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I'm starting to regret my "eh, I'll start being responsible with money next year" attitude, not going to lie.
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Mar 23, 2020 16:36
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:I'll tell you this much for free I certainly don't loving regret for a second my fat cash emergency fund one bit, even though I'm very certain there's going to be a loving OVERWHELMING amount of work for physicians in the days, weeks and months ahead. Yeah, ditto. Although I'm not sure ALL physicians will be needed.
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Mar 23, 2020 16:41
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Residency Evil posted:Yeah, ditto. There is going to be enough work doing ACLS and signing death certificates that even psychiatrists are being told to brush up on the former. I'm sure we'll both be plenty busy.
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Mar 23, 2020 16:44
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dexter6 posted:While I am not planning on changing my retirement investment strategy / allocations, I am reconsidering my choice to only hold 6 months of expenses in an emergency fund. Nope, totally agree, and same boat here. Except my sales has always been face to face, so.....yeah that’s a bummer. I have a feeling they’ll probably convert (whether temporary or forever) a lot of physical customer facing jobs to be additional customer phone / online support. While obviously retail is gonna tank, phone and internet support is spiking.
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Mar 23, 2020 17:53
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Residency Evil posted:Yeah, ditto. If you can prescribe and do a physical exam...
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Mar 23, 2020 17:55
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Residency Evil posted:Yeah, ditto. It is definitely tricky for my partner, she is a dentist. She is mandated to be closed until April 14th I believe. She can see emergencies (broken tooth, severe pain) so she is doing that tomorrow (and probably every Tuesday until they can open). My job is 99.99999% secure. I have no issues with the amount of cash I have and I am glad that when she was starting her practice we talked about how she needed a decent emergency fund. So she has a good amount too and as long as it doesn't go past 4 months she is good (I mean she will be fine even with nothing as I can support us completely, but that is kind of the tipping point for her business riding it out with no cash flow). That doesn't take into account anything the city/state/fed is going to assist small business. Also a good podcast today from Financial Symmetry: https://www.financialsymmetry.com/preparing-your-portfolio-during-a-bear-market/ Keep on keeping on everybody.
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Mar 23, 2020 19:17
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:There is going to be enough work doing ACLS and signing death certificates that even psychiatrists are being told to brush up on the former. Seriously, if I'm involved in ACLS on a regular basis then you're screwed. One of our older psychiatrists in my hospital just got a notice from his specialist that he shouldn't be around so many sick people, so now he's doing telemed. It was either that or give the other psychiatrist all of his work. Our volume went down as a whole, so there's natural pressure to fill the psych beds. However, we're a freestanding psych facility so we're really picky with medical problems. Our doomsday comes when we get an obvious covid19 case in our Geri unit. We have decent internists, but we don't have an ICU setup. Which I guess brings us back to your original point. Oy vey 
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Mar 24, 2020 01:53
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Well this is annoying. My employer is changing HSA administrators for the second time in a year, with the caveat that this one charges a monthly 0.03% fee if you choose to invest the money (capped at $10/month). This is a good time to look at Fidelity right?
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Mar 24, 2020 12:14
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Residency Evil posted:Well this is annoying. My employer is changing HSA administrators for the second time in a year, with the caveat that this one charges a monthly 0.03% fee if you choose to invest the money (capped at $10/month). Let me know how the process turns out. I switched off of a high deductible health play for the year and wanna switch custodians as HSA Bank is now charging me a fee of a few bucks per distribution. And speaking of HSA’s, I am so glad I kept enough for a years worth of out of pocket maximums in savings instead of the market. In fact I wish I had kept a bit extra for dental expenses, didn’t think of that.
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Mar 24, 2020 13:23
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Hi everyone, looking for some advice. I had trouble finding a good job in my early 20s thanks to the the last financial crisis and only started to seriously save for retirement in the last few years. Now, I'm working a government job with relatively low pay for the field but nice benefits and job security in crises like this one. The facility I'm based out of will close in a few years, but I'm pretty confident I'll be able to find another job by then. I have a Roth IRA that I've been putting as much as I can afford into since 2012 or so - maxed out for the last four years - and a very healthy emergency fund, enough to continue living at my current standard for 3-4 years. I also have a Thrift Savings Plan that I've been putting a significant amount into for the last four years, as I'm trying to catch up for not having had any sort of 401k throughout most of my 20s. The weekend before the coronavirus started to take its toll on the economy, I moved about half of my money from the F, C, and S funds (Fixed Income Index, Common Stock Index, and Small Cap Stock Index) to the G fund (Government Securities). Because of that and another transfer to the G fund the following week, I've had minimal losses. 1) I got lucky, I know, and you shouldn't try to time the market. Knowing that, what's the best way to proceed right now? Move the money back from the G fund into the F, C, and S funds with the understanding that even if things continue to fall in the short term, in the long run it will likely be better that way? 2) Should I be investing more of my emergency fund? At this point even if we go into a recession I don't think I need to worry about losing my job, so even being very risk averse it seems reasonable to cut it by half or so. 3) After maxing out my Roth IRA and TSP, what's the best use of any additional funds? I read some of the literature from the OP but am not clear on the best next step.
