Comments on: Analyzing My Wife’s Old 401(k)

By: BD

BD — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 00:19:02 +0000

Cindy: I wouldn’t take one persons opinion as a essential guideline for your retirement. Don’t follow the herd to make money in the market!

Also bonds are essential downside protection in a any portfolio (ask anyone that lost 30% of the their retirement in the last year).

By: cindy

cindy — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:12:13 +0000

According to Suze Orman, you need to have 85% in an index fund and 15% in international. You should never invest your 401k or IRA in bonds.

By: BD

BD — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:07:32 +0000

Looking at Fidelity Funds the following interest me the most: FFNOX (Index/Low Expense), FMAGX (Growth), and SPHIX (Yield).

Good mix for an IRA?

By: workfaster

workfaster — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 04:43:03 +0000

I have funds in TRP also… note that the “account minimum” fee applies individually to each mutual fund… each fund you hold is considered a separate account. So it just reinforces your decision to consolidate.

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:09:00 +0000

I bet you that it’s more common than you think and, to be fair, there’s nothing wrong with that if it’s your only retirement account. You want diversity, but if you have to manage it across several accounts, it’s impossible if one 401(k) is broken up like that.

By: thomas

thomas — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:58:23 +0000

Nine funds and only 7k? Wow, that’s (what is the nicest thing to say) interesting. Nice job maximizing the minimizing of the account.

By: BrewCrewFan

BrewCrewFan — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 14:09:00 +0000

I had the same reaction at first, but Jim mentions that this is only a small part of his retirement assets. The allocation of these funds is consistent with hs overall asset allocation plan.

By: BrewCrewFan

BrewCrewFan — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 14:06:09 +0000

I would recommend consolidating your retirement accounts into as few accounts as possible. A year ago, we had over 10 different retirement accounts (due to job changes and previous marriages). It is now down to four. Not only is it easier to manage our retirement accounts, consolidating the accounts means better service (a dedicated account rep) and lower fees (Vanguard offers lower fees for larger accounts.)

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:53:15 +0000

That’s the risk, it could’ve gone down 7% or up 7%

By: MissMartha

MissMartha — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:11:01 +0000

I’m glad you got lucky! That is probably one of the few nice outcomes from those rough days in Q4′08 and Q1′09!

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:59:12 +0000

I moved my old 401(k) from my L’Oreal days a few months ago – It was right when everything started really going to hell in the markets. I got lucky in that in the three days it took to transfer the funds from TRP to Vanguard, the markets dropped about 7% – so basically I “earned” 7% in 3 days because the money was cash. If I had read this post before I decided to move my money, I probably would have just held off.

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:05:11 +0000

Vanguard won’t let you invest in a fund unless you have $3,000 or $5,000 (or whatever the minimum is). There’s no extra fee, they just don’t let you play. You can avoid the administrative fee if you request electronic statements.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:45:06 +0000

Wow, that is a lot of funds for only $7,000. That was a good move on your part and many of those funds probably end up getting approximately the same return on the S&P 500 fund. Doesn’t Vanguard have some type of fee if you don’t have a minimum balance within each fund?

By: aa

aa — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:36:01 +0000

Now everything is big cap… not a good idea…

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:12:40 +0000

The fees would be lower at Vanguard and the benefit is that most of our other assets are at Vanguard so the consolidation would also help from a management perspective.