Quote :

"Surprised that people here are for maxing out IRAs/401ks and stretching out house payments. A great idea in theory, not always the best in practice. I just looked at my IRA, and over the past 7 years has gained about 3%.....that's terrible. Making payments on a home would of done me a lot better."

several reasons to at least consider that making extra payments on the house aren't always better.

1) The house interest is a tax write-off
2) I'm not worried about my Roth or 401k earnings over just 7 years
3) House payments are made with after-tax money and 401ks are not(yes taxes at the end, but a slight tax help now).
4) As much as I enjoy my job and where I live now, there is no guarantee that I will be here in this house for 20+ years. I bought a house that is big enough to grow in and have kids in but these days there is definitely no guarantee that we'd be here long enough to have the house paid off. (In a perfect world I would build 1 more house to retire in but we'll see how expenses work out).

True, our mortgage payment is 50% of our "essential" monthly expenses and it would be great to have that gone but I guess I'm taking a gamble that the money I am putting towards retirement should earn an average of more than 4.75% over the 30 years of my mortgage (which it should...). And really it wouldn't have to even earn 4.75% once I back out tax write-offs and stuff that come from the mortgage interest.

All that being said, having no house payment and saving on that interest is great. I'd say that if you are maxing out a Roth and contributing 10%+ to a 401k then what you do beyond that is kind of up to individual people and their own financial philosophies since you have to start comparing unknowns in the financial markets over 30 years.

1/25/2011 8:15:57 AM

Quote :

"^ ha but didn't that also come with like 20% APR for home mortgages?"

True, but I already have a fixed mortgage so bring on 16% cds!

Quote :

"Surprised that people here are for maxing out IRAs/401ks and stretching out house payments. A great idea in theory, not always the best in practice. I just looked at my IRA, and over the past 7 years has gained about 3%.....that's terrible. Making payments on a home would of done me a lot better."

C2A makes some good points. Also, you should really take another look at what's in your IRA. Over the past 7 years, the S&P 500 is up 13%, Dow was up 14%, and Nasdaq even more. Keep in mind, that's just if you had invested 7 years ago and not put in any more money. If you had been buying each year, you would have picked up funds pretty cheap and be up even more.

[Edited on January 25, 2011 at 9:28 AM. Reason : quote]

1/25/2011 9:25:17 AM

Quote :

"1) The house interest is a tax write-off"

this is true, but making payments on the house now allows you to contribute more to your 401K later when you are likely in higher tax bracket (meaning more tax savings).

1/25/2011 10:09:39 AM

However that only works once the house is entirely paid off and also assumes you aren't already maxing out your 401k (which, if things go positively at work this year, I should hopefully be maxing this now that I rearranged our finances).

Plus, although you could potentially be saving some tax in that scenario(paying the house off early and then contributing more to 401k), you also need to weigh the fact that you lost out on 15-20+ years of compounded earnings on the money you put towards the house early on which should hopefully be at a rate higher than your mortgage.

1/25/2011 10:15:19 AM

I haven't really done much in this department.

This will be my 6th year maxing out my Roth IRA, but that's about it.

When I was in law school I had a ton of money saved up, but I didn't do anything with it because I was extremely unsure of what my career was going to be when I got out. Then I spent a ton of money backpacking Europe, lent a friend a good chunk of change to start his own firm, and recently have bought a house.

I've finally finished my big purchases for the house and after getting my first time home buyer's tax credit, I'm looking to do something with my extra cash lying around.

Once I get my tax money back I'll have a little over $20K in my combined savings and checking. I like to keep $7 or $8K readily available for house or other emergencies...so just to make it easy, lets say I keep 10K in immediate checking/savings and that leaves $10K to invest/play around with.

What say you t-dub? What do I do with this $10K?

I'm definitely not where I'd like to be money wise, but I'm hoping the steady growth of my law practice will have me in comfortable living by the time I've hit my mid-30s. I'm also not completely dissatisfied with my situation. I'm 27 with no wife and kids (although in a committed relationship that might lead to marriage)...so my expenses aren't that big now, so I feel like this is a great opportunity to begin investing.

1/25/2011 11:38:56 AM

ok, I need some opinions on my situation. I'm 25 now, and is a homeowner. By the time I'm 40, I'll be done with my mortgage. Right now, I'm only contributing 5% to my 401k and nothing else as far as retirement. Should I contribute into Roth? What's the difference between Roth IRA and traditional 401k? What's the recommended amount of liquid cash one should have in mortgage-month (12 months?)