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Mar 24, 2020 17:47
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Atahualpa posted:Hi everyone, looking for some advice. Good job on the move to G. 1 - don't forget the target date funds, if you don't want to rebalance things yourself. 2 - it depends? 3 - open a taxable vanguard brokerage account, buy something there (eventually). ask this question in the stock trading thread.
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Mar 24, 2020 17:57
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Atahualpa posted:Hi everyone, looking for some advice. 1) Yes, this is ideal. Your asset allocation and investment schedule should be fixed, or at least only changing with changes in risk tolerance and not due to market conditions. You can dollar-cost average or lump sum, but either way you should bring your money back into the market at the asset allocation you've determined based on your timeline. 2) Your e-fund is crazy large. If you feel like you have good job security, you could even bring that down to 6-12 months. But that's entirely up to you. I'm personally happy to have a more robust e-fund at the moment (part of that is buying a house in the last month) but I don't think I would ever get as high as 3-4 years. Your own comfort level may be different. If you do want to reduce your e-fund, consider whether you would prefer to invest it for the long-term or if you have some shorter-term goals you'd like to hit and could put that extra money towards. 3) Taxable brokerage account, or an HSA if you have access to it. Otherwise it's just putting it into a taxable brokerage account and investing according to your asset allocation.
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Mar 24, 2020 17:59
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DeadFatDuckFat posted:I'm gonna try to reduce my positions in that finance fund and also the brokerage fund. I'll sell off some of both so that the loss from the former (FIDSX) offsets the gains from the latter (FSLBX), and I'll use the resulting freed up money to put into the Total Market fund. I'm gonna sell some of this today. Seems like a good day to do it. I'll wait a few days to put it back in the FSKAX though.
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Mar 24, 2020 18:07
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Atahualpa, there is a small detail to keep in mind whatever you decide to do. With the TSP, during any month you’re only allowed to make two interfund transfers. After that, the only transfer you can make is into the G fund.
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Mar 24, 2020 18:13
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mr.belowaverage posted:<life story details trimmed> Quoting myself for possible answers. Any thoughts/advice on this allocation?
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Mar 24, 2020 19:53
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mr.belowaverage posted:Quoting myself for possible answers. Any thoughts/advice on this allocation?
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Mar 24, 2020 20:05
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Hoodwinker posted:You should purchase whatever your normal asset allocation is using either DCA or lump sum, to your preference. Nothing about the current market conditions should change your investment strategy vis a vis contributions. Makes sense, but I'm not sure about my 'normal' allocation. That's what I'm asking for thoughts on. If I should be reconsidering it, I'd make a new strategy before purchasing anything further.
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Mar 24, 2020 20:30
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mr.belowaverage posted:Makes sense, but I'm not sure about my 'normal' allocation. That's what I'm asking for thoughts on. If I should be reconsidering it, I'd make a new strategy before purchasing anything further.
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Mar 24, 2020 20:38
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Hoodwinker posted:Why are you reconsidering it? How did you pick your initial allocation? It's been a couple years, so I'm not clear on my rationale at the time. I think a considerable amount of 'gut' was involved.
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Mar 24, 2020 20:45
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mr.belowaverage posted:It's been a couple years, so I'm not clear on my rationale at the time. I think a considerable amount of 'gut' was involved.
