NT: Official Personal Finances Thread

[based mod]

 

 

Where does one go to set up these personal ROTH / IRA accts?

Housing an account isnt free though,  there are several potential costs associated with having an IRA account.

Should cost $0 to open an account. Expense ratios for mutual funds are a given but are minimal.

Yeah I know, but maintaining one and using it cost money potentially. I know where I work now theres a 35$ Maintenance fee and ticket charges are 22.50 per equity trade.

It doenst have to cost that much, but I wanted to give him a quick heads up of things to look for.

:x

Which is why I always recommend Vanguard. Solid funds with the lowest expense ratios, no maintenance fee so long as you sign up for e-delivery, no trade fees for their funds.

 

[based mod]

Where does one go to set up these personal ROTH / IRA accts?

You can go do that at your bank/credit union or any financial services company (eTrade, Scotttrade, etc), or you can go to a broker/financial advisor to have them set one up for you. Housing an account isnt free though,  there are several potential costs associated with having an IRA account.

You may to have to pay whats known as a ira maintenance fee to even have an account open ( I know my credit union doesnt charge a fee for this, I dont think Fidelity does either), then if you're going to trade the account you'll be paying ticket charges on the trades you place, and if you go through a financial advisor you'll be paying him a commission or advisory fees.

You could always establish one somewhere and if you dont like the service/find something better you could transfer it/rollover elsewhere (you get an unlimited amount of transfers but only one rollover a year there is a difference)

Thanks for the insight. I just need to get off my butt and talk to my local bank(s) and get the ball rolling on an IRA (traditional or ROTH).

Or just get off NT. Plenty of online resources.

I personally wouldn't go to your typical bank since I'm not sure how much experience they have handling retirement accounts. Some of those guys' jobs are just to convince you to open an account, just like any other salesman. Check for a Fidelity in your area.

Feel free to point me in the right direction per my initial question.

Google's pretty good. Look up lazy portfolios. From my post in this thread:

Best advice I can give to anyone 18 + is go to https://www.sharebuilder.com/ and buy $100 (or as much as you can afford) of Nike stock each month. They will withdraw the $ from your checking account each month, buy the stock for you, and only charge a small fee. Think of it as a bill that you pay each month - forget about it and keep buying more.

Please don't do this, kids. Allocating all of your funds to one company is a bad idea.

If I knew what I know 10 years ago, I would've opened up a Vanguard account account and set up some variant of a "lazy portfolio."

http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Lazy_portfolios

Zero commission & low expense ratios using Vanguard's ETFs/mutual funds.

 

[capital sb]

Which is why I always recommend Vanguard. Solid funds with the lowest expense ratios, no maintenance fee so long as you sign up for e-delivery, no trade fees for their funds.

Agreed most people recommend Vanguard for these exact reasons. Hoping to get some good returns when I open up my Vanguard account. My 401k options suck and is performing very poorly!

I am going to look into trying to put my 401k money into different funds. Someone was saying something about their 401k having a brokerage account you just have to request it?

@Based Mod  I still need to  read through that boglehead wiki and the stock investing series.

 

[Xennial]

Everyone always recommends Vanguard but what kind of Vanguard acct?

 

[captainsneakerhead23]

This thread has been on point

 

[capital sb]

 
Everyone always recommends Vanguard but what kind of Vanguard acct?

IRA or Roth I believe. From there you can choose which funds or stocks you want to invest in.

 

[ace rawstein]

Great info. Took a while to read all that. So, the basic tenets everyone says are:

1.Contribute to your 401k. At minimum, put in how much will get matched. Matched means free money your employer is giving to motivate you to save for retirement. Max you can put in per year is about 18k.

2. Get a Roth IRA (not through work necessarily). Put in the allowed 5,500 contribution each year. This is already taxed so it benefits you since you will not have to pay tax on it in the future at at a higher tax bracket. Also, can pull money out early for special circumstances like buying a house.

3. Anything else you can save look into other investment options that work to your nature (e.g., stocks, real estate, etc). Pick one area and learn it well before spreading yourself too thin.

4. Enjoy life with the rest of your non set aside money.

Spent the afternoon going through this thread...and boom. great recap man.

Point 1. I am doing already with my gig... whatever the minimum my gig offers thats what im doing.
Point 2. I have heard about it but I have never put forth the effort to really figure it out and move forward with anything.
Point 3. Intimidated and Lazy. I just dont know where to start and how to identify a trustworthy source of info that fits my situation
Point 4. No problems here



This thread lead me to track down my retirement account from my first job out of undergrad i held for about 3 years. Maybe you guys can give me some insight on this situation.

