Bogleheads.org

I'm really enjoying all of the comments, and thank you all for your thoughts. For the Rollover, would this make sense? VTSAX 65% VTWAX 25% (or VTIAX) VBTLX 10% And for the Roth, would I do the same or something different? I'm trying to understand whether I should have the same funds in both accounts or if I should split it differently. Thanks to all who share perspectives! You need to decide what you want in your portfolio. What percent US stocks? Foreign stocks? Bonds? Once you decide and tell us that, plugging in the funds takes about 5 minutes. But we don't know things like your tax bracket? Married or single? Age? Other accounts (like one at work)? The tax cost of fixing the taxable account? All of those things factor into this decisio...

I have a down payment to make and would appreciate help/advice regarding using IRAs for the payment...and then re-funding the IRA within 60 days after. This can be done, but is risky. Are you willing to pay tax on the withdrawal if you miss the 60 day deadline? Delays are common and could be quite costly. First question: earlier this year I did a Backdoor Roth IRA conversion (eg funded an IRA and then converted those funds to Roth the first available day). Does that "count" as my once-per-year IRA withdrawal/repayment without penalty? No. Second question: Assuming the answer to the 1st question is the Backdoor Roth is a non-factor for the IRA withdrawal/repayment option: both my wife and I have IRAs. Can we both withdraw from our...

Vanguard's PAS is the only advisory firm that I'm comfortable recommending and this portfolio makes me wonder if that comfort is misplaced. I have to say I'm completely boggled by this portfolio. The number of funds is just astounding for Vanguard's PAS - especially putting a small sum like $65k into 15 funds. :shock: And what is the point of having 1 or two shares of a bond fund? Don't take this comment wrong though - they don't have you invested in anything "bad" or "expensive". They have just used way too many funds and the result is unnecessarily complex and confusing. The funds don't care, but it seems that you do. If you decide to do this yourself, reducing the number of funds in the rollover IRA and Roth IRA can b...

Hi, I have a rollover IRA with only funds from a cashed-out 401a retirement plan. Is there any reason not to commingle these funds with traditional IRA contributions from a Roth recharacterization from the current tax year? If you cannot contribute to Roth IRA directly, then the contribution to tIRA (via the re-characterization) would be non-deductible. That means that you will have "basis" (already taxed money) in your tIRA even if the two IRAs are separate. That means that whatever you do with your IRA from now until the IRA is empty will have to be pro-rated between the pre-tax money and the after-tax money. Is that something you want to deal with? If not, you may want to have your custodian completely remove the contribution ...

Hi, I have a rollover IRA with only funds from a cashed-out 401a retirement plan. Is there any reason not to commingle these funds with traditional IRA contributions from a Roth recharacterization from the current tax year? If you cannot contribute to Roth IRA directly, then the contribution to tIRA (via the re-characterization) would be non-deductible. That means that you will have "basis" (already taxed money) in your tIRA even if the two IRAs are separate. That means that whatever you do with your IRA from now until the IRA is empty will have to be pro-rated between the pre-tax money and the after-tax money. Is that something you want to deal with? If not, you may want to have your custodian completely remove the contribution ...

I think people who are "driven" to the RV life don't really need the rental "try-out". These people know who they are.

For people who have never considered it before, like our original poster, I'm not sure that jumping in feet first with a large outlay of money is a good choice. Now, if original poster said "I've been mulling this over for months and just can't get it out of my mind", I'd say "go buy something and give it a whirl".

Regarding the rent suggestions, I would say that kills a good part - maybe more than half - of the advantage of owning an RV, so you might not feel the same benefit as you would from owning. To me, renting an RV is something to do a few times to be sure you like the lifestyle. Or to accomplish a certain goal on a certain trip. Either you enjoy the RV lifestyle or you don't. Renting is a way to find out. If you do enjoy the lifestyle, renting is not going to be as satisfying as owning in my opinion. But only a part of the RV lifestyle will be available if you rent. A big part, maybe the biggest for a lot of people, is having all your "stuff" ready to go in the RV at all times, so you can just take off for a day or a week with virt...

tibbitts wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 3:01 pm Regarding the rent suggestions, I would say that kills a good part - maybe more than half - of the advantage of owning an RV, so you might not feel the same benefit as you would from owning.

