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George H.W. Cunt
Oct 6, 2010





lol gently caress me. Apparently I've been contributing for the past 4 years into a Vanguard general brokerage account and not a specific Roth IRA brokerage account. Cool. At least I can fix my error for 2020 but god drat what a blunder.

I only caught it when doing my fiancee's and it had the 6000 tax implication warning. Mine did not and after looking into it some more sure enough there is zero IRA contributions noted

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jokes
Dec 20, 2012

Uh... Kupo?

George H.W. oval office posted:

lol gently caress me. Apparently I've been contributing for the past 4 years into a general brokerage account and not a specific Roth IRA brokerage account. Cool. At least I can fix my error for 2020 but god drat what a blunder.

Ouch lol

Virginia Slams
Nov 17, 2012
So I had some questions about the benefits offered to me at my workplace. Any help or guidance is appreciated as this is the first serious non military job I have worked at and I'm unfamiliar with benefits.

A little background info on me I am 31, single, no dependents, roughly $26,000 in savings, no retirement investments, make roughly $60,000 from my work and receive an additional $20,000 in disability pay per year from the V.A. Included with my V.A. Benefits is 100% coverage of all medical expenses except Dental which is roughly $6 a month from work. I am currently saving to purchase a home, have no expenses besides gas to get to work, vehicle insurance and $350 a month in school loans when they become due again. I have no plans on either getting married or purposely having children.

401k: My company has 401k matching at “$.25 per $1.00 contributed up to 100.00% of your eligible compensation, up to $400.00.” In my situation how much would be a good amount to contribute and to what type of plan? The options given may as well be written in alien because I have no idea what they are or mean. The plans are offered in percentages, they are:

Professional investment portfolios: Vanguard target retirement - 2015, 2020, 2025, 2030, 2035, 2040, 2045, 2050, 2055, 2060 and retirement income fund.

Stable value/bonds: bond index fund, guaranteed account, metro west total return bond fund.

International stock funds: Hartford Schroders international multi-cap value fund, International stock index fund.

Domestic stock funds: Goldman Sachs small cap value fund, mid cap stock index fund, small cap stock index fund, stock market index fund, Vanguard FTSE social index fund, William Blair small-mid cap growth I fund.

Specialty Funds: Cohen & Steers institutional realty shares fund


For life insurance I'm offered $10k to $500k at $.37 biweekly per $10k in coverage. If I understand the paperwork I get $100k free just for filling the paperwork out and not electing additional coverage or if I choose additional I have to pay for the first 100k($3.70) plus whatever amount over I want. So If I pick none its free at $100k or say I wanted max at $500k its $18.50 biweekly. My medical disabilities aren't life threatening more quality of life type issues and would consider my lifestyle low risk(don't drink/smoke, have dangerous hobbies.) How much life insurance would be advisable for someone in my situation?

crazypeltast52
May 5, 2010



Asking so I know which way to point another poster, but do we have a separate thread the covers public sector retirement planning or is this the best place to point them?

Although the IRS does look like it pays not-uncompetitively for my skillset, so maybe I should keep an eye on that too.

SamDabbers
May 26, 2003



Virginia Slams posted:

A little background info on me I am 31, single, no dependents... I have no plans on either getting married or purposely having children.

Virginia Slams posted:

For life insurance I'm offered $10k to $500k at $.37 biweekly per $10k in coverage. If I understand the paperwork I get $100k free just for filling the paperwork out and not electing additional coverage or if I choose additional I have to pay for the first 100k($3.70) plus whatever amount over I want. So If I pick none its free at $100k or say I wanted max at $500k its $18.50 biweekly. My medical disabilities aren't life threatening more quality of life type issues and would consider my lifestyle low risk(don't drink/smoke, have dangerous hobbies.) How much life insurance would be advisable for someone in my situation?

Life insurance pays out to your dependents when you die. Since you're single with no dependents, I'd say you don't need to purchase extra life insurance.