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Mar 24, 2020 20:50
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To roll it back a little: normally, we advocate the classic three- or four-fund portfolio, or equivalent target-date single fund; and you pick the allocation between stocks and bonds based on risk tolerance vs. need to grow in order to hit retirement goals. All of the following assumes you're not close to retirement age and still have a long-ish horizon to go. I think a critical but sometimes missed point here is that you need to know what your retirement goal is; approximately how much money you need to have saved by what year, how much you have today, and how much you'll likely be able to contribute each year from now till then. When you add it all up and start using the calculators to estimate your returns, you can discover you're in one of these three categories: A) you project to have a lot more saved than you think you'll need B) you project to have something close to what you think you'll need C) you project to have a lot less than what you think you'll need In category A, you're fine with a conservative allocation - meaning you don't need as much stocks exposure, you can put more into bonds and maybe keep some in very safe categories like exclusively US treasuries, rolling CD ladders, etc. You can also afford to be aggressive if you want to try to get rich, because if you lose a bunch of money being too risky, well, you'll still have enough even considering your losses. This is a great place to be. In category C, you really just need to find a way to save more. Your asset allocation still matters, because you simultaneously need good returns, and can't afford to take huge gambles, but saving more money is more important. Focus your energy on earning more, or start adjusting your retirement plans to assume you'll be living on considerably less than you hoped. This is not a good place to be, but the pathway forward is fairly clear; cut your expenses now, increase your savings rate now, go with a fairly normal asset allocation (say, bonds allocation of like 10% to 20% depending on your age), and there's your answer. Savings rate trumps asset allocation tweaking in category C. In category B, this is where tweaking your asset allocation to suit your comfort with risk matters more than the other cases. You can't be overly conservative with allocations, so you need significant stocks exposure, and you could also do with a bit more savings and lower stocks if you're uncomfortable with periods of high volatility affecting your savings by large amounts due to that stocks exposure. You're in an OK spot, your plans are good, you can re-evaluate annually to make sure you're not starting to fall behind, it's important to check your asset allocation at least annually and keep doing the math and track your progress. Now: this is about asset allocation and savings rate, but you have an immediate problem which is that you're now living paycheck-to-paycheck. That may be a higher priority for you to worry about. You can reasonably just stick your money into a basic three- or four-fund portfolio or target retirement fund today, pick one with at least 10% to bonds (maybe more if you're older) but not more than maybe 30%, and then ignore it and work on your employment situation for now. Check back after you have a job and income goes back up and your budget starts allowing for savings and re-evaluate.
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Mar 24, 2020 21:08
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Ok, thanks for the feedback!Leperflesh posted:A) you project to have a lot more saved than you think you'll need I think category B, but tending to category A is the most accurate. So, to be clear, the wisdom is gernally that allocation should be tailored to risk tolerance? Or are there other main criteria? quote:Now: this is about asset allocation and savings rate, but you have an immediate problem which is that you're now living paycheck-to-paycheck.... Check back after you have a job and income goes back up and your budget starts allowing for savings and re-evaluate. The current employment income situation is manageable and I'll be back to work when the pandemic situatioin quiets down some. It is stressing me and making me nervous and with my idle time I'm scrutinizing my savings strategy, but the only immediate affect will be that I'm not adding anything to it right now. Hoodwinker posted:If you want to try to more rationally establish your asset allocation now, don't concern yourself with "what's cheap" or market conditions. Make the decision and execute it. I'll say from looking at the funds you listed that there doesn't seem to be any kind of strategy there. As far as I can tell, you've got four equities ETFs, one Canada, one US, one Canada dividends, and one US dividends? No bonds, no serious international allocation. Do you want to talk out your thought process here? The one fund is Canada, one US, one US dividends, and one All Cap Except North America, my thinking was for market diversification. I minimized Canada market exposure as a Canadian, being everything else in my life is exposed to Canadian market factors, like house and employment. I wanted a piece of Canada for I guess energy gains and a slightly different market to US, and a large slice of US with a piece of it being mainly Blue Chip, hence the US Dividend fund. Open to criticism of my newbie strategy.
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Mar 24, 2020 22:01
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Residency Evil posted:Well this is annoying. My employer is changing HSA administrators for the second time in a year, with the caveat that this one charges a monthly 0.03% fee if you choose to invest the money (capped at $10/month). If the funds have a decent ER, I'd just pay the 0.03% to not deal with the overhead of moving the money.
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Mar 24, 2020 22:55
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I got really down this weekend and was thinking about selling on Monday and getting into something safer than stocks since I figured things were only getting worse. If I had sold, I would have missed the 10% gain yesterday. Just my periodic reminder not to time the market.
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Mar 25, 2020 13:35
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I just realized I should have asked this question ages ago. I'm income-limited from trad IRA, I have a Roth, I'm investing $600/mo in my brokerage account. Should I be investing that into the Roth that I'm transferring the trad IRA funds towards, rather than the brokerage account?
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Mar 25, 2020 14:36
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Backdoor Roth: put 6k in a Trad then immediately transfer to the Roth.
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Mar 25, 2020 14:41
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withak posted:Backdoor Roth: put 6k in a Trad then immediately transfer to the Roth.
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Mar 25, 2020 14:44
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withak posted:Backdoor Roth: put 6k in a Trad then immediately transfer to the Roth. I've already got something like $78k+ in the trad (at least before stonks tanked, I have been avoiding Personal Capital for sanity lately). I'm converting it over at $5k/year to not have a giant amount of taxes to pay on it, at my accountant's advice.
