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jeremyrfoster wrote: I'm more looking for any tricks than can be employed to do the comparison I mentioned. Thanks.

I suppose you could compare if you pipelined money from the ESPP into the exact same funds that you would have held in the 401k. Seems pretty unlikely. I'm not sure you can make a valid comparison.

Regarding the education issue, I see it more as a way for you to learn about how/why index funds might be a better choice for you than actively managed funds that have loads, high expense ratios, and the relatively high (but not exorbitant) AUM fee. I don't think education is going to change how you...

Duckie wrote: [*]Once you move the SEP-IRA into the solo 401k at Fidelity you could then roll the solo 401k over to Vanguard. That type of rollover is allowed. This made me laugh. Is this not a legitimate option? If not, please explain. As far as I know it is a legitimate option and something I wou...

I have some extra cash to save and want to compare how it will grow if I put it in my 401k and grow it tax free versus buying company stock through my ESPP and having it in an individual investment account. Of course, I have to weigh the advantage of having access to the money if I keep it individu...

[*]Once you move the SEP-IRA into the solo 401k at Fidelity you could then roll the solo 401k over to Vanguard. That type of rollover is allowed. This made me laugh. :happy whitecliff, I don't know what funds you are comparing. The Spartan funds, as indicated by Ducky, are about the same cost and a...

I do know what I have, it is all spelled out on my first post yesterday. Perhaps I misunderstood your comment "My portfolio is so complex that I don't know what is normal..." I thought you were saying you didn't really understand your portfolio or how it compared to a normal portfolio. My...

I'd have to wonder how much an adviser could save me in taxes. This is an excellent question. Some advisors do that. Some don't.*** And it is apparent his current advisor has give NO thought to taxes or to annual costs in setting this thing up. Even some people we consider great advisors don't nece...

tacomainvestor wrote:You kind of made it sound like I would have to learn complicated math to do this.

Sorry, didn't mean to make it sound like that. Once you know what you have (which you say you don't really know at this point) and once you know where you want to go, it is not that difficult.

Starting with what you have.... Her 401k 75% ($75k) <--getting an additional $12,150 this year 56.3% 500 Index 18.8% PIMCO bonds His 403b 25% ($25k) <--$8,750 more this year 25% Fixed at 7% His 457 0% <--$10,750 this year Ignoring market growth for the time being, at the end of this year, it would l...

tacoma, a few things to consider. You don't necessarily need to respond to this. You are correct that you will need time to read, absorb, and reflect. Then an answer will be more apparent to you. There is no rush on this. It sounds like you need to clear your mind and you can surely clear your mind ...

Here is the info we need to work with (unless something fell off the list accidentally). If I understand correctly, everything but the "emergency fund" is held at a brokerage under AUM. Debt: none (cards paid off monthly) Tax Filing Status: Single Retired Tax Rate for the 2012 returns: 15%...

taco, welcome to the forum! What you have written is very difficult for people to read, especially those of us who are older. If you don't find all the answers you want in what Duckie posted, you might consider doing some editing in your original post so that things are separated into shorter paragr...

I just use the free tree that is on Ancestry.com. I don't know what the Family Tree Maker does that the ancestry.com website does not do for free. Perhaps someone could comment.

schneidy wrote:The 7% is guaranteed by state law. That's the major reason I've been treating it like such a special situation.

I understand that. How does that change how you look at this as an investment? Do you think you should hold more of it than you would hold in bonds? Do you think you should hold less?

It's a good question. I guess it's because they pay out at a crazy high rate relative to other bonds (at least for now) with no risk. Also,I get stability plus guaranteed return. Because of this, I'm throwing every possible dollar to the 403b where I wouldn't do this with a intermediate term bond i...

After talking with my wife, we'd like to keep the allocation close to 75/25 but this assumes normal bonds . How can we think this through given these bonds pay what they do risk free? Why do you think this fund should be thought of differently? Thanks for the update on the dollar amounts. I'll have...

What is the suggested Small Cap percentage in a portfolio? I feel if I dump some of the Small Cap and buy more Total Stock I may be even heavier in large cap than I am right now which seems to be a concern by some comments. Any suggestions? It is not a question of what is suggested in a portfolio. ...

Welcome to the forum! Lots of different questions going on here. Starting with your first questions, I agree with the others. You should live on some of your cash and completely max out both the 401k (traditional, not Roth) and an IRA each year. If you are correct that you cannot contribute directly...

I am confused a bit about the backdoor roth pro rata rule. I have a SIMPLE IRA at work for my wife and me. 4 years ago, I converted the total balance to a roth. Since then, I have not converted (the SIMPLE IRA), so I have about 3 years worth of contributions to the SIMPLE IRA (pretax contributions)...

However, navigating the other link shows that the fund has been updated to contain Emerging Markets and International Small Caps, and it's benchmark is the ACWI (All Counrty World Index) ex-US IMI, which is also confirmed in the fund's data sheet . Good catch pingo! I looked at the information too ...

We just got to the point where we could max her 401k in addition to his 403b. In order to get the 4% match in the 401k we need to continue to contribute at least 5% of her salary (we're at about 13% to max it out). I could try to make up the difference in international in the 457. I'm not sure if I...

Ive listed the 401k choices. I think you have more or less picked the best choices from each. However, I don't see any purpose for either the Loomis Sayles Core Plus Bond (0.49%) or the Fidelity Growth Company (0.90%). Current Portfolio: 20%- Vanguard Total Stock (VTSAX) (0.05%) 6%- Vanguard Small ...

Peter Foley wrote:I admit this is all guesswork, but those were the facts presented that lead to my comment.

Maybe the OP will chime in and let me know I'm all wet.

It is likely a good guess. I just wondered if I was missing something...

I don't see why you can't have it all. Right now your portfolio looks like this if I understand what you have correctly: Her 401k 75% ($75k) 56.3% 500 Index 18.8% PIMCO bonds (decreasing over time) His 403b 25% ($25k) 25% Fixed 7% His 457 0% So right now, your portfolio really sits at 56% stocks and...

Peter Foley wrote: I think your stocks are a little too weighted toward large cap.

How do we know that? I realize it might be right there staring me in the face, but I don't see that....

It would be helpful to know what percentage of the portfolio each fund represents. However, some general comments may be all you want. 1. Im wondering if I have the correct Bond mix? Im concerned about raising interest rates and wonder if I have too much in the total bond fund? Currently are bond po...

I don't understand why you are not including His 403b as part of your 75/25 allocation? My thinking is that it would be crazy to do anything other than to max out the 403b at 7%, so there would be no flexibility with changing the allocations to other funds offered in the plans in order to rebalance...

I don't understand why you are not including His 403b as part of your 75/25 allocation? For international, I'd use the International Equity Fund (.34) offered in the 457. However, since it is an EAFE fund, you still would not have the emerging markets. Can you put some money into a Roth IRA to hold ...

Sometimes people forget, or just don't know, that all the low cost things at Vanguard are not index funds. For instance, I thought of the TIPS fund as an index fund for quite a long time - it just never occurred to me that it wasn't an index fund. I think if it is an index fund (passively follows th...

Is it worth replicating target 2055 if I can use admiral shares? Seems about half the expenses, but with target fund I can set it up once, set up the automatic RMDs, and forget it. Can't decide It's up to you. Once you get into the low cost range (such as .18%) getting to lower cost is an exercise ...

The difference is small. I would not use that small a difference to make a decision between different asset classes. For example, one asset class might be more tax-efficient than another just because that asset class didn't perform as well for that decade. A fund that is making no money can be very ...

First, you need to understand that paying 28% federal now and paying 28% federal later result in the exact same amount of money. That's just math and it is true if you retire in 1 year or 50 years. That is correct only if you pay the taxes for a conversion from the account itself. If you pay the ta...

No penalty for SEP IRA to Roth IRA conversion: http://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=101909#p1478058 Thank you for reminding me jared. You are correct. I can't seem to get the notion out of my head that a SEP is a work plan rather than a plain IRA. I'll try to remember better this...

First, you need to understand that paying 28% federal now and paying 28% federal later result in the exact same amount of money. That's just math and it is true if you retire in 1 year or 50 years. That is correct only if you pay the taxes for a conversion from the account itself. If you pay the ta...

Furthermore...I'm not sure you can even convert a SEP IRA to Roth IRA without paying a 10% penalty for early withdrawal. This is one of those "facts" that I can't seem to keep in my brain, so I could be mistaken.

First, you need to understand that paying 28% federal now and paying 28% federal later result in the exact same amount of money. That's just math and it is true if you retire in 1 year or 50 years. There is no magic Roth compounding that will happen if you put money in Roth now. Since you live in CA...

cantchooseaname8 wrote:Why are you so shocked by that? It's really not a very high tax bracket.

Do you mean 28% federal or 28% federal and state together?

How did we get this far into this discussion without determining the poster's tax bracket?

Once again, thanks to everyone for suggestions. I'll be doing some comparison shopping this weekend.

About that suggested tool kit....yes, I have one but it seems I probably need a case of solenoids to go with the tool kit.

If my understanding of the targeted retirement fund is correct, then they choose the allocations of the funds within the IRA, not me. As the poster above mentions I could just withdraw everything and reinvest. :D You'll be glad to hear it does not work that way. You simply sell what you have and bu...

l1mab3an wrote:That does help, although when it comes to allocating the Roth IRA, my hands are tied....

Why?

Perfect, assuming that the Roth IRA will end up being 10.5 + interest until April of 2014 what should the allocation percentages be for the 401k? I should just sub in the projected numbers and handle the distribution accordingly right? I was unable to interpret what you said above about your expect...

l1mab3an wrote:The only thing I am hesitant on is pulling from the targeted retirement...

No need to worry about this. The suggested portfolio is essentially the same as the target fund.

The Roth is a targeted fund, is this suggestions to reinvest those contributions into the VTSMX and VGTSX? Apologize for my naivety, I am in the learning process and I appreciate everyone's experience and insight in this forum. Yes. The suggestion is to exchange what you have into what was suggeste...

I doubt the method actually results in free cars, but the basic method behind it is absolute genius. I used it starting about 30 years ago. I don't recall where I got the idea, but I'm sure it was from something Dave Ramsey said or an article about something he said. Had a nice little Honda when I l...

401k (59%; $11.9k) 20%, $3.9k, Vanguard total bond market index, er = 0.07% 29%, $5.7k, schwab s&p 500 index, er = 0.10% 10%, $2.0k, Fidelity Spartan Extended Mkt Index%, er = 0.20% Roth IRA (41%; $8.1k) 16%, $3.3k, Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares (VTSMX), er = 0.17% 25%,...

If anyone thinks I am looking at this the wrong way, feel free to enlighten me (please!) I think you are looking at it correctly. It would be different if you posted "I hate my job and there is no other job available that I might like better and it is ruining my life". But, instead, you s...

Barefootgirl, don't despair. At least not yet. Working for the government can be very different from working in the private sector and it is difficult to know what a government job entails when you are outside the government. It sounds like you have just not found the right fit. That is by no means ...

In general, if you have too much income to make direct contributions to Roth IRA (making the back door necessary), then you make too much money to deduct contributions to traditional IRA. Also, in the 28% federal tax bracket, it is unlikely (but I don't think impossible) that you can deduct contribu...

fanofjack wrote: As a wise person once told me, "...there is more than one way to get downtown".

Yes. One of our resident wise persons (Taylor) often comments "there is more than one road to Dublin."