Gonna go up at some point just when?
Personally, I'd take the 3.9% fixed. The 1% difference now isn't worth the risk that rates jump, imo.
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Personal Finance Advice and Education! (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter No. 16
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Personally, I'd take the 3.9% fixed. The 1% difference now isn't worth the risk that rates jump, imo.
Chadstroma
Footballguy
It will go up, the question is how much and when. Only 105bps difference, I would take the fixed unless you expected to pay off even quicker than the 5 years... then I would take advantage of the lower rate and try to knock it out before any worries about the rate going up too much. But even if you don't take that route you could take the variable and be ok. Most likely by the time it goes up to the point you will be higher than the fixed (assuming it does)- you will have knocked the principle down enough that it wouldn't hurt much and you would still come out ahead.
Chadstroma
Footballguy
Nothing I would particularly say but I do love FeeX to double check your current funds for similar ones at lower cost. I thought I did a good job in keeping the cost ratio down but using this free site, it found a couple of moves I could make with estimated savings of about $3K over 28 years. Moved VDAIX to VIG and FUSEX to VOO. I would certainly recommend everyone using this site to further find cost reductions in your funds.
Random
Footballguy
This. We have moved funds to VOO in our IRAs for our sp500 exposure. Any downside to this?
Chadstroma
Footballguy
Nothing I would say in my case of moving from the FUSEX to VOO- basically same exact thing just lower cost. I have a mix of funds and a few companies. I put a good amount of effort in looking for lower cost funds in my choices and felt I did well but FeeX is a great way to double check your work.
I am one in the boat of not having your funds over managed and then your return eroded from higher cost. I park the money and let the market forces give me the returns and protect that by keeping the costs down.
Personally, I can't see a downside.
ThreeThousand
Footballguy
This is an awesome resource. Just make sure you watch out for any tax implications of your trading. I saved something along the lines of $50k over 29 years and I was already pretty low-fee.
Warrior
Footballguy
Hey guys, my father and I have had a good chunk of $ invested in mutual funds through Edward Jones for quite a few years. I've been going through the fees those funds are charging (anywhere from .58% to 1.08% for mine) and the performance. Needless to say, I'm now leaning towards shifting the accounts to Vanguard. I'm not really seeing any benefit to keeping the funds at Ed Jones. Most of these funds are American Funds which had a front-load fee (yikes).
Anyway, I'm looking for advice on the move. First, can someone confirm that for two investors (my dad and I) who don't need any real hand holding, staying with EJ is pretty senseless? I'm wising I would have come to this conclusion earlier. Next, I wanted to know how difficult the process is to sell and re-buy through Vanguard. Can the Vanguard rep do the entire process over the phone, or will I need to speak with the sleazy EJ rep who will be trying to lure me back with his sales pitch?
Finally, my dad is pretty old school and he would like to have paper statements and information mailed to him. I'm helping him a lot with the process, but he's not computer savvy and his main worry is that he wants to have the relevant information sent to him in paper copy. He's pretty dubious about transferring his $ online as he has a tough time understanding the interwebs
Hopefully this is an option with Vanguard? If so, do you guys know what fees might be involved?
I know I can find this information over the phone with Vanguard, but I have lots of up front prep to do before calling them and I know you guys are a great resource for advice. Hopefully some of you have some experience I can draw on. Thanks in advance!!
Anyway, I'm looking for advice on the move. First, can someone confirm that for two investors (my dad and I) who don't need any real hand holding, staying with EJ is pretty senseless? I'm wising I would have come to this conclusion earlier. Next, I wanted to know how difficult the process is to sell and re-buy through Vanguard. Can the Vanguard rep do the entire process over the phone, or will I need to speak with the sleazy EJ rep who will be trying to lure me back with his sales pitch?
Finally, my dad is pretty old school and he would like to have paper statements and information mailed to him. I'm helping him a lot with the process, but he's not computer savvy and his main worry is that he wants to have the relevant information sent to him in paper copy. He's pretty dubious about transferring his $ online as he has a tough time understanding the interwebs
Hopefully this is an option with Vanguard? If so, do you guys know what fees might be involved?I know I can find this information over the phone with Vanguard, but I have lots of up front prep to do before calling them and I know you guys are a great resource for advice. Hopefully some of you have some experience I can draw on. Thanks in advance!!
