I guess there are a lot of different ways but depending on how much you currently have at Vanguard you might be able to do it there without fees. Hopefully someone else will reply with more options besides Vanguard; this is the only way I know.
I can give more detailed guidance if you want to do it thru Vanguard this way; just tag or quote me if so.
Thank you! I will take a look at this when I have a bit more time. I appreciate it!
Sure. I did think of another super easy option, which is a site called Stockpile. It's made to help people just buy stock, easily, and lets you buy partial shares. I don't know that I'd recommend it, but it's easy!
Can I still file a claim with my dental insurance for a service that was almost a year ago? I think it was March 2020.
Should I do that thing where you lock your credit or something, I don’t even really know what it’s called. You put a lock on it so it’s harder for someone to open an account in your name?
Yes, most have a 12 month limit.
You can freeze your credit. We did that with DH when we were refinancing and he had an identity theft/fraud issue from a visa rebate card. You can unfreeze them if you need to easily. The only issue is, we had to do each one separate, so 3 login/passwords.
Does vanguard have like a one-time advisor option? Like for $100 you get a hour with someone to tell you what you need to do with your money? I don't have enough in there for an actual advisor, but I would maybe just like to check-in with someone this year.
So do you know how to do it, exactly? (Or anyone else on here?) Do I go to each credit company's website? Thanks.
another question, I think I know the answer but I'll ask anyway. Does it make sense to refinance our mortgage if we plan on moving soon? I don't know how soon is soon, but we know this will not be our long-term home. Ideally we'd move tomorrow if we could, but we need to do a lot of work on our current house before we can list it. By quick calculations we could save $200-300 monthly with a re-fi.
I'd check out a refinance calculator to see what your break even point is. You'll pay some amount of fees for the refi, so the breakeven point will tell you how many years you have to stay in the house to recoup the fees with the monthly payment savings. For our recent refi, the breakeven was around 2 years. So for us, as long as we plan to be in this house more than 2 years, it was worth it.
I think this is the one I used, but there are a bunch if you google.
Would you contribute to a 529 if your spouse worked for a university that (currently) offers full tuition waiver for children and a generous tuition exchange with many other universities? We are 35, have 3x salary saved in retirement accounts, and have 3 kids ages 8 and under. We've had significant daycare payments for years that didn't allow much college savings but they've come to a halt due to COVID and we're trying to figure out the best way to allocate those funds instead of leaving them in savings doing nothing. If it plays into your decision, assume that neither you nor your spouse are currently maxing retirement contributions.
I'd do some because tuition isn't the only college expense you can withdraw from. My mom worked at the university my sisters and I attended and we all qualified for half tuition waivers. I also got a full tuition scholarship and was still able to pull money from my 529 for living expenses.
mirabelle my DH is a big fan of investing in crypto (he's a US stock investor for work). He sees it as a hedge against governments just printing money. He had an enormous paper loss over the past week. It's definitely volatile enough that I wouldn't put money you really need into it. But it could be a diversifying asset in a larger portfolio.
k3am personally I prefer to keep more money in cash/other investments given how low interest rates on loans are right now. If the lender is super annoying you could always get a low-interest loan from a lender you like to pay it off?
I have some money sitting in savings from selling a house - maybe $75k. Should I be putting some in retirement? I save about 20% per month including pension, 403b, Roth IRA. Since I only have a Roth, would I need to open a regular IRA to dump some money in?
Should we sell some of our Tesla stock? H wants to sell, I want to keep all of it. We have 21 shares.
That’s tricky to answer without knowing more information. Is that a small or large percentage of your portfolio? How is the rest of your portfolio positioned? Etc.
I would probably compromise and sell half if both parties feel very strongly.
I have some money sitting in savings from selling a house - maybe $75k. Should I be putting some in retirement? I save about 20% per month including pension, 403b, Roth IRA. Since I only have a Roth, would I need to open a regular IRA to dump some money in?