1/25/2011 12:00:27 PM

^^ I am in a similar boat as far as having cash to invest (posted before elsewhere and this thread I think). I had been saving for a house and she had been saving too so we combined our money and used some for a downpayment but still have some in the bank. Already maxing our Roths and I'm up to 16% in my 401k but we still have a good chunk of cash that I have been trying to figure out what to do with/invest in a few things.

Right now I opened up an etrade account and have invested some of that money in a handful of mutual funds that are 4-5 star rated, no load/no fee, low turnover %. Obviously these will get taxed since they aren't retirement sheltered but oh well.

Also, it's not super exciting but I also am going to invest a handful of money in an Ally bank CD. Their 2 year CDs are at 1.52% (like I said, not exciting at all) but within the 2 year period you have the option to bump up to a new rate one time if/when the rates go up. It's nothing to dump all your money into and tie it up, but it is a higher rate than any money markets you'll find out there.

So basically, right now I have 6 months living expenses sitting in our checking+savings combined, plus a big hunk of cash in a money market, some in some mutual funds on etrade, and am about to move a few thousand from the MM to put in a CD. I probably should dump more than I have into the mutual funds but I'm just testing the waters right now as far as non tax-sheltered investments.

^ What is your employer match? I'll give you the generic answer for people our age: (1) invest in your 401k to your employer match, (2) max out your Roth IRA, then (3) consider putting more money into the 401k beyond your employer match.

1/25/2011 1:14:46 PM

Quote :

"this is true, but making payments on the house now allows you to contribute more to your 401K later when you are likely in higher tax bracket (meaning more tax savings)."

That's why I put money in a roth 401K
But c2a makes another good point. You'll miss out on many years compounding, plus there's a cap of $16,500 on contributions, so it's not like you can contribute $33,000 in the future to make up for not contributing in prior years.

Quote :

"What say you t-dub? What do I do with this $10K?"

I'd probably invest it in a few index funds or up your 401K/403B/whatever contributions and dip into the 10K to make up for the less income received. If you're going with the former, I like Vanguard's total stock market index and their international index.

Quote :

"Should I contribute into Roth? What's the difference between Roth IRA and traditional 401k? What's the recommended amount of liquid cash one should have in mortgage-month (12 months?)"

Yes, contribute to a roth ira. You put in post tax money into a roth ira vs pretax money in a traditional 401K. Also, 401K is employee sponsored where a roth ira is not, therefore you have many more options when making investments via a roth ira. I have six months liquid cash. I think 12 months is excessive, especially if you're single and have a salaried position.

1/25/2011 2:02:09 PM

what's the advantage of roth ira compares to normal investment? since they're both post-tax.

Quote :

"What is your employer match?"

2%

1/25/2011 2:39:47 PM

You don't pay taxes on gains within a roth ira.

1/25/2011 2:53:22 PM

^bingo.

1/25/2011 3:00:18 PM

The reason banks were offering 16% CDs was because inflation was around 14%. Personally, I could do without that level of inflation but I have no confidence our government will try to avoid it.

Anyone else find this NY Times article depressing?:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/your-money/401ks-and-similar-plans/22money.html

1/25/2011 11:24:23 PM

No, not at all. Their assumption deals with a person making 40K a year saving 8%. I earn more and save more. Plus I hope to retire at 55, so even if the market does suck the last decade before I retire I can always push back my retirement date to 60 or 65. Besides,

Quote :

"“What the wise person does is save a large amount of money when they are young,” said William Bernstein, author of “The Investor’s Manifesto: Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon and Everything in Between” and other investing books. “And if they can do that, when they are older, they can cut back on their equity allocation. When you’ve won the game, you stop playing the game."

1/26/2011 12:54:03 AM

Exactly. I don't really save any more now than I did when I was making $50k, and I probably won't save much, if any, more when I hit the $100k mark. I figured out what I needed to be putting away, and started doing it early. If I just hold the pace I've been on for years, I should sock away a shitload by the time I'm 60 or so.

1/26/2011 1:11:33 AM

The article makes a good point (one that anyone who has projected their retirement #s should know though). However, most of us on here discussing this stuff are making and saving a good bit more than that article used in their example. I'd say a huge benefit of planning to retire early was highlighted in David0603's response:

Quote :

"Plus I hope to retire at 55, so even if the market does suck the last decade before I retire I can always push back my retirement date to 60 or 65."