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Binky The Doormat
Footballguy
Process was painless for me. Got decent basic advice but had my own thoughts. I carried over a package of individual stocks left over from a Wells Fargo Compass account and a bunch of individual muni bonds that I wanted to keep (individual stocks - I didn't want to pay taxes on them simply to reinvest them in Vanguard funds). The rest I did put into several basic admiral funds. Highly recommend Vanguard.Hey guys, my father and I have had a good chunk of $ invested in mutual funds through Edward Jones for quite a few years. I've been going through the fees those funds are charging (anywhere from .58% to 1.08% for mine) and the performance. Needless to say, I'm now leaning towards shifting the accounts to Vanguard. I'm not really seeing any benefit to keeping the funds at Ed Jones. Most of these funds are American Funds which had a front-load fee (yikes).
Anyway, I'm looking for advice on the move. First, can someone confirm that for two investors (my dad and I) who don't need any real hand holding, staying with EJ is pretty senseless? I'm wising I would have come to this conclusion earlier. Next, I wanted to know how difficult the process is to sell and re-buy through Vanguard. Can the Vanguard rep do the entire process over the phone, or will I need to speak with the sleazy EJ rep who will be trying to lure me back with his sales pitch?
Finally, my dad is pretty old school and he would like to have paper statements and information mailed to him. I'm helping him a lot with the process, but he's not computer savvy and his main worry is that he wants to have the relevant information sent to him in paper copy. He's pretty dubious about transferring his $ online as he has a tough time understanding the interwebs
I know I can find this information over the phone with Vanguard, but I have lots of up front prep to do before calling them and I know you guys are a great resource for advice. Hopefully some of you have some experience I can draw on. Thanks in advance!!
Read Bogleheads books and check out their boards as well.
Warrior
Footballguy
Thank you. After reading up a bit, I'm a bit worried about the transfer. Wouldn't I need to pay capital gains taxes when I sell the EJ mutual funds and use them to buy Vanguard ETF funds (for example)? I'll hang up now and head over to Bogleheads for a bit to see if I can find that information, but if someone here who has done this already has a bit of advice, I would appreciate it. Thanks!
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Binky The Doormat
Footballguy
Pretty sure you are going to have to liquidate the EJ funds and pay taxes on your gains - in your taxable account. If its in some kind of retirement - then no tax impact.
ETA: I believe there is some kind of account closure fee of around a $100, but not sure. Give your guy a call.
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Warrior
Footballguy
Otis
Footballguy
Paid off all our bad debts after receiving a nice work windfall this year. Cleared the decks of credit cards, student loans, car loans, and any other debt you'd prefer not to have. Left with a pretty hefty mortgage, and also debt related to my buy-in of shares in my law firm (which is not bad debt, since we're hooked up with very low interest rates, and the investment into the firm sits in an account that pays a higher interest rate than the interest rate on the loan).
Now finally getting to the point of financial health and stability where we probably should have been years ago, but it feels good. Stocking up the 401k as much as possible (it's mandatory through my law firm), putting money into 529s on a monthly basis for my girls, and also putting a smallish amount (1k a month) into a local brokerage fund investment. Feel like I'm finally doing the right things, though at some point I'm considering going in and sitting down with a financial planner to have someone actually look at the full picture and see what we should be doing -- I pay little attention to it, and I'm certain we could be doing much smarter things.
Do you all do the financial planner/adviser thing? Recommend it?
Now finally getting to the point of financial health and stability where we probably should have been years ago, but it feels good. Stocking up the 401k as much as possible (it's mandatory through my law firm), putting money into 529s on a monthly basis for my girls, and also putting a smallish amount (1k a month) into a local brokerage fund investment. Feel like I'm finally doing the right things, though at some point I'm considering going in and sitting down with a financial planner to have someone actually look at the full picture and see what we should be doing -- I pay little attention to it, and I'm certain we could be doing much smarter things.
