Bogleheads.org

ERISA Stone

In my opinion, this is not a victory for lower fees in a retirement plan. The sponsor didn't lose this case because high-fee, actively managed funds were provided. They lost because the exact same funds they offered were available at a lower cost. Honestly, I don't know how this happens with a plan ...

ERISA Stone

A number of years ago I visited my best friend from high school. His wife had died soon after they'd bought a nice home near the beach in Florida. He now had a girlfriend who owned a condo, and they were making plans to move into her condo together. (Both were real estate agents.) Even before they ...

ERISA Stone

I have $200k in my 401k and we are in the process of closing a 424k house with 340k mortgage. We don't need the money to pay for the down payment. The crazy thought we have is should we each take 50k from our 401ks and knock that mortgage by and then pay that interest ourselves? Is 50k limit per ho...

ERISA Stone

"take advantage of aftertax (nonRoth) contributions. " ->"No i401(k) providers offers this feature for free. " Does anyone happens to know a good site doing comparison of the costs associated with plans that have such options? I have mostly read The Finance Guy blog post on the plan he created manu...

ERISA Stone

It's not common but I have worked with a few actuaries on defined contribution plans. Sometimes it just happens to be a component of their business. Anecdotally, it is usually a little higher, but not egregious.

ERISA Stone

As others have mentioned, there is generally no need to pay for an individual 401(k) plan. The only reason I can think of is if you want to take advantage of aftertax (nonRoth) contributions. No i401(k) providers offers this feature for free. Other than that the only difference I see is: Consultatio...

ERISA Stone

I fall in the "life is too short" crowd. I was burned out on my first career at 25. I didn't save often. I spent most of my money back then. I moved to Europe to teach English for a year. I think I had about $10k saved at the time, and it was used to pay commitments back home. I spent my last $$ on ...

ERISA Stone

In a previous job I was told one thing about my 401k eligibility during the initial job negotiations with the owner/CEO and was told something else after the fact by the HR representative when I was onboarded. I forget the specifics but I was kept out of the company's 401k for a few months more tha...

ERISA Stone

Regarding the retirement plan discussion, there are a few limits in play: 1. 402(g) Limit - 100% of compensation up to $18k ($24k if over age 50). This is the employEE deferral limit (excludes nonRoth aftertax conributions). The 18k is an individual limit and is spread across ALL retirement plans in...

ERISA Stone

Something tells me the legal department is well aware of this strategy.

ERISA Stone

Agree with above. However, one thing to be mindful of is if you leave your employer before the true-up is done you "may not" be entitled to it. This happened to me my last year of work. Contributed the max ($24K) in the first two months of the year (then retired). Company plan required I ...

ERISA Stone

Maybe I'm too confined to my little bubble.....but why are the property taxes so high on this property? Is there a lot of land, or are some areas simply that high? I was wondering the same thing. That's over 2% property tax, which I've never heard of. 2-3% is par for the course in Texas. It's about...

ERISA Stone

One strategy to keep things simple is to replicate (as closely as possible) the choices in the federal government's TSP program (tsp.gov) while also keeping fees as low as possible. This is what I do. I would pick those Vanguard target dates and be done. Just curious - do you have to go with Payche...

ERISA Stone

The LLC makes it a little more difficult to control the income for you, but you could consider lowering your income and increasing hers for your company so that you both make enough to max out pre-tax sources in the solo(k). My wife and I operate a business together and when we had a solo(k), our co...

ERISA Stone

You can not have a 5305-SEP plan at the same time as a 401k. Most mainstream SEP IRA custodians (Vanguard, Fidelity, etc...) only offer a 5305-SEP plan. One notable exception is Schwab. They offer a prototype SEP plan that can be used in conjunction with a one-participant 401k. This late in the yea...

ERISA Stone

Do you own the $12M in housing/rental outright, or are there mortgages attached. If so, what's the debt total?

ERISA Stone

I do not include our company's employER contributions on their "paystubs." My payroll provider indicated that I would have to let them administer my 401k plan in order to do this. Do employers get some sort of tax break for their 401k contributions on corporate tax forms (I presume the amo...

ERISA Stone

If your assets were over $250k at the end of 2016, your deadline to file the Form 5500 (EZ or SF) is July 31, 2017.