Virginia Slams
Nov 17, 2012

SamDabbers posted:

Life insurance pays out to your dependents when you die. Since you're single with no dependents, I'd say you don't need to purchase extra life insurance.

Is it not possible to list parents or siblings on life insurance? I did that previously with the military's SGLI

SamDabbers
May 26, 2003



Virginia Slams posted:

Is it not possible to list parents or siblings on life insurance? I did that previously with the military's SGLI

Sure, you can name anybody you want as the beneficiary, but if they're not depending on your financial support, then why pay extra for a bigger payout? If you had young kids then maybe you'd want to purchase the extra life insurance to support them until they're adults in case you met an untimely demise.

I'd invest those extra premiums into your retirement accounts instead and then you can use it before you die and leave whatever's left to your family.

SamDabbers fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Jan 3, 2021

zaurg
Mar 1, 2004

George H.W. oval office posted:

lol gently caress me. Apparently I've been contributing for the past 4 years into a Vanguard general brokerage account and not a specific Roth IRA brokerage account. Cool. At least I can fix my error for 2020 but god drat what a blunder.

I only caught it when doing my fiancee's and it had the 6000 tax implication warning. Mine did not and after looking into it some more sure enough there is zero IRA contributions noted

:zaurg:

withak
Jan 15, 2003


Fun Shoe

George H.W. oval office posted:

lol gently caress me. Apparently I've been contributing for the past 4 years into a Vanguard general brokerage account and not a specific Roth IRA brokerage account. Cool. At least I can fix my error for 2020 but god drat what a blunder.

I only caught it when doing my fiancee's and it had the 6000 tax implication warning. Mine did not and after looking into it some more sure enough there is zero IRA contributions noted

Lol owned


(also just in the process of funding the IRA for 2021 and this made me pause and double-check)

moana
Jun 18, 2005

one of the more intellectual satire communities on the web

H110Hawk posted:

I feel like this sells it short. There is a $300/$600 credit available
What credit are you talking about?

quote:

Edit: I went and looked, and for Fidelity's FSPSX I think I only owned like $150k of it at the end of 2019 and I got $2500 in Qualified dividends and paid ~$200 in foreign taxes. I feel like this gets to be worth it if you have a few hundred grand in there. I'll find out this year. At least compared to ordinary income you're saving something like 7%-20% compared to whatever the target date fund pukes out.
Losses don't net against dividends. Foreign tax credit is separate and happens regardless of slicing and dicing. I guess I don't understand how you're calculating the savings.

Also note that if you mess up rebalancing, you can end up losing a lot more than a few hundred dollars of tax savings. I don't like having to worry about rebalancing if I'm away on vacation so meh.

Grumpwagon
May 6, 2007
I am a giant assfuck who needs to harden the fuck up.


I agree with the above posters that more than $100k life insurance isn't necessary, but you know your family situation (and the risky-ness of your job) more than I do. Ultimately that's a personal decision, but saving that money in a retirement fund probably has more actuarial value (i.e. you're more likely to live longer and that money will grow to more than the life insurance payout). If you do decide you want more insurance, make sure to get some term life insurance quotes from elsewhere just to compare. Generally group life insurance (i.e. the kind you get from work) is cheaper, but not always.

As for your 401k, it looks like you have some pretty good options. You didn't list the expense ratios, but as long as they're under 0.5% or so (and hopefully well under), this is a good savings vehicle for you. The fact that they have Vanguard funds bodes well for reasonable expense ratios. You probably have 3 choices to make.

First, you have to decide what kind of bucket you're putting your money in, Roth 401(k) or Traditional 401(k). The difference is, with a Traditional, you're putting money in before it has been taxed. It can grow tax free, but when you make withdrawals, it will be taxed at your income tax rate at that time. With a Roth, it is taxed now, but when you take it out, you don't have to pay taxes. The usual advice is to contribute to a Traditional 401k, and separately (as in, you call Vanguard, this isn't associated with your work HR/payroll) open a Roth IRA with Vanguard to contribute.