Do you all do the financial planner/adviser thing? Recommend it?
Warrior
Footballguy
I'll briefly chime in and mention that I've recently read that if you've got a decent chunk of $, you may want to speak to a fin'l planner that charges a one time fee to discuss your situation with you. Others may help you invest your $ and then charge you a % of that investment each year to maintain it. The second scenario may be much more costly over a long period of time.
I don't have a lot of information on this, but just briefly read about it recently, so take that for what it's worth.
wilked
Footballguy
There are two types of FAs - those that are fee-only, and the others. The others get paid by moving you into specific investments. You don't want those guys (or gals).
A decent link for fee-only advisors is here https://www.napfa.org/
Expect to pay $2500 or so for a full assessment (it will take them 20-40 hours, and a decent FA bills at a reasonable rate). They can then manage your investments (a good rate might be 0.05% AUM).
With all that said, I see no real reason to do all that unless I am 50-60 and really want to get a good retirement model done. Even then, not so hard to do it yourself.
You can get good advice here, free. You can get excellent advice at bogleheads.org, free.
The bad news - they will tell you to stop your local brokerage thing
A decent link for fee-only advisors is here https://www.napfa.org/
Expect to pay $2500 or so for a full assessment (it will take them 20-40 hours, and a decent FA bills at a reasonable rate). They can then manage your investments (a good rate might be 0.05% AUM).
With all that said, I see no real reason to do all that unless I am 50-60 and really want to get a good retirement model done. Even then, not so hard to do it yourself.
You can get good advice here, free. You can get excellent advice at bogleheads.org, free.
The bad news - they will tell you to stop your local brokerage thing
Binky The Doormat
Footballguy
Also go check out firecalc. With a little bit of time you can do some realistic retirement planning.
You can also go pretty detailed if you want to put in a little more time.
You can also go pretty detailed if you want to put in a little more time.
Andrew74
Footballguy
Who manages money for 0.05%? The robos aren't even that cheap.wilked said:
ETA: one thing to note, if you work with a FA on a one-time analysis, it should be way more than an investment review. They should be reviewing college saving, checking to see if you're adequately (or over) insured, etc. It should be a holistic analysis.
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Sand
Footballguy
And you will be paying for account closures - EJ will make sure to take their lb. of flesh on the way out. Still probably worth it. If you have losers you will at least be able to offset those a bit.
Otis
Footballguy
Otis
Footballguy
As to the bolded, I assume they'll just tell me to start up my own account online at Schwabb or something?wilked said:
Is that how you guys are investing your "extra" money? If so, which is best? This guy was a family relationship, but my parents just left there and I really have no incentive to stay there -- I suppose no harm in moving that account over to somewhere else.
Dentist
***Official FBG Dentist***
I don't think i have any ideas that i haven't already spouted in this thread or in another related investment thread.
Otis could always post a question about a specific investment or even post his entire portfolio and get enough good advice from me or many other incredibly knowledgeable posters in this thread and get as good of advice as he could pay for.
Having said that, Otis also has some unique challenges to high net worth individuals with tax management, estate planning, etc that many people don't have.
Here is something for you to peruse Otis... it's a finance site for doctors, but really it could be for anyone with a medium to high net worth
http://whitecoatinvestor.com/8-reasons-you-should-be-your-own-advisor/
Dentist
***Official FBG Dentist***
I use merrill edge because I have a lot of money with bank of america and get free trades.
I think TD ameritrade is the best deal in the business for most people. You get a ton of access to commission free etfs, many from vanguard with the lowest expense ratios.
Nothing wrong with Schwab.. they have their own lineup of etfs that are super cheap and completely appropriate.
