Bogleheads.org

Because realistically the target for the more detailed thing is the "1%" (nomenclature wise not pure number wise) of the investing community? For most of their customers a pie chart probably helps.

I find their tools unhelpful too and use GDocs and Morningstar Xray.

Note I added small edits in brackets to reference back. Doing work for one company [e.g. StartupCo or Company X]. Check cut by another company [e.g. PEO]. Call it a "rose", "PEO", or whatever you want. Ok in your world how do you get the employees at StartupCo/PEO into 401K plan ...

My mom worked for a company who was bought by a competitor. The company used ADP TotalSource as a PEO. Her boss was the new company, they picked her role, they decided her duties, they promoted her, all within the company. They had specific health insurance and retirement benefits in the name of th...

Last post on this - we likely aren't going to agree. If you want to continue - feel free to PM me. A temp or contractor is employed by company A to do work for company B. A PEO is employed by company A to do work for company B. The only reason that companies seem to do this is tax arbitrage for SUT...

Check out the PenFed Platinum Cash Rewards Visa® Card. No foreign transaction fees, 5% back on gas purchases, but only .25% on other purchases. Also no annual fee. The site is: penfed.org They also have a 5/3/1 card w/ no fee and no surcharge, 5% gas, 3% groceries, 1% everything else. It's no longe...

Hi Rasputin and others - Jock Breitwieser, director corporate communications at TriNet here. Came across this thread and would like to help. We're happy to explain the background and help you as much as possible, but without knowing your specific company, this is complicated, as your personal situa...

I read the PEO link. It is basically another name for a temp or contractor. Temps are paid by one company and do work for another. It's a temp. "Co-employment" must confer the ability to not have to use "temp" on your resume in the future. Anyway, the OP would need a break in em...

atfish wrote:Check out the PenFed Platinum Cash Rewards Visa® Card. No foreign transaction fees, 5% back on gas purchases, but only .25% on other purchases. Also no annual fee. The site is: penfed.org

They also have a 5/3/1 card w/ no fee and no surcharge, 5% gas, 3% groceries, 1% everything else.

Um - I work in the staffing and consulting industry. I have heard the arrangements called (1) contracts, (2) vendor contracts, (3) temporary employees, or (4) independent contractors. After 5+ years doing this - I have never heard that arrangement called "co-employer". Ever. So, if the OP...

Well, considering this part of the OP post made no sense "because both companies use the same coemployer" - I have no idea what a coemployer, let alone what both companies using one would mean. So, if the OP changed jobs between 2 companies - that is usually grounds for doing a rollover. ...

I trust this isn't too far off-topic. But in regards to Ebay bidding, I've had some success purchasing discounted gift cards from certain vendors, Corner Bakery and Starbucks would be two. However, can anyone explain to me why people would pay more than face value for gift cards? For instance, here...

I left my job, had two weeks off and started a new job. I want to rollover my 401k from my previous job but i'm told that i can't because both companies use the same coemployer. I'm told that as far as the IRS is concerned, I have the same job. Is there anything that can be done about this BS? Make...

No, once again--I truly don't see it. That just turns it around. If I enter a bid of $29 right at the end, please tell me how I can possibly get it for less than $29 if anyone else who is willing to pay more has already entered a bid with a maximum that is higher than $29? You just changed the hypo...

I completely fail to understand what advantage you supposedly gain from waiting until the last few seconds. Statistical analysis has proven it with a very high degree of confidence and consistency. Placing an $X bid in the last second is much more likely to result in winning, and at a lower price, ...

Keep in mind the NY 529 now also offers VG funds for lower ERs than Utah...

I think for me personally, anything BELOW 0.25% is more or less in the same category for me. While I obviously prefer lower ERs, as between two similar investments both in the under 0.25% category, I am more apt to weigh other secondary factors. That said, I control my own I401K and it is with VG an...

One thought I've used w/ 401K plans is to get the CEO or a few others to agree to roll some IRAs or older 401Ks into the plan to up the AUM. It can help in negotiating. Also if it is isn't too late look at the online 401K or employer fiduciary, you can do better than Plan A, but that likely is the b...

[ the origins of the question are: I can look up my SS earnings record, and see my estimated benefit. But that's based on SSA projecting my future earnings "until retirement." I want to know how to calculate a reduced benefit based on working less, ie earning less than they project, for a...

I am of the view that reasonable requests like holding a sauce, cheese, or light on the oil should be honored when possible. And that if they cannot be honored the waiter/chef should explain that clearly up front. That said, the more special requests you make the less likely you are going to get the...

Sorry for re posting. thanks for your reply James. Balanced funds and PimCo have same ER. I thought I will get both stock and bond exposure by using balanced funds. I thought I would use good index funds when I open other accounts and try to get to my AA. I know this could be difficult. Thanks for ...

This feels very duplicative of your other post and you already got fairly good advice there. Looking at that other post, I would be inclined to use the PIMCO total return bond fund first in the 401K up until your bond AA is complete. I really would not use a blended fund because it becomes hard to m...

One I highly recommend using the standard posting format for these questions. Two I personally find ANY balanced funds to be disruptive to doing portfolios if you have a mix of accounts and are trying to achieve a particular asset allocation. That said without knowing more that may be the least bad ...

There are more issues than just costs. The PA plan offers pretty low fees, but not the lowest. If you live in PA, there are a few considerations that could make the PA plan more appealing despite not having the lowest fees: 1. PA state financial aid protection. Assets in the PA 529 are not used to ...

Without knowing your line of work, hard to say. Password change policies are a double-edged sword. They solve one type of problem and replace it with another: people tend to need to write the passwords down if they change too often.

VG's small business/individual 401K product does NOT accept rollovers.