After you've decided that, you then need to decide what to hold in your bucket (i.e. what companies or assets to buy with the money you invest). The target retirement fund is a good set it and forget it option. Stick it in the 2055 or 2060 account unless you know something I don't. People talk about diversifying, and that is very important, so why am I just recommending 1 fund? The target retirement plan automatically buys a large diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds appropriate for the risk tolerance of someone your age. So for now, the 2055/2060 accounts are probably something like 90% stocks (invested in a broad based index fund, which means they try to buy some of basically every stock, in proportion to how big they are), and 10% bonds. They will gradually shift to be less risky (i.e. more bonds) as you get older.

After all that, you then have to decide how much to contribute. I'd shoot for at least 15% of your income spread between the 401k and Roth IRA, but if you can do more while you have low expenses, you should. 15% is plenty if you're planning on working until a normal retirement age and you're sure you can keep up that amount as your expenses rise (even without a family, you tend to spend more as you get older, though that is hopefully offset somewhat by growing income). Now's a great time to start saving for retirement, since you have a long time before you need the money, it gives it a long time to grow. Opening up a Roth IRA is very easy, but if this is all too much information right now, you could do a lot worse than just throwing 15% in your Traditional 401(k) and dealing with the rest later.

If you're interested in more detailed information about any of this, feel free to ask here, or else I'd highly recommend reading If you can. It's only a few pages, designed for people our age, and talks about why people are recommended what I recommended here.

Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Jan 3, 2021

Quaint Quail Quilt
Jun 19, 2006


Ask me about that time I told people mixing bleach and vinegar is okay
I just wanted to point out that the free life insurance offered by employers or unions, or your credit union or whatever, is free because you sign over the right to them to purchase a big policy on your behalf. The 100k or whatever is a small part of the actual policy amount.

They get more rich off your death, but heck it's still free so wear it out if you want.

jokes
Dec 20, 2012

Uh... Kupo?

I never understood employers' life insurance. Do they take a chunk or something? My wife has a policy and my only experience has been key man insurance for companies, so I figured they were trying to get insurance for losing a valuable worker, but apparently it goes to her beneficiary?

Virginia Slams
Nov 17, 2012

Grumpwagon posted:

I agree with the above posters that more than $100k life insurance isn't necessary, but you know your family situation (and the risky-ness of your job) more than I do. Ultimately that's a personal decision, but saving that money in a retirement fund probably has more actuarial value (i.e. you're more likely to live longer and that money will grow to more than the life insurance payout). If you do decide you want more insurance, make sure to get some term life insurance quotes from elsewhere just to compare. Generally group life insurance (i.e. the kind you get from work) is cheaper, but not always.

As for your 401k, it looks like you have some pretty good options. You didn't list the expense ratios, but as long as they're under 0.5% or so (and hopefully well under), this is a good savings vehicle for you. The fact that they have Vanguard funds bodes well for reasonable expense ratios. You probably have 3 choices to make.

First, you have to decide what kind of bucket you're putting your money in, Roth 401(k) or Traditional 401(k). The difference is, with a Traditional, you're putting money in before it has been taxed. It can grow tax free, but when you make withdrawals, it will be taxed at your income tax rate at that time. With a Roth, it is taxed now, but when you take it out, you don't have to pay taxes. The usual advice is to contribute to a Traditional 401k, and separately (as in, you call Vanguard, this isn't associated with your work HR/payroll) open a Roth IRA with Vanguard to contribute.

After you've decided that, you then need to decide what to hold in your bucket (i.e. what companies or assets to buy with the money you invest). The target retirement fund is a good set it and forget it option. Stick it in the 2055 or 2060 account unless you know something I don't. People talk about diversifying, and that is very important, so why am I just recommending 1 fund? The target retirement plan automatically buys a large diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds appropriate for the risk tolerance of someone your age. So for now, the 2055/2060 accounts are probably something like 90% stocks (invested in a broad based index fund, which means they try to buy some of basically every stock, in proportion to how big they are), and 10% bonds. They will gradually shift to be less risky (i.e. more bonds) as you get older.

