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Hello everyone. My wife and I just finished paying off our student loans, and that event calls for a re-evaluation of our IPS, as we will now have to decide on starting a taxable account, or paying down our mortgage. My wife and I are 35 and 37 years old, and our household income is around $550k/yea...

I thought I'd give some follow up as I did indeed go ahead with the cash balance plan. W-2 is the way to go, there was no reasonable option to do the plan under 1099 income. Overall this is a complex process to set up. I consider myself fairly savvy with personal investing, but this really does take...

After more examination, it's probably not worth putting the CBP in the 1099. Captive Insurance was on the IRS "Dirty Dozen" last year. Seems even riskier. https://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/Abusive-Tax-Shelters-Again-on-the-IRS-Dirty-Dozen-List-of-Tax-Scams-for-the-2015-Filing-Season So the ...

Thank you for the reply. My thought is the LLC has a defined term in this case (the practice could shut it in 10 years). That would reduce some of the risk by keeping the term a bit shorter. Everyone could roll the cash balance to their IRA. At that point, a new LLC could set the same thing up. If a...

My physician partners and I are looking at cash balance plans. We currently have a 401k with a match and profit-sharing that takes partners to the $52k/year max. We have about 20 physicians, and 40 non-highly compensated employees. The physicians all get additional income via a 1099 from an LLC each...

The Great Loop sounds great too. My thought has been try do the great loop first, then graduate to bigger boat a few years later to go offshore. From what I've read, sailboats are more economical, but seem much less comfortable, and cause more delays with weather. Reading some books on Kosmos (The U...

It has been a longtime dream of mine to travel the world by boat after retirement. My wife and I want to see the world in a power trawler... at least my wife seems onboard with the idea for now :happy. To me, it seems like a wonderful way to see the world with some adventure, and travel to places ot...

Neither 401k plan will accept the rollover because our IRAs include previous 401k/403b rollovers combined with personal IRA contributions. The plans both would accept a rollover if it only contained previous rollovers from 401k/403b money. The math is a bit murky - I'm not sure we'll reside in a sta...

My understanding is that we can't do any further back door Roth contributions until we get rid of my traditional IRAs. Can't roll them to the 401k, so the only option is coverting them. I feel that the longer we take to convert the traditional IRA to Roth, the less benefit we will see from it. If we...

My wife and I are 34 years old. We are in the 33% federal tax bracket, and 5.92% state and at least 20 years from retirement. We have about $100k ($70k me, $30k her) in traditional IRAs, which is a combination of prior contributions and rollovers from old 401ks. Together my wife and I also have abou...

Vanguard moved several funds from MSCI to FTSE a few years ago if I recall. Vanguard Total World, FTSE-ex US, and Total International are all FTSE. Vanguard Total Stock is CSRP I didn't really give each particular index much thought, since the exceptions were such a small part. Who cares about a few...

One note from all the press around Alibaba was that it is not currently included in the MSCI index (and other indexes tracked by passive funds like FTSE). From what I understand, the issue arises when the company is based in one country and listed on the exchange of a different region. A Reuters art...

Thanks for the input everyone. The shares for PIMCO are definately class A (PTTAX) not ADMIN shares. With my wife's 403b, there is a self-directed option. Are there any problems with a 401k offering Target Retirement Date funds as a default, and only offering a self-directed option besides that? Why...

My employer has approximately 100 employees. I have an opportunity to become involved in the 401k committee should I choose. Right now, the 401k offers Vanguard Retirement Date funds, which are plenty for me. Our 401k is administered by Vanguard, and we have help from Morgan Stanley to "guide&q...

I thought I'd give a brief update: I kept the 401k and 403b in Vanguard Target Date funds. All traditional IRA money is in LifeStrategy Moderate Growth Fund All Roth money is LifeStrategy Growth Fund Combined, the funds put us fairly close to our desired AA. Things are much more simple! I will need ...

Thanks for the feedback. I was mistaken - I assume money in the Roth is worth 25% more than the same amount in 401k/403b/traditional IRA etc. I'm glad I'm overthinking this. I have considered moving everything to Target Date funds, but I was afraid I'm missing something with something that simple. S...

First off - Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone on this site. I have already learned so much from lurking for a few weeks. Tax: Married filing jointly with 1 child Tax rate: 33% federal, 5.92% state Age: I’m 33, wife is 32, son is 2 Debt: Student loans of $125k at 4.75% and $47k at 6.625%...