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I told M1 Finance I wanted to leave, and they offered me $2,000 to stay so long as I keep $500k in my account for a year. Seemed worth it.

retired@50 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 14, 2023 2:33 pm The prior linked thread was just a thought, I didn't know if you were aware of it. "Status" is another story (and a million bucks isn't what it used to be), but bonus money is nice too. Best of luck.

Regards,

I hope my reply didn't come off as snarky, that thread was definitely useful. Anyone with the name retired @50 knows what's up. I appreciate you weighing in.

From a prior post, you say you are single, live cheaply, make a quarter of a million a year or more and save a significant portion of that. I'd say quit stooping to pick up pennies on the sidewalk! Pick a brokerage with excellent customer service, excellent investment options and competitive rates on money market funds and stick with them. Perhaps you prefer Citi. I've not been impressed with them in the past and ratings of their service are poor. But you may be happy there. If you aren't you may want to consider Schwab, which I prefer. If you hold cash, you can get 4.27% yield on their SWVXX money market fund. No cost trading of ETFs and stocks. You can buy brokered CDs, bonds and treasuries of all sorts of flavors and set up a ladder if ...

At first glance, you seem willing to put $1M in a bucket to earn $200 - or 0.02% (not 2%, 2/100ths of a %). You may find https://www.doctorofcredit.com/ interesting. You can make more than 0.02% on your money by chasing bonuses from deposits. Not exactly. More like, this million dollars is already in a bucket and that bucket is a bunch of etfs . Maybe you'd benefit from reading some of the posts in the Final, Definitive Thread On Brokerage Transfer Bonuses . Regards, Yes, I did review that thread. I know it is poor forum etiquette to not search first. But that is about bonuses for switching, not benefits of being a client with some sort of status (private banking, CitiGold, etc). But I suppose why not keep bouncing that $ in ETFs around an...

Can you tell us more details about your Citibank setup? Is your brokerage a Citi Self Invest Account, and does that qualify you for Citigold? Do you have Citibank branches near you? Parking a $200k IRA for annual benefits doesn't sound too bad. I do not have any citi branches near me. It is a citi personal wealth management account. It is an older account and can have an advisor but mine doesn't. Etf and stock trades are free, it is basically like the self invest account- if I were opening this account today I would open a self invest. But I already have this and I haven't seen a reason to change it (if someone else knows of a reason let me know!) As it seems to have the same costs, etc. As long as you have over $200k across your citi bank...

At first glance, you seem willing to put $1M in a bucket to earn $200 - or 0.02% (not 2%, 2/100ths of a %). You may find https://www.doctorofcredit.com/ interesting. You can make more than 0.02% on your money by chasing bonuses from deposits. Not exactly. More like, this million dollars is already in a bucket and that bucket is a bunch of etfs. it doesn't really matter where that bucket is (vanguard, fidelity, schwab, robinhood) its contents are going to be the same and perform the same. So is there a place that bucket can earn an extra $200 a year? Or other benefits like Merrill BOA Preferred Rewards. I could move it every xx months when a new bonus comes up, etc, but that seems like a pain and lots of paperwork - but probably easy money....

My company requires that we put in $200 over the course of a year. They put in $400 if you do that. So every two years I move $1,200 out to Fidelity because the investment fees and rates are too high at Optum. They were also charging a fee for statements which I didn't even ask for paper statements, it was annoying. So maybe because we have to do contributions via paycheck every month they don't close it even when I transfer all the $ out.

I have $200k in a normal brokerage investment account so I can get the CitiGold benefits ($200 towards subscriptions, $120 worth of Thank You Points, No ATM fees, etc). I have $75k in my Roth IRA and $60k in a 529 at Merrill Edge so I can get BOA Preferred Rewards (75% bonus on credit card earnings). Retirement and Deferred Comp are at TIAA and can't be changed while employed. HSA (~$27k) is at Fidelity. I have another $650k in a brokerage at M1Finance. I have loved M1 Finance but as they've scaled up it hasn't been the same. I still endorse it, but I hate the 2FA they have now. And I get no benefit for having that much $ there. I do love the auto investment, partial shares, etc. If I get $1mm at Citibank there is another level of status th...

Has anyone heard of this? I got a card in the mail from them that looks like I applied for and opened and account with them. But I never did and I have not heard of them.

I actually am M1 Plus. Debating if custodial account is the way to go. I hadn't really thought about that aspect since was just trying to establish a bank account for them to put extra money (instead of under their bed). I have not done a custodial account on M1. But if I had kids, I think I would. You could use M1 Spend as the savings if you want to just go the savings route, but I like the throw a little in the market experience for them too. No one in my family invested in anything other than savings accounts until I started to, and I wish we had obviously. My parents didn't take the time to figure any of that out because there wasn't anything extra lying around to do anything with anyway. But now my mom is on M1, it is pretty sweet. So...

If my ordinary income + capital gains in a year is over $440k, my capital gains tax would move to the 20% bracket. As I understood it. So long as I am in the 15% it doesn't matter other than the good examples shared here. Would I be better off converting some of my 403b into a roth during a period of under $53k in income or would it be better to cash long term cap gains during that time. The shares I am talking about are $FB. It isn't a ton but enough to result in me having more than 3% of my portfolio in it (if you include the % of $ITOT and $VOO that are also $FB). So that's my reason for wanting out of it, so I have less single stock risk. And I just don't see it going up in the next ten years the way it did in the last ten. But I will n...