If you have 1099/Schedule C income you likely can qualify to create/open an Individual 401K.

I will say on the "bubble" question, I am noticing non-stock market patterns that echo pre-dotcom bust and pre-housing bust here in SF Bay Area: traffic has climbed again, restaurants are full again, and housing is selling like hot cakes. Is this a guarantee we are in a bubble? No, but my ...

I caught that too. I think that was just an accidental verbal error. I think Mr. Bogle meant to say something like " one tenth of one percent". Obviously he knows the right number but when you do a 60+ minute interview and throw around a lot of numbers, anyone can mix up a decimal. Mr. Bo...

I am not sure what (if anything) is really broken or how to fix it. The one issue I do see is that not everyone has access to tax-advantaged savings plans. And yes, some plans have crummy or only high-cost options. But, we have done fine, and I hope to put my kids on the right road by funding IRAs ...

When I did the analysis for a small company of 40-45 people at the time, my estimate was the fully burdened cost of the plan - including expense ratios - would be about .5%. This was an average of the first 4 or 5 years of the plan - since the ratio is high in the beginning due to set up fees and a...

I'm amused, I've had dozens of medallion guarantee's done at really big banks (BofA, Wells Fargo etc) and barely been asked to see ID most of the time. The flip side is my estate attorney apparently runs in to problems all of the time. I pointed out that she is an attorney making appointments for ot...

My wife has her 401k @ Fidelity. Unfortunately her company benefits person seems utterly incapable of providing a straight, well-informed response to the the question, "what are the fees we are paying for the 401k plan above the fund expense ratios?" Where did you find such detailed infor...

I don't believe the 1098-T is determinative, can I recommend if you don't get a more authoritative answer here pinging some of the more 529-/college-savings focused boards.

Another thing to consider is that you don't have to invest in your own state's 529 plan. Some states offer a tax deduction and some don't. Does the tax deduction go w/ the state, or w/ the state plan ? or does it need to be both? If I live in CA whose state plan does not have a tax deduction, and I...

As someone who does my taxes early, I am always amused by the crowds each year that show up at the post office where I have a PO Box to mail their taxes. The police have to control the traffic as the long lines of cars move by the mail carriers to deliver their taxes. I guess it is fun to wait to t...

I don't know why they change people's reps, but one reason is certainly that the rep has moved on for one reason or another. I wouldn't be in a huff about it without knowing what happened. Huff is probably a stronger word than I feel, I think it mostly just left me baffled. I was emailing R- on Wed...

Why don't you ask C- how to get the old rep back? If you're not happy, then let them know - directly. Do financial advisors change after you've started doing business with them? I don't see the difference. Fair point; honest answer, when C- called I was sort of befuddled by the situation (I did che...

So I was working with my Flagship representative on a silly mixup by Vanguard. As late as Sunday the website was showing R- as my Flagship rep. Suddenly today I get a call from C- saying she's my rep and checking in and indicating she is still trying to sort out the problem. On one hand, great, on t...

You're complaining about the computer being down on the last filing day when everyone is trying to do the same thing? Why not file earlier? On one hand yes, plan ahead and by the same token given that by law many of us are REQUIRED to use this payment method and given that they know payments don't ...

One irritating change. Every register now has a new field, "TAG". And to remove it, you have to edit each register one by one. No way (that I could find) to remove it from all registers with a single edit. Why on earth they felt the need to add that to EVERY register is beyond me. And to ...

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone (looking like I may try Ally, and maybe keep BoA for checking? grr). I have to add a need item: - QFX export. Does everyone have that these days? It doesn't make the advertised "feature lists," and I'd hate to have to make an account just to see. Al...

Why not pick one and look at 2008 navs on yahoo, google or Morningstar? Many are close to 90% stock... I think the constant rebalancing is a bit of a red herring here since they can often rebalance purely with new money/new contributions. I also would bet that some days they close unbalanced because...

I'm looking more for a "staging area" bank, with funds coming in monthly from Vanguard. My dream checklist (I have a few accounts each with a subset of these features): - Detailed texting options for events... -- ie, any payment over X -- balance below X -- international payment made -- o...

Thanks, all these options are likely better than what i have at usbank. I do travel overseas and i need free intrrnational transactions, no annual fees and low APR :happy The PenFed (Pentagon Federal Credit Union) card mentioned has no annual fees and no intl currency fees. They have several differ...

Perhaps use the "asking portfolio questions" template and edit your original post or start a new thread, the format may help you think through the answer for yourself.

Thank you Lawman. I have been summarizing plan fees, current fiduciary versus EF, this morning and it would save our small business (just under 15 persons) about 19,000/year. Like you, I will now have to "sell" this to my group. Since we use a local/regional bank, I'm going to face the &q...

I got into this argument at a startup because the guy wanted to sell us a bunch of high-fee 401K investments vs. the Fidelity standard grouping of funds for smaller 401Ks (target funds, bunch of indexes, and a few other). Finally we reached an agreement to disagree, I fired him and basically the CEO...

Glad to have provided some help, the posters here have been awesomely helpful. As you start to sort things out come back and provide an update. BTW, both versions of how to account for SS/Pension can work but I find the how much income you need one more personally intuitive for thinking about the &q...

Several posts discuss $1M as if it is "alot" in 2013 dollars. It is NOT, especially if one is age 50 or older and looking to retire soon. $1M is just a NORMAL amount for folks who've been doing the right thing for 30 years or more. You want "alot" then you're looking at $10M in ...

Mind sharing how you managed to accumulate your wealth? Did you have high income + high savings rate? Did you have low income + high savings rate? Did you invest aggressively young? I found the book "Millionaire Next Door" http://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Thomas-Stanley/dp/0671...

Yes, I was going to add that PenFed offers Chip and PIN...