After all that, you then have to decide how much to contribute. I'd shoot for at least 15% of your income spread between the 401k and Roth IRA, but if you can do more while you have low expenses, you should. 15% is plenty if you're planning on working until a normal retirement age and you're sure you can keep up that amount as your expenses rise (even without a family, you tend to spend more as you get older, though that is hopefully offset somewhat by growing income). Now's a great time to start saving for retirement, since you have a long time before you need the money, it gives it a long time to grow. Opening up a Roth IRA is very easy, but if this is all too much information right now, you could do a lot worse than just throwing 15% in your Traditional 401(k) and dealing with the rest later.

If you're interested in more detailed information about any of this, feel free to ask here, or else I'd highly recommend reading If you can. It's only a few pages, designed for people our age, and talks about why people are recommended what I recommended here.

Thanks that helps make things a bit clearer for me. Will the tax rates increasing over the next 7 years due to the 2017 tax cuts affect investing in any significant way? Like since taxes will steadily be increasing for that period would it not be more advisable to go Roth 401k vs Traditional at this point? Not to say I have any real foresight on the future but I would assume taxes will likely only go up and not down in the distant future.

If not would it be advisable to contribute maybe 10% towards a Vanguard traditional 401k to try and at least maximize my employers 25% match and 5% into a separate Roth IRA? Also am I locked into these rates or can they be raised or lowered based on my financial needs?

GoGoGadgetChris
Mar 18, 2010

i powder a
granite monument
in a soundless flash

showering the grass
with molten drops of
its gold inlay

sending smoking
chips of stone
skipping into the fog
Employers like to have life insurance policies on their employees not because they have a revenue center of Killing You, but because they will experience financial loss if you croak

It's good for everyone

H110Hawk
Dec 28, 2006

moana posted:

What credit are you talking about?

Credit vs. Deduction I think? I don't fully understand it, I just gave it to my tax person.

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/foreign-tax-credit-how-to-figure-the-credit

moana posted:

Losses don't net against dividends. Foreign tax credit is separate and happens regardless of slicing and dicing. I guess I don't understand how you're calculating the savings.

Also note that if you mess up rebalancing, you can end up losing a lot more than a few hundred dollars of tax savings. I don't like having to worry about rebalancing if I'm away on vacation so meh.

It was obtuse on my part.

For the qualified dividends thing "in comparison to doing everything in target date" which is going to potentially produce unqualified or ordinary income you get to save the spread between your marginal rate and the qualified dividend rate. For a decent number of people that's 24% marginal less 15% qualified = 9% savings. I don't know why FSPSX happened to produce "qualified" dividends, but I was happy it did compared to unqualified or ordinary income. It's a little min-max'y at small uncommon values given most people never get into taxable investing. For my example that's $207 saved.

For tax loss harvesting, if you happen to have it, that's another potential $3000 in ordinary income you get to offset, which at our sample 24% marginal rate is $720 back in your pocket. This year I got insanely lucky and am converting $23k in short term losses into long term capital gains. I have more than $23k in short term capital gains to offset with it, saving me around $3900 in taxes as I understand it. 5% more if I leave it until my income drops to realize the gain (assuming rates and limits don't adjust in the interim.) Plus however California state taxes work.

So it's not pocket change depending on your luck. It does involve a small amount of effort at investing time or annual rebalance time. I'm not advocating people do this more often than quarterly or when they see a huge doom and gloom market news item to double check they can't profit from it. :v:

jokes posted:

I never understood employers' life insurance. Do they take a chunk or something? My wife has a policy and my only experience has been key man insurance for companies, so I figured they were trying to get insurance for losing a valuable worker, but apparently it goes to her beneficiary?