ERISA Stone

Maybe I'm too confined to my little bubble.....but why are the property taxes so high on this property? Is there a lot of land, or are some areas simply that high?

ERISA Stone

My experience with other companies (Comcast and Directv come to mind) that it usually takes me calling to cancel services to get the promotional rate. Maybe I don't get the lowest of the lows deal, but I am usually satisfied with that I get in return for about 30 minutes worth of hassle.

ERISA Stone

I was able to set up restrictions in my TDA solo(k) document. thank you for this tip. Why/what restriction did you set up in your Individual 401k?. I did it to protect the business in case we had to hire someone all of a sudden and weren't considering the 401k plan. That would've knocked us out of ...

ERISA Stone

Might be another benefit. A friend who owns his one-person company and worked as a consultant told me he used this technique as a way to write off a great deal of his medical expenses. Here's how he explained it to me. Business owners apparently can't deduct the cost of their own health insurance. ...

ERISA Stone

Make sure there is no entry requirement in the Adoption Agreement for your wife. I was able to set up restrictions in my TDA solo(k) document. If there are restrictions, you'll either have to amend the plan or not allow your wife to participate in the solo(k).

ERISA Stone

I hate to go against the board, but personally, 3500 sqft is right where I would aim. My wife and I lived in a 2200 sqft house with one child and we always felt cramped. To be fair, we both worked from home at the time so that might have had something to do with it, but we both felt the same way. W...

ERISA Stone

I hate to go against the board, but personally, 3500 sqft is right where I would aim. My wife and I lived in a 2200 sqft house with one child and we always felt cramped. To be fair, we both worked from home at the time so that might have had something to do with it, but we both felt the same way. W...

ERISA Stone

I hate to go against the board, but personally, 3500 sqft is right where I would aim. My wife and I lived in a 2200 sqft house with one child and we always felt cramped. To be fair, we both worked from home at the time so that might have had something to do with it, but we both felt the same way. W...

ERISA Stone

I hate to go against the board, but personally, 3500 sqft is right where I would aim. My wife and I lived in a 2200 sqft house with one child and we always felt cramped. To be fair, we both worked from home at the time so that might have had something to do with it, but we both felt the same way. We...

ERISA Stone

One strategy to keep things simple is to replicate (as closely as possible) the choices in the federal government's TSP program (tsp.gov) while also keeping fees as low as possible. This is what I do. I would pick those Vanguard target dates and be done. Just curious - do you have to go with Payche...

ERISA Stone

I think your title should be "Thoughts on accepting a lower 401k employer match". 1.5% of $18,000 = $270, that is what you would be missing each year. I don't see that OP gave the formula. You can't calcuate 1.5% of the limit to find the lost amount. Easy example: suppose now OP makes $10...

ERISA Stone

I think your title should be "Thoughts on accepting a lower 401k employer match". 1.5% of $18,000 = $270, that is what you would be missing each year. I don't see that OP gave the formula. You can't calcuate 1.5% of the limit to find the lost amount. Easy example: suppose now OP makes $10...

ERISA Stone

Some advice. If you can pick when to go September is a great time right after Labor Day during the week. Why, weather a little better, smaller lines and better prices. I did this with my kids for years living in South FL. Summertime is painful for Disney 98 degrees and waiting in line for 1 hr plus...

ERISA Stone

There is absolutely no way I would fly (instead of drive) from Atlanta to Orlando, with or without kids. I think this would be a bad decision for many reasons... - I'm not sure how you are coming up with 9.5 hours. Google says this is only a 6hr drive. Leave home @ 9am after the kids have breakfast...

ERISA Stone

We are taking the kids to Disney this year for the first time from metro Atlanta. Including bathroom breaks and eating, I anticipate it will be about a 9.5-hour drive. My wife and I are considering flying down so that we're not stuffed in the car for so long. It seems flying would save us about 3.5-...

ERISA Stone

Something you'd want to consider: Real estate agents are going to work for their own interest above and beyond yours. If you're giving them....say 3% and the aggressive seller down the street really, really wants to sell now, so put a 10% commission in place and everyone else is at 6%, who is getti...

