I dug out the annual report, the administrative fees for my company’s plan, with about 375 people in the plan and $16mil in assets, was about $65K.
I have no idea if this is a lot or not.
That is $170ish per person. Not that bad.
“Can kids do both 401k and Roth IRA? I think with ShawD, I’ve told her to max out the 401k because there is an employer match. But can she do Roth also? "
Not only can you do both, but you can apparently contribute the same money to both, according to BIL who is an accountant. My D earned about $6500 this year between summer job and semester jobs. She contributed about $4000 to a Roth 403(b), and can also fund her Roth.
I tried to post a comment earlier but it seems to have disappeared, in response to a question about whether it’s better for kids to do a Roth or regular IRA. If you have a sum of $5500, and you can either put all of it in a tax-deferred account or pay taxes and put the rest into a Roth, then the only thing that matters is what the tax rate will be at the time you pay it. But if you’re not limited to that sum, then it’s important to recognize that the person who fully funded a Roth had to set aside, let’s say $6500 or more, so that the after-tax contribution would equal $5500. Over time, the Roth contributor who maxed his or her contributions got to save significantly more money. It would take a significant difference in tax brackets between earnings years and retirement to make it worth it to pass that up.
In H and my ‘younger’ years, when Roth entered the picture, we put in for both 401k and Roth. If one can’t put max amount in both due to personal cash flow needs, get the employer match for the 401K, put the max in Roth, and any additional amounts in 401k up to the limit.
Over a few years in our 50’s, we converted and consolidated some IRA accounts into Roth and paid the taxes. To me it seemed wise as our long term savings/Roth nest egg could continue to grow tax free. We also have that money invested in where it gets the heftiest returns.
We already set up small Roth accounts for DDs before they were 20 - when they earned money for a year, we put the money we could from our operating money into Roth accounts for them.
Note that there are also Roth 401k plans, but not all employers offer them.
I’m officially complaining about the market. I know I’m in it for the long haul, etc., but this does not make me happy!
I’m almost ready to go “bottom fishing.”
@ucbalumnus , be sure to move any Roth 401k funds to a Roth IRA before RMDs. Roth 401k have RMD; Roth IRAs do not. Strange accident of legislation.
@TiggerDad
did you read the latest news re Walgreens in Reuters?
If i were you, I’d get out of your Walgreens holdings as fast as possible.
“Walgreens’ cost-cut plans aim to save more than $1 billion annually”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-walgreens-boots-results/walgreens-cost-cut-plans-aim-to-save-more-than-1-billion-annually-idUSKCN1OJ1IX?te=1&nl=dealbook&emc=edit_dk_20181221
this is not going to end well for Walgreens employees
What is bad for the employees is not necessarily bad for the shareholders.
tell that to Toys are Us and Sears shareholders…
Yes, @menloparkmom, I read Walgreens news everyday through auto Google news feed.
My wife as an employee is going to early retire in Feb, so that’s that with the company after 25 years. For past 5 years or so, Walgreens has been terrible for its employees, and things are getting worse for the employees, so we’re happy that my wife’s no longer going to be a part of it come Feb. As a shareholder, we took a big hit just in the last few days. I remember exercising the employee stock grant at $93 a share a few years ago, about 2 years before its expiration. Good thing I did when I did. Then it plummeted to $40’s soon after. Recently, it went up to around mid-$80, then it plummeted again in the last few days to around $67 today. No need to panic, though. As shareholders, we’re going long term with the company. We have diversified enough with all of our investments, so we can weather some hits along the way.
I have a question for those of you who went through the process of applying for Social Security benefits.
Some time ago I stated here of my decision to apply for SS as soon as I hit 62 as opposed to waiting until 65 or 70. Well, I did go through the application process very recently, and I got an email stating that someone will contact me to review the application. Today, I received that call from the SS office. At first, he asked me some questions to verify that I’m who I’m, but then he quickly went to those earnings in my early years, in the '80s, when I worked part-time as a student at two different schools in California. He wants me to call these schools to find out where those taxed money went to, then call Cal Pers (?) or Cal Sters (?) or whatever to have them submit a Benefit Verification Letter in order to complete my application. I told him that according to MySocialSecurity account record of my past earnings, there are records of those years of part-time earnings with SS taxation figures. In spite of that, he insisted that I call all these places and submit the benefit verification letter. The fellow seemed almost bent on giving me a hard time. I simply asked him to spell for me Cal Pers or Sters or whatever because I couldn’t hear him very clearly, so I know where to call at least. That simple request was met with a deep sigh of exasperation on his part, so I wasn’t able to get the correct spelling out of him.
Because of this unexpected hurdle, I decided to withdraw or cancel the application and wait until when I turn 65 to apply again then. I really didn’t have a critically important reason to apply for the benefits at age 62, so my decision to reapply at age 65 isn’t all that important to me other than the obvious benefit of receiving a larger paycheck each month then. I have other sources of retirement income without the SS for the next few years. it’s also likely that some other SS office staff would be assigned to me rather than the same person?
My question is, does what transpired in the phone call regarding the benefit verification letter for part-time earnings normal? Does everyone who apply for SS have to go through this? I just didn’t anticipate that my part-time earnings when I was a student some decades ago could pose complications.
CalPERS is the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. Presumably, you may have some pension credit or something there if you worked at something that was part of the California state government (including a state university or community college).
Contact information: https://www.calpers.ca.gov/page/contact
Hmmmm, that call raised red flags for me. I’d call SSN myself and ask if they could you send you the request in writing.
Thanks for the info! During one gap year in between grad schools, I worked part-time at a local community college library. The fellow on the phone also mentioned “Cal Sters,” and that turned out to be CalSTRS. I guess what the fellow is asking me to do is to call the community college and find out which of these two that the taxed money from my paychecks went to and then request for the benefit verification letter from that organization, if I understood him correctly. I need to do the same with UC Regents for my part-time work as a grad student at Cal.
It’s a legit. Prior to the call, which was by pre-arranged appointment, I received an email right after filing the application. It stated that if I have any question about the email, I can call the number listed. I checked the number to be legit from SSA in my region.
When I applied for SS (at 62, but only because my “young” kids got benefits), I was asked to prove my age. I told them my age when I was 16, and it hasn’t changed. If I lied about my age when I got my first job, went to school, got jobs, got passports, got married, had birthday parties, etc., just to scam the SSA some 62 years later, man, that’s a DEEP game.
What did they take as a proof of your age?