If your target is ~55, it not only forces you to save more, but also leaves you a safety cushion to account for the unknowns in financial markets as you approach retirement. Even if you don't think retiring early is a possibility, I'd set up contributions hoping to reach your goals at 55. At least then you still have 5-10 years to try and finish up reaching your goals if you had stumbling blocks along the way. I'd much rather have an "oh shit" moment in my early 50s when I planned for 55 than an "oh shit" moment at 60 when I planned on 65.

edit: I'll just add something else. I do tend to get stressed out at times trying to figure out all the retirement stuff, but on the other hand, I can only do so much so at my age I try and only worry about the portion I can control (the amount we contribute) since there is no way I can predict 30 year worth of the factors that are out of my control.

[Edited on January 26, 2011 at 8:49 AM. Reason : .]

1/26/2011 8:26:44 AM

I currently have a bunch of the Vanguard Target Retirement 2050 fund VFIFX made up of

1 Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund 63.7%
2 Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund 26.2%
3 Vanguard Total Bond Market II Index Fund Investor Shares† 10.1%

I was thinking about selling it all off and manually resetting the allocation to

2/3 Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund
1/3 Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund

Thoughts?

1/31/2011 2:15:08 PM

Honestly that is probably not a bad idea this year. I have our stuff in the same Vanguard 2050 fund at the moment but hadn't really thought about stripping the bonds portion (at least for this year).

Then again I'm not really one to be giving advice on exactly where to invest since I'm still a novice in those areas.

[Edited on January 31, 2011 at 2:27 PM. Reason : .]

1/31/2011 2:25:04 PM

The two funds have a 3K min, so when I started out my roth with Vanguard I was forced to pick a target retirement fund but now that's a moot point.

1/31/2011 2:28:56 PM

So, right now my wife and I have ~23% of our combined salaries getting invested in retirement tax-sheltered accounts this year. That includes my 5% 1:1 401k match. Also, $10,000 is after tax money going into the Roths. (I added our 401k contributions + company 401k contributions + Roth IRAs and just divided by our before tax salary sums).

I have kind of updated my goal for the end of this year: have our percentages set up so that we would be saving 32% in retirement accounts using the same math as above. I think if we can get to that point I will pretty comfortable about where our retirement savings are at (obviously we will still have a little bit extra each month set aside in non-retirement savings for vacations, etc. too).

Here's to hoping everything goes as planned relating to things slightly out of our control though...(work mainly).

It gets hard to try and figure out how much you should be saving though so my goal now has just been to save as much as humanly possible while still being able to do fun stuff and I think we are moving in the right direction.

[Edited on February 10, 2011 at 5:50 PM. Reason : .]

2/10/2011 5:44:35 PM

Sweeeeeeeeeeeet.

2/10/2011 11:08:32 PM

So, my wife and I are planning to get some life insurance for each of us as well as some disability on myself. Nothing huge but just stuff outside of what I get at work so that it is not entirely tied to my being employed.

Anyway, the guy we have been talking with just kind of did an overview in the first session getting an idea of our financials and such. One thing he commented on is that he was impressed with the quantity my wife and I save but he thought we put too much away into our 401k accounts and that he would recommend rolling some of the contributions to that back and investing some after-tax dollars as he thinks it would pay off better in the long run.

My problem there is that I don't entirely agree. I understand that my 401k withdrawal will be getting taxed and possibly at a higher tax bracket than I am today (iow just deferring cheaper taxes now to end up with possibly higher taxes later), but I'm not convinced that rolling back the 401k and dumping money into taxable stuff really works out that much better.

The way I am thinking about it:

401k
-lowers my taxable income in the present
-no taxes associated with the growth of the account until I withdraw. I'm only paying taxes on it once on the withdrawal
-the lack of those taxes with compounding interest seem significant over 30+ years

After-Tax Investment (Non IRA since we already max that).
-We pay taxes once on the income then if it is in an index fund or something we are paying some capital gains on that then we also pay capital gains at the cash-out time as well.

Obviously there are tons of variables involved and neither is a clear-cut better than the other but I tend to like leaning towards maxing the Roth and 401k before really dumping money into taxable equities. I definitely need both, and agree that I need to get more aggressive with my after-tax cash on hand instead of letting it pile up in a money market, I just sort of disagree with his opinion on that and was wondering if anyone else had any opinions (ie disagree or agree with my stance here).