M1 Finance. You can open a custodian account if you have M1 plus which also doubles your interest rate from .5% to 1%.
So there they can have it sit in a savings account earning 1% or they can pick and choose some stocks or the $VOO or something like that to have a little fun with too and learn about the market at the same time.

But, I have used and like Ally too.

I am reviewing my financial situation (pretty much the same as the OP).
Should I be buying I or EE bonds?

Let me throw one other thing in that could sway an answer.

I have thought about hanging it up early so I suppose that in a couple years I could have a pretty low ordinary income. I will have to draw off my deferred compensation immediately but am a ways from using my 403b. So I could take very low distributions of the deferred comp for $10k annually say and then have $30k in long term cap gains that I could cash in at 0%. But I have also thought that if I do this, I should transfer my traditional 403b slowly over to a roth version. Pay the taxes on it during that time period where my tax rate would be 12% or 25% for example. But maybe cashing long term cap gains during that period would be better.

Anyway, thoughts appreciated.

I doubt I will be under $40k in regular earnings any time soon to get the 0% rate. When I retire, I am sure I will be pulling at least $40k out of my 403b thus not qualifying for the 0% rate then either. I do not think I will be over $441k in ordinary income + cap gains any time soon (if ever). Given that I am paying 15% on those long term cap gains pretty much no matter what ... am I missing something? Or does it really not matter if I cash some now or a year from now, etc. I have some shares from 10 years ago that are at an all time high. But just want to make sure I am not overlooking anything. I do not think it will gain the way it has moving forward, and it is well represented in $VOO so I would just dump the earnings there for the bet...

I love M1 for all the reasons people have mentioned, I think it is the ultimate place for anyone who is a Boglehead. Create your 3 fund portfolio and chuck money over whenever you have it.

I do not have my Roth IRA there - I do not know how easy it would be to do a backdoor. And Merrill makes it VERY easy, so I just leave that there. All the platforms have different values, Merrill I love because of the credit card bonus (2.625% back on any purchase is top tier and 5.25% on categories - all with no annual fees). But I also have accounts elsewhere too for different reasons. Like Robinhood you can buy crypto for free, which I am not sold on crypto but buying just a little bit.

My dividends for $MUB are showing up on my 1099 as taxable ordinary dividends. But $PZA is showing up as interest exempt dividends.

Anyone have an idea on what is going on?

There is a lot of benefit to not scattering your accounts all over the place. It's easier to make sure that your beneficiaries are up to date. Less paperwork at tax time. One or two should be fine. It can be a lot easier to open accounts than it is to close them out, so I (now) try to be disciplined about not opening more than necessary. I heard this. And there is a lot of arguments against my strategy to have a lot of accounts. I used to use CreditKarma Tax but now have to use Turbo Tax because I have income in more than one state. Turbo Tax makes it very easy to get all my brokerages docs in and is practically automatic. So yeah, you'll cringe but here's what I have and why. M1 Finance Brokerage Account Majority of my investable money go...

Everyone has their own taste on websites, but I've never had a problem with Merrill Edge. Since you are at BOA already, I'd recommend it. I love the 75% bonus as mentioned for 5.25% on category spend (dining, travel, online shopping for example) and 2.625% on regular. To me, I don't see any value you in having a brokerage at Vanguard or Fidelity when you can get benefits like that at one that he connected to a bank. I also have enough in a Citi Brokerage to keep CitiGold status that pays me about $120 in points each year and other great benefits. I am going to have a fair amount of $ in an S and P 500 fund regardless, may as well have some of it there to get paid. ETF trades there are free. But you mentioned auto investing. I used to do tha...

Yes, I guess there is some way to invest within the insurance plan itself. I have never seen anyone on this forum talk about them, so that must mean it isn't too worthwhile. I get 1x my salary in life insurance through work. Which is great but unnecessary too. I wouldn't pay for it if they didn't just give it to us. Different story if I had mouths to feed. Also yes on 529 I would owe the penalty if I spent it any other way than education. When I started that I had thought I wanted and would have kids. So I put it in my name and then would change to their name(s) when the time came. They should make a provision there that if you donate the 529 plan to a nonprofit or educational institution then the earnings aren't taxed. I bought my current ...

Thank you all for these thoughts - I appreciate your time. Here are a couple general follow up responses/details and then some more detailed responses below. 529 - I wasn't looking for tax savings up front as much when I started the 529 but more of savings towards sending my kid(s) to college in a way that was tax advantaged. I worked all the way through college and had a lot of student loan debt, so I wanted them to not have to deal with that. I just saw how far ahead my friends that weren't in that situation were. Not jealous about it, just an observation. So it was a jump start on their savings that could compound and grow before they were even here. But I am pretty sure they aren't coming. While the tax savings up front is only a few hu...

Longtime reader, first time poster. I modeled this off others that I read in the forum and tried to find answers on the forum and wiki before posting. My questions are... Traditional or Roth in my 403b What to do since I have maxed all these options out? Situation - 41 years old. Not married, no kids, no debt. I've never really bought nice things, paid off my $100k in student loans about 5 year ago, and live very cheaply/modestly. I bring in between $225 k and $275k on my W2 income, depending on a few factors. Job is very secure. 403b - $325k pretax, $50k Roth, $375k total - contributing $19,500 annually as Roth (plan does not allow the mega/after tax option) 457b - $45k total (all pre tax) - contributing $19,500 annually HSA - $20k - contr...