Bogleheads.org

While I don't have a conclusive answer to your question, I feel obliged to reply as a long-time Fidelity customer. I invested in a Fidelity 401K with a prior employer and still have that account. To my knowledge, there is no account fee or advisory charge on top of the ERs for each fund. The employe...

The typical hope of the 401(k) is to shift the tax bill from 25% to 15%. A fee that's 1.5% higher than outside the account will wipe away the benefit in just over 6 years, not 20. And for those (more than half of US taxpayers) who are now in the 15% bracket with a dividend and cap gain rate of zero...

Larry's [Kotlikoff] reply is thorough enough to explain why waiting is better. But, for me he summed it up in one paragraph: If waiting to collect leads to higher benefits, which is often, but not always, the case, you'll be thanking yourself when you are 100 for having done so. You don't want to o...

Gerry: You really ought to think slowly and carefully through what the well intentioned folks here are trying to tell you. There is not a shadow of a doubt that your claim in unequivocally false. In EFFECT means in EFFECT. :mrgreen: I do like the not a shadow of a doubt saying though. i think the s...

have you read my above posts. if you take at 62 the money EFFECTIVELY is doubled(the amt from 62 to 70).go back to earlier post above where i show 1000 a year at 62 and 1760 a year at 70. the the EFFECTIVE break even is 90 even though the ACTUAL dollars from ss break even is 81. I read that you sai...

3.if you think you will live substantially past 90. . . reasons to take at 62. . . 4. you think you will not live to 90. I don't understand where your "90" figure comes from. All the data, including a quick calculation on my part just now, indicates that the break even age for start-benef...

The author of the linked article has gone to the trouble of showing break even points for various different starting ages: 62, 66, and 70. I'm not sure whether this author's assumptions or priorities are the same as those used by the above posters, but it's one more perspective to consider. The focu...

I wonder what role mathematical literacy would have to play in increasing financial literacy. About a week ago, I was at a table with six adults present, most of whom had at least some college education. We were discussing social security benefits. The issues involved comparing two possible years in...

I finally got a specific answer from my 401k admin about the fees I am paying for above expense ratios. They are charging 0.60% (billed monthly), which I understand is not good-but is also not bad either. Except for Vanguard Target Date funds and I think 1 VG fund, all the funds they offer have exp...

Identity Theft Insurance: laughable. In most cases of "Identity theft" you are not legally responsible for the loss anyway. This surprised me. I'm intrigued as to how this coul be true in view of all I've heard of businesses and private citizens having bank accounts hacked and the like. M...

After becoming concerned about this issue, I asked my auto and renter's insurance provider - GEICO - about identity theft insurance. I was struck by how much it did not cover - which is nearly everything. Losses from the identity theft itself, such as fraudulent deductions from a credit or bank acco...

The page linked to below includes a graph showing the asset allocation as a function of investor age for three mutual fund companies, and two linear functions (110-age and 113-age). I haven't invested in Target date funds, but was very glad to include them in our firm's 401K offering, as it was enor...

Not an expert in this by any means, but I read a long time ago that utility stocks were something of a hybrid of equity and income investments. That is, the stock price tended to be pretty stable, but dividend income was reliably generated every year. It would stand to reason that rising interest ra...

I've also got money with Edelman and there's certainly some value in the services he offers, but justifying $8,000 a year is a bit tough. What I do is keep $5000 (the new minimum) with Edelman and the rest of my portfolio at Fidelity. $100 a year (2% of $5000) seems like a reasonable fee for the ne...

Our family went through this issue on and off with a sibling, who is still struggling to become independent. This would be a good idea, since he's now . . . . . 56! When I relayed this information to a friend whose son is about 25 and struggling, she asked (regarding my sibling) one simple question ...

I agree that the listed posted by meowcat is not realistic, though it's a desirable yard stick. I would edit your better list by saying "Nasty" plans start to make the case for not investing in the plan beyond the match depending on time horizon. Somewhere around 1.75% and 20 years means ...