4/4/2011 11:41:34 AM

Strongly disagree. First off, keep in mind you won't be withdrawing 401K money until you retire, so it doesn't matter if your tax bracket is super high the last year you worked. All that matters is how much it is when you eventually do retire. Lets go ahead and assume it is higher. Will it be 15% higher, b/c that's what long term capital gains is going to cost you, which is the extra tax you're going to be paying if you decide to invest the money outside of a retirement vehicle. I don't trust insurance guys. Just get a 30 year term policy with no stupid investment component.

4/4/2011 11:52:49 AM

cool thanks for the input. That's pretty much exactly how I feel; I just wanted to throw that out there since it was something he brought out.

[Edited on April 4, 2011 at 12:02 PM. Reason : .]

4/4/2011 12:02:31 PM

I invested all my retirement $$ in jackleg posts.

4/4/2011 1:30:10 PM

Booya SECU bridge account quarterly results

Account View Transactions View Statements Rate
Shares View Transactions View Statements 12.00 %

[Edited on April 4, 2011 at 2:39 PM. Reason : ]

4/4/2011 2:38:42 PM

nice

4/4/2011 3:47:52 PM

planning on buying some land soon, in either of these countries:

saudi arabia
cayman islands (UK territory)
brazil

4/4/2011 4:32:52 PM

What happened to Dubai?

4/4/2011 5:30:43 PM

it was never dubai... but ajman, one of the seven emirates that make up the UAE.

my apartment is still there. 7 year payment plan... 3 years before construction end, and 4 years after construction end (55 story tower). paid off first 3 years. construction was supposed to end this past december, but won't end till december 2012, so it is 2 years late. 4 year payment plan won't start till then, that leaves me disposable cash to buy some land now.

my parents bought some here in saudi in 2005 and sold it a few months ago... 400% profit in about 6 years, and i am not kidding (as soon as a 500-bed government hospital started construction next to their land, prices went insane). they have some more that they bought a year ago and it has already doubled in price. that's the advantage of land in emerging markets... you can make bank really fast... and land is pretty much secure, nearly impossible to lose your money, unlike with stocks/shares.

a good student of mine who comes from a rich business family (saudis) was telling me they bought 4 million sq meters 12 years ago, out in the desert, at $4/sqm. now the price there is $125/sqm.

that's how you convert $16 million into $500 million in 12 years. fucking nuts!!!! is there any other investment that can give you 3,000% in 12 years? (and one which requires no work on your part... someone can look up gold/silver/oil/etc prices over last 12 years)

so anyway, i want to buy a plot of 400 sqm in the same area as my student's, i.e., it will cost $50,000 (actually, mom and i will split it 50-50). of course, prices are going up very slowly now, so i will have to sit on it for a while. however, the price can skyrocket instantly without warning. how? if the saudi government lays utility lines/pipes in that area (water, electric, sewage, phone, etc). (it is desert, next to the highway, but roads have been inlaid and development is slowly starting)


[Edited on April 4, 2011 at 5:53 PM. Reason : ]

4/4/2011 5:44:29 PM

I have another chunk of cash I'm investing today. Taxable investment but still mainly aimed at retirement spending unless we had to touch it as an emergency. This time I decided to try a 3-way split lazy portfolio based around index funds.

1/3 Vanguard Total Stock Market Index MF (VTSMX)
1/3 Vanguard Total Intl Stock Index VGTSX
1/3 Suntrust CDs @ 2.49% (1/6 in a 3 year and 1/6 in a 5 year)

Instead of putting the last 1/3 in bonds I went ahead and did a 3 year + 5 year CD with my bank. Each CD had to be opened with the same amount. I figure the CD money can be used toward a car or something when it matures if I need but for now it is playing the role of the conservative/safe investment in this portfolio.

Slowly whittling away at the cash we had sitting in the money market (which was and admittedly still is too much cash to be sitting there). Still considering switching the MM to SECU from the bank it is at now too. We're down to .64% and SECU is still 1.25% I think. Not a huge diff but might as well make the $ work as hard as it can for us.

[Edited on April 13, 2011 at 12:46 PM. Reason : .]

4/13/2011 12:41:00 PM

If you are looking for liquidity and rate, Lumbee Gaurantee bank has a checking account paying 3% on the first 15k. THe only catch is that you have to use a debit card 5-10 times a month (they reimburse you for charges from outside debit machines) and you have to have either an auto debit or credit linked to the account.

Just put some taxable funds into the Franklin Frontier Markets Fund....obviously a long term holding.

