logged into account and money gone

[ecotourist]

Be careful about checking every day…

I agree with that comment.

I have a spread sheet of all our investments that I fill with current values on the last Saturday of every month (to get rid of any time of the month or day of the week issues), and record any assets that are going against the mainstream. That takes about an hour once a month. I don't trade a lot - Warren Buffet would describe my approach as "sloth". I keep winners and trade only when something is moving in the wrong direction over time. That minimizes trading costs, bid/ask spreads, and taxes.

I research mutual funds (and more recently ETFs) carefully before I buy them, and would allow 2 - 3 years of under-performance against peers before I dump them - and then never look back. As you might suppose, that doesn't happen very often. I would sell a stock after months of under-performance (against its peers) and especially accumulating bad news (I read the financial news daily).

On New Year's day every year I make a serious effort to accurately calculate our family's Net Worth. That takes 3 or 4 hours once a year. Doing that has taught me to minimize vehicle purchases. New cars contribute a major loss of value every year. That's why I buy quality vehicles and keep them for 15 - 20 years.

My approach is methodical and possibly tedious. Has it worked? Oh yeah, has it ever.

 

[John Galt]

I’m not going to comment on Vanguard v Fidelity since they are both outstanding financial companies.

However many have posted to leave their 401K plan and roll the funds over to your personal IRA. Not mentioned is that in doing this you are moving to a more risky investment choice.

Money in a 401K plan is absolutely shielded from being lost or garnished to personal lawsuits or personal bankruptcy of the 401K owner or his estate.

Money in your personal IRA gets none of that protection, an IRA is there for the taking just like your bank savings account as far as the courts and lawyers are concerned. If you get in a significant auto accident that’s your fault (as an older adult this risk rises) then the insurance company and personal injury lawyers can and will go after your IRA funds if necessary to pay claims or judgments against you or your estate. If your money is in a 401k the other person’s lawyer probably won’t even take the case, no potential for a payout.

Now nobody expects to end up in bankruptcy or face a huge financial judgment but there can be events maybe outside your control like medical costs, divorce or liability lawsuits that can put one in that situation. The protection that leaving my significant funds in my previous employer’s 401K allows me to sleep well at night - but I’ve also enacted all the security features like two factor authentication, fingerprint ID required for access and turned off electronic distribution - I need to request funds by mail when the time comes for me to do that.

 

[opus1]

I had a similar thing happen, only it was a statement from the old administrator that my account was liquidated and closed - I definitely got my cardio in for the day after reading that

Found out that they moved to a different company, kind of by accident. I had an old 401(k) with the new administrator, and when I signed in to make sure there were no shenanigans going on with that account, I saw that I now had 2 accounts with them; the old one, and the transferred one. A couple of weeks later I came across a letter that said the change was coming. Same situation, it looked like junk mail and I'd put it on my shred pile, unopened. Lesson learned there too.

 

[loneryder]

I have an IRA At Fidelity. I used to consider them the king, back in the days of the Magellan fund. I had it what Stansky was the manager. I even had their select mutual funds they were valued hourly.

Not long ago my buddy emailed me an article, once again to my disbelief, which showed some Vanguard fees to be higher than Fidelity’s.

Likely Fidelity is a logical choice for me.

My wife, by me giving her my cousins’s advice, has only two IRAs, but one that she moved previous employers to. T Rowe, for previous employers, and Fidelity, when she was doing a personal IRA.

It’s a wake up call that many things are not expected. Such as not being able to reach Vanguard outside of Mon-Fri. Could be wrong but I’d expect Fidelity to be 24/7….

Check out T Rowe Price. They rolled my 401k into an IRA for me and charged very little. I have rice joined their managed service. They make adjustments during the year to benefit you the most. So far they have not traded just for fees. Very conservative concerned about security organization.

 

[Pablo]

However many have posted to leave their 401K plan and roll the funds over to your personal IRA. Not mentioned is that in doing this you are moving to a more risky investment choice.

Money in a 401K plan is absolutely shielded from being lost or garnished to personal lawsuits or personal bankruptcy of the 401K owner or his estate.

