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dexter6 posted:I just accepted a new job and learned that the life insurance offered by my employer is whole life. If the boss's racquetball partner's insurance business needed some extra revenue then the boss is milking the company for their personal benefit and there won't be much money left over for bonuses. If the boss selected whole life insurance for the company after talking to a salesperson and without consulting anyone else then you may come in one day and discover the company has been traded for some magic beans. (Edited to add quote.)
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Oct 25, 2021 20:25
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Groly posted:If the boss's racquetball partner's insurance business needed some extra revenue then the boss is milking the company for their personal benefit and there won't be much money left over for bonuses.
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Oct 26, 2021 04:54
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How do I Bonds compare to something like a total bond fund? I bought some this year, and have been viewing them as more of a cash-like emergency fund (once I get past the one year mark). However, does it make sense to buy more next year and replace some of the bond portion of my portfolio with them?
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Oct 26, 2021 18:31
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drainpipe posted:How do I Bonds compare to something like a total bond fund? I bought some this year, and have been viewing them as more of a cash-like emergency fund (once I get past the one year mark). However, does it make sense to buy more next year and replace some of the bond portion of my portfolio with them? They are very different things. A total bond fund (probably, depending on the exact total bond fund you pick) has a mix of durations and qualities, and will likely have a lot more volatility in terms of total return. It likely makes sense to consider both as part of the fixed-income portion of your asset allocation.
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Oct 26, 2021 18:37
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drainpipe posted:How do I Bonds compare to something like a total bond fund? I bought some this year, and have been viewing them as more of a cash-like emergency fund (once I get past the one year mark). However, does it make sense to buy more next year and replace some of the bond portion of my portfolio with them? It gives me some piece of mind to have a good chunk of money that isn't coupled to the market in case I find a house I want to buy or need to gently caress off for a year to take care of a dying loved one. That said, bond funds behave different than actually owning bonds, so I wouldn't consider it an exact replacement.
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Oct 26, 2021 18:54
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I-bonds can’t lose you nominal dollars. Total bond funds sure as heck can.quote:Can the value of my I bonds ever be less than I paid?
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Oct 26, 2021 18:55
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drainpipe posted:How do I Bonds compare to something like a total bond fund? I bought some this year, and have been viewing them as more of a cash-like emergency fund (once I get past the one year mark). However, does it make sense to buy more next year and replace some of the bond portion of my portfolio with them? I-Bonds are pretty much the best deal for bonds (since a 0% real rate is actually attractive these days, and it's tax deferred, and no risk to principal), but their limitations make it difficult to use in a portfolio. For their role in a portfolio, and comparing to total bond fund, I would do this: - If your asset allocation can tolerate a semi-permanent position in I-Bonds (i.e. you have enough other bonds to rebalance into and out of stocks), start allocating some there. - Use it as part of your emergency fund, but know you have to leave it in there for the first year. But if you decide to allocate some I-Bonds as part of your portfolio, pretty quickly you can use those as emergency fund and direct new money to I-Bonds. (i.e. mentally account the e-fund vs portfolio swap). - Use total bond market (or similar intermediate/short term bond index fund) for the substantial bulk of your bond allocation. You'll generally want to, at any point, be able to rebalance a substantial amount out of it and into declining stocks. Don't worry about volatility of high quality bond index funds, as they are used as a diversifier in your portfolio.
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Oct 26, 2021 19:35
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Thanks everyone! I didn't think about the fact that I Bonds are bad in terms of rebalancing, which is a pretty big aspect of setting an asset allocation. I'll take care to not get too I Bond heavy in the fixed income portion of my portfolio.
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Oct 26, 2021 20:31
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drainpipe posted:Thanks everyone! I didn't think about the fact that I Bonds are bad in terms of rebalancing, which is a pretty big aspect of setting an asset allocation. I'll take care to not get too I Bond heavy in the fixed income portion of my portfolio. You can still sell an I-Bond and buy equities with it... but you'll always be stuck with the hassle and the location problem... (you can't have I-Bonds in your 401k or IRA where you likely want to rebalance). I like to just keep it as a semi-permanent portion of my fixed income.