4/13/2011 12:58:56 PM

^I think ECB and Select Bank and Trust have similar accounts with 4% interest rate.

4/13/2011 4:40:13 PM

Bah. Looks like SECU is stopping their bridge account program at the end of the year. Does anyone know of any other banks who do this?

7/1/2011 4:45:05 PM

I know it's been awhile, but...

Quote :

"So, my wife and I are planning to get some life insurance for each of us"

May I ask why? What's the basis for the decision to get life insurance?

7/1/2011 5:39:36 PM

one example:

a good friend of mine has been diagnosed with brain cancer. her and her husband came to md anderson for treatment (which was "out of network" on her insurance)

the life expectancy for the type of cancer she has is 2-5 years (of course there are always exceptions and i obvi hope she beats the odds)

however, any life insurance she may have will likely go toward ungodly amounts of medical bills

they are late 20s and have no children

actually, what is the "rule" on that? once you die, how are debts handled? maybe a stupid question but i'm not really sure if anything gets forgiven or if certain things do?....

[Edited on July 1, 2011 at 7:04 PM. Reason : more info]

7/1/2011 7:04:11 PM

We primarily live off of one salary sock most of mine away into savings each month (the rest goes to my gas and groceries). Trying to up that more. My husband is max contributing to his 401K and I am putting 5% into my 403B (company matches up to 4%). My car is now paid for - working on his.

Our savings is enough at this point that we could live without his salary for about 3 months. Trying to increase that to 6 months before our baby is born since I'm considering being a stay at home mom (at least for the first year).

Could be going better - but I feel pretty blessed for us to be where we are at our age.

[Edited on July 1, 2011 at 7:19 PM. Reason : sp]

7/1/2011 7:17:52 PM

Quote :

"once you die, how are debts handled?"

I'd imagine the creditors could go after any joint assets.

[Edited on July 2, 2011 at 3:03 PM. Reason : ]

7/2/2011 3:03:36 PM

debt falls to the estate of the departed, creditors get theirs and whats left goes to beneficiary

7/2/2011 6:27:46 PM

I am assuming that I will die before I ever retire, or WWIII will occur, so I max out my 401K but thats about it

7/2/2011 8:43:02 PM

anyone have any experience with American Funds 401k?

When i changed employers I took my 401k and put it into a Vanguard IRA. I am now eligible to join my companies 401k plan, which is with American Funds. Just wondering if anyone has any complaints really

7/3/2011 1:39:24 PM

I'd leave it with Vanguard.

7/3/2011 2:25:14 PM

Quote :

"one example: a good friend of mine..."

I'm sorry about your friend.

I'm in a similar situation...a little older than your friends, no children, no debt, both employed (with sufficient income from each job to be comfortably self-supporting if need be).

We both have basic life insurance through our jobs, but I just can't see a need to get anything more.

My understanding of debt after death is pretty much what David0603 and cain said. Your friends should probably see a financial planner of some sort.

7/3/2011 5:36:09 PM

saw this on digg, felt it was appropriate here

http://www.mint.com/blog/credit-2/what-kind-of-debt-pay-off-boosts-your-fico-score-most/

What Kind of Debt Pay-Off Boosts Your FICO Score Most?

So you have a few extra bucks in your pocket and you’ve decided to pay off one of your debts early. You know that credit scores are extremely important so your goal is to pay off the debt that will yield the most credit score improvement. The “FICO ROI” (return on investment) question is one that I receive almost daily. So, in the interest of saving myself 15 minutes a day in perpetuity:

Which of the following will improve your FICO scores the most?
A) Paying off a $250,000 mortgage
B) Paying off a $35,000 auto loan
C) Paying off a $5,000 credit card
D) Paying off a $1,000 collection

Before you answer I have to set the ground rules for our little exercise. First, the starting score is 630, which is important because that’s the type of score you’d want to improve. And, secondly, the mortgage payoff is accomplished by selling your home and fully covering a $250,000 loan. Everything else on the credit report remained unchanged.

Using a scoring tool built by FICO (yes, they really built it) I estimated the aforementioned four changes to the credit report and the results were as follows…

Paying off a mortgage loan of $250,000 improved the 630 to a 635
This illustrates what I’ve been trying to tell people for years, which is that installment debt doesn’t really have that much impact on your scores and struggling to pay it off early won’t do your scores much good. And, just to silence those of you who are screaming “foul” because this is just a simulation…I sold a house last year and paid off a $249,000 mortgage and my FICO scores went up a whopping four points.