Money in your personal IRA gets none of that protection, an IRA is there for the taking just like your bank savings account as far as the courts and lawyers are concerned. If you get in a significant auto accident that’s your fault (as an older adult this risk rises) then the insurance company and personal injury lawyers can and will go after your IRA funds if necessary to pay claims or judgments against you or your estate. If your money is in a 401k the other person’s lawyer probably won’t even take the case, no potential for a payout.

Now nobody expects to end up in bankruptcy or face a huge financial judgment but there can be events maybe outside your control like medical costs, divorce or liability lawsuits that can put one in that situation. The protection that leaving my significant funds in my previous employer’s 401K allows me to sleep well at night - but I’ve also enacted all the security features like two factor authentication, fingerprint ID required for access and turned off electronic distribution - I need to request funds by mail when the time comes for me to do that.

Hmmm..........kind of old information.

Nothing protects your 401K from child support suits and such, everything is fair game there. Hope no one here is in that situation.

And of course if you owe Fed taxes, nothing is sacred!!

That said, highly dependent on states. Quite a few states have good IRA protection from creditors. Same as 401K....

https://www.thetaxadviser.com/content/dam/tta/issues/2014/jan/stateirachart.pdf

If anyone (and most here do now) have over a million or two, get some umbrella insurance. Not sure even that is perfect, but it helps from the cases I have read.

 

[xmanjeff]

I agree with that comment.

I have a spread sheet of all our investments that I fill with current values on the last Saturday of every month (to get rid of any time of the month or day of the week issues), and record any assets that are going against the mainstream. That takes about an hour once a month. I don't trade a lot - Warren Buffet would describe my approach as "sloth". I keep winners and trade only when something is moving in the wrong direction over time. That minimizes trading costs, bid/ask spreads, and taxes.

I research mutual funds (and more recently ETFs) carefully before I buy them, and would allow 2 - 3 years of under-performance against peers before I dump them - and then never look back. As you might suppose, that doesn't happen very often. I would sell a stock after months of under-performance (against its peers) and especially accumulating bad news (I read the financial news daily).

On New Year's day every year I make a serious effort to accurately calculate our family's Net Worth. That takes 3 or 4 hours once a year. Doing that has taught me to minimize vehicle purchases. New cars contribute a major loss of value every year. That's why I buy quality vehicles and keep them for 15 - 20 years.

My approach is methodical and possibly tedious. Has it worked? Oh yeah, has it ever.

sounds like a nice system , alot further ahead and far cheaper than a money manager/retirment planner

 

[KJSmith]

If anyone (and most here do now) have over a million or two,

From everything I read, less than 10% of Americans get there.
It is shocking how little people have saved.

 

[opus1]

...If anyone (and most here do now) have over a million or two, get some umbrella insurance. Not sure even that is perfect, but it helps from the cases I have read.

Sound advice. A friend told me it's like fire insurance; you hope you never need it but if you do, you'll be glad you have it.

I got a policy when I lived in my townhouse, partially because I was on one of the committees and could see myself being sued by a disgruntled resident. Still have it because society seems to have become very sue-happy.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

The wife and I are 3rd Generation investors with Morgan Stanley. Highly recommended.

 

[KJSmith]

I am in the managed account group.
I managed my money and my Wifes money when they were 401ks.
It was mostly about growth.
We did pretty good.

Now that we are retired and have IRA's...we are with a large firm.

My reasoning is simple for me.
I have my Guys phone number and cell number.
There is a lot of oversight on my account.
Nothing major will happen without them calling me.
I don't want to deal with it.... I want to be retired.
If something happened to me....my wife wouldn't want to deal with it.
I would rather pick a company/advisor now rather than wait until I am older and forced into it.

 

[Pablo]

My wife has staunchly avoided any financial conversations regarding our retirement and had refused to discuss her plan with her employer. She leaves everything up to me. That all came to an end two weeks ago when her employer gave her some forms to sign and the subject of annuity came up. She had to learn what an annuity is and she didn't like the idea of them. She also didn't want to leave her money with her employer after she retires and since no one has retired yet at her employer, she asked if she could transfer the funds to an IRA.