Downright cheap (almost free) .02% (TSP) Bargain .07% good deal .10% fair .20% getting pricy .50% expensive .75% rip-off 1.0% outrageous 1.25% astronomical 1.5% over the top ridiculous 1.75% Total rape 2.0% Any higher and we're talking an unreasonableness so profound, you might as well just hand ov...

Given the fact that it seems like she will continue to pay rent or a mortgage in retirement, figuring out monthly income is a big deal. Big difference between being able to spend $4,000 before rent and $2-3000 after rent. What is her rent? It seems that even if she only works one more year, that wi...

lawman, I'm not sure how much of a burden you wish to take on, but it strikes me that one helpful move would be for your friend to meet with a TIAA representative. They are salaried. They are not hustlers. They may have some useful advice, especially because you have not mentioned the rules and reg...

Some of the facts the OP has stated in this case regarding real estate wealth seem inconsistent. She has little if any liquid assets (beyond the 403(b)), and little if any real estate net worth . ... she will likely sell her home about one year into her retirement. I am struck by the fact that, wit...

OP, I think given her spending problem I would go the annuity route. Otherwise she might spend too much like a child in a candy store. Having said that, she is going to run into trouble possibly down the road. But much as you care and want to help, this can go bad and you can be blamed. I would sug...

" My rough guess is that her spending will have to decline by 50% ." A wicked challenge. "she is in trouble financially ." Indeed. lawman, You have taken on a difficult task. It appears to me that you are the one who is both good and helpful . Lev Thanks. I found the whole proje...

Many good and helpful comments. I will do my best to provide further information where I can. Levett and Dailybagel asked whether the income from SS and the annuity will cover her spending habits. If, as is suggested, you are referring to her recent and current spending habits, the answer is an uneq...

An acquaintaince is about to retire and will be choosing what proportion of a 403(b) account to annuitize. Her financial stats follow: Age=65. Social security Benefit (to be claimed imminently): about $24K/year. Money in 403(b) with TIAA/CREF: about $350K. She has no other pension assets. She has li...

I am a client of Creative Planning since last July. Before I started with Jedd Wilson I always did my own investing. About 10 different mutual funds and 10 different stocks at a time never sure about the right "mix" of investments. It was difficult letting go of the "job" of inv...

The linked paper by Shoven and Slavov, from 2012, takes prevailing rates of return into account in determining an actuarially optimal age at which to take SS benefits. There seems not to be a one-size-fits-all solution, as the actuarially optimal initiation age varies with gender, age, education, pr...

Regarding the Test Drive and Liability Insurance: I notice several people proposing having the prospective buyer drive your car without you in it. That's fine from a personal safety standpoint. But, you really should check with your insurance company before doing this, and determine exactly what yo...

Since you're smart enough to come to this site and ask for guidance here, I'm surprised that you even have to ask. 5% loads and 1.8% ERs?? I give myself credit for not losing my lunch upon reading that. I endorse blocking this guys email, phone number, Twitter account, and any other means he might h...

While I'm not certain about Michigan, everywhere I've lived, the first question medical receptionists ask when making an appointment is whether the issue arises from a work injury or a car accident. They ask this because those events are covered by insurance other than your regular medical insurance...

The believe that the below link is the one with information describing the format needed to properly ask questions about a portfolio. http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6212 As to the advisor, one thing to determine is whether your parents are investing purely for themselves, or whether...

Around 2000 or 2001, I heard someone interviewed on CNBC (can't remember for sure whether it was J. Bogle or not). When asked for his recommendations, he said, in effect, "the whole U.S. stock market is good; so you should own all of it." This statement haunted me, as it was so contrary to...

If you really plan to spend a lot of time there, you could ask a bank in Canada about opening an account there. I'm not aware of any prohibition on doing that. It would save you the trouble of conducting any exchanges at all during future visits. Other than that, it's been the consensus of the peopl...

Most discusion on this point focuses on which claiming age provides what is the actuarially optimal outcome, based on current interest rates. However, for my purposes, if the calculation were even close, and I had a reasonable financial cushion, I'd still wait to get the higher monthly payment. This...