ERISA Stone

I'm not going to speak to the payroll side because I'm not quite sure what your payroll company was attempting to do. I'm with Spirit here. The employee elected an $18k deferral, and $18k was deposited to her account, timely it appears. There is no excess contribution. There is no annual additions v...

ERISA Stone

Another question - you said one Vanguard phone call indicated an excess contribution, which would make me think the participant either contributed over $18k, or he/she exceeded a plan imposed limit. The next Vanguard call indicated it's an annual addition excess, which would mean, assuming your plan...

ERISA Stone

I'm not sure I follow. The employee elected to defer $18k, and you have indicated that $18k was deposited to the 401k plan for his benefit. How did the payroll company decide that the deferral should be $15,100, and not $18k?

ERISA Stone

Some plans suspend your 401k contributions for a period of time if you take a loan (most don't). If this is important to you, be sure to check on it.

IMO, if you are going to spend the money regardless, you should consider a loan from a 401k plan to see if it is a better option for securing funds.

ERISA Stone

I am in the same boat. Our medical practice has an old grandfathered SARSEP-IRA, which if things continue as they are, we will outgrow the 25-person max in 1-3 years. I have been looking into other options. Safe Harbor401k is attractive for how much the partners can theoretically save pre-tax, but ...

ERISA Stone

... How difficult and expensive would it be for my wife and I to save more than $18,500 through profit sharing, especially since the majority of our employees do not currently contribute? You would have to contribute some money for your employees. However, a good actuary can design the plan so as t...

ERISA Stone

Me personally I would resent having to pay 0.08% of my investments but that's just me... We have a smaller law practice and do have a 401K + defined benefit plan but we also have absolutely no fees for the employees. We went with Vanguard/Ascensus, it's a bit pricier more like $3K for the 401K but ...

ERISA Stone

8foot7 wrote:
Hikes_With_Dogs wrote:Red flag in what way?

Is that a serious question?

My realtor has pushed me away from a house that I liked before. It doesn't have to be mutually exclusive that:

1. A realtor gives his/her clients solid advice; and
2. Realtors like to make money

ERISA Stone

Enjoy your Glenfiddich. Stop worrying about what everyone is telling you to do. If you feel content, don't let someone knock you out of your comfort level. Regardless of where home prices are headed, this is the best advice - thanks ERISA Stone. We just have to work on how to stop worrying about wh...

ERISA Stone

Enjoy your Glenfiddich. Stop worrying about what everyone is telling you to do. If you feel content, don't let someone knock you out of your comfort level.

ERISA Stone

No need to take it personally. Most people are NOT driven by optimizing their house-to-salary ratio. My wife is one of them. Several years ago, she gave me a 30 mile radius to find a house from a specific location. I chose a house 29 miles away. That later changed to one specific tiny zip code. Eve...

ERISA Stone

Jeez, these are people just trying to make a buck. It's not entirely their fault customers don't like them. For example, my local mailman, Fedex and UPS drive know I have small children and never ring the doorbell because of the potential naps. The Amazon Flex people ring, bang on the storm door a ...

ERISA Stone

Without knowing your market, if the seller paid $355k in 2012 and completely finished the basement (assuming 1000+ sqft), I don't think their price is unreasonable. Having said that, if you don't want to pay their price, I think you are being reasonable from your viewpoint either. Just don't expect ...

ERISA Stone

I should have no 10% penalty because I am over 59 1/2 and they took 20% out for taxes already. It appears that I can put up to $54,000 into my 403b in a single year, so my plan is to add much of the funds back this year. Vanguard said they would accept it as long as my plan agrees to send it. What ...

ERISA Stone

Thank you all very much. I understand it now. I think I did 4% by accident and will lower it to a 3% nonelective. If we activate the profit sharing I can kick it up to 5% To clarify, your obligation would be the 3% safe harbor nonelective contribution. If you choose to do a profit sharing contribut...

ERISA Stone

ETA: According to this article, 48% of employer plans allow after tax contributions. http://www.bankrate.com/investing/ira/after-tax-401k-rollover-to-roth-ira-okd/ I'm surprised that 48% of plans allow after-tax contributions. Although, since this came from Mercer, I assume they deal with much larg...

Search found 1209 matches