To me, renting an RV is something to do a few times to be sure you like the lifestyle. Or to accomplish a certain goal on a certain trip.

Either you enjoy the RV lifestyle or you don't. Renting is a way to find out. If you do enjoy the lifestyle, renting is not going to be as satisfying as owning in my opinion.

Kelly, it appears you have moved your accounts over to Fidelity. You have a taxable account, a traditional IRA and a 401k at NetBenefits. And your spouse also has a 401k at NetBenefits. You have been busy buying some of the "right funds". What you do not seem to have yet is a plan and I think that is what you are starting to work on now. Your plan should be looking at all 4 of these accounts (and any others we don't know about) as one portfolio. Your first decision, other than how much to save, is what you want your stock to bond ratio to be. The portfolio as a whole needs to reflect that ratio. You do not need (or want) each account to reflect that ratio. Have you decided on a stock to bond ratio? And how much of your stocks (if ...

Would a contribution to tIRA be deductible for you? This depends on your total income. It has nothing to do with where the money comes from.

Why are you considering a "reverse rollover" into your 401k?

You have picked up on the elegance of the G fund quickly. :happy Thanks for the perspective. I will get the right stock/bond mix my matching Vanguard or the MD 529 target date funds, and just pick something for the international equity fraction, something like the 30-40% that seems to be common. For international, suggestions range from 0% to about 50% of your stock. Jack Bogle said that none is needed. Vanguard likes 40%. I think the TSP is a little less. Many say that 20% as low as one should go if you want to hold international. Some make the moderate choice of about 1/3rd. Obviously, there are a lot of "right answers" in the range between 0% and 50%. :happy The important thing is to pick a number and stick with it rather than ...

Perhaps there is a dollar amount, under which they do not have to send a form?

I would not report this on my taxes - it rounds down to $0 - so there is nothing to report.

steve321 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 2:55 pm I saw some to rent for a week or so: would you agree that it's best not to rent a long one for the first time? That's what my friend said, to ideally find one say 5 or 6 meters long at the maximum.

If you are not accustomed to driving long vehicles, this is good advice. They do not maneuver like a car or truck. In particular, you will need to learn to swing out wider and longer on turns.

Chances are you won't have losses in Wellesley since you have not been buying it recently. But you may have losses in other funds. You could sell the losses and offset the gains on a similar amount of Wellesley.

If you are a charitable donor, you could donate some appreciated shares to charity and pay no tax.

fsrph wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 1:31 pm Yes, I contributed to the company 401k till April 2022. After that I did not have access to the plan.

If either you or your employer contributed any time during the year, you were "covered by a plan at work". So the ordinary rules of deduction apply to you.

sal14 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 7:36 am I initially thought the main reason for buying bonds was that they moved in opposite direction as stocks so it brings some stability to your portfolio but it looks like they been moving the same way for the past few years.

This is a common misunderstanding. Stocks and bonds do not go in the opposite directions. What one does is not highly correlated with what the other one does.

That means there is a possibility that bonds will done well when stocks don't do well. But anything can happen. There are even times (even decades) when bonds return more than stocks.

Ii would use Fidelity® U.S. Bond Index Fund (FXNAX) or a combo with stable value (half and half). It depends on what the stable value fund is paying at the current time.

Vanguard Tax Managed Balanced fund is the only balanced fund I would consider for a taxable account in the 35% tax bracket.

I really like to use lifecycle funds whenever possible, they are so easy, and would make thing simple for my spouse if I expire early! But...the TSP lifecycle funds seem to put a lot of the portfolio in the "G-fund", especially nearing and in retirement (right now the Target 2050 has 10 % in G-fund, and in retirement is is 70 %). To my amateur understanding, the G-fund is similar to the "short-term" funds offered by Vanguard. Vanguard only starts to add Short Term funds once retirement age is reached, and then it never comprises more than 17 %. The TSP lifecycle funds hardly use the bond fund (F-fund) at all, with maximum of 8 %. I don't understand why TSP chose this asset allocation, but suspect is has to do with the f...

What do you mean by "even contributions I had not made yet before the rollover"? I'm a bit baffled by that.

Why do you think her IRA contained basis?

Raven9 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 4:07 pm No. Just wondering if it would be more advantageous to take advantage of some of the decent online high-yield savings accounts while the gettin's good! Close to 5%.

