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petitepedal

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Met with the planner who took over our Simple IRA about the time our company started all new benefits with ADP....So, my new 401k is via ADP..but almost 15 years in this simple IRA..have not moved it. Guy I talked to seemed nice...had an option that was low risk but not sure I can move to it since our company simple IRA was limited...

I have no clue about this crap...just saying ...that sounds good and nodding my head :dontknow:.  The 401k peeps are suggesting changes too...I need to look at that as well.....I do not know this money stuff

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It was interesting to see how much overlap there was in the 3  different plans that made up my portfolio...I think of the 3 plans..maybe 12 companies per plan...out out 36 possible companies 6 or 8 were only in 1 plan...the other 28 to 30 were repeated in each plan.....:whistle:. So much for diversity

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Stick with low cost funds.  For someone that doesn't understand investing, I suggest use index funds that are broad based and low cost.  

A good mix of domestic and intl funds, a percentage of safe stuff (depending on your risk tolerance and timeframe).

Just do not panic sell.  That can be disastrous.  My motto, when it starts diving...BUY MORE!  I intend to hold these funds into my retirement and just take out portions that I need to live on.

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vtsax!  :cheerleader:

Low cost, very diversified. If admirals are too much money, start with investor shares.  

S & P 500 is a great way to go as well.  

Pay close attention to the costs of whatever you choose.  You want low cost funds.

I keep a portion of money in safe stuff, and a larger portion in stock based funds. Also, we have real estate holdings.  

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44 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

Stick with low cost funds.  For someone that doesn't understand investing, I suggest use index funds that are broad based and low cost.  

A good mix of domestic and intl funds, a percentage of safe stuff (depending on your risk tolerance and timeframe).

Just do not panic sell.  That can be disastrous.  My motto, when it starts diving...BUY MORE!  I intend to hold these funds into my retirement and just take out portions that I need to live on.

See? Financial planning done

that'll be 5 cents

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Difficult to say with so few details. Not certain if you can do it since this appears to be an internal company plan change with the option to keep the old plan (Simple IRA). Probably don't have the third option since not leaving the company where can get it out of company sponsored/managed a roll tax free to your personal IRA. It comes down to what the plan sponsors offer. Will typically be either mutual funds or annuities (fixed and/or variable annuities). Not aware of ADP's contracted offering since investments is not their primary business. If is is an insurance company sponsoring the plan, it will be annuities. If you have a choice, avoid annuities as they are overpriced with the (useless) life insurance wrapper, already a tax deferred product so don't need to be under the IRA/401k,403b umbrella, and impossible to get daily pricing or other analysis like you can with mutual funds.

In terms of funds, index fund (broad, like S&P, or narrow, like technology, healthcare, etc) are easy ways to invest. At thus time would avoid ANY bond funds. Not only is the return low but there is significan rik of the net asset value (the daily price per share) going down. Bonds perform the opposite of interest rates. As rates increase, bonds go down. Not an issue if you own the actual bond as at maturity it generally returns it's par value to you. Bond mutual fund never 'mature' as their net asset value continually adjusts to the market. 

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2 minutes ago, Tizeye said:

In terms of funds, index fund (broad, like S&P, or narrow, like technology, healthcare, etc) are easy ways to invest. At thus time would avoid ANY bond funds. Not only is the return low but there is significan rik of the net asset value (the daily price per share) going down. Bonds perform the opposite of interest rates. As rates increase, bonds go down. Not an issue if you own the actual bond as at maturity it generally returns it's par value to you. Bond mutual fund never 'mature' as their net asset value continually adjusts to the market. 

some people use CDs as a proxy for individual bonds. No trading costs and easy in/out

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Try a good preferred dividends index fund.  It's nice to get mini-interest..monthly to reinvest. Now, the problem is fixed instruments interest rates are low. :( Done my stocks thing..so don't want to tilt too much over the cliff in risk. 

One thing for certain it is nice to pay off home.  Other people talk about the joys of renting at mid-life or a lot later.  Not for me, I knew someone who sold her home and she was single, no kids her whole life.  Near the end of her life, she ran out of her money....she was renting and was living tightly...which meant she exhausted money from her sold home.  This is someone who is university educated, had owned and sold 3 different homes during her lifespan, lived a lower middle income class life.

