Honestly, I think it just depends. One of my brothers has some money that is professionally managed and he doesn’t really pay attention to that. My son has a lot of money invested at Vanguard through various gifts, his IRAs, and when I reimbursed him some money from his 529 plan (I still owe him more) when he didn’t go to college among other things. He will direct me what to do with it or if he wants to buy a stock, but otherwise, he doesn’t even have an idea that he has about 250k in there. I guess one day I should ask him how much he thinks it’s worth. This kid is 23. I honestly think he’s on another planet and just doesn’t care about money sometimes, yet I know he has big aspirations and has a 401k from his prior job and other resources so don’t get it.
Vanguard is awesome and I believe once you hit the level, you’re there forever.
Oh to answer your question about tie tending to finances. Once/week on weekends I try to update my spreadsheet of our assets. It takes about an hour so if I don’t do it first thing in the morning on a Saturday, I don’t do it.
Also, on a few occasions if the market has taken a beating I don’t do it because I can’t stand to look. I did do it this weekend and it was interesting to see what happened because I hadn’t had time to do it in a few weeks. Overall I was down but thanks to diversification, I didn’t take as big a hit as I expected. My retirement stuff was actually, my stocks which are more tech heavy were what weighed down my whole portfolio. Makes sense based on how much of a hit the tech stocks took over the last few weeks.
It looks like within the tax reform that is inevitably coming our way, this proposal of taxing unrealized gains (based on mark to market valuation of stock portfolios and other investments held outside 401(k) and IRAs) got some new traction.
We let someone else manage our money. We have a formal review with her once a year and a check-in six months after that. She will call us off-times if she sees something that needs discussion or addressing. Other than that, we never look. So far, so good.
Boo! I mean, are they going to refund some back in years that you have a decrease in valuation??
While I don’t like it at all, I think it is far more likely that the step-up in basis at death will be eliminated (mentioned at the end of the article). I just hope if and when that happens they will make exceptions for appreciation in closely-held family businesses and farms. Those categories don’t impact us, but I would certainly feel for people that were.
Exactly. There won’t be much support for that kind of bill and if there were they would absolutely have to put in that kind of mechanism similar to how one can carry over a capital loss and take $3k every year. My husband and I have been carrying that over for about 8 years still. Also they can put in a look back provision because plenty of millionaires and billionaires lose money annually or spend it. No way to factor some of this in and even if it passed millions will go to tax free investments.
We do that for employees. Honestly, it doesn’t take that much if you have a small company and our employees are like family. We care about their families and hope they save $ for retirement. It’s easy to do as an employer.
I spend 10 minutes a month writing down the monthly numbers, how much we have and how much we made. About 30 minutes a month ( have a quarterly meeting with the FA which is usually 1.5 hours). Usually he presents the current info and we ask questions. He lays out what we might/should be thinking about ( taxes, long term stuff, anything else). I keep a doc on my PC with questions so I remember what I wanted to ask him.
CPA stuff: Takes about ten hours to pull together ( taxes for us, for the businesses and ask questions, revise).
Law stuff: As needed, often questions here and there related to business stuff. Maybe 4 hours a year. Usually less but we’ve had some big things.
I have a wealth manager and check on my accounts monthly. I create an annual budget to plan on how much I can save for the year and check that regularly to adjust things. But that’s pretty much it besides monthly budgeting. Works for me.
This is exactly why students need to minimize student loans. I assume this young lady had none of very little? Those with large student loans can’t save much so they miss out on the benefit of starting saving early and end up further behind.
@srparent15 and others who use Vanguard: If you’ve ever used another Financial Advisor, how do the Vanguard Personal Advisor services compare? If you’ve only used Vanguard, are you happy with their advice beyond what funds to choose?
We currently have a fiduciary planner, that charges .8% of assets under management, & seriously thinking of switching to Vanguard, but DH is reluctant.
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He likes the personal service of our Planner. They’re local, but nearly everything is done via email, internet, or phone anyway. I’m not as impressed. They answer our questions typically within 24 hours, & meet with us yearly, but other than that, do little pro-active advising, once they established our funds accourding to our risk-tolerance. It seems once established, we’re more on auto-investing at this point.
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They have us spread out in a wide number of funds, some Vanguard, many not. To change to Vanguard, we’ll need to pay substantial movement fees. My hope is that it would actually simplify our savings, but it will also mean less diversification.
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Many of our questions do not directly involve our funds. Examples: How much if anything, can we afford for specific discretionary expenses and still meet our retirement goals ( examples: college fund, a vacation house, long-term insurance, helping an adult child, donations, etc.).
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Does Vanguard help direct funds according to potential tax benefits?
Thanks in advance.
We have a fee-only financial planner. My husband still spends a lot of time reviewing our finances. It’s something he enjoys, with a massive spreadsheet evolved over years of planning before we got into spend-down mode.
For us there are a number of reasons the planner has been helpful, resulting in better peace of mind. We could opt to take planner’s name off our Schwab account and avoid future fees, but so far we think worthwhile to have help from him and his staff. (At my retirement, we did opt to keep my 401k at original location, no fees.) For other couples, especially those who still have large, traditional annuity pension(s), our methods might be overkill.
I have Googled and not found what I want. Is there someplace that allows you to plug in SS amounts at 62/67/70 for you and spouse to determine whether one of you should be taking SS early (before 70)? For instance, we have great longevity in my family than dh has in his. I expect to outlive him. If we wait to take his until 70 as we plan, and after he dies I’ll get his benefit as it’s higher than mine, I’m trying to figure out how to know whether to go ahead and start collecting mine and take it at 62 or 67.
This calculator seemed to work pretty well. I think it will give you the numbers you desire.
Yeah, I saw that, but it’s not what I’m looking for, I don’t think.
I know how much we each get at 62/67/70. I’m looking for a scenario runner, I guess, that shows me the break-even point for when I should start collecting mine, knowing that if dh goes first I’ll be switching to his benefit.
I hadn’t even thought of this until this year, watching my mom worry about how her income dropped by two-thirds once my dad died and her SS and his military pension were gone. She took hers at first chance and always regretted it, but there must be some calculator out there that would tell us how much money she made vs she could have by waiting. I’m looking at that for myself pre-emptively. Am I making sense? My family has greater longevity than dh so I expect to outlive him and start drawing his SS so I’m thinking my SS matters less so maybe I don’t need to wait until 70? He and I are the same age.
We bought this , can run multiple scenarios.
https://maximizemysocialsecurity.com/how-maximize-my-social-security-works
Interesting! Thanks!
Someone sent me this. I haven’t worked it yet, but this seems like what I need:
Ditto. For $40/year you can run all the scenarios you want, pdf and save them, print them, whatever works for you.
When my dad passed away, my mom lost his entire social security check. She has a state pension and can’t receive half of his SS. The rules are confusing but it happened.
My mom was very worried. She wasn’t left in the best financial position and was very worried to say the least.
She has done great! She was able to live on her pension just fine. She’s not even spending her RMD’s but is able to save them for any unexpected expenses. She’s doing much better than she feared. She cut back her expenses and doesn’t really travel much anymore. But she’s got a good life, has been able to stay in her home. Has lots of friends and now that she’s vaccinated, she’s really thrived.
I don’t know (obviously) your mom’s situation but wanted to pass on a positive outcome.