You don't want to take money out of Roth IRA and put it in a savings account. It needs to stay in Roth IRA unless you want to use it.

The question is whether to leave it where it is or roll it into the Roth IRA you have at Vanguard. Either way, it should be invested, even if only "invested" in a high paying money market account.

What you should invest in depends on what you want your portfolio to hold and what you hold already. We don't know either of those things.

If you want something cash like, what is available where the money is now?

Doing the form by hand, this is what I get.

1. 6000
2. 6000
3. 12000
4. 2000
5. 10000
6. 0
8. 9876
9. 9876
10. 1
11. 9876
13. 9876
14. 2124
16. 9876
17. 9876
18. 0

I think if you use software, it will be the same except line 14 will be $0.

My taxes are not hard. Can usually do them with TurboTax in an hour. Let it marinate a month or so. Check again and send. Make notes for the next year, figure out what my withholding needs to be to get to a safe harbor....forget it for 10 months. Figure out in December how much to convert to Roth without triggering IRMAA.

A lot of this is because i have intentionally kept my financial life simple.

steve321 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 3:06 pm

quantAndHold wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 2:36 pm You’re always going to be tinkering, and things will always be breaking.

You mean the engine too is less reliable?

In my experience, it was not the engines being unreliable. But there is almost always something to fix. Sometimes it is a major something to fix. More often, just a lot of little things to fix.

When it goes, the growth of basis is taxable, so if I convert it wont I have to pay tax on the growth portion anyways? I'd have to find the ratio of basis to total and that's the amount of basis that would be converted tax-free, while the rest would be taxable right? I'm not sure what your question means. Your contribution can grow. Or shrink for that matter. But basis does not grow or shrink. Think of "basis" as "credit" for having paid tax instead of dollars on which you have already tax. If you would prefer to avoid all this, just wait until your tIRA has recovered its original value and then do the conversion. You may have to pay tax on a few dollars if the contributions grows to more than the original amount. Yes I...

So if I contribute $6000 to a tIRA, it declines in value to $5,500, and I convert the entire thing to Roth, then my IRA still has basis even though there is $0 in it? Good question! Depends on who you ask. :D If you do the Form 8606 by hand, yes...you still have $500 basis showing on line 14 even though there are no dollars in the account. If you do the form with some software, it eliminates the $500 in basis and puts $0 on line 14 (the basis going forward). It has been suggested by at least 1 person to always leave $1 in the tIRA. This is not enough to change your taxable amount calculated by the 8606 (because of rounding), but it does cause software to show a basis on line 14 instead of $0. So it is difficult to know for sure if there is...

A motorhome is a bit like a boat. For many, the happiest days in your life are the day you buy it....and the day you sell it.

Unfortunately, the only way to know if you want to do this is to actually do it and see how you like it and if you want to continue.

I'd suggest renting a motorhome or travel trailer and giving it a try for a few weeks. Or go on a trip with your friend.

In my opinion, if you are likely to get into the 12% bracket, that is the time to do Roth conversions.

sagan23 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 9:08 pm 20k expenses includes an HVAC replacement during that time (but not a roof). The 10k buffer is to help account for those kinds of expenses, some extra travel, and healthcare. Even if my expenses double I would just then hit 4% withdrawal rate.

Hitting 4% every once in awhile could be just fine. However, you do not want to be draining your portfolio using a 4% rate year after year.

Remember that 4% was only shown to be "safe" for 30 years. Retiring at 45ish, you may need a lot more than 30 years.

Also keep in mind that the 4% includes both state and federal income taxes. And investment expenses if you are paying an AUM advisor.

So if I contribute $6000 to a tIRA, it declines in value to $5,500, and I convert the entire thing to Roth, then my IRA still has basis even though there is $0 in it? Good question! Depends on who you ask. :D If you do the Form 8606 by hand, yes...you still have $500 basis showing on line 14 even though there are no dollars in the account. If you do the form with some software, it eliminates the $500 in basis and puts $0 on line 14 (the basis going forward). It has been suggested by at least 1 person to always leave $1 in the tIRA. This is not enough to change your taxable amount calculated by the 8606 (because of rounding), but it does cause software to show a basis on line 14 instead of $0. So it is difficult to know for sure if there is...