I'm currently working with Schwab and planning to consolidate things there.

We have the same wife!! Does NOT want to be involved. AT ALL.

Just this week she finally heard back from the state about her two different pensions. Natch she asks me about the numerous options. I recommended MAX $ per month with no survivor beni's. I won't need her pension besides, I go first!!!

 

[John105]

Move it into Fidelity and don't look back.

By the way I was not sure if they still had "real" offices. The one I knew about in King of Prussia, PA, is gone. Little did I know there are 2 more, in addition to downtown Phila., that exist nearby. There's a branch 6.5 miles away in the suburbs. It will be an opportunity for them to sell services, they would be remiss if they didn't try. Things happen for a reason....looking forward to getting this done.

 

[John105]

We have the same wife!! Does NOT want to be involved. AT ALL.

Just this week she finally heard back from the state about her two different pensions. Natch she asks me about the numerous options. I recommended MAX $ per month with no survivor beni's. I won't need her pension besides, I go first!!!

Is that legal in CA? More than 1 husband?

 

[Cujet]

I retired back in May. It's been GLORIOUS, despite some serious health and financial setbacks. Highly recommend! American men average age at death=73.

UBS= terrible. Yes I've made money with them, about 4%/yr. They sold a bunch of my stock without informing me. Excuse=my agent was on sick leave. Result=huge taxes and penalties (about $200K worth). As I had other windfall income that year that I could have delayed.

Ameriprise (used to be American Express investments) = Utterly unconscionable. Burn-y Mad-eoff awful. Used them for my IRA. Put in the max every year for my entire career. I have $35K in there now after their mismanagement.

PNC= Fair. I put money in 3 CD's with them, at a decent rate. Went back to check on my CD's and move funds around and found out they did not put some of my funds in the CD as requested and instead left it in savings. Ugh. I had only one small CD. The MM account had near zero interest. Moved my money out.

Vystar credit union= superb. No nonsense. They did exactly what I asked for, when I asked for it, and I got the expected results.

Solomon Citi, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney or what ever they call themselves now. I don't do business with them anymore. Too big to be helpful

 

[demarpaint]

By the way I was not sure if they still had "real" offices. The one I knew about in King of Prussia, PA, is gone. Little did I know there are 2 more, in addition to downtown Phila., that exist nearby. There's a branch 6.5 miles away in the suburbs. It will be an opportunity for them to sell services, they would be remiss if they didn't try. Things happen for a reason....looking forward to getting this done.

I think you'll do fine with them, they are going to try and sell their service to manage your portfolio, that's a given. They might even tell you how much you could have made had you used them sooner. That's what they told my buddy. Having said that they were not a hard sell. When I spoke with them many years ago I told them I'm self directed, and if I change my mind I'd let them know. The do call every once in a while, and I tell them the same thing. Bottom line is they are not going to piss someone off looking to move an account with a decent amount of money over to them. Good luck!!

 

[John105]

I retired back in May. It's been GLORIOUS, despite some serious health and financial setbacks. Highly recommend! American men average age at death=73.

UBS= terrible. Yes I've made money with them, about 4%/yr. They sold a bunch of my stock without informing me. Excuse=my agent was on sick leave. Result=huge taxes and penalties (about $200K worth). As I had other windfall income that year that I could have delayed.

Ameriprise (used to be American Express investments) = Utterly unconscionable. Burn-y Mad-eoff awful. Used them for my IRA. Put in the max every year for my entire career. I have $35K in there now after their mismanagement.

PNC= Fair. I put money in 3 CD's with them, at a decent rate. Went back to check on my CD's and move funds around and found out they did not put some of my funds in the CD as requested and instead left it in savings. Ugh. I had only one small CD. The MM account had near zero interest. Moved my money out.

Vystar credit union= superb. No nonsense. They did exactly what I asked for, when I asked for it, and I got the expected results.

