cost basis... these are internal transactions within the fund that help shareholders) actually improve tax efficiency for the ETF and index fund equally. ETF's are not a big hassle unless they are thinly traded ETF's. But there are commissions, bid/ask spreads, and you can only trade them during market open hours. Stick to the admiral share index funds for more brainless management of your money.
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Jul 20, 2015 17:46
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DNK posted:I'd agree with the "not a slam-dunk" comment, but a ~3.75% after-tax alpha on a Very Large Cap stock is still pretty attractive if you're venturing into taxable investments. There's almost certainly a lag time between when the sales are purchased and when they are deposited into your account for you to sell them which adds some risk. I'd check the time of purchase to make sure it's not on or near when quarterly reports are issued as that would add volatility. you may also have a limit on the amount you can purchase. I have about the same deal with a Fortune 500 company and choose to not use it because the limited amount I'm allowed to potentially invest along with the risk just makes it not worth my time.
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Jul 20, 2015 18:50
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asur posted:There's almost certainly a lag time between when the sales are purchased and when they are deposited into your account for you to sell them which adds some risk. I'd check the time of purchase to make sure it's not on or near when quarterly reports are issued as that would add volatility. you may also have a limit on the amount you can purchase. I have about the same deal with a Fortune 500 company and choose to not use it because the limited amount I'm allowed to potentially invest along with the risk just makes it not worth my time. They way I look at company stock plans and awards is to think about whether you would want to invest in the company of you were just a normal retail investor. So like if you had $10k to invest would you want to buy your companies stock and hold it as a long term investor? If yes, then getting a 5% discount isn't a bad deal. Just doing it to flip it probably isn't going to work because there's usually trading restrictions, volume restrictions, the discount is taxable, and a bunch of other things. If it was just an unlimited license to print money risk free the employee purchase program wouldn't exist for very long. Same thing for stock you get from awards and options exercise. If you have a $10k position that's fully tradable today, if you don't want to invest $10k in YourCompanyName Inc, then you should sell it and invest that money in the assets you do want to invest in. Don't be those Enron employees with 50% of their net worth in company stock circa 2000.
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Jul 20, 2015 19:56
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Cross posting from the Newbie Finance thread. Mostly just want a sanity check here. I've recently had a large increase in income and also the new ability to contribute to a Roth 401k, and want to reevaluate my options for Roth vs traditional. Previously all my income was in the 15% bracket, so once I got the option, I put everything into Roth. Now, after after all deductions other than trad 401k, I am about 10k into the 25% bracket. It would seem to make sense therefor to do 10k into trad 401k and 7.5k into Roth. I am also doing 5.5k of Roth IRA and 3.5k of HSA, so the numbers of pre and after tax retirement accounts come close to even. I expect through a combination of both income and taxes going up that my marginal tax rate will almost certainly be higher than 15%. 25% I'm less sure about, but since roughly half my retirement income will have already had the taxes paid for I would guess probably not. The one thing that bugs me though is that trad is a less efficient use of tax advantaged investment space. $1 of Roth is objectively better than $1 of traditional. You pay more for it, but that difference will probably eventually make it to taxed investments anyway.
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Jul 20, 2015 21:10
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Traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs share the contribution limit of 5.5k/year. It's not 5.5k each.
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Jul 20, 2015 21:47
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:Traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs share the contribution limit of 5.5k/year. It's not 5.5k each. I think he understands that and is asking specifically about his traditional-to-roth % breakdown across the entirety of his retirement plan, not just IRA. Blinky2099 fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Jul 20, 2015 |
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Jul 20, 2015 21:58
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Xenoborg posted:Cross posting from the Newbie Finance thread. Mostly just want a sanity check here.