Just a benefit. I get 2x salary if I die. Sounds like a great way to augment my term policy in the event of my untimely demise.

moana
Jun 18, 2005

one of the more intellectual satire communities on the web

H110Hawk posted:

For the qualified dividends thing "in comparison to doing everything in target date" which is going to potentially produce unqualified or ordinary income you get to save the spread between your marginal rate and the qualified dividend rate.
Oh, yeah, sorry, I was talking about the difference between just doing a global equities fund versus a slice and dice by dom/intl, small/mid/large cap, and/or value/growth. I agree, target date funds are not good at all for taxable investing. Mostly due to the bonds in them, but also they spit out more cap gains distributions than a normal VTSAX or something.

quote:

For tax loss harvesting, if you happen to have it, that's another potential $3000 in ordinary income you get to offset, which at our sample 24% marginal rate is $720 back in your pocket. This year I got insanely lucky and am converting $23k in short term losses into long term capital gains. I have more than $23k in short term capital gains to offset with it, saving me around $3900 in taxes as I understand it. 5% more if I leave it until my income drops to realize the gain (assuming rates and limits don't adjust in the interim.) Plus however California state taxes work.
So yeah, be careful here - if you're planning on withdrawing all of your money eventually, that's not $3900 in tax savings, it's $3900 in tax deferral. With tax loss harvesting, you're essentially taking the tax savings of the "loss" now in return for lowering your cost basis by the amount of the "loss", meaning you'll have to pay extra taxes when you sell those shares later. If your tax bracket is lower now (and we're in a pretty historically low tax bracket system), then you'll end up paying more in taxes later. For high earners paying 45%+ in Fed+state, taking losses makes more sense.

For those living off of withdrawals from a taxable portfolio, remember that without any earned income, you can take out investment gains to the tune of $40k/$80k every year in capital gains taxes at a 0% rate. So if you're retiring early, you probably don't have to worry about later tax impact and can take losses now for the tax benefit. If you're going to be retiring at a normal age and expect to have a bunch of Social Security/RMDs kicking in almost right away, your capital gains are going to be taxable at higher rates and tax loss harvesting now makes less sense. We do see quite a few people who retire between 65-70 and end up quickly in a higher tax bracket in retirement than they were during their working careers.

FateFree
Nov 14, 2003

Hello goons, I am planning on opening and superfunding my daughters 529 plan this week. I currently have Vanguard for my Roth IRA and brokerage account, but I heard that Fidelity might be a better choice for the 529 as well as some extra custodial accounts afterwards any time someone gifts her money during birthdays and whatnot. I am in NJ, which apparently has an NJBest 529 plan that I'm not sure is available from Fidelity, however I don't know if there are reasons to use that over the Fidelity national plan. What would be the best thing to do here?

H110Hawk
Dec 28, 2006

moana posted:

So yeah, be careful here - if you're planning on withdrawing all of your money eventually, that's not $3900 in tax savings, it's $3900 in tax deferral. With tax loss harvesting, you're essentially taking the tax savings of the "loss" now in return for lowering your cost basis by the amount of the "loss", meaning you'll have to pay extra taxes when you sell those shares later. If your tax bracket is lower now (and we're in a pretty historically low tax bracket system), then you'll end up paying more in taxes later. For high earners paying 45%+ in Fed+state, taking losses makes more sense.

I believe it's $3900 in savings assuming brackets don't change for me. I had several hundred grand in short term capital gains through employee stock sales. This has me in the top marginal bracket. If the stock market stays flat where it's at, recovered from the pandemic selloff that let me do this TLH, it will allow me to write down $23k in STCG from this year 1:1, then in April of next year it will have been a year, so I could theoretically cash out at LTCG rates. Even at 20% LTCG, compared to 37% Ordinary Income/STCG rates that's a 17% spread for me netting me $3900 in cold hard cash. It's a corner case, but as I understand it this is correct? Plus whatever California does with that money. It's impossible to know.