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Oct 26, 2021 20:45
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Can someone add to the OP Vanguard customer service has gone in the shitter and to reconsider opening with them. I have been trying to reach a CS rep for 1hr and this is not the first time I have gone through this experience. Their form they want you fill out to transfer/rollover money out does not work. I have wasted hours of my life to try to talk to a human being to get my rollover check sent to Lincoln. I did mess the first check up and had to put a stop payment on it, but had to do my own investigation that took 3 hours to find my check. They really do not deserve your business when you can get their ETFs outside of their brokerage. I'm going to open with Fidelity as I can probably rollover to Fidelity to rollover to Lincoln faster than I can get someone on the phone. Every time I call them now I go into a rage. It's not worth it. cheese eats mouse fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Oct 26, 2021 |
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Oct 26, 2021 23:10
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cheese eats mouse posted:Can someone add to the OP Vanguard customer service has gone in the shitter and to reconsider opening with them. I have been trying to reach a CS rep for 1hr and this is not the first time I have gone through this experience. Their form they want you fill out to transfer/rollover money out does not work. I've spoken to Vanguard at least 3 times in the last month (new job, rollovers, etc) and never waiting more than a few minutes and got people who knew what they were doing and solved the issue I called in with correctly the first time. cheese eats mouse posted:I'm going to open with Fidelity I've also talked to Fidelity even more (new employer plan) and received the same excellent treatment. Just another data point.
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Oct 27, 2021 00:11
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Whats a good way to track net worth when the various aggregators don't work? Does anyone have a laboriously constructed spreadsheet? Mint and Personal Capital both fail to import both of my 401k accounts. Personal Capital support for their free offering is, unsurprisingly, absolutely terrible.
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Oct 27, 2021 00:39
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Happiness Commando posted:Whats a good way to track net worth when the various aggregators don't work? Does anyone have a laboriously constructed spreadsheet? Happiness Commando posted:Whats a good way to track net worth when the various aggregators don't work? Does anyone have a laboriously constructed spreadsheet? Spreadsheet is probably the answer if you really want to do it. But I guess there's a question of "why do you want to track that particular number, and how frequently do you want to track it?" If it's like, yearly or quarterly, PC + manually looking up your 401k balance(s) is probably good? If it's more frequently than that, then uhh...why do you need to see that number more frequently than once a quarter? Separate notes, I've experienced fantastic customer service from Fidelity. Very good from Schwab (but fewer occurrences). Serviceable from Vanguard (only like twice, a few years back).
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Oct 27, 2021 01:00
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Mint won't sync my 401k and I just keep a manual asset that I periodically update to ballpark it. Same with my mortgage balance. Re: Vanguard customer service, I've only had to interact with them like twice ever in the past 10 years. They were fine. My wife had some difficulty with rolling over a 403b into Vanguard, but that seemed to be some other Vanguard-affiliated-but-not-actually-Vanguard organization because it's employer linked, I don't know. It was also because her previous custodian was terrible. Fidelity is also good, maybe better. They were easy to deal with when I rolled over a 401k. If I were opening accounts for the first time today I might consider Fidelity over Vanguard but they're all fine and I mostly never deal with humans at any of them. Guinness fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Oct 27, 2021 |
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Oct 27, 2021 01:17
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cheese eats mouse posted:Can someone add to the OP Vanguard customer service has gone in the shitter and to reconsider opening with them. I have been trying to reach a CS rep for 1hr and this is not the first time I have gone through this experience. Their form they want you fill out to transfer/rollover money out does not work. I've never understood why someone would want to roll money into an employer based retirement account. Its obviously too late now, but I dont know why you wouldnt just manage the money as an IRA.
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Oct 27, 2021 01:24
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I have a spreadsheet for mine but it's definitely not fancy. I update it at the end of the month, doesn't take long to log into the various sites.
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Oct 27, 2021 01:24
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drk posted:I've never understood why someone would want to roll money into an employer based retirement account. Its obviously too late now, but I dont know why you wouldnt just manage the money as an IRA. Rolling a (trad) 401k into an IRA runs you into the pro rata rule for backdoor Roth IRA contributions, effectively preventing you from doing it. That's why I rolled my old 401k into my new 401k instead of an IRA.
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Oct 27, 2021 01:24
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I have a similar issue, although not for checking Big Number constantly. I was using Personal Capital to track all my transactions in one place so I could balance the budget and square up on shared expenses with my partner each month. But it has stopped tracking like half of my cards and bank accounts. The progress wheel just spins for-loving-ever and pressing the button to refresh the accounts of the duck banks does literally nothing except make the prompt vanish (and one point this actually attempted a re-authenticate, but no longer). I refuse to feed the monster that is Intuit by using Mint, so are there any other transaction aggregators with talking about? Unsinkabear fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Oct 27, 2021 |
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Oct 27, 2021 01:39
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I've previously been intrigued by https://lunchmoney.app/ but it's $100/yr so I've never taken the dive. If it works really well it could be worth it, though.
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Oct 27, 2021 01:41
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drk posted:I've never understood why someone would want to roll money into an employer based retirement account. Its obviously too late now, but I dont know why you wouldnt just manage the money as an IRA. Because some of us have Good Problems, which makes a traditional IRA balance a pain to deal with when we want/need to do backdoor roth contributions (which may be going away anyway).