So if I contribute $6000 to a tIRA, it declines in value to $5,500, and I convert the entire thing to Roth, then my IRA still has basis even though there is $0 in it? Good question! Depends on who you ask. :D If you do the Form 8606 by hand, yes...you still have $500 basis showing on line 14 even though there are no dollars in the account. If you do the form with some software, it eliminates the $500 in basis and puts $0 on line 14 (the basis going forward). It has been suggested by at least 1 person to always leave $1 in the tIRA. This is not enough to change your taxable amount calculated by the 8606 (because of rounding), but it does cause software to show a basis on line 14 instead of $0. So it is difficult to know for sure if there is...

You apparently have enough time with the Fed govt to get a pension. Are you not also able to use FEHB health insurance? Much cheaper than ACA and likely better coverage.

Even with the updated information on spending, it is unclear if the numbers listed refer to what you pay each year for expenses or what you two together pay for expenses.

Welcome to the forum.

Yes, it is messy. And not the usual we see from Vanguard's PAS. Have there been a number of different advisors or just one over the years?

I'm going to guess that your advisor has been very aggressive at tax loss harvesting and that is one reason why you have ended up with so many funds.

If you are now willing and able, I see no reason you should not take over portfolio management yourself. This could be simplified considerably and with the market down, there may not even be a large tax cost to do it. Some time and effort would be involved. Are you interested?

The good news is that the Advisor has you in good investments. Criticisms are that you are in a lot of funds and you are paying 1.1% Assets Under Management. The Advisor picked good, low cost investments. Vanguard, Dimensional Fund Advisors, iShares (Black Rock), State Street, Wisdom Tree, and Avantis are all excellent providers. I am not going to run all of this through portfolio X-Ray at Morningstar, so I can't speak to portfolio construction. I can see that you didn't get ripped off. I do think he used too many funds. It looks a lot like a Paul Merriman portfolio. So taken as a whole, it was probably tilted towards Small Cap and towards Value. So it is a classic factors portfolio. Without doing the X-Ray, can't say with 100% certainty, ...

A lawyer could perform some duties, but that could get very expensive. I've heard of "geriatric case managers" and there apparently is a certification for it. Might be something to consider.

It could be as simple as this 2 fund portfolio.


First IRA 700K45%
30% Total Stock Index (or 500 index)
15% Total Bond Index

Second IRA 25.8%
10.8% Total Stock Index (or 500 index)
15% Total Bond Index

First Roth 300K19.4%
19.4% Total Stock Index (or 500 index)

Second Roth 150K9.7%
9.7% Total Stock Index (or 500 index)

If you want to hold international stocks, replace some of the US stock with a Total International. You could add a bit of REIT or value stocks if you wanted. If you are retired and concerned about unexpected inflation, replace some of the Total Bond with a TIPS fund. The possibilities are endless, just depending on what you want. None of them need to be complex.

CKMAN wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 10:57 am First IRA 700K
Second IRA 400K
First Roth 300K
Second Roth 150K
Desired allocation is probably 70 stocks/30 bonds
Thank you

There is no taxable account? It's not impossible, but most people with that much in IRA/Roth IRA also have a taxable account. If you do, that needs to come into the planning as well.

Is 70/30 what you think you have now?

I think there is definitely a playbook at Vanguard.

Since people under a certain amount of assets are assigned to a pool of advisors rather than a specific advisor, there would have to be some kind of playbook to provide continuity.

Maybe those folks who have enough money to be assigned to a specific advisor are able to get more flexibility in how their money is invested?

Actually, I don't know for sure about this "pool" vs an assigned advisor, but that is how I interpret what I have read hear from other posters.

I don't think exchanging to taxable bonds makes sense because of the 27% marginal rate. Putting some bonds into Roth IRA might make sense but that is unthinkable by many members of this community (I don't happen to be one who thinks that). But these things are hard to visualize with so little information. What are the relative sizes of each account....taxable/tax deferred/Roth? Did you see my question about the taxable income from the portfolio? Is it really under $44,625 (plus deductions)? Even if it is, have you considered that doing Roth conversions now (and being in a higher bracket for a few years) might be better than letting your tax deferred account grow for decades and then being taxed at higher rates than we have for the next few ...

