I'm guessing that was a non technical/scientific career field. We can't hire experienced engineers, it guys, doctors, etc. We have to develop from within and all to often they get 5+ years experience and jump ship to private and make bank.
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums
Welcome to Our Forums. Once you've registered and logged in, you're primed to talk football, among other topics, with the sharpest and most experienced fantasy players on the internet.
PBS Frontline : The Retirement Gamble, sorta Must See (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Smack Tripper
- Start date
I guess it depends where you are and who you work for. We did the salary survey to stop the employees from leaving....which it has done. We are better off once you factor in bennies. You would have to pay me double right now for me to even consider leaving. Maybe your bennies are not as good. Here's a gem - Do you get a cash payout for you unused sick time? I will have over 1200 hours when I retire paid out at 1/2 my final year's salary.
Doctor Detroit
Please remove your headgear
Dickies
Footballguy
This is the truth. My brother is an ME that worked for NASA and got a $60k raise just by going to the private sector. He has moved up to a supervisory role now and is $80k higher than where he was at NASA which would have been a dead-end for years.
NutterButter
Footballguy
Agreed. I can see from rascal's post that his bennies are not as good as mine. Hell, I'm going for colonoscopy #3 this week because I can and it costs $10. This guy ain't dying without draining as much as possible from social security. Heart cath yep. been there done that. I think that one cost you all $20k. I think I did pay $50 for that one. I am good to go, no heart attack here. Cat scan on brain. Yep no brain cancer here.
Last edited by a moderator:
Sorry, but you are mistaken. Federal employees only get cash payout for annual leave. Sick leave just contributes as time towards your years of service.
https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/leave-administration/fact-sheets/lump-sum-payments-for-annual-leave/
https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/leave-administration/fact-sheets/sick-leave-general-information/
Last edited by a moderator:
Doctor Detroit
Please remove your headgear
Yeah I don't think we should discuss this in here, this thread is awesome. I have good bennies and I don't take it for granted, but I could do better in the private sector. I had 12 years active duty though and I didn't want to give that away, which I would have going full-time private. I tried private sector and did well and had a great time, but I like working in the operational government. I've worked DoD and law enforcement though, I couldn't work for GSA or OPM. No offense to anyone that does.
James Daulton
Footballguy
Jeez, I didn't mean to come across as accusational or imply that government workers were anything bad at all. And I don't know the intricacies of the system hence why I thought I structured my post as a question. My only point was that as healthcare gets more and more expensive for private workers (particularly in retirement), that benefit for government workers becomes more and more valuable. Both my sister and her husband are ME's and both left the local utility to work for the federal government. both took about a 20% pay reduction but (in their eyes anyway), the increase in their benefits more than makes up for it. I have a police officer BIL who can't stop talking about how he can retire when he's 50 with like 50% of his salary and low cost healthcare for life. He made around $80k last year. Again, I was just posing a question and not trying to start an iFight.
Calm down people, we're all friends here!
Calm down people, we're all friends here!
Doctor Detroit
Please remove your headgear
u JD! 
Sand
Footballguy
These things make me wonder what the heck NJ does spend money on. They have astonishingly high tax rates there.
NutterButter
Footballguy
James Daulton
Footballguy
Let me post a hypothetical to all you retirement experts. Let's say that our hero is not quite 50 and wants to retire around age 60. Nothing magical about that number, just seems young enough to still have fun yet old enough to have saved some scrilla. Also assume our hero is switching jobs and has a chunk of money from the old 401k to do something with. Now other than hookers and blow, what do you do recommend our hero do with the scrilla? I know the simple answer is IRA, but what funds do you choose and what bond vs fund percentage do you use? Assume the nest egg is in the $350k ballpark and assume that there will be another old pension one-time payout available when our hero hits 55 (but that grows every year that our hero doesn't take the money). Assume that at age 60 this pension one-time will be worth another $350k or so. You can also assume that our hero will be maxing out his the 401k at his new job. Our hero's house will be paid off well be he hits 60 unless his wife gets on his nerves so much that he has to divorce her.
Help our hero out here FBGs!
Help our hero out here FBGs!