First, is your emergency fund fully funded?
Second, is there any high interest debt you should pay off?
Are you roughly on track or behind on retirement given your age? That would determine whether I’d add a lump sum to retirement accounts or consider non-retirement investing instead.
another question, I think I know the answer but I'll ask anyway. Does it make sense to refinance our mortgage if we plan on moving soon? I don't know how soon is soon, but we know this will not be our long-term home. Ideally we'd move tomorrow if we could, but we need to do a lot of work on our current house before we can list it. By quick calculations we could save $200-300 monthly with a re-fi.
I'd check out a refinance calculator to see what your break even point is. You'll pay some amount of fees for the refi, so the breakeven point will tell you how many years you have to stay in the house to recoup the fees with the monthly payment savings. For our recent refi, the breakeven was around 2 years. So for us, as long as we plan to be in this house more than 2 years, it was worth it.
I think this is the one I used, but there are a bunch if you google.
Thanks! I had a feeling it wouldn’t be worth it but the break even calculator said we’d have to stay here for 5 years! That’s seems like a lot of fees but definitely made me feel better about not doing it.
Can I still file a claim with my dental insurance for a service that was almost a year ago? I think it was March 2020.
Should I do that thing where you lock your credit or something, I don’t even really know what it’s called. You put a lock on it so it’s harder for someone to open an account in your name?
It depends on what your dental plan’s certificate says. There will be a section in it on the timeliness of filing claims. As long as you’re before the end of the claim period you’ll be fine.
We're trying out a HDHP this year, whereas we've typically gone with a traditional PPO.
How does it work when we go to our appointments? Do we pay in full then? Get a bill later? The subscriber and group numbers on our cards haven't changed, which is interesting to me.
My H forgot to change the insurance on file with his PCP and went in for an appointment and blood draw, and when he called a week later to update the insurance on file, the receptionist didn't seem to understand what he meant when he said we now have the HDHP. He's freaking out (not sure why), and I told him I don't see the big deal and am happy to wait for a bill, which we can then pay with our HSA account (we have those cards).
Am I out in left field?
Definitely pay after. You still have insurance so your provider needs to bill your carrier.
You’ll then get the “pre-negotiated insurance rate” for the service and will pay the difference.
I have an HDHP and went to the local clinical for shingles. Visit was $109, but my responsibility was close to $70 because I have coverage.
I am a nerd and planner at heart and love to play around with different financial calculators. Anyone know where I can find the following or if they even exist?
1. A Retirement calculator that takes down shifting into account - I would love to go part time around 60 but don’t know how to model that other than possibly adding two separate scenarios together.
2. A mortgage payoff spreadsheet that can both track variable extra payments and update the estimated payoff date.
I have some money sitting in savings from selling a house - maybe $75k. Should I be putting some in retirement? I save about 20% per month including pension, 403b, Roth IRA. Since I only have a Roth, would I need to open a regular IRA to dump some money in?
First, is your emergency fund fully funded?
Second, is there any high interest debt you should pay off?
Are you roughly on track or behind on retirement given your age? That would determine whether I’d add a lump sum to retirement accounts or consider non-retirement investing instead.
After funding a very generous e-fund, I’d have $65k left, no debt, I need to look at a calculator, but I’ve saved 17-20% since I was 25ish (now 36) so I think I’m ok.
ohgillian, my credit is frozen as a precaution after one of my cards was compromised last Christmas. It’s an easy process, although I seem to remember having to search for it a little more on one of the big three sites. I needed to temporarily unfreeze them for a refinance this summer and I was able to do all three in under 10 minutes.
k3am I chose not to escrow when I refinanced this year and plan on paying sooner rather than later for no other reason than it will say Payment Due and I am a rule follower.
rooster222 I considered combining my HE and mortgage loans when I refinanced and used a mortgage spreadsheet to model different scenarios and combinations. The dollar and time difference wasn’t significantly different, but in the end I decided I wanted to pay off the HE as a short term loan rather than rolling it into my mortgage if that makes sense.