I have this first retirement account with around $7000. It was from a state job in Louisiana, so its a state employee retirement account. I have no plans on going back and working for the state or anything like that so I guess the money is just sitting there tell im old or something. But thanks to you guys I now see I can withdraw the money. If i recall correctly, i can pocket the money and the IRS takes 20% off top or I can move the money to another account, which I believe is a Roth IRA and the IRS still takes 20% off top.

What would you guys do? Establish a roth IRA and dump $5k in there? Take the $5k and put it into the 401k I have with my current employer?(Is that a thing, can I actually do this?) or Take the money and dump into my personal savings account? I can see this adding to my savings for a down payment on a home.

Or do you guys have any better recommendations?

 

[Kaleo15]

Terrible topic on my part, but I figure it somewhat has to do with finances...

Who here has life insurance on other people? Whether it's yourself, your partner, your parents... ect.

I'm thinking of buying a 15 or 20 year term insurance for my parents.

I got quotes from a few people last year, $250k each parent for like $400/month.

 

[Gill Baka Esq. LLC.]

So here's my deal.....about to be 30 this month....been in school for a LONG time....bout to finish with my Masters this year.

Is it really bad to start investing in an IRA or portfolio's this late in the game?

Someone please school me.

 

[capital sb]

So here's my deal.....about to be 30 this month....been in school for a LONG time....bout to finish with my Masters this year.

Is it really bad to start investing in an IRA or portfolio's this late in the game?

Someone please school me.

You have to start one day, better to start now. This is assuming you don't have a 401k either?

 

[HankHill]

Spent the afternoon going through this thread...and boom. great recap man.

Point 1. I am doing already with my gig... whatever the minimum my gig offers thats what im doing.
Point 2. I have heard about it but I have never put forth the effort to really figure it out and move forward with anything.
Point 3. Intimidated and Lazy. I just dont know where to start and how to identify a trustworthy source of info that fits my situation
Point 4. No problems here



This thread lead me to track down my retirement account from my first job out of undergrad i held for about 3 years. Maybe you guys can give me some insight on this situation.

I have this first retirement account with around $7000. It was from a state job in Louisiana, so its a state employee retirement account. I have no plans on going back and working for the state or anything like that so I guess the money is just sitting there tell im old or something. But thanks to you guys I now see I can withdraw the money. If i recall correctly, i can pocket the money and the IRS takes 20% off top or I can move the money to another account, which I believe is a Roth IRA and the IRS still takes 20% off top.

What would you guys do? Establish a roth IRA and dump $5k in there? Take the $5k and put it into the 401k I have with my current employer?(Is that a thing, can I actually do this?) or Take the money and dump into my personal savings account? I can see this adding to my savings for a down payment on a home.

Or do you guys have any better recommendations?

You can have it moved into your current employers 401k. That way no tax is applied and yu can continue to make contributions. If not your employer's, then open another rollover-IRA account

 

[dmxfury]

Terrible topic on my part, but I figure it somewhat has to do with finances...

Who here has life insurance on other people? Whether it's yourself, your partner, your parents... ect.

I'm thinking of buying a 15 or 20 year term insurance for my parents.

I got quotes from a few people last year, $250k each parent for like $400/month.

I've known partners in a business doing this but I haven't seen it with personal relationships so much. I don't come in general ever but saw this thread, good stuff. Nice to see people looking forward to retirement and utilizing savings, it's scary the lack of info people (especially young) have in finances


And any insurance questions, especially in the commercial or business lines, feel free to ask (can't imagine a lot but you never know)

 

[Brownstone]

 
Everyone always recommends Vanguard but what kind of Vanguard acct?

There are different types of Vangaurds, essentially what it boils down to is minimum balance and diversification. Some have more fees than others, and some require 5k 10k ect to enroll in.

I'm a firm believer in Fidelity myself though.

 

[superantigen]

P4L.




...

 

[Brownstone]

I work in finance and it never cease to amaze me how little people save. I am talking people 50+ who make 80k+ and have NO retirement. If you are in your early 30's you are still ahead of the game. Even if your employer doesn't match open up a 401k atleast.

 

[Xennial]

 
I work in finance and it never cease to amaze me how little people save. I am talking people 50+ who make 80k+ and have NO retirement. If you are in your early 30's you are still ahead of the game. Even if your employer doesn't match open up a 401k atleast.

I'm 31 and have no retirement.  What's the point of 401k if there's no matching? 

 

[friscostylez]

I work in finance and it never cease to amaze me how little people save. I am talking people 50+ who make 80k+ and have NO retirement. If you are in your early 30's you are still ahead of the game. Even if your employer doesn't match open up a 401k atleast.

where's a good place to open it up at?