Fruitbat
Footballguy
- open IRA account on TD Ameritrade
- roll over scrilla to IRA account
- purchase VTI, BND, and VEU in the percentages you feel is appropriate
VTI, BND, VEU are vanguard low cost ETFs with commission free transactions at TD. Total (US) stock market, Total (US) bond market, and Foreign stock market
There's other options to do essentially the same thing, but that's what I did. I have a 401(k) located at TD(self employed) where I contribute once a month. I keep the balances at roughly 60/25/15 stock/bond/foreign. I'm 43 with retirement somewhere in the 55-60 range most likely.
ETA: I honestly didn't take into account the last half of your post. just going on "I've got money in an old 401k - I still want to use it for retirement - what should I do with it"?
Last edited by a moderator:
kutta
Footballguy
F that. As a disabled vet, you shouldn't ever have to pay a penny towards healthcare.I pay $8 for almost all prescriptions as a disabled vet. I don't want to encourage anyone to join the military, go to war, get hurt, and become a disabled vet who gets prescriptions for $8 but...
Doctor Detroit
Please remove your headgear
Gachi
Footballguy
My dad is a disabled vet, his retirement is 2900 a month and his healthcare is basically free.
I jokingly told him he needed to put in for his social security before they take it away/slash it, he's 62 so he can collect but wants to wait and get the full amount when he's 65.
I jokingly told him he needed to put in for his social security before they take it away/slash it, he's 62 so he can collect but wants to wait and get the full amount when he's 65.
Doctor Detroit
Please remove your headgear
Yeah $2900 (probably a little more than that now) is 100%. 90% is $2k a month, 100% is $3k a month.
Anyone getting 100% is really ####ed up, thank him from us for his service.
Doctor Detroit
Please remove your headgear
Yeah I like Fruitbat's suggestions, you can go that way for sure. Fidelity and Vanguard have the most investment options and both have really low fees if you get into the right funds. Roll it over to an IRA, invest somewhat aggressively but not 100% equities. I like something like 40% S&P, 25% Small/medium/Wilshire 5000, 25% international and the rest bonds. As I mentioned above bonds are entering territory they haven't been in since the 70s, it's not the greatest investment vehicle right now especially long-term. I'd go more aggressive with this money and kind of be the normal dooshcanoe with the $$$ at your new gig, send some money to treasuries and cash there.James Daulton said:
Congrats on the new job btw!
Gachi
Footballguy
wilked
Footballguy
Daulton - first, try not to be so long winded as you'll get better responses if more succinct (basically it is a little hard to follow).
I suggest you don't roll to ira. That can cause problems later with converting to Roth (basically issues with your basis). Nothing wrong with keeping it where it is (check there are no fees, but usually there are not) or better roll to the new 401k once it's established.
Otherwise here's a link for portfolio suggestions.
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Lazy_portfolios
You likely would benefit from a book or two based on your post. Don't gloss over this, your decisions will have a huge impact on your retirement, it pays to read a bit, and reading this thread will only help so much. Here's a good one
https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Investing-Taylor-Larimore/dp/0470067365
I suggest you don't roll to ira. That can cause problems later with converting to Roth (basically issues with your basis). Nothing wrong with keeping it where it is (check there are no fees, but usually there are not) or better roll to the new 401k once it's established.
Otherwise here's a link for portfolio suggestions.
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Lazy_portfolios
You likely would benefit from a book or two based on your post. Don't gloss over this, your decisions will have a huge impact on your retirement, it pays to read a bit, and reading this thread will only help so much. Here's a good one
https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Investing-Taylor-Larimore/dp/0470067365
James Daulton
Footballguy
Yea, you're right about that. Got too in love with my story telling I suppose.
Regarding a Roth, what if you don't qualify due to income? Thanks for the book suggestion.
FUBAR
Footballguy
I'm just trying to figure out the disabled, but not too disabled part.I pay $8 for almost all prescriptions as a disabled vet. I don't want to encourage anyone to join the military, go to war, get hurt, and become a disabled vet who gets prescriptions for $8 but...
