Bogleheads.org

Pro rata means to prorate an annual fee to some different time period. Your monthly fee of .12% is the monthly prorated fee of 1.44% annually. Believe me, you aren't getting anything from an insurance company retirement plan administrator for .12% a year..Gordon +1 OP, Reading the original post it ...

300 pages? Do you really need 300 pages? I have paper copies of all my tax returns back to 1970 and it's only about 1/2 of one file drawer. I would not dream of putting them in a safe deposit box. What are you hiding? If you want to scan them you could buy a combo printer/copier/scanner for about $2...

Age: 46 (retire in 11 years (age 56.5) to 16 years (age 62)) Pension: FERS + SS (which I expect will pay most of my living expenses; investment accounts will be used as needed to buy car, travel, major home repairs, and ultimately left to heirs) Current tax rate: 28% Federal + 9.3% CA = 37.3% Expec...

In terms of why I have my doubts about this advisor: 1. The buying and selling. 2. The parents have always given the children a gift every Christmas (their choice); instead of transferring the appreciated mutual funds, he insists on selling funds, generating capitol gains tax, and then having them ...

I'm pretty sure this 0.12% is extra previously non-disclosed small miscellaneous fees that a new regulation now requires disclosing. Highly doubtful it includes the normal 401k administrator/management fees and the fund expense ratios.
JW

I am 40 years old and have a substantial amount of my net worth in a traditional IRA. All of the money in the traditional IRA is pre-tax. I am currently in the 25% federal tax bracket, and max out a government 457b & Roth IRA each year. I plan to retire in ~5 years. In order to have more source...

I'm dealing with a gift that is somewhat in excess of the $14,000 gift exclusion, but far, far below the $5.25 million estate and gift exclusion. So I have to file a gift tax return on it, but not pay any actual gift taxes. I'm accustomed to using Turbotax to do all my taxes. Turbotax is very easy,...

My parents are in their early 80's and have about 2 mil in assets. They need about 60k from their portfolio to meet expenses. They have a so-so advisor, IMO. He does a fair about of buying and selling, that is, selling actively managed funds to buy "better" actively managed funds. This ha...

Is there some way to produce an annual statement? That might show what you want. If not, I suggest you call Fidelity. JW As best I can tell this does not summarize things nicely at all (??). All I know is mine always has shown a "contributions summary": this has the current year pre-tax/p...

Is there some way to produce an annual statement? That might show what you want. If not, I suggest you call Fidelity.
JW

A 3.5% stable value fund is nothing to sneeze at these days. How stable is the stable value fund? --in other words, how safe is it? ... It might not be the proper thing to do financially, but if it makes him more comfortable (= sleep better at night), it will be the proper thing for him. About as s...

I just want to point out that $360/month isn't going to get the allowed $5500 into the Roth by year end.
JW

IMO, it's worth investing in MITHX. 0.78% ER isn't all that terrible. Use that fund for 401k stocks and round out your AA in IRAs and husband accounts.
JW

This does not make sense to me. Taking at 70 gives you 16,000 extra per year. This is compared to having the extra 184,000 in assets if you take at 62. Where does the 9,000 come from? Where does the 500,000 come from? He's pulling your leg just to get a rise out of you. He does this for sport. You ...

the 9000 dollars is 39000 minus 23000 equals 16000. the difference . however you are still getting the 23000 dollars a year from if you had started early 23000 minus 16000 is 9000. this is the amount that you are actually catching up with. Sorry, this is just wrong. 23000-16000 is meaningless. You ...

Last Thursday I pulled the trigger and liquidated all of my mutual funds in both the 457 and the Roth. I'm up about 40-50K over the last 6 years, and I just couldn't bear to be the idiot holding on tight during the next reversal. I decided to lock in my gains and hold my funds in cash until I see a...

JoinToday, Yes, you can roll in all the pre-tax IRA dollars into the 401k account. If it's a big 401k, your plan to take out only up to the top of the 15% tax bracket may run up against RMDs (required minimum distributions) once you are 70. I think you are really late getting that umbrella policy. T...

Yep, crazy.
JW

Rich in Michigan wrote: I'm not double counting. At age 79, my lifetime accumulated SS payout is the same regardless of whether I started at 62 or 70. However, there is still the 200K hole I referenced that was used from the nest egg between ages 62 and 70. At age 79, I am even on SS and going forw...

Finally, to throw in a third parameter for consideration, I examined how survivor benefits for my wife would be affected by claiming early vs age 70 when compared to the above findings. She will have her own SS but even though I am the higher earner, her break even age would be 85 (more SS vs gap i...

I remember Larry Swedroe addressing this in the "asymmetric rebalancing" discussion. He mentioned that he would rebalance out of equities when high but not buy back on the low end. He also mentioned that even if stocks went to zero it would have no effect whatsoever on his lifestyle. Defi...

I was speaking with a high school student the other day who mentioned one of the projects in his consumer ed class was to evaluate the students stock picking abilities. Each student was given $100,000 in fake money to see what they could earn by picking stocks over a 3 month period. They are graded...

CA has opted out of the federal bankruptcy act with respect to creditor protection limits. CA only protects an amount necessary for basic support and this could be as low as 100k, certainly no where near 1mm. Only restrictions are that any basis in your TIRA cannot be rolled into the plan and any R...

I am in a very similar situation. Considering not rolling my 401k over to Vanguard post-retirement for the same reason. I have not found a significant downside yet but maybe somebody here will know of one.
JW

California has big real estate tax, big sales taxes, big income taxes, taxes cap gains at the same rate as earned income, except no tax at all on social security income. One saving grace. Boglehead lesson for Californians, delay your SS to until 70 and live on/deplete anything else you can until th...