Also nothing wrong with vanguard... you get all their etfs commission free and their lineup is also good enough to make a great portfolio
FUBAR
Footballguy
just thinking back about 12 years ago when I closed my buyandhold.com account and didn't realize I could just transfer the holdings. Had about $5000 in Amazon (100 shares), which I didn't repurchase because I didn't want to spend the money to buy all the 5 individual stocks (don't recall what else I owned). well that's now worth over $60k 
Random
Footballguy
We set up the automatic investment into our IRA at Vanguard. Was going into VFINX, recently moved the balance into VOO (ETF - save on fees). Anyone know how to change the automatic investment to go into VOO (it seems to force me to choose a fund or settlement account - not the ETF)?
wilked
Footballguy
Oops, was off a decimal. 0.5% AUM, not 0.05, my bad
My FIL just met with an FA, that's where my quoted rates come from ($2500 for a full analysis, and going forward 0.5% AUM if he wants his assets managed). This is in Boston.
is this just "Extra" money in a cash account? Have you maxed all of your retirement and 529 contributions?
Dentist
***Official FBG Dentist***
i bought it, I wouldn't buy it unless I was specifically an MD who probably was a resident as there was too much about student loans and doctor programs.
He did pen one of the chapters in the bogleheads books though
Andrew74
Footballguy
Warrior
Footballguy
That figures. I guess those are sunk costs though and it's good to get out ASAP. EJ sucks.
And you will be paying for account closures - EJ will make sure to take their lb. of flesh on the way out. Still probably worth it. If you have losers you will at least be able to offset those a bit.
Niles Standish
Footballguy
Wonder if anyone knows off the top of their head (too lazy to research at this moment).
My current situation: have acorns account put in 15/day and pay a fee + vanguard mutual fund fees.
Positives: It's a recurring investment so don't have to go through compliance (work at investment firm and it's annoying to go through compliance before every buy sell including ETFs), can buy fractional shares. Negatives the acorns fee on top of vanguard fees. The fee isn't all that high, but as I have more $ it gets higher so would like to get out before I pay a lot in fees.
So the question is there a way to replicate this through Vanguard without paying the extra fee? Meaning can I set up recurring investment and buy fractional ETFs in whatever percent I decide? e.g. I want 25% vanguard whatever fund 42% 2nd vanguard fund and 33% 3rd Vanguard fund. And just have it set up so I never change anything it just does that for me daily or weekly?
Thanks if you know off the top of your head, if not I'm sure I'll have the motivation to research soon.
My current situation: have acorns account put in 15/day and pay a fee + vanguard mutual fund fees.
Positives: It's a recurring investment so don't have to go through compliance (work at investment firm and it's annoying to go through compliance before every buy sell including ETFs), can buy fractional shares. Negatives the acorns fee on top of vanguard fees. The fee isn't all that high, but as I have more $ it gets higher so would like to get out before I pay a lot in fees.
So the question is there a way to replicate this through Vanguard without paying the extra fee? Meaning can I set up recurring investment and buy fractional ETFs in whatever percent I decide? e.g. I want 25% vanguard whatever fund 42% 2nd vanguard fund and 33% 3rd Vanguard fund. And just have it set up so I never change anything it just does that for me daily or weekly?
Thanks if you know off the top of your head, if not I'm sure I'll have the motivation to research soon.
Long Ball Larry
Footballguy
re-fi question.
I have not gotten an official appraisal on my home yet, but trying to estimate my equity and possible savings. If I need to take PMI, am I correct that the PMI is essentially an additional interest rate? So if I don't have the 20-22% equity, I will essentially be paying an additional percentage of the loan? Like hopefully under 1%. And if I add that rate to the new possible interest rate on the mortgage, that would effectively be my new interest rate?
I have not gotten an official appraisal on my home yet, but trying to estimate my equity and possible savings. If I need to take PMI, am I correct that the PMI is essentially an additional interest rate? So if I don't have the 20-22% equity, I will essentially be paying an additional percentage of the loan? Like hopefully under 1%. And if I add that rate to the new possible interest rate on the mortgage, that would effectively be my new interest rate?
It's typically 0.5 to 1.0% but not considered interest. It will be shown separate on your statements and your annual 1099 come tax time.
Sand
Footballguy
If you're that close do everything you can to stay out of PMI land. It is just money thrown down the toilet from your point of view.