I almost got caught in a pyramid scheme.  She lost $5,000 as a result of being sucked in.  THis is long before she sold her home.

May no one here ever get sucked into cryptocurrencies (ie. bitcoin).  It's not regulated.

 

 

 

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11 hours ago, Dirtyhip said:

Stick with low cost funds.  For someone that doesn't understand investing, I suggest use index funds that are broad based and low cost.  

A good mix of domestic and intl funds, a percentage of safe stuff (depending on your risk tolerance and timeframe).

Just do not panic sell.  That can be disastrous.  My motto, when it starts diving...BUY MORE!  I intend to hold these funds into my retirement and just take out portions that I need to live on.

This.

Between her investing style and control of her expenditures, you could do a *lot* worse than listen to her.

 

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10 hours ago, shootingstar said:

Try a good preferred dividends index fund.  It's nice to get mini-interest..monthly to reinvest. Now, the problem is fixed instruments interest rates are low. :( Done my stocks thing..so don't want to tilt too much over the cliff in risk. 

One thing for certain it is nice to pay off home.  Other people talk about the joys of renting at mid-life or a lot later.  Not for me, I knew someone who sold her home and she was single, no kids her whole life.  Near the end of her life, she ran out of her money....she was renting and was living tightly...which meant she exhausted money from her sold home.  This is someone who is university educated, had owned and sold 3 different homes during her lifespan, lived a lower middle income class life.

I almost got caught in a pyramid scheme.  She lost $5,000 as a result of being sucked in.  THis is long before she sold her home.

May no one here ever get sucked into cryptocurrencies (ie. bitcoin).  It's not regulated.

 

 

 

Many hold stocks well into retirement. Stock picking is a cliff of risk. Index funds are the way to go. 

I shares preferred isn't too bad at the 6% I think it was last I checked. The fees are higher tho, I believe. I hate the fees.

Paying off the house is good piece of mind, but if you have a crazy low rate, some are letting it ride and put the extra in investments. 

Kinda exciting thing I realized yesterday. My interest is now down to less than a $1 a day. Just a few payments left on the home stretch.

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Doing my taxes, I just noticed that my whole 401k is in one fund.  I consolidated then forgot to finish moving some back out!

I do keep money in stocks, some gets spent, some will (hopefully) be there for retirement.  But the winds of change are picking up.  Interest rates rising, this long bull market won't last.  The thing I'm watching for is when to cash out, what to do with the cash.  Buying back in will be the easier call as long as i don't try to squeeze every last penny.

I do have a few years left on the mortgage, but that's only about $350/month

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1 hour ago, petitepedal said:

Looks like an investment with Pacific Life is my next step.

Hate to tell you, but that is an annuity which is very high fees. An easy way to see is the variable annuities that mimic the a regular mutual fund and notice the difference in the management fee. The other thing is, they all have a life insurance policy attached to them, however, that policy is only for the value of the funds invested...not the appreciation. In fact, appreciation maked the insurance worthless...but you continue paying premiums on it for life. Example, say you invested $10,000, and if the investment had a market value $8000, the life policy would pick up the $2000. Hovever, if the market value was anything over $10,000, the account is cashed at the market value and there is no need for the insurance to 'make it whole'. Ignoring variable annuities, understand that fixed annuities ARE NOT CD's or savings bonds and are NOT covered by FDIC. In fact, non-variable fixed annuities are assets of the insurance companies, and if they go under, those annuity assets (your investment monies) become part of the liquidation to pay off the company's debtors. A lot of people don't  realize that. It has happened.

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Too many "financial planners" are really just annuity salesmen.  Be careful!

I may have my answer to "when".  The markets appear to have reacted to the new China Tariffs, rate hike, and outrageous spending of the new budget.  Combined with the attempts to time the short rise and long decline in the economy from the tax plan, the momentum might have started today.  Look out!

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I have no idea what any of the stuff above means, I read very little of it.  It sounds like too much work.  I'd rather not stress about it my whole life.  I'm just hoping for the best.  My employer has a decent retirement plan, I'm sure they'll pilfer it before I reach retirement age.  I've saved some in a 403b, not much.  My wife's start-up hopefully will sell and we can retire off of that.  Otherwise, "would you like fries with that?".