Paying off an auto loan of $35,000 improved the 630 to a 635
Same song, second verse. An auto loan is another installment loan so the impact of paying it off early doesn’t yield much to your scores. In fact, it’s not even that you’re getting out of debt that awarded you those 5 points. It’s the fact that you eliminated one of your accounts that had a balance greater than $0.

Paying off a credit card balance of $5,000 improved the 630 to a 665
We have a winner. As many of you already know, credit card debt is almost always unsecured. This makes it a much riskier type of credit than installment debt, which is almost always secured by some asset. It’s because of this fact that even modest credit card debt can be a drag on your scores. By paying off this $5,000 debt we eliminated one account with a balance and lowered our “utilization” percentage to less than 10 percent, both of which are FICO score winners.

Paying off a collection balance of $1,000 dropped the 630 to a 595
Unfortunately this is an all too common occurrence as any of you with collections have probably experienced. There’s a deficiency in the credit reporting system that shows recent activity on a collection account, if you were to make a payment. This recent activity makes the collection look younger and can result in a score drop. In my simulation the “recency” of the collection went from “greater than three years old” to less than 12 months. When you make a payment on a collection the collection agency will report the new balance to the credit reporting agencies. The “date reported” on the collection account will be the then current date, which can lead to the score drop.
These results, while simulated, are a very accurate reflection of what will likely happen to your scores if you pay off one of these items. So, if you want to pay off a car loan or a mortgage loan early, do so because it’ll save you money in interest. Don’t think that your scores are going to shoot through the roof.

7/5/2011 11:40:07 PM

bump

10/17/2011 2:31:43 PM

Thanks for the bump.

I'm in a position now where I want to expand my Roth contributions. We currently max out my contributions, but do not put anything towards my wife's. Ideally we would just be able to have a joint account with a $10,000 contribution limit, but unless I'm mistaken, that doesn't seem to be the case.

How does everyone else handle this, just two completely separate accounts? I currently use Vanguard if it matters.

10/17/2011 3:11:07 PM

We just have two separate accounts with Vanguard. As far as I know that is the way you have to do it. It really isn't a big deal though. Once you set both up it's just as easy as having one account unless you are doing a high amount of trading within the account.

[Edited on October 17, 2011 at 3:36 PM. Reason : ]

10/17/2011 3:32:59 PM

Right now, I just have a Roth IRA (i'm contracted so no company benefits).
I'll max that out in ~4 months total, just manually contributing here and there (sept-dec 2011).

I have a HSA that I'm thinking I'll try to max out as well. I don't go to the doctor (never a need) and don't plan on being on a HDHP for long (a few years max), but I figure if I can max it out for a few years, then let that sit for years earning interest (miserable, but something), I'll have a nice health fund later in life. Or is that dumb? Should I just put that money somewhere else? I've read articles on both sides of this... some say to stash it away for when your medical expenses increase (kids, aging, etc.) sort of like an emergency medical fund that you never touch; others have said to use that money elsewhere to earn better returns.

I'm also putting some money in a Money Market for now (not much left over after Roth, monthly bills, and auto loan payment - next year will be different when I'm not trying to max an IRA in 4 months).

Not sure what else I should do now. Once I have a non-contract job, I'll likely get company retirement benefits, so I don't think I should open any other personal retirement accounts.

I guess I need to look at stocks/bonds/ETFs/etc. Just don't know much about any of those.

Also will have an old life insurance policy matured in a few years (one from my dad)... I can cash it out or keep it... I have my own life insurance as well and I assume once I'm non contract, I'll get a company policy as well. I'm thinking I should cash the old one now, hold onto my personal one, then when I have a company policy, cash my other one when it matures.

10/17/2011 6:05:11 PM

Quote :

"How does everyone else handle this, just two completely separate accounts?"

Yes, remember the I in IRA stands for individual

^ I have a brokerage account through Scottrade I put money in from time to time. I don't know of any other "personal retirement accounts" you can open in addition to an IRA.

It's hard to tell you what to do with the life insurance policy without specifics but most of them usually have a lower return than you could get elsewhere so it probably makes sense to cash it in.

10/18/2011 11:09:45 AM

^, ^^^

Thanks. I hate having so many accounts to keep up with, but we'll go ahead and open another Roth.

10/18/2011 11:17:05 AM

Likewise. I use mint. I have about 17 accounts at 8 institutions.

10/18/2011 11:20:55 AM