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Oct 27, 2021 01:43
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Motronic posted:Because some of us have Good Problems, which makes a traditional IRA balance a pain to deal with when we want/need to do backdoor roth contributions (which may be going away anyway). This. I’m at a weird point where I might make too much for a Roth and want to backdoor. A vanguard rep told me to roll it into my 401k. Unless he’s also huffing farts? I just need some way to get my traditional to 0 so I can backdoor this year. This has been such a pain in the rear end I’m about to just convert it to my Roth and pay any taxes out of pocket. I don’t know when you call or the number you call but I’ve never not had to wait this year. Yelp reviews also agree with me. cheese eats mouse fucked around with this message at 03:51 on Oct 27, 2021 |
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Oct 27, 2021 03:48
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I'm considering accelerating my mortgage payoff to be done in the next 1 to 3 years (I have 14+ left after a recent refi to 3.25%). I expect to be able to stop working in the next 5ish years, and want to be fully debt-free at that point. Looking at a few options: A) Just make extra monthly payments to get to like 1/36 current balance (or, more likely, extra quarterly payments of about 1/12 current balance). B) Shove all my extra disposable income at the mortgage and pay it off in 12-15 months (vs. shoving into a broad US equity market index fund which is where it would normally go). I expect the opportunity cost here would require working an extra quarter or so vs. method A, assuming something like 7ish% equity returns. C) Move my taxable brokerage money over to Interactive Brokers (ACATS, so I don't have to worry about capital gains), margin myself up at a variable rate of something like 1.08% or a little bit more (today), pay off the mortgage now, and then do method B paying down the margin loan. Apply for a HELOC as a backup. I'd expect to save a fair amount on interest unless rates skyrocket very quickly. I don't expect to itemize, so don't think tax considerations matter here. If I would only have to margin up like 1% of my portfolio, C is a no-brainer. If I would have to margin up like 95% of my portfolio, then C looks extremely risky for not much upside. The absolute worst case seems like "market crash, interest rates jump, lose job and so HELOC denied" all in the span of like a week, but even with a sizeable crash I should be in pretty decent shape for x years. I'm trying to be convinced that I shouldn't do C because I think I want to do C. What am I missing?
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Oct 27, 2021 04:46
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A mortgage locked in at today's historically low rates is some of the cheapest and safest leverage you'll ever get. Why are you so interested in paying it off early and then levering up with more risky methods?
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Oct 27, 2021 04:58
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There’s a major psychological connection that people have with owned land, debt, and their home. Some people like to see a lot of cash in a bank to do so even though it’s just not financially reasonable, but that psychological confidence and security and surety is valuable for their day-to-day life. But financially you are better off getting a super low interest rate on your house and not paying it off early if you invest those bucks correctly. Student loans are the same predicament but they have higher interest rates and less preferable lending arrangements.
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Oct 27, 2021 05:05
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jokes posted:There’s a major psychological connection that people have with owned land, debt, and their home. Some people like to see a lot of cash in a bank to do so even though it’s just not financially reasonable, but that psychological confidence and security and surety is valuable for their day-to-day life. For sure I understand that psychological aspect, and it isn't always (nor does it have to be) rational. Everyone has different risk profiles, and I can understand the cash flow aspect when not working. But to throw a bunch of money at a fixed mortgage at historically low rates, greatly reducing liquidity, to only turn around and borrow against it again via a HELOC and/or invest on margin with far less favorable terms seems wild to me. It's increasing risk instead of decreasing it. If I were on the hunt for cheap leverage I'd be looking to refi that 15 year into a 30 year while still employed and lock in a low 3.x% rate before rates rise, as they are already slowly starting to. Guinness fucked around with this message at 06:04 on Oct 27, 2021 |
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Oct 27, 2021 06:02
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Guinness posted:A mortgage locked in at today's historically low rates is some of the cheapest and safest leverage you'll ever get. Why are you so interested in paying it off early and then levering up with more risky methods? I'm interested in paying it off pre-retirement to decrease sequence of return risk - https://earlyretirementnow.com/2017/10/11/the-ultimate-guide-to-safe-withdrawal-rates-part-21-mortgage-in-retirement/ - basic idea is that since mortgages are like negative bonds, it doesn't make sense to hold those plus bonds in a given portfolio, and my post-retirement asset allocation will include a bond portion. So I'm set on an accelerated timeline, now I'm trying to decide on the best path given an accelerated timeline. Since I have the mortgage I'm already leveraged, though that is indeed safer leverage vs a margin loan. The decision is "Am I willing to accept $x,000 over the next year to increase the riskiness of my leverage?" Right now, x is sounding high enough to me.