NutterButter
Footballguy
Provided you don't plan to backdoor roth, rollover into a low fee ira. 70% goes into s&p500 index. 30% goes into bond index.
wilked
Footballguy
Backdoor Roth exists for those above the income level. In short - there is no issue with converting to a Roth if that's your intention.
Where things can get fouled up is if you have rolled 401ks into an IRA, and later want to convert that IRA to a Roth. Unfortunately I learned the hard way, and this will likely prevent me from doing that very thing. Better to keep 401ks as 401ks
Fruitbat
Footballguy
Yeah, I don't honestly remember. Maybe it had to do with the 401(k) option at TD? Not sure. But basically thanks to this thread I went from paying Merril Lynch managing a chunk of my retirement, to me managing it at lower cost. I know enough that I trust myself to not screw it up, but there are others on this board who are much more savvy and educated in this space.
Fruitbat
Footballguy
yes this is a good point. That would be one reason to not open an IRA.
I do Backdoor Roth each year (again, thanks to this thread) -- and to maximize the benefit of that, you need to eliminate IRAs that you may have. For me, I had options here...I converted my existing IRA (which was originally a 401k rollover from former employer) into an individual 401(k) through my company. My wife only has 401k and 403b. So with neither of us having an IRA, the backdoor Roth works nicely.
So stupid to have to go through known loopholes to use the Roth. And its not like the income cutoff is high...its not hard to hit that cutoff in a double income household. So basically you have a small slice of people who 1) make enough income to afford it, 2) have the mentality to want to contribute, and 3) are below the income cutoff
adonis
Footballguy
Cool. I spent a lot of time researching my retirement options and ended up putting my money with Vanguard, after a lot of reading on the bogleheads forum. Seemed to be the best decision at the time, but I was wondering if y'all had new information that would make somewhere like TD better.
Most of my funds are Vanguard funds - target retirement, life strategy funds....so it makes sense for me I think.
NutterButter
Footballguy
i got lucky in that a large portion of my retirement is in an old 401k, but its with fidelity so they have the low fee index funds that I exclusively invest in so I didn't have to even considering rolling it over.
Mr. Irrelevant
IBL Representative
Buying mutual funds from anywhere but Vanguard is like benching Tom Brady. Sometimes it earns you some marginal value, but you have to have a pretty damn good reason to consider it.
Fruitbat
Footballguy
Fidelity has been very aggressive in recent years as well: http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20160628/FREE/160629906/fidelity-takes-on-vanguard-by-cutting-prices-on-index-funds-etfs
Specifically in S&P 500: " The Boston-based fund company's Fidelity 500 Index fund (FUSEX), which tracks the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index, charges 0.09% annual for individual investors, versus 0.16% for the Vanguard 500 Index Fund Investor Shares (VFINX). Fidelity's minimum investment in the fund is $2,500, vs. $3,000 for Vanguard's S&P 500 fund. "
NutterButter
Footballguy
You scared me. I was thinking I have all my money invested in that fund, but they have another s&p 500 fund called Admiral Shares that's .05%. I believe that fidelity has something similar though at .04% the one time I checked.
Sand
Footballguy
Vanguard and Fidelity at this point are so close that either will do. I prefer Fidelity just due to the website, but both are great choices.
Go with uterine problems. It'll sail right through.
Last edited by a moderator:
BeTheMatch
Footballguy
NutterButter
Footballguy
Talk to me about withdrawing from your ira once you hit retirement. I'm a long ways off but I was thinking about this today on my hike and I don't think I've seen this discussed yet. Let's say for simplicity sake that you've got a cool 1M in a single tax deductible ira with 60% in a stock index and 40% in a bond index (so 600k in the stocks, 400k in bonds). So the first year you need to withdraw 50k. Where should that come from?
NewlyRetired
Footballguy
I am not quite sure I understand the question but this would be my response (please ignore if this is not what you were asking)
==================
1) Drain all non tax deferred accounts first. As a rule of thumb, try and use those last (ie defer as long as possible the tax liability)
2) You need in retirement to create a balance that should be reviewed and maintained that works for your specific situation
3) A general rule of thumb that many use in retirement is the 1/3 1/3 1/3 approach (choose what ever balance works for you)
1/3 in safe vehicles, 1/3 in balanced 1/3 in growth
4) When you withdraw money from your retirement accounts, you need to consider taxes
a) if coming from a tax deferred account, you have to take care of that as income tax
b) if coming from an after tax account, you need to consider capital gains taxes
5) Where ever you decide to draw from, make sure you keep what ever balance you decided was appropriate for your situation. This may mean shifting your money every so often to keep what ever set up your originally intended as you remove money from one section to live on.
NutterButter
Footballguy
Sorry, what I mean is that in order to withdraw 50k from your ira, you need to sell some of shares right? Is that the way it works? If so, do you sell a proportional amount from each of the 2 funds you're in? And I'm talking about the example I gave so all money in a tax deferred account and just 2 funds in that account.
Last edited by a moderator:
NewlyRetired
Footballguy
If you have 100% of your investments in 2 funds in your ira, then yes, you have to sell to withdraw. You can decide how and where to sell as long as you keep in mind step 5 from above.
The rules about withdrawal differ with age. There are rules for below 59.5 years old, between 59.5-70.5 years old and after 70.5 years old.
Tom Hagen
Footballguy
In your example you would need to sell shares in one or both of the funds to generate cash to distribute. If you believe 60/40 is the right allocation for your situation you should sell the shares in a 60/40 ratio. If you think you should change your allocation, you could sell shares in the fund you want to lower your exposure.
NewlyRetired
Footballguy
@NutterButterto give you an example of what we do now is this
1) have a cash account inside of investment umbrella
2) have bonds as ~1/3 of portfolio using a bond ladder
3) bonds generate money that streams to cash account
4) once a month cash account sends money directly to our bank to live off of
5) when bond matures, buy next bond to continue the ladder
This way we never touch the mutual funds in terms of having to sell any shares and just allow the bonds to generate the cash we need to live off of. This allows our balance to remain intact with out having to shift money often.
This is all done in a non retirement account because of our age but the same general format is used frequently for people in retirement who need a monthly stipend from their investments to live off of.
1) have a cash account inside of investment umbrella
2) have bonds as ~1/3 of portfolio using a bond ladder
3) bonds generate money that streams to cash account
4) once a month cash account sends money directly to our bank to live off of
5) when bond matures, buy next bond to continue the ladder
This way we never touch the mutual funds in terms of having to sell any shares and just allow the bonds to generate the cash we need to live off of. This allows our balance to remain intact with out having to shift money often.
This is all done in a non retirement account because of our age but the same general format is used frequently for people in retirement who need a monthly stipend from their investments to live off of.
Last edited by a moderator:
NutterButter
Footballguy
Now say that before you sell your shares that year or really any year for that matter during retirement, the market takes a dump and now that 600k you had in stocks is down to 300k but your bond index has only gone down a bit; something very similar to 2007/8. Do you still sell your shares in a 60/40 ratio or do you sell exclusively the bond shares? I think I might have just figured out the answer to what I'm getting out. I thought in this case you don't want to sell any stock shares since you'd be doing so while they're depressed but provided that you rebalance to your desired ratio, I guess it really doesn't matter.
NutterButter
Footballguy
That makes sense. I assume that you have enough bonds to give you the ratio you desire but also enough to generate that cash stream you need.
NewlyRetired
Footballguy
What you wrote here is how I understand it.
If your desired ratio has not changed, then you simply need to re-balance either during or after you sell.
You should also re-balance at least once a year even if you never sell since one leg of your portfolio will likely be changing at a different rate from the other legs.
Last edited by a moderator:
after withdrawing, you want to have your target allocation. Which also goes for rebalancing, it's essentially all part of the same process.
Sand
Footballguy
One of the more complex questions out there, believe it or not. Do you want to take out the same amount every year? Comfortable with taking out more in good years and less in bad? Are you willing to let your allocation drift by taking out more in one allocation than another? How aggressive do you want to be in stretching your money?NutterButter said:
Also, just for more complication, will you stay in the 15% tax bracket? Perfect opportunity to shift monies from an IRA to a Roth and tax arbitrage there.
Similar threads