Will he have any retirement income like SS or pensions besides the rentals and the $150k? Very doubtful he can afford to be paying thousands of dollars a year to an advisor. They are very skilled at concealing the total fees the investor pays so he is unlikely to get a straight answer when he asks. ...

I don't TLH and many here don't (many do) as you pointed out. It's because it's "a pain" plus a $3000 a year allowable loss saves at most about $1000 a year in taxes. It has been a very rare and exceedingly small pain in my experience. Saving about $1100/year in taxes (in my state) for th...

otbricki wrote:You may also want to consider issue like laws protecting IRAs from liability claims, filial responsibility and so on.

Yeah, good point. I think your IRA is up for grabs in California.
JW

California has big real estate tax, big sales taxes, big income taxes, taxes cap gains at the same rate as earned income, except no tax at all on social security income. One saving grace. Boglehead lesson for Californians, delay your SS to until 70 and live on/deplete anything else you can until the...

After looking at Merriman's Fidelity list I think I need to review their index funds again because it appears there is a bunch of new ones. Paul If you do a search for Spartan on Fido they show a total of 13 Spartan funds now. IMO, should cover all most Bogleheads would want. Many do require a $10k...

Be careful, you cannot do the SS file and suspend thing until you are FRA. from http://www.ssa.gov/retire2/yourspouse.htm If you or your spouse are full retirement age: If you are full retirement age, you can apply for retirement benefits and then request to have payments suspended.That way, your sp...

I did invest in VDGIX on 5/30/2003 after the reduced tax rate on dividends was passed. Seemed like a good idea at the time. The $5k investment with earnings reinvested has grown to $12.5k. Not too bad.
JW

It's difficult to say without the details of each offering. ING administers the plan here at MyMegaCorp, but they didn't choose the funds. Those were in existence when they took over. Brian Same experience with ING at my MegaCorp. The company switched admins a few years back and nothing very signif...

Got $200k to invest. I told myself I'd put it all in Wednesday (tomorrow). But the market has gone up dramatically over the past few days, and now I'm spooked. Should I still do it? You are asking a lot of people who are in the market if you would be foolish to be in the market? If that's your ques...

I am estimating (based on spreadsheets and confirmed by several software runs), that we will have at least 2.3M (conservatively)by the time my husband retires at 62. We will probably draw about 87k per year (worst case scenario)--the other income will come from my husband's pension, if that gives y...

If you don't have an immediate need for the income I think it's an easy call to delay. If/when your wife passes and much of your IRA is depleted, you will be a lot better off with a $3000/month SS colaed income floor than you would be with only $2100.
JW

Thank you all for your advice, suggestions and for sharing your stories. I followed all the recommendations, compared pension conditions with annuity market and decided to take company pension. My SS is postponed for now, at least while my husband is still working. Later our SS's and pensions shoul...

1.5% is 75% of the dividend payout of the S&P 500. If fund fees averaged 0.50%, then 100% of the dividend yield of the US stock market will be taken from in expenses. +1 Advisor diverts clients entire dividend stream to advisor fees/expenses and the client is happy with the deal. This actually ...

By stand that much I mean if you go to that AA next week, and following month the market begins a long deep dive, you won't sell out of stocks again no matter what. and for many, it means not only won't you sell, but you will likely hit a trigger to buy more stocks at a time when your gut is twiste...

To:JW Nearlyretired: I don't think you all are crazy--everyone has their own comfort level and you may have a lot more money than I do! Well the polls here indicate that the average Boglehead AA is around (age - 10) in bonds & cash. At your age 50 that would be 60% in stocks. That's our average...

I have been putting dribs and drabs here and there into some good mutual funds but at this rate, it will take forever to get fully invested and I certainly don't want to dump a huge amount into this high-priced market right now. What on earth should I do? I would love to hear your opinions. Further...

That's 2 votes for it. I mentioned DCA too early in the thread.
JW

Although folks may not like this comment, there are well-respected posters on this forum that also present a conflict-of-interest. At least most of us know the situation right up front. Suppose RooseveltG's instructor was a big proponent of index funds, but still ran their own firm and still provid...

It's always the case that post-1986 after-tax contributions bring a share of earnings. What you could think about come retirement time is creating some home business that you can open a solo 401(k) for. Then you can roll the amounts from the 401(k) to a TIRA, roll the taxable into the solo, then co...

It's even better when your plan allows in-service rollovers of the after-tax amounts. This allows you to boost your Roth IRA holdings. MyMegaCorp does, so I put in the max allowed (unfortunately only 20% of salary). After the deferral limit is reached, it automatically switches to after-tax, but ma...

Many plans allow non-deductible (i.e. after-tax) contributions beyond the limit of $17,500. Good to know, I'll have my wife check with edtec to see if that's a possibility. Although with making after-tax contributions, wouldn't one need to do something like a solo 401k that doesn't accept after-tax...

I am not timing the market, but the prices have only been going up since the beginning of the year. Is it the right time to get into the market. Forgive my amusement at your "I am not timing.....is it the right time" juxtaposition. You might wait a long time for a correction back below PE...

[quote= "asraf1972"] I am not timing the market, but the prices have only been going up since the beginning of the year. Is it the right time to get into the market. [/quote] Forgive my amusement at your "I am not timing.....is it the right time" juxtaposition. You might wait a l...

This winter I took a 9 hour finance course at our local university. The teacher was a relatively knowledgeable CFP, except for 1 major flaw. He failed to even mention indexing or index funds. During class he argued that there is no data to support indexing over active management and he could identi...

JW Nearly Retired wrote:
Are there any one time panic stricken investors reading this that can say they or family members were talked out of selling at the bottom in 08/09 by an advisor? Would love to hear from one.
JW

The deafening silence to this question seems pretty telling.
JW