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Mar 25, 2020 14:59
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MJP posted:I've already got something like $78k+ in the trad (at least before stonks tanked, I have been avoiding Personal Capital for sanity lately). I'm converting it over at $5k/year to not have a giant amount of taxes to pay on it, at my accountant's advice. Taxable brokerage account is the next place to horde money then.
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Mar 25, 2020 15:08
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MJP posted:I just realized I should have asked this question ages ago. Just to clarify, since I think I read this a little differently from the last couple of posters - you're income-limited from traditional IRA deductions, but are you income limited from the ROTH as well?
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Mar 25, 2020 15:38
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MJP posted:I just realized I should have asked this question ages ago. If you have a good 401k check if they will accept your trad Ira rollover. Mine does. This could get you out of the woods on the backdoor Roth. You would be stalling the trad-Roth conversion as a tradeoff.
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Mar 25, 2020 16:13
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If I have a 401(k) employer matching X% up to Y% of each 2-week paycheck, but my check varies from overtime and such, how do I max my yearly contributions while still getting all the matching funds? If I hit the individial limit 3 checks before the end of the period and try to put in more, will it bounce back my portion but still take the matching funds or something like that? e:I'm hourly btw. Roumba fucked around with this message at 17:25 on Mar 25, 2020 |
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Mar 25, 2020 17:03
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Roumba posted:If I have a 401(k) employer matching X% up to Y% of each 2-week paycheck, but my check varies from overtime and such, how do I max my yearly contributions while still getting all the matching funds?
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Mar 25, 2020 17:04
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Also in my limited, salary-with-OT past experience, OT isn't taken into those calculations
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Mar 25, 2020 17:14
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smackfu posted:I got really down this weekend and was thinking about selling on Monday and getting into something safer than stocks since I figured things were only getting worse. 10% gain of what, the huge loss from earlier? There's no point in thinking about it like this because you haven't gained or lost anything until you make a sale, just don't look at it until you're ready to retire.
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Mar 25, 2020 17:24
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I asked in the US tax thread but didn't get a clear answer - I've got a question for the backdoor Roth-ers out there as a procrastinating first-timer: I accidentally over contributed to my Roth because changed jobs mid-year and signing bonus + raise put me over the limit -- good problem to have! I realized this earlier but didn't call to recharacterize to non-deductible Trad until after Jan 01, and I am planning to do a Roth conversion this week once it and my remaining 2019 contributions hit my account. My Trad IRA is otherwise empty. The IRS FAQ says you can treat rechar contributions as if they were contributed to the second account, but is there anything I need to fill out to indicate this on my 2019 tax form? Can I just fill it out as if I put $6k into a non-deductible Trad IRA?
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Mar 25, 2020 17:25
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H110Hawk posted:If you have a good 401k check if they will accept your trad Ira rollover. Mine does. This could get you out of the woods on the backdoor Roth. You would be stalling the trad-Roth conversion as a tradeoff. My current 401k provider doesn't offer Vanguard funds and is unlikely to add them (competitors), but I have a 401k from my previous company that has a big chunk in VFIFX. I wonder if they'll let me roll over into that one since I no longer work there but still have an account. Edit: nope, no luck with that. The Leck posted:Just to clarify, since I think I read this a little differently from the last couple of posters - you're income-limited from traditional IRA deductions, but are you income limited from the ROTH as well? I'm juuuust under the married filing jointly cutoff for reduced contributions. If I get a bonus in 2020 or my wife gets a raise, we'll be past it. MJP fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Mar 25, 2020 |
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Mar 25, 2020 17:30
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The Big Jesus posted:Also in my limited, salary-with-OT past experience, OT isn't taken into those calculations I get a bigger 401k match when I work OT so maybe it varies from plan to plan. I'm also hourly. The other thing you have to be mindful of is making sure you get the full years match from your employer before you hit the limit, or at least as close to it as you can.
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Mar 25, 2020 22:03
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acidx posted:I get a bigger 401k match when I work OT so maybe it varies from plan to plan. I'm also hourly. OP should check with his HR on true up as well. most places will true things up if you max out early. The internet can't tell you which is true though. My 401k is only matched once a year so for me I max out in 7 months.
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Mar 25, 2020 22:31
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Hoodwinker posted:You'll have to check with your HR, but the way it almost always works is that that they won't let you overcontribute. Check with your Benefits manager. My company uses Fidelity. I make a conservative guesstimate of what I’ll make for the year, and adjust the % accordingly. Contributions stop automatically when I hit the maximum, and the next year my company will True Up.
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Mar 25, 2020 22:56
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