I have no idea what most of those funds are, but it does not matter. The portfolio is just beyond ridiculous. Sorry, that is the nicest description I can think of :happy There are way too many funds. There is no way for you to know what you actually own. There is no way to know how to rebalance. And it causes a continued and unnecessary dependence on the services of someone who does not have your best interests in mind. "Fiduciary" does not always mean what people think it means. This is a classic "baffle them with bullstuff" portfolio. You can do way better. The good news is that this is all in IRA - which can be sold and replaced without triggering taxes. Consider if you want to restructure and maintain your portfolio ...

vchiu25 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 6:25 pm Thanks for the feedback

To give more context. I’m 42, single no state tax. I have 3.5m portfolio that looks like this

1.2 million in bond (500k in 401k and 600k in taxable)
2.3 million in stock (70/30 US and intentional)

By my calculations my dividend will put me on the cusp between 12-22% tax bracket

I’m wondering if I should keep 500k in tax exempt or change to total bond when I retire next year

Are there any action I can take to make it more tax efficient when I have no salary?

With these numbers, it is hard to see how your total taxable income could be less than $44,625 (this year's number to stay under) even if all of the bonds in taxable are tax exempt. Is that what you are telling us?

Welcome to the forum. :D 1. What recommendations do you have about my (His) TSP allocation plan? There is nothing wrong with how you are doing this, but why not just use the L fund instead? 2. For His TSP, I’ve been doing the traditional contributions. Should I be doing any Roth contributions instead? Some fraction of traditional/Roth? I think you should be using Roth - because of the pensions. With 2 pensions and. at least 1 SS income, you will probably need very little from a tax deferred account in retirement. Having a very large tax-deferred account is more likely to become a burden than an asset. I suggest putting at least half of future savings (both of you together) into Roth accounts rather than tax-deferred accounts. 3. The E.R. se...

GaryA505 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 6:24 pm 1/2 US-only, 1/2 global.

Actually, Wellesley does have a little international stock - about 9% of the stocks last I looked. But the combo averages to a number I could be happy with.That is one of the reasons I'm considering doing this.

Welcome to the forum.

Nobody here is going to suggest that you invest in 2 or 3 stocks. But maybe you meant 2 or 3 stock funds and there would be a lot of support for that.

In order to get reasonable suggestions, you should consider posting your information in the format we use to help people with their portfolio questions. See the link at the bottom of this message for how to do that.

If you both want to give the baby your real family last name, I would do it. Yes, there will be some minor aggravations, but schools and governments are already faced with similar situations everyday due to marriage, divorce, blended families, adoptions, etc. I suspect this is not nearly as awkward or difficult now as it was in 1950.

While traveling abroad, I'd carry a birth certificate which should clearly show all 3 names on the same document.

Have any of you older Bogleheads had any experience with VWIAX? (Wellesley Income Fund) No experience yet, but I've been looking at Wellesley a lot lately. I'm considering simplifying my portfolio to a mix of Wellesley and Lifestrategy Moderate Growth, half and half. I don't want the Lifestrategy alone because of the high percentage of international and the lack of a value tilt which I currently have. This mix would come close to what I currently have with fewer funds and little need to rebalance. I don't want Wellesley alone because I don't want a 100% actively managed portfolio. When I put the two portfolios into Portfolio Visualizer earlier this week, the 2 fund portfolio had a tiny bit more return with a little less risk and a tiny bit...

Rogue advisors. Interesting. Looking forward to what you find out.

If you still have a good sum in taxable, you can buy the house from taxable and exchange some of the bonds in the IRA to stocks to replace the stocks you no longer have. This would avoid paying tax on a $500k withdrawal from IRA in a single year.

vchiu25 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 5:27 am My qualified stock dividend is in 12% bracket but if I add bond dividend it will put me a little bit over. Would I then have to pay 15% tax on all the qualified dividend?

No. But numbers are needed to know how much.

The marginal rate on some of those dollars would be 27%, not 15%. But any qualified dividends "below the line" are still taxed at 0%. With some numbers, this could be explained better.

Ps for 60/40 I don’t have enough room in tax advantage for my bond

Ok. If you switch to taxable bonds, some of that bond interest will be taxed at 27%. This makes the tax-exempt bond more attractive than one would think if you didn't know that.