:guillotine: problems.

moana posted:

For those living off of withdrawals from a taxable portfolio, remember that without any earned income, you can take out investment gains to the tune of $40k/$80k every year in capital gains taxes at a 0% rate. So if you're retiring early, you probably don't have to worry about later tax impact and can take losses now for the tax benefit. If you're going to be retiring at a normal age and expect to have a bunch of Social Security/RMDs kicking in almost right away, your capital gains are going to be taxable at higher rates and tax loss harvesting now makes less sense. We do see quite a few people who retire between 65-70 and end up quickly in a higher tax bracket in retirement than they were during their working careers.

This is one of those funny things for the FIRE crowd. They stop having earned income and wind up on low income subsidy programs and pay $0 in taxes on their $80k in cap gains.

H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Jan 4, 2021

Boot and Rally
Apr 21, 2006

8===D
Nap Ghost

moana posted:

I'm lazy so I'll probably never do itty bitty slice and dice, also my tax bracket isn't high so my tax savings isn't that big. I only have VTSAX/VTIAX with a $500k taxable portfolio. I guess the answer would be "however much effort you want to put into managing your portfolio to eke out some tax savings." Remember you can only use $3k/year of tax loss harvesting against ordinary income anyway, and tax loss harvesting only shifts your tax burden to later, it doesn't mean you never pay taxes on it. If you had a $100M portfolio, it would be pretty important to slice and dice because you might not ever have to pay taxes that way (assuming you're okay with leaving a bunch of money in inheritance instead of spending it all).

But a target date fund is bad for taxable investing because it holds lots of bonds that poop out income, and you don't want income producing stuff in your taxable account because you have to pay tax on that income now. Increase your bond holdings in your IRAs/401ks, and keep only stock index funds in your taxable so that it balances out overall.

Actually this reminds me that everything is in 401k/Roth IRA (tax advantage?) so I don't think I need to worry about it. Is the choice to start slice and dice based on what is in taxable alone or the whole nut?

Grumpwagon
May 6, 2007
I am a giant assfuck who needs to harden the fuck up.

Virginia Slams posted:

Thanks that helps make things a bit clearer for me. Will the tax rates increasing over the next 7 years due to the 2017 tax cuts affect investing in any significant way? Like since taxes will steadily be increasing for that period would it not be more advisable to go Roth 401k vs Traditional at this point? Not to say I have any real foresight on the future but I would assume taxes will likely only go up and not down in the distant future.

If not would it be advisable to contribute maybe 10% towards a Vanguard traditional 401k to try and at least maximize my employers 25% match and 5% into a separate Roth IRA? Also am I locked into these rates or can they be raised or lowered based on my financial needs?

The purpose of having some assets in a traditional and some in a Roth is that you're covered in any case, whether taxes go up or down. In general, this strategy of investing tries to be as unopinionated as possible, giving up some theoretical gains if you guess right, but saving some theoretical losses if you guess wrong.

I like your 10%/5% split idea, that seems about right to me. The rates can be raised or lowered as many times as you want at any time, completely independently of each other.

smackfu
Jun 7, 2004

On the employer life insurance topic, worth mentioning that if you go high enough of a salary multiple, they will often require a physical just like “real” life insurance.

KYOON GRIFFEY JR
Apr 12, 2010



Runner-up, TRP Sack Race 2021/22

smackfu posted:

On the employer life insurance topic, worth mentioning that if you go high enough of a salary multiple, they will often require a physical just like “real” life insurance.

Ours requires a physical even for just the base policy that is offered "for free" which I believe is 2x salary.

Gazpacho
Jun 18, 2004

by Fluffdaddy
Slippery Tilde
The relevant tax comparison is not the rate today on your income today vs. the rate in retirement on your income today, but vs. the rate in retirement on your income in retirement. And your income in retirement will be under your control to the extent that it comes from distribution of savings.