I am a nerd and planner at heart and love to play around with different financial calculators. Anyone know where I can find the following or if they even exist?
1. A Retirement calculator that takes down shifting into account - I would love to go part time around 60 but don’t know how to model that other than possibly adding two separate scenarios together.
2. A mortgage payoff spreadsheet that can both track variable extra payments and update the estimated payoff date.
And then I customized it a bit to show how much interest I've saved over time with extra payments, and how many months I've saved with extra payments, etc. Happy to email you my version if you want to PM me your email address. But I started with the one I linked.
Do you consider pensions in your retirement numbers?
DH has a 401K with 50% match that he contributes 15% to and is fully vested (working on raising this as soon as we have income again).
He also has a pension in which he is fully vested. The payout is a complicated formula but the last time we met with a FA they estimated his monthly payment to be about $2,000 if his salary never goes up from his current salary (I hope that makes sense). If he dies, I get 50% of what he would have collected.
I have an IRA that we contribute to but it’s balance is nowhere near as much as DH’s accounts. I have been a stay at home mom for 10 years and have no income of my own.
Should we base our retirement planning without the pension? We can see an FA 2X/year for free through DH’s employee and the one that we have seen uses the pension when determining our income in retirement and how much more we need to save.
But now I am wondering if we should plan without it just in case for some reason it’s not there when he retires? He is 44 and the earliest he can retire is 65 to get full pension payment. He will likely work longer than that though as long as he continues to enjoy it.
Sorry that was long and thank you!
We absolutely figure our pensions in. DH and I will both receive the same state pensions, which is in better shape than the vast majority of states. DH can retire in as little as 10 years and I am eligible to retire in about 16 years so we feel comfortable enough figuring them into our retirement calculations. It really depends on comfort level and how healthy the pension system is though.
Post by sandandsea on Jan 14, 2021 10:33:41 GMT -5
We dont include pensions in retirement since it could go away, isn’t significant in our case, and doesn’t move our needle.
We pay property taxes by the due dater before. We don’t go to the late by date. We actually paid the Feb installment in December/January just because I didn’t want to forget. Moving it to December can have tax consequences though, good or bad. Also interest rates are low now so having it longer in savings doesn’t really help us.
Re medical, my mom always asks for the cash rate and the insurance rate and will pay for things out of pocket if it’s a lower overall rate. This is often true with the pharmacy.
We also have a credit lock after Dh had his ID stolen about 10 years ago. We forgot when we bought a new car last year so it was a bit of a hiccup but it got worked out.
I would also pay off the car now k3am. They sound super annoying and savings interest rates are nothing so you aren’t leveraging. My parents got mad at their bank and paid off the last of their mortgage out of spite because the bank was so annoying. They were getting close anyway but the straw broke the camels back.
After funding a very generous e-fund, I’d have $65k left, no debt, I need to look at a calculator, but I’ve saved 17-20% since I was 25ish (now 36) so I think I’m ok.
Nice! Given that, I would probably invest the rest in a non-retirement portfolio.
How time intensive is the process to roll multiple 401ks together?
I have two 401ks from my old company (one from when I was a union employee, and one from when I was non-union) and I haven't worked there in over four years. I wasn't worrying about doing anything with it because at the time my returns were better on that plan versus with my current company. But in 2020 this changed and now my current company's 401k is outperforming the old ones. I'd love to roll all of mine together and all of H's together (he changed jobs in 2019) so we have fewer accounts and log-ins to worry about. I just haven't taken the time to do it yet!
How do Roth 401k and Roth IRA differ? If you had a Roth 401k option with your 401k plan, what info would you use to decide how to allocate your contributions? I currently have 6% of my income going into the Roth option and 9% going to the regular 401k option. Is there one I should prioritize over the other when increasing contributions?