Nothing in Otis' posting history suggests that he will do this or stick with it. Indeed, he has posted several similar requests over the year. I don't think a fee only advisor will cut it for him either; he seems like exactly the type that should go for a commission based advisors. He would love the hot-tips, IPO/private equity options, and perks like free tickets to sporting events. He doesn't want to save on fees, he wants to feel like the premium client he is. As long as he gets the tax and estate planning advise he probably really needs along with it all, he will come out much better than before.
So my sincere advise to Otis would be to ask partners or other senior people at his firm who their "guy" is and enjoy being schmoozed until he picks one.
Dentist
***Official FBG Dentist***
probably true. I just think of all the money that would get sunk into financial advice... most of which could be found just by posting in this thread.... and it makes me want to be a financial advisor instead of a dentist.
wilked
Footballguy
First, answer this:
-What money is being invested into Acorn? Is it after-tax $$s, say from a savings or checking acct?
-Do you max your 401K (~$18K/yr)?
-Do you max your Roth ($5.5K/yr)?
Long Ball Larry
Footballguy
Understood, but if I were trying to estimate monthly savings, and my current rate is 5.75% and say I could a new loan at 3.75%, could I use a 4.5% rate (for example) in a savings calculator to simplify the savings calculation?
Understood from a long-term perspective, but in all likelihood, I will try to sell this property in a couple years. If I could get the monthly payment down a decent amount, wouldn't that be worth it?
Andrew74
Footballguy
You can do automatic investment on a Vanguard account. I have monthly contributions made to IRAs I have there.
I am bored today at work, so I looked some stuff up.
You can't buy fractional shares of ETFs at Vanguard. You can do dividend reinvestment on current holdings and have fractional shares that way.
But it's Vanguard, so just do a the corresponding mutual fund. Their ETFs are just a separate share class of their mutual funds, so they're all the same.
I logged in and you can do AIPs every week. The other options are every two weeks, twice a month or monthly. You can pick any number of funds and allocate by dollar amount or by percentage.
You should be able to roll the ETFs to Vanguard. But you can't exchange them for a fund share class. The only option would be to sell the ETF and buy the Vanguard fund (which could lead to a taxable event). To buy a Vanguard fund, you have to meet the minimum, which is usually $1,000 (retirement accounts) or $3,000 (for taxable accounts).
BeTheMatch
Footballguy
If you're going to sell it in a couple years, then it's not worth refinancing due to the closing costs.
The FAs that make the most money are the guys I mention though. A lot of people just don't want to take the (insanely small) amount of time to do it themselves. Or, even more pertinent, are too stressed out in their daily lives to invest that time. @Otis certainly has enough wiggle-room that it won't really hurt him much in the long run to give up 100bps+. Most people aren't dealing with his margins or lack of self-control in these specific areas. Biggest thing is just having a plan.
Otis
Footballguy
Niles Standish
Footballguy
I do not max, this is my student loan repayment fund. I know it's risky but it's going to take around 15 years at the rate I have going assuming I make decent interest and 20+ if I don't so not entirely risky (interest is very low on the loans but variable so when rates go up I will probably dump from acorns and pay off as much as I can). Hopefully between now and interest rates going up I will make a good bit more money and do well in the market and be able to knock them out. It is after-tax $ from a checking acct, I put about 15% into retirement so I feel like I'm doing enough there considering my debt. Some in roth some in standard.
Niles Standish
Footballguy
Thanks for looking, I just realized that to avoid compliance I need to have a managed account not just auto buys. So skipping the middle man doesn't seem to help me anymore. The only ones beating my current fees are other robo advisors it looks like. And those are only beating me by a bit unless I get to 100K in my account then one of them has .15%. Schwab has a free robo advisor but they have a decent cash position which cuts gain (7% or so) and higher fees on average (.25% in aggressive). I'd say after fund fees and acorns fees I'm paying .4-.45% too lazy to figure out exactly. Schwab is a higher price assuming 5% average gain a year on stocks due to cash cost unfortunately because I like the idea of a free robo advisor.
Long Ball Larry
Footballguy
I understand that if you pay them upfront, but you can roll the closing costs into the loan, right? Which may change the interest rate, but again, if all I want is a short term reduction, as long as the rate is lower, it seems worth it.BeTheMatch said:
