What is the best way to manage and track my IRA account.

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Topic Author
rentonhighlands
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What is the best way to manage and track my IRA account.

Post by rentonhighlands »

How do you track your IRA account? What online tools does the forum members use to track IRA account? Do members track using excel spreadsheets to track?

I have a managed IRA account. What is your opinion? For 2011 I paid $550.00 in fees. I started with a 28,209.66 balance and ended the year with 27628.65.
Are the fees I paid for year 2011 in line with average or way to high?

Thanks for the help

I ask this because the website online tools for my account do not have charts just statements.
livesoft
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Re: What is the best way to manage and track my IRA account.

Post by livesoft »

I paid $0.00 in extra fees for my 2 IRAs, so you can imagine that I think $550 is a bit excessive.

And manage it? My IRAs manage themselves, so I am not sure what you are really asking. What do you mean by "manage"?
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tludwig23
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Re: What is the best way to manage and track my IRA account.

Post by tludwig23 »

What do you mean by track? I go onto Vanguard.com and look at my account if I'm interested.

In 2011 I paid $0 in fees. What exactly was your $550 of fees for?
That's what I do: I drink, and I know things. --Tyrion Lannister
boglestan
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Re: What is the best way to manage and track my IRA account.

Post by boglestan »

That's nearly 2%. There's no justifiable reason to pay that much. And I'm going to guess that if they're charging you that much, they're also charging you in other ways that aren't so obvious. What's the company and what kind of investments do you have?
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tludwig23
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Re: What is the best way to manage and track my IRA account.

Post by tludwig23 »

rentonhighlands wrote: For 2011 I paid $550.00 in fees. I started with a 28,209.66 balance and ended the year with 27628.65...
Hmmm, you lost $581. Are you confusing market losses with fees?
That's what I do: I drink, and I know things. --Tyrion Lannister
Topic Author
rentonhighlands
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Re: What is the best way to manage and track my IRA account.

Post by rentonhighlands »

tludwig23 wrote:
rentonhighlands wrote: For 2011 I paid $550.00 in fees. I started with a 28,209.66 balance and ended the year with 27628.65...
Hmmm, you lost $581. Are you confusing market losses with fees?

No. Right on my statement there is an line item call fees. The fees are $125.00 per qtr and $50 annual fee for 2011.
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tludwig23
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Re: What is the best way to manage and track my IRA account.

Post by tludwig23 »

rentonhighlands wrote:
tludwig23 wrote:
rentonhighlands wrote: For 2011 I paid $550.00 in fees. I started with a 28,209.66 balance and ended the year with 27628.65...
Hmmm, you lost $581. Are you confusing market losses with fees?

No. Right on my statement there is an line item call fees. The fees are $125.00 per qtr and $50 annual fee for 2011.
Ouch. That's brutal. You need to get away from that company/broker as soon as possible. The most you'll pay with Vanguard is $20, and most people pay nothing in fees.

What company is your IRA through?
That's what I do: I drink, and I know things. --Tyrion Lannister
TA_Lurker
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Re: What is the best way to manage and track my IRA account.

Post by TA_Lurker »

rentonhighlands wrote:
tludwig23 wrote:
rentonhighlands wrote: For 2011 I paid $550.00 in fees. I started with a 28,209.66 balance and ended the year with 27628.65...
Hmmm, you lost $581. Are you confusing market losses with fees?

No. Right on my statement there is an line item call fees. The fees are $125.00 per qtr and $50 annual fee for 2011.
You're paying almost 2% in management/advisory fees. That is an insanely high price. Call Vanguard tomorrow, have them transfer assets from your current advisor/custodian, and then check out the boglehead book list in the wiki.
Topic Author
rentonhighlands
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Re: What is the best way to manage and track my IRA account.

Post by rentonhighlands »

The company is RBC Wealth Management. This is a list of where my money is invested. 2% in fees will eat me alive. In my opinion 2% is way to high for an retirement account.


"Ishares Silver Tr
Ishares"

"Ishares Tr Barclays Treas
Inflation Protected Secs Fd
S&P N/R"

"Ishares Tr Jpmorgan Usd
Emerging Mkts Bd Fd Etf
S&P N/R"

"Ishares Tr S&P U S Pfd Stk
Index Fd
S&P N/R"

"Ishares Trust Iboxx $ Investop
Investment Grade Corp Bond Fd
S&P N/R"

"Ishares Trust Msci Emerging
Markets Index Fund"

"Ishares Trust Russell 1000
Value Index Fd"

"Ishares Trust Russell 1000
Growth Index Fd"

"Spdr Gold Tr
Gold Shs"

"Spdr Index Shares Funds
Spdr S&P Emerging Markets
Small Cap Etf"

What I mean by track is for example a spreadsheet where I can enter in my monthly ending balances and it will tell me the gain or loss and percentage of gain or lost each month.
dbr
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Re: What is the best way to manage and track my IRA account.

Post by dbr »

If you are comfortable and reasonably facile with putting together a spreadsheet in Excel or whatever, that works very well. There are tools for downloading data or it may not be particularly onerous to enter data manually from time to time.
Topic Author
rentonhighlands
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Re: What is the best way to manage and track my IRA account.

Post by rentonhighlands »

You're paying almost 2% in management/advisory fees. That is an insanely high price. Call Vanguard tomorrow, have them transfer assets from your current advisor/custodian, and then check out the boglehead book list in the wiki.[/quote]

Why are you suggesting Vanguard? My work 401k is currently through Fidelity. How about one of the Fidelity Freedom Funds choices. The one that fits my age is
http://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual ... =zdypff106
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tludwig23
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Re: What is the best way to manage and track my IRA account.

Post by tludwig23 »

rentonhighlands wrote:
You're paying almost 2% in management/advisory fees. That is an insanely high price. Call Vanguard tomorrow, have them transfer assets from your current advisor/custodian, and then check out the boglehead book list in the wiki.
Why are you suggesting Vanguard? My work 401k is currently through Fidelity. How about one of the Fidelity Freedom Funds choices. The one that fits my age is
http://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual ... =zdypff106
Vanguard is often suggested around here because it offers the best of everything. However, there are alternatives including Fidelity. Most of my money is in Fidelity because that is where my employer-sponsored retirement plan is. You could certainly use Fidelity. Your IRA seems very complex (10 funds) for having $27K in it. I would move to Fidelity and buy only the Spartan Index Funds. I can't imagine you need more than a couple different funds in your IRA if you also have a 401k. I'm sure RBC is going to charge you to move it, but that is a one time hit. You'll be much better off in the long run. Pay it and get out.
That's what I do: I drink, and I know things. --Tyrion Lannister
Default User BR
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Re: What is the best way to manage and track my IRA account.

Post by Default User BR »

I recommend not doing anything in haste, including a move to Vanguard. Maybe especially, as Vanguard's separate brokerage/mutual fund system presents some challenges. You would either need to cash out everything prior to the move, which might cost you a bunch of expensive commissions, or move to VBS, sell stuff, then transfer to Vanguard MF.

Or maybe Vanguard isn't the best place to be. There are many good custodians.


Brian
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Re: What is the best way to manage and track my IRA account.

Post by JW-Retired »

rentonhighlands wrote: 2% in fees will eat me alive. In my opinion 2% is way to high for an retirement account.
Well yeah, 2% is 5 to 10 times too high for any sort of account. But seriously, what did you really expect? Isn't any company with "Wealth Management" in their name going to charge you "eat me alive" high fees?

If not, can someone give us one example of one that doesn't.
JW
Retired at Last
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