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Just now, Square Wheels said:

I have no idea what any of the stuff above means, I read very little of it.  It sounds like too much work.  I'd rather not stress about it my whole life.  I'm just hoping for the best.  My employer has a decent retirement plan, I'm sure they'll pilfer it before I reach retirement age.  I've saved some in a 403b, not much.  My wife's start-up hopefully will sell and we can retire off of that.  Otherwise, "would you like fries with that?".

Wow, you are such a pessimist.

Putting money in a low cost index fund requires very little work.  With auto deduct, there is even less work. 

Our dividends and income just roll in.  No work required on that.

Now, I do have a certain amount of gambling money that I get to play with.  It is cash that I can afford to put a match to.  That takes a bit more of my effort and work, but I have fun with it.  Sometimes I lose, sometimes I gain.  Mostly, I win.  This is small stuff I play with in our taxable trading account.  I don't do risky games with our nest egg.  That is in boring index funds.  My gambling money gets to run in stock picks and sometimes even the pink sheets.  LOL 

 

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1 hour ago, Tizeye said:

Hate to tell you, but that is an annuity which is very high fees. An easy way to see is the variable annuities that mimic the a regular mutual fund and notice the difference in the management fee. The other thing is, they all have a life insurance policy attached to them, however, that policy is only for the value of the funds invested...not the appreciation. In fact, appreciation maked the insurance worthless...but you continue paying premiums on it for life. Example, say you invested $10,000, and if the investment had a market value $8000, the life policy would pick up the $2000. Hovever, if the market value was anything over $10,000, the account is cashed at the market value and there is no need for the insurance to 'make it whole'. Ignoring variable annuities, understand that fixed annuities ARE NOT CD's or savings bonds and are NOT covered by FDIC. In fact, non-variable fixed annuities are assets of the insurance companies, and if they go under, those annuity assets (your investment monies) become part of the liquidation to pay off the company's debtors. A lot of people don't  realize that. It has happened.

Of course Pratt & Whitney put my pension (already cut in half) into a prepaid annuity from an insurance company.  I keep waiting for that company to decide to file for bankruptcy.  I had no choice in the matter.  That's the way they do it.

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1 minute ago, Dirtyhip said:

Wow, you are such a pessimist.

Nope, I've been at the same place for 27 years, I am amazed at what has happened to us financially, but the pharmaceuticals, protected by lobbyists, are doing great.

The benefits offered are reduced every year, and the amount I pay continues to increase.  As a small example, parking used to be about 7, may 9 dollars a week, now it's close to 2 grand.  This is just to park my car, a mile away from work.  It's not like I benefit from this in any way.

Our insurance options continue to decrease and our share will continue to rise.

We just did a VRO which really hurt every department.  We let go many people with lots of experience, and hired inexperienced people paid less.

If we're lucky we get a 2% raise.

I heard a rumor they may take way part of our retirement.

The good news is our CEO still makes over 4 million a year - and we're non-profit.

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23 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

Pacific Life?  Seriously?

You didn't read any of our advice about fees at all.    

This is the opposite of what I would have chosen for you.  This is not a low cost option.  

I am almost speechless here.  Good luck.

siriusly @petitepedal pm DH  and she will get you the easiest, lowest cost best performing bunch of funds. Likely only 2 funds. A stock fund or a Target retirement fund. Nothing could be esier

 

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22 minutes ago, Square Wheels said:

Nope, I've been at the same place for 27 years, I am amazed at what has happened to us financially, but the pharmaceuticals, protected by lobbyists, are doing great.

The benefits offered are reduced every year, and the amount I pay continues to increase.  As a small example, parking used to be about 7, may 9 dollars a week, now it's close to 2 grand.  This is just to park my car, a mile away from work.  It's not like I benefit from this in any way.

Our insurance options continue to decrease and our share will continue to rise.

We just did a VRO which really hurt every department.  We let go many people with lots of experience, and hired inexperienced people paid less.

If we're lucky we get a 2% raise.

I heard a rumor they may take way part of our retirement.