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Jul 20, 2015 22:06
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Xenoborg posted:Cross posting from the Newbie Finance thread. Mostly just want a sanity check here. A couple of things you may not be thinking about :
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Jul 20, 2015 22:09
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asur posted:There's almost certainly a lag time between when the sales are purchased and when they are deposited into your account for you to sell them which adds some risk. I'd check the time of purchase to make sure it's not on or near when quarterly reports are issued as that would add volatility. you may also have a limit on the amount you can purchase. I have about the same deal with a Fortune 500 company and choose to not use it because the limited amount I'm allowed to potentially invest along with the risk just makes it not worth my time. Yeah for a ESPP to be worth trying: -fairly low length holding period -Lookback provision, this is the most important thing for making lower risk profit -10-15% discount to make in the low risk lock in profit sweeter -Make sure you research your company to avoid lemon investments
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Jul 21, 2015 04:55
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etalian posted:Yeah for a ESPP to be worth trying: Mine's a bit different than most, but there's another format that works. I commit each year to buy shares regularly every month for 12 months. If I don't sell the shares for a year, and if I don't quit, I get awarded 50% of my total purchase price as additional shares (so in the last month, I'm getting an instant 50% return).
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Jul 21, 2015 05:02
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I'm not interested in buying gold, ever, But I'm curious, all these old paranoid codgers who bought in to the gold craze shifting the price to the moon, thinking it would always stay above $1250, and now it's trading at $1080, probably will drop below $1000 and stay there for the foreseeable future. Presumably anyone with a significant stake still, with a pulse, has either sold out of the market, or was hoping to sell out if/when it ever got back up to $1250 or maybe a rally to $1300. My wild-rear end-guess is it will eventually settle in the $850 range. What do all these people do with all this gold? Do they just sell it at a 50% loss and move on? What chunk of the market has these sitting in cold investments for the long term and have just taken huge losses since the peak in ~2011. Where does all that money go? This has been really fascinating to watch the price just totally collapse over the last 7 months 
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Jul 21, 2015 12:20
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Deep 13 posted:For something slightly better than a savings account, you could check out Savings I Bonds from the Treasury. They have an interest rate that keeps pace with inflation for 30 years, plus a real interest rate on top (which is currently 0%, alas). You have to hold them for a year, but after that they can be redeemed at any time with only a few month's interest penalty. Plus the interest is state tax exempt and federal tax deferred. Noooo, run screaming from I-bonds right now. The fixed part is 0 and the inflation part is currently negative. I-bonds are worse than a savings account, because they are paying you nothing yet you have significantly limited access to the money in them. Maybe once interest rates start rising and the official inflation rate goes up, but right now you would be a fool to put money in I-bonds.
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Jul 21, 2015 12:43
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80k posted:There is zero tax advantage of ETF's over Vanguard's corresponding index fund, since in Vanguard's case, ETF's are just share classes of the index fund, making any tax advantage of ETF's (redemptions "in kind", ability to select lots with highest cost basis... these are internal transactions within the fund that help shareholders) actually improve tax efficiency for the ETF and index fund equally. Hey, cool, thanks. Think I'll do just that.
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Jul 21, 2015 13:21
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Ronald McReagan posted:A couple of things you may not be thinking about : Great point about comparing it to capital gains tax, and how for your first ~40k of current year dollar income in retirement traditional pays less or equal in tax than Roth. Definitely going to do the roughly 50-50 trad-roth mix for now to avoid 25% tax. Especially in light of the new Aftertax contribution being able to be converted to Roth IRA on rollover, I won't be able to fill all my tax advantaged space for a long time anyway, so the space efficiency is less important. Also yes, I have the HSA come out of payroll in 3.5k/pay period increments. I'm also looking into if I can claim exemption from state tax since I know my burden will be zero. edit: I wish I could set my traditional and roth 401k money to goto a different mix of funds Xenoborg fucked around with this message at 14:20 on Jul 21, 2015 |
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Jul 21, 2015 14:18
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Hadlock posted:I'm not interested in buying gold, ever, Anybody with any sense would just hold it until the next stock market panic. My old man bought in around $800, says he's just going to pass it onto me if the market doesn't go haywire again before he retires. Gold isn't going away, and until the general public stops seeing it as having some sort of inherent value (unlikely), it will always be something that the panicked flock to when the markets start looking dicey. e: Of course, if you were dumb enough to buy into gold at $1500, you're probably dumb enough to sell out at $1000
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Jul 21, 2015 15:45
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