I happen to believe that tax rates cannot remain as low as they are indefinitely, but how and when they will go up is anyone's guess. Some circumstances can make the comparison a bit clearer, such as residing in a state with a high income tax while expecting to retire elsewhere.

jokes
Dec 20, 2012

Uh... Kupo?

Buddhism teaches us to avoid unknowable questions. The past and the future are unimportant when simply trying to liberate oneself from the suffering of the present.

To that end, you'll never know what the future tax rate is and it's an unimportant question to ask. It could be 99% or 1%, we have no idea. You should ask, today, what makes sense for your retirement planning. Don't bet everything on the tax rate being lower in the future, and only partially defer your taxes for retirement so that you're fine either way.

Buddha would highly recommend diversification not just of investment, but of account types too. That being said, someone will be correct in guessing future taxes and will truly believe they are special.

Shrimpy
May 18, 2004

Sir, I'm going to need to see your ticket.
For mutual funds, if I buy in mid-day, am I buying in at that day's open price or the eventual close price?

Guinness
Sep 15, 2004

Shrimpy posted:

For mutual funds, if I buy in mid-day, am I buying in at that day's open price or the eventual close price?

Mutual funds always transact at the end of day NAV.

It's one of the subtle differences between MFs and ETFs, since ETFs trade intraday the same as any other ordinary stock/equity.

Mu Zeta
Oct 17, 2002

Me crush ass to dust

Maybe Buddha wouldn't have starved so much if he had diversified his holdings

Virginia Slams
Nov 17, 2012

Virginia Slams posted:


If not would it be advisable to contribute maybe 10% towards a Vanguard traditional 401k to try and at least maximize my employers 25% match and 5% into a separate Roth IRA? Also am I locked into these rates or can they be raised or lowered based on my financial needs?

So I spoke with my HR today and turns out my companies "25% match up to $400" is not per pay period or month it is per year they just worded it in a very poor way. Am I right in assuming that's a well below average match? They also did not know the expense ratios and told me to call Vanguard directly to find out. I was originally going to go with the plan in the quote but would it be more advisable to change that now that I know I'm barely getting a match at all?

obi_ant
Apr 8, 2005

Virginia Slams posted:

So I spoke with my HR today and turns out my companies "25% match up to $400" is not per pay period or month it is per year they just worded it in a very poor way. Am I right in assuming that's a well below average match? They also did not know the expense ratios and told me to call Vanguard directly to find out. I was originally going to go with the plan in the quote but would it be more advisable to change that now that I know I'm barely getting a match at all?

If you max out your 401k ($19,500), it seems that your company does a total match of 2.05%. It's not great, but it's still free money at the end of the day and not a reason to *not* invest into your 401k. I would also ask if they have a vesting period, I started a new job not too long ago and found out my vesting period was 5 or 6 years, something stupidly long.

You also do not need to call Vanguard to find the ER, just type the fund into their search.

For example: Their Vanguard Target Retirement 2050 Fund (VFIFX) has an ER of 0.15%.

Edit: To answer your other question, most people typically suggest the following if you're wondering about next steps...

1. Emergency fund
2. 401k to company match
3. Pay off debt
4. Max Roth IRA
5. Max company 401K

obi_ant fucked around with this message at 23:35 on Jan 4, 2021

H110Hawk
Dec 28, 2006

Virginia Slams posted:

So I spoke with my HR today and turns out my companies "25% match up to $400" is not per pay period or month it is per year they just worded it in a very poor way. Am I right in assuming that's a well below average match? They also did not know the expense ratios and told me to call Vanguard directly to find out. I was originally going to go with the plan in the quote but would it be more advisable to change that now that I know I'm barely getting a match at all?

It's low but it's $400 you didn't have before so you should do it.