Post by freshsqueezed on Jan 14, 2021 12:49:56 GMT -5
Vanguard question
Not sure anyone know but my husband has a bunch of old little rollover accounts. Can we roll them into 1 Vanguard fund account or will they all just be eaten up in fees?
Not sure anyone know but my husband has a bunch of old little rollover accounts. Can we roll them into 1 Vanguard fund account or will they all just be eaten up in fees?
Are they at Vanguard now, each in a different account? Or are they all randomly everywhere and you want to bring them all to Vanguard?
I don't know if you're asking about fees for the rolling over/combining, or if you're asking about ongoing fees once you have the combined account. But in general, Vanguard has very low fees for its funds and I don't think there's any fee for rolling over to them/combining. Do you know what you might want to put it all into?
Not sure anyone know but my husband has a bunch of old little rollover accounts. Can we roll them into 1 Vanguard fund account or will they all just be eaten up in fees?
Are they at Vanguard now, each in a different account? Or are they all randomly everywhere and you want to bring them all to Vanguard?
I don't know if you're asking about fees for the rolling over/combining, or if you're asking about ongoing fees once you have the combined account. But in general, Vanguard has very low fees for its funds and I don't think there's any fee for rolling over to them/combining. Do you know what you might want to put it all into?
I believe they are old retirement accounts rolled over from past jobs. They are in Vanguard now. He has all these little bitty accounts. I asked him about them and he said they would get eaten up in fees. I said I bet if you call there someone could help you out and that’s not the case. So I thought I’d see if anyone here had thoughts.
I just can’t stand to look and see all the stupid accounts.
Not sure anyone know but my husband has a bunch of old little rollover accounts. Can we roll them into 1 Vanguard fund account or will they all just be eaten up in fees?
Are they at Vanguard now, each in a different account? Or are they all randomly everywhere and you want to bring them all to Vanguard?
I don't know if you're asking about fees for the rolling over/combining, or if you're asking about ongoing fees once you have the combined account. But in general, Vanguard has very low fees for its funds and I don't think there's any fee for rolling over to them/combining. Do you know what you might want to put it all into?
Ok actually I just went into Vanguard and try to sell - so it charges a $20 Vanguard brokerage fee. So for example, he has an account that has $22 in it and would be gone to fees. I am wondering if there is any way around this because I just hate these stupid accounts.
Are they at Vanguard now, each in a different account? Or are they all randomly everywhere and you want to bring them all to Vanguard?
I don't know if you're asking about fees for the rolling over/combining, or if you're asking about ongoing fees once you have the combined account. But in general, Vanguard has very low fees for its funds and I don't think there's any fee for rolling over to them/combining. Do you know what you might want to put it all into?
Ok actually I just went into Vanguard and try to sell - so it charges a $20 Vanguard brokerage fee. So for example, he has an account that has $22 in it and would be gone to fees. I am wondering if there is any way around this because I just hate these stupid accounts.
I would call them and ask for advice. B/c it would be silly to pay $20 on a $25 account. OTOH, if the account only has $25, I too would be annoyed at seeing all the different ones.
How do Roth 401k and Roth IRA differ? If you had a Roth 401k option with your 401k plan, what info would you use to decide how to allocate your contributions? I currently have 6% of my income going into the Roth option and 9% going to the regular 401k option. Is there one I should prioritize over the other when increasing contributions?
I’m sure someone else can give a more nuanced, in-depth answer, but I think it boils down to the Roth 401K option has a potential higher contribution limit than Roth IRA and no income limitation. The sum of your regular 401k and Roth 401k cannot exceed 19.5K for age 50 or younger, but I assume you could contribute the entire amount to the Roth 401k if you wanted.
I assume my taxes won’t be higher in retirement so I am only contributing 1-2% to my Roth 401K, everything else goes into my regular 401k, but I don’t know if this is the wisest option.