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Oct 27, 2021 15:05
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Your primary residence is not something I'd treat as part of your portfolio. Mostly because you LIVE THERE. Also, because it's difficult and expensive to liquidate even if you didn't live there. And the less liquid you are the bigger an albatross that house might be if the right things go wrong.
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Oct 27, 2021 16:00
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I think any advice regarding mortgages should take into account whether or not the person lives in a non-recourse state.
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Oct 27, 2021 19:28
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CopperHound posted:I think any advice regarding mortgages should take into account whether or not the person lives in a non-recourse state. How exactly would that influence the way you buy or mortgage a primary residence?
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Oct 27, 2021 19:38
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Not an expert on the options, but I feel like if you care enough about owning the place you live to have invested in that over renting, you should follow that through and minimize the risk of losing that security. Especially if you're planning to stop working soon. I don't know how much you have squirreled away, but imminent retirement is the point at which I would start reducing risk, not adding it. 
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Oct 27, 2021 19:42
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Are you saying that you think paying off a mortgage provides more security? Because to me what it does is reduce liquidity and investment capital. At some point with enough savings this doesn't matter. But for many/most it probably has a fairly significant impact. Reducing liquidity and earning less seems like a much bigger problem in an undetermined-length retirement than having a paid off house (which you potentially can't afford to maintain, pay taxes on, etc) for most people. Sometimes you situation has to change, and liquidity is always going to give you the most flexibility if and when that occurs.
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Oct 27, 2021 19:48
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Unsinkabear posted:...but imminent retirement is the point at which I would start reducing risk, not adding it... Guinness posted:...greatly reducing liquidity... Motronic posted:...expensive to liquidate...if the right things go wrong. Motronic posted:...and liquidity is always going to give you the most flexibility if and when that occurs... Thanks for knocking some sense into me. Reducing options and adding in small chances of really bad things happening seems silly when I've basically won. If anything, I should be hedging away tail risk rather than increasing it.
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Oct 28, 2021 03:09
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I opened a Roth IRA earlier this year with the back door thing from a traditional IRA. I'm assuming that to continue contributing to it that I need to do the back door thing again correct? Is there a limit on how many times you can do that or can I just toss money in and move it whenever?
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Oct 28, 2021 19:11
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If I start a job with a 5% 401k match in the last two pay periods of December, and set my 401k contribution to 100% of my pay... Would that mean I could collect most of the year's match before the end of the year?
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Oct 28, 2021 19:24
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lwoodio posted:set my 401k contribution to 100% of my pay... It's unlikely you can do that. I started a new position a month ago and was able to set the max to 75%. I've done that, and after the first two paychecks they still haven't started deducting for my 401(k), which is typical in my experience. Should happen on the next pay period. But yeah, you have the right idea, the details just depend on the plan itself. Especially how much match you may be able to get. It should all be in the plan documents.
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Oct 28, 2021 19:29
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lwoodio posted:If I start a job with a 5% 401k match in the last two pay periods of December, and set my 401k contribution to 100% of my pay... Would that mean I could collect most of the year's match before the end of the year? As Motronic said, it's probably unlikely. Many plans limit the amount you can contribute per month to prevent things like this (ie: save them money). Should be in the plan documents somewhere.
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Oct 28, 2021 19:56
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Iwoodio, just ask your benefits administrator. I know I can contribute up to 100% of eligible pay to my 401k up to my contribution limit, and the company match is applied on a per pay period basis. If I didn't contribute anything for the first half of the year, I'll never be able to recover that match even if I doubled contributions each pay period for the second half, as those are capped at the match %.
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Oct 28, 2021 21:53
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Magicaljesus posted:Iwoodio, just ask your benefits administrator. I know I can contribute up to 100% of eligible pay to my 401k up to my contribution limit, and the company match is applied on a per pay period basis. If I didn't contribute anything for the first half of the year, I'll never be able to recover that match even if I doubled contributions each pay period for the second half, as those are capped at the match %. Yup just have to ask. We get trued up so we don't miss out. But you can't get a whole years match if you only work 1 month. Almost like no plans are alike and coupling them with your job is dumb....
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Oct 28, 2021 21:59
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lwoodio posted:If I start a job with a 5% 401k match in the last two pay periods of December, and set my 401k contribution to 100% of my pay... Would that mean I could collect most of the year's match before the end of the year? One key term you'll be looking for is "true up." Some companies don't, some do but not for many months into the following year.
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Oct 28, 2021 22:00
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Also beware of contributing 100% even if your company allows it, because some people have horror stories of doing that and then losing their benefits. It shouldn’t happen, but it’s probably worth double-checking.
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Oct 28, 2021 22:05
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