Space Gopher
Jul 31, 2006

BLITHERING IDIOT AND HARDCORE DURIAN APOLOGIST. LET ME TELL YOU WHY THIS SHIT DON'T STINK EVEN THOUGH WE ALL KNOW IT DOES BECAUSE I'M SUPER CULTURED.

obi_ant posted:

If you max out your 401k ($19,500), it seems that your company does a total match of 2.05%.

Match is typically expressed as a percentage of salary, not a percentage of the amount contributed to the 401(k).

With $60,000/year pay, a $400/year match is 0.67%. It's pathetically low, although people are right that you might as well do it if it's money you wouldn't otherwise have.

Grumpwagon
May 6, 2007
I am a giant assfuck who needs to harden the fuck up.

obi_ant posted:

You also do not need to call Vanguard to find the ER, just type the fund into their search.

For example: Their Vanguard Target Retirement 2050 Fund (VFIFX) has an ER of 0.15%.

ERs for funds can be different inside a 401(k). Still, Vanguard wouldn't know this either, it would be the administrator of the 401(k), not the administrator of the fund.

Guinness
Sep 15, 2004

Unless your 401k plan is horrifically lovely (and some are), you should probably still contribute to it regardless of matching. It is a large amount of tax-advantaged space.

There's a reason the canonical PF flow chart goes 401k up to match -> IRA up to max -> 401k up to max.

If you've got Vanguard funds in your 401k that's a decent indicator that your 401k is probably, at worst, "fine". They probably tack on some admin fees to Vanguards base fund fees, but even then it is hopefully still an effective ER < 0.25 on most funds which is not terrible. You should be able to find these amounts in your plan documents somewhere, probably online, but your plan administrator can provide it to you.

If you have Vanguard funds at cost, you have a very good 401k and should be putting as much as you can afford into it.

Guinness fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Jan 5, 2021

moana
Jun 18, 2005

one of the more intellectual satire communities on the web

H110Hawk posted:

I had several hundred grand in short term capital gains through employee stock sales. This has me in the top marginal bracket. .... It's a corner case, but as I understand it this is correct?
:toot: holy moly, corner case indeed. Congrats on the stock, that's awesome, and condolences on being first up against the wall when the revolution happens. California taxes all capital gains as ordinary income btw, it's pretty simple and expensive if you have a lot of capital gains.

quote:

This is one of those funny things for the FIRE crowd. They stop having earned income and wind up on low income subsidy programs and pay $0 in taxes on their $80k in cap gains.
0% capital gains bracket is the dumbest IRS rule ever, apart from the Masters exception that the Georgia wealthies pushed through so they could rent their houses out tax free for two weeks during their stupid golf tournament.

Residency Evil
Jul 28, 2003

4/5 godo... Schumi

moana posted:

apart from the Masters exception that the Georgia wealthies pushed through so they could rent their houses out tax free for two weeks during their stupid golf tournament.

hahaha I was not aware of this.

obi_ant
Apr 8, 2005

Grumpwagon posted:

ERs for funds can be different inside a 401(k). Still, Vanguard wouldn't know this either, it would be the administrator of the 401(k), not the administrator of the fund.

Is that right? I assume this is because different companies can cut different deals with different funds? All the jobs I have just link directly to the Vanguard page or whatever company's funds is available.

TeMpLaR
Jan 13, 2001

"Not A Crook"
How rare is it for a job to offer the mega backdoor roth option?

H110Hawk
Dec 28, 2006

TeMpLaR posted:

How rare is it for a job to offer the mega backdoor roth option?

It's rare to uncommon but becoming more common as fidelity has rolled it into their standard plan. I have it.

moana posted:

:toot: holy moly, corner case indeed. Congrats on the stock, that's awesome, and condolences on being first up against the wall when the revolution happens.

Thanks, and how dare you I specifically said :guillotine: - I expect a good old fashioned reign of terror, none of this lazy line em up and shoot em/hang em bs.

H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 03:44 on Jan 5, 2021

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zaurg
Mar 1, 2004
Why VTSAX + VTIAX mix instead of just VTWAX?

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