Surely one problem with the annuity approach is that it includes a profit for the insurance company? You pay them that in exchange for eliminating the risk of running out of money (and swapping it for the risk of running out of insurance company, and the promise that your money will be used up when...

It appears that the annuity approach hasn't yet been tried. So I thought I'd give it a whirl, using the closest data I could find from the Elm Annuity site. I found the following ratios of lump sum to inflation adjusted annual income (using the inflation rider) for the following starting ages Starti...

Fire Calc says at $2.5 million portfolio and $80,000 per year spend for 50 years you will have a 100% success rate. I guess a lot of people in this thread are either overly pessimistic or don't trust Fire Calc. Either that, or "those people" subscribe to the bizarre view that past results...

I read some conflicting information and I just wanted to clear things up. I know that contributing to a roth 401k does not reduce federal taxes because the AGI is not lowered. Does contributing to a Roth 401k reduce the AGI for NJ State Income tax purposes? Thanks in Advance! No. I'm not aware of R...

How about we take the OP at his word and believe that he knows how much income he needs, since he is the one spending it? 80k is certainly reasonable for a family, even if they didn't have paid off house. The issue isn't whether $80K is enough to live on or not. I think that everyone here accepts t...

Honesty, I think it's a close call, too close for me to really be able to answer yes or no with a lot of confidence. For sake of simplicity, and to be conservative, in my own retirement calculations, I've assumed that my assets will simply match but not surpass inflation during retirement. There are...

That's some great information. I had blithely assumed that administrative expenses meant expense ratios. Thanks so much! Expense ratios would never be considered administrative expenses. For one thing, the mutual funds, and the 401K plan are usually run by separate companies, so there is no way for...

. . . what are the hidden fees that you didn't disclose when I first asked about hidden fees. +1 A related and more comprehensive question could simply be: what is the total of asset-based (i.e. AUM) fees assessed on participant assets per year? The sad part is that some sales people may not know t...

If you really have no options beyond those listed, I'd go with plan A.

If your employer is willing to consider further options, take a look at Employee Fiduciary's web site.

As the above poster said, you will likely get better responses on the various Canadian centered fora. However, I couldn't help but chime in. A brief internet search revealed numerous firms in Canada dedicated to helping Canadians living abroad which appear fully able to manage investments while thei...

I rented a condo from a couple that lived in China. Before they left for China, they verified with their bank that it would be ok for me to drop by the bank and pay my rent each month. I did that regularly for years. In my case, I deposited a check into their account. However, I see no reason why ca...

Did they ever get back to you? Yes they got back to me. There were no further fees. However, we were paying about 1% ERs and 1% in mortality fees (the unofficial jargon for which is a "wrap fee"). Going by the usual definition of the terms, our employer was also paying "all of the ad...

I want to ask good questions at the informational meeting coming up and I wanted some advice. I'm assuming that the expense ratios will be easy to learn. The questions I plan to ask are: - what are the separate account charges for each of the funds? - do any have 12b-1 fees? - how many funds underl...

As others have stated, you might want to consult someone at an SS office, or possibly an SSDI lawyer. I've seen many stories about people qualifying for SSDI - a program which has greatly increased in size in the last couple of decades - and I don't know that all of them were completely incapable of...

And it appears worse because he no longer has his nice steady job income to rely on. And he is fully functioning, there are no diagnosable signs of dementia etc. I would be grateful to hear any other useful thoughts that people may have... It does not seem fair that the law says that children can't...

From what I've read, for most of market history, most stocks have been controlled through active management. In this situation, since actively managed portfolios, cumulatively, ARE the market, they could not outperform it. If this changed, and most stocks were owned through index funds, and by total...

The above all makes sense. However, there is one disadvantage of Solo 401Ks I became aware of. Solo 401K plans are not eligible for the ERISA protection that other 401Ks benefit from. They are protected in case of bankruptcy. But, outside of bankruptcy, state law governs accessibility by creditors t...