The good news is our CEO still makes over 4 million a year - and we're non-profit.

My pay has stagnated for a very long while.  Your COLA is higher than mine.  I got 1.75% I think.  

I don't pay parking, because I ride my bike here.  Heard some rumors that they wanted to do bike parking fees, but that has not changed so far.

I have hope for the millenial generation changing a lot of of things.  They are a huge generation.  They want more social based programs and the current people in charge are getting older and dying.  Life always changes.  Sometimes, even for the better.

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3 hours ago, maddmaxx said:

Of course Pratt & Whitney put my pension (already cut in half) into a prepaid annuity from an insurance company.  I keep waiting for that company to decide to file for bankruptcy.  I had no choice in the matter.  That's the way they do it.

I know. I was the same way with my wife. She worked in an industry that only had 403b - non-profits, healthcare, etc - which were designed only to be offered by insurance companies as they were left out of the 401k market. It was really frustrating. While she wasn't in any fixes annuities, constructed an all variable annuity portfolio. The variable sub account is, by law, separate from the insurance company's general assets so would not be impacted on a liquidation of the company. Still, in addition to the high fees, it was next to impossible to follow other than the quarterly report. Nothing like regular mutual funds - daily NAV posting, graphable and 3rd party reports such as Morningstar. The other thing I notived on the few that had a 'sister' mutual fund - such as the Janus Fund - they were the identical portfolio of top holdings, managed by the same fund manager, but the annuity's performance lagged due to the higher internal fee, and of course, having to pay through the higher fee for the (worthless) insurance that made it an insurance product.

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13 hours ago, petitepedal said:

I was taking this guys suggestion..Right now I am in Wahington Mutual, Amerrican Balanced Funds and American Mutual Fund...in a simple IRA...:dontknow:

I know nothing about investing

I don't know this particular guy or the investment, but annuities often have nice payments for the people who sell them.  The "planner" may not have your best interest at heart.

Learning the basics of investing isn't hard, and you really owe it to yourself to understand the basics.    There are plenty of people here who can help, or other resources if you want us to stay out of it.  But please don't rush into anything you don't understand.

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26 minutes ago, Kirby said:

Learning the basics of investing isn't hard, and you really owe it to yourself to understand the basics.    There are plenty of people here who can help, or other resources if you want us to stay out of it.  But please don't rush into anything you don't understand.

Many thumbs up.  You won't get a "do-over" once you buy the annuity.

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FWIW

When you buy an annuity, your net worth goes down by the purchase price. You don't 'own' any asset.

Have $500k in stocks, $50k in cash, and a $20k car loan? You have a net workth of $530k.

Now, take $250k and buy an annuity; your net worth is $280k.

 

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My .02 to the conversation.  

You said your time frame is ten years.  If you have access to Vanguard funds, try something like VTHRX.  You can even build it yourself for less fees by using their ratios to create the same style of fund yourself. This might be a little trickier for you, as you have make sure that you are getting the ratios right.

A target fund has equities of intl. and domestic funds and intl. bonds as well as domestic bonds.  As you near retirement age, the bond holdings increase and the equity amount decrease.  If you don't want to reallocate every year, then just stick with target funds.

https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-funds/target-retirement/#/mini/holdings/0695

VTHRX is made up like this:

Holdings

Underlying funds as of 02/28/2018

Rank Fund name Percentage
1 Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares 42.6%
2 Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund Investor Shares 28.2%
3 Vanguard Total Bond Market II Index Fund Investor Shares** 20.3%
4 Vanguard Total International Bond Index Fund Investor Shares 8.9%
Total  

100.0%

 

In regards to the annuity, don't be pressured.  I looked up Pacific life and the fees end up being quite high.  I was not impressed with their mutual fund listing at all.  If you are not a rich person, you can not afford to pay a bunch of high fees.  That will cut deeply into your nest egg.

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17 hours ago, Dirtyhip said:

I have hope for the millenial generation changing a lot of of things.  They are a huge generation.  They want more social based programs and the current people in charge are getting older and dying.  Life always changes.  Sometimes, even for the better.

I have hope that I'll be dead before the millenials bankrupt the entire country.  Not much hope, but a little.

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