Solomon Citi, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney or what ever they call themselves now. I don't do business with them anymore. Too big to be helpful

My current 401k went from PNC to Principal. No opinion because I don't again really look. This one is still considerable as I've been with the co. 14 years, but there's no option to roll it as I'm still employed. I've never dealt with an advisor. No offense, but my cousin has built his lifestyle around being one, and sometimes, I wonder. Car racing in Dubai, shore home in Pt. Pleasant NJ, and he's divorced, so he's managed to still have 2 AMG Benzes, and Tesla, a Prius, on and on. He does well by rearranging the money of others. Funny I assumed not 10, but at least 3 mil to get in with him, and he told me you could have 10 or 100 thousand he still wants the business....

The other funny thing, is 2 jobs ago he was out of a branch and he told me a story where his boss told him not to take lunch when he was planning. I said you're an SVP, and you can't decide when to take lunch? He burst out laughing....(I think everyone is a SVP)

 

[ecotourist]

sounds like a nice system , alot further ahead and far cheaper than a money manager/retirment planner

I'm mostly self directed. I have a money manager who I consult occasionally about something I'm planning to do ("Does this sound reasonable?") and my wife and I visit him for a review about once a year. He says I'm doing pretty well. I've told him he's to "turn me in" if/when he thinks I'm starting to lose it.

My costs (MERs + TERs) are in the range of 0.5% -0.55% of the total portfolio. My trading costs are negligible.

The organization also has a managed plan which I would use if/when I can't do it myself anymore and my wife has said that's what she'd use should I predecease her.

My spread sheet calculates the actual amount invested in cash, bonds and equities. I'm currently aiming for 25 - 30% in cash and bonds, with the balance in stocks. It also calculates the international distribution of equities; I aim for 1/3 in each of Canada, the US and the rest of the world. I'm currently a little overweight in the US and a little underweight in the rest of the world. With the US and Canadian markets doing so well recently I've been slowly (meaning at a snail's pace) re-balancing by selling a few equities and buying bonds (which are doing pretty well right now).

Two of my pensions (I have 3 altogether) pay exactly the same amount as long as one of us is alive. I set it up that way on purpose. We're both in fairly good health and my wife is a bit younger, but she had a run in with cancer almost 5 years ago (and appears to have been cured by surgery alone). And I have a better family history so it's not apparent which one of us will go first.

 

[Sam_Julier]

Our savings are with Vanguard. We have roughly 70% in their 500 Index, 10% in their Federal Money Market funds and 20% a few individual stocks: JPM, XOM, Walmart, MSFT, WP Carey.

Our savings in the Federal Money Market fund will cover our fixed costs for 2.5+ years.

We don’t have any debt or a mortgage.

About as simple as it gets.

 

[John105]

Our savings are with Vanguard. We have roughly 70% in their 500 Index, 10% in their Federal Money Market funds and 20% a few individual stocks: JPM, XOM, Walmart, MSFT, WP Carey.

Our savings in the Federal Money Market fund will cover our fixed costs for 2.5+ years.

We don’t have any debt or a mortgage.

About as simple as it gets.

It’s kind of weird how individuals have made themselves rich teaching people how to get out of debt, revealing secrets along the way. Whereas for you and me, and many, it’s simply a by product of behavior and choices along the way.

The icing on the cake for me was when my wife could pick up the medical. I shed about $800/mo (pricey employer plan plus FSA to cover deductible if needed).

 

[zzyzzx]

Money in a 401K plan is absolutely shielded from being lost or garnished to personal lawsuits or personal bankruptcy of the 401K owner or his estate.

Money in your personal IRA gets none of that protection, an IRA is there for the taking just like your bank savings account as far as the courts and lawyers are concerned. If you get in a significant auto accident that’s your fault (as an older adult this risk rises) then the insurance company and personal injury lawyers can and will go after your IRA funds if necessary to pay claims or judgments against you or your estate. If your money is in a 401k the other person’s lawyer probably won’t even take the case, no potential for a payout.

As far as I can tell IRA money is fairly well protected as much as 401K in a lot of places:
https://www.assetprotectionplanners.com/planning/ira-by-state/

I think the biggest difference is the excessive fees 401K's charge and their limited investment choices. I think you can take a loan against a 401K, but I'm not going to do that.