 

[capital sb]

If they don't match I would open up an IRA account with Fidelity or Vanguard, more choices and better performance. To make sure you save set up automatic deposits into these accounts.

 

[af1 1982]

Broke down my numbers completely for when I start working.

On a monthly basis:
-max the matching of my company's 401k contribution
-500 into Roth IRA
-$500 into mutual funds
-$500 for personal savings

 

[superantigen]

 
I work in finance and it never cease to amaze me how little people save. I am talking people 50+ who make 80k+ and have NO retirement. If you are in your early 30's you are still ahead of the game. Even if your employer doesn't match open up a 401k atleast.

I'm 31 and have no retirement.  What's the point of 401k if there's no matching? 

Even if there's no company match, it behooves you to invest in a company sponsored plan or an institutional plan because doing so allows compound interest to work on your behalf.

Time is the real currency of value when it comes to retirement plans. With each passing second, you lose some critical fraction of that currency and lessen the impact compound interest can have on your money.





...

 

[sneaksoy]

Broke down my numbers completely for when I start working.

On a monthly basis:
-max the matching of my company's 401k contribution
-500 into Roth IRA
-$500 into mutual funds
-$500 for personal savings

That sounds like a great start. One thought for you - are there any large purchases that you foresee in the short-to-mid term? If you're meeting the employer contribution + $6k a year into Roth, you're going to be saving ~10-12k a year for retirement? That's a very solid amount, ESPECIALLY if you're yoing (28 or younger). Personally I wouldn't invest in the additional mutual funds but rather hold that as a liquid savings in a money market account as you may want to save more liquid cash to buy things like a home, furnishings, etc.

 

[af1 1982]

That sounds like a great start. One thought for you - are there any large purchases that you foresee in the short-to-mid term? If you're meeting the employer contribution + $6k a year into Roth, you're going to be saving ~10-12k a year for retirement? That's a very solid amount, ESPECIALLY if you're yoing (28 or younger). Personally I wouldn't invest in the additional mutual funds but rather hold that as a liquid savings in a money market account as you may want to save more liquid cash to buy things like a home, furnishings, etc.

Major purchase I have coming is probably a car. I start my rotational program in two weeks so I don't want to buy a car until the program is done and I'm done moving around.

I'm 23 so I want to start ASAP. My parents went through it. Cousins went through it. Coworkers went through it. They all spent heavily in their 20s and had to play catch up in their later years. I refuse to let that happen to me. The way I see it. I want to be frugal now so I can relax a little as I grow older

I honestly don't know what I want to invest in at this point mutual funds is what my parents recommended since that's what they use and it's worked out for them. I'm very open to other investments.

The $500 a month I save will most likely be first used to build my emergency fund. Gonna save about 6 months living expenses. It will probably take a year. Anything after that will go towards a new car. Need the new Z or STI

Thanks for the kind words fam

 

[Brownstone]

where's a good place to open it up at?

You should inquire through your employer, hr department should be able to tell you your options.

 I'm 31 and have no retirement.  What's the point of 401k if there's no matching?

Antigen summarized eloquently. I would only add that it is tax deferred (not taxed) and there is a higher ceiling as to what you can contribute compared to an IRA account. Knocking down your tax bracket is the end game here.

 

[djyoung08]

Broke down my numbers completely for when I start working.

On a monthly basis:
-max the matching of my company's 401k contribution
-500 into Roth IRA
-$500 into mutual funds
-$500 for personal savings

That sounds like a great start. One thought for you - are there any large purchases that you foresee in the short-to-mid term? If you're meeting the employer contribution + $6k a year into Roth, you're going to be saving ~10-12k a year for retirement? That's a very solid amount, ESPECIALLY if you're yoing (28 or younger). Personally I wouldn't invest in the additional mutual funds but rather hold that as a liquid savings in a money market account as you may want to save more liquid cash to buy things like a home, furnishings, etc.

Will you explain this please?

Thank you.

I love this thread

 

[generaljumpman]

Wife and I pull in about 9-10K a month after taxes.....but

I pay:

$1200/month in daycare

$750 in car payments

$2300 in rent

$600 in utlities

$300 for car insurance

$600 to 401K and savings (kids already have 60k aside for college, so not saving much for that)

Plus gas, food, entertainment, etc...

Leaves us with about 3-4K a month and somehow we spend it.  But in the last 2 years I have taken vacations to the mediterranean twice, been to Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, London as well.

Can't take it with you...and somehow I manage to carry a credit card balance of aroud 5k all the time.