One of our August goals is to consolidate accounts. We both have random retirement accounts here and there and it would be nice for things to be in you know, fewer places! Easier to keep track of.
#1
I’ve decided that I will keep my etrade account for now, but I will open up a Vanguard account to consolidate everything else into. Based on my future experiences with Vanguard vs. those with Etrade I may consider moving everything over later. But not right now. The etrade account is mostly in Vanguard funds and ETFs anyway.
At work I’m giving another shot at putting my old Ing money into Fidelity. I tried this last year but Ing lost my forms twice. (They deny they lost them, but Fidelity sent me copies the second time around.)
What #1 did:
Called Vanguard… moving IRAs easy peasy (they say). Moving things that are not IRAs takes a few more steps.
Charles Schwab IRA Roth opened by father with some of my college earnings — Vanguard took info over the phone, sent me a form to sign, asked me to send a copy of my last quarterly statement, and they will take care of the rest. The Schwab website is totally not user friendly. This has been moved (and before congress screwed with the economy too)!
American Century — This is more difficult. It’s basically gift trust money I didn’t know I had that matured after I didn’t need it anymore (there are times when that 5K would have meant a huge boost to our security and my ability to digest meat… but not right after getting a real job). It’s in an overpriced S&P 500 Fund, so that needs to change. Unfortunately the account is so old that it’s labeled “in writing only.” I tried to figure out the form I would need to sell everything, but failed (I think the word “redeem” means sell, but the form was not friendly). I did find the form I need to turn the trust into a “full service” account so I can empty it online or over the phone, so I sent that in, and should now have control. Cost basis on this is going to be a PITA, but the guy on the phone said they would send me a how-to with the sheet when I close out the account. I have a hard time feeling like this money is actually *my* money and I hope to use it towards tuition for one of DH’s relative’s girls within the next couple of years.
Because of the current financial jiggerings, I’m going to wait to actually move the money until the stock market isn’t going up or down 5% every single day. Not having control of when to buy or sell because it’s all automated AND having a few days as money transfers from one place to the next does not work well with large market fluctuations. But I do have the forms filled out AGAIN to make Ing let go (loss in fees ~$300/yr… potential loss from buying and selling when the market is changing 5% within a day: much higher).
What #2 did:
I have put all my stuff in organized piles by organization! I am tracking my spending.
I liquidated a tiny retirement account from 2 employers ago… Accidentally. I found a check — they liquidated the account and cashed it out to me when they didn’t hear from me for a while. I don’t mind the tax hit on $82 or whatever, because that was my original plan anyway. Win.
I still need to figure out what I want to do. And then do it. Market volatility also scares me, but I should figure out what to do before the market settles down so I can just do it then. Actually I have been talking with my partner a fair bit about this, in blips and bits, but that doesn’t make interesting blogging. We have no real decisions. I went through some retirement stuff I found and figured out exactly what I need to ask the TIAA-CREF guy about when he is on campus. And which form to get from HR. Moving my accounts around and trying to decide on which funds to invest in is really, REALLLLLLY boring to me but I guess people like to read about it (well…maybe some people…)? You can also look for more details on our Monthly Challenges page.
Do you have lots of disparate investment accounts? Or are you totally organized and on top of things? (And if so, what’s your secret?)
August 15, 2011 at 6:09 am
I have company stock in limbo somewhere in NY. We get a dividend check every quarter, but I have no idea where it’s coming from. I had a heck of a time transferring my funds over out of my work 401K to a private account…I think they make it difficult on purpose, I really do. Problem is that it’s in my husband’s name and it’s been low on his priority list.
August 15, 2011 at 6:21 am
I suspect they make it difficult on purpose as well. I know you’re never to ascribe to malice what can be explained by simple incompetence, but it seems like this is an area in which they don’t try to correct for simple incompetence.
August 15, 2011 at 7:32 am
I don’t have disparate accounts. My secret? I didn’t start saving for retirement until I joined my current employer 13 years ago. Probably not a good strategy to emulate even if it does mean simplified accounts. ;-)
August 15, 2011 at 7:53 am
Hm… yeah, that trade-off might not be worth it.
August 15, 2011 at 7:38 am
Funny! I finally rolled my 401k from my most recent company into a Vanguard IRA this month, too. I had enough money in the old 401k that I could have left it there, but it had kind of crappy funds with high fees. Vanguard rocks. My largest 401k is there, our 529s are there, and we also have some “regular” funds there. I have nothing but happy things to say about them, really.
August 15, 2011 at 7:53 am
Vanguard is totally awesome.
August 15, 2011 at 8:23 am
I also have an old American Century Account (hate that company in many ways), but have been too nervous to liquidate b/c I have no idea how to do cost basis. I don’t think it’s made any money over 25 years…
Help me be as brave as you are.
August 15, 2011 at 8:34 am
The guy on the phone said they would send a “how-to” for the cost-basis once it was sold. We’ll see if that happens…
August 15, 2011 at 9:00 am
Hmmm. All of my employers have offered TIAA-CREF and virtually all of my retirement accounts are there. So that’s pretty simple though even making a few small moves within TIAA-CREF (e.g. rolling a 403-b from a former employer over to an IRA) has been surprisingly tedious. My current employer also offers Vanguard and I do occasionally wonder if I should move everything over there.
I do have a small Roth with my Credit Union. As this is my “oh noes this really is a real emergency” emergency fund (gasp) (for the record experience to date suggests I can probably distinguish a real emergency from a pseudo emergency and have not yet — touch wood and all that — experienced the former), it’s kind of nice to know the cash is there in an account at a place I can easily drive to and meet with an actual (and likely helpful/competent) human being if necessary. I did however recently move even most of the balance of that account over to TIAA-CREF when I realized their cash-equivalents account was paying 3% to my CU’s 2.25%.
Oh, and I’ve got ~200 shares of Bank of America (woohoo!) that my grandmother left — actually, gave, very shortly before her death, and that detail matters for cost-basis purposes — that I should clearly have ditched back in the day, but am unlikely to do anything about not least for the reasons you mention (hassles involved, not knowing how to do it).
August 15, 2011 at 9:07 am
Vanguard fees are about a tenth of what TIAA-CREF’s are… though TIAA-CREF is pretty cheap, so that factor of 10 isn’t such a big deal. Unless you have a lot of money it is unlikely to be worth the cost of changing (and if you have a lot of money, the amount you’re losing is still probably not a big deal).
Maybe when things settle down we should do another post on cost-basis figuring out. It isn’t so bad, just takes some searching and some algebra. One of the nice things the Obama administration has done is made this stuff easier for us to figure out going forward (but only for stuff bought since they changed the laws– doesn’t help much with the old accounts that are a PITA to deal with). Companies are no longer allowed to forget when you bought the stock and at how much.
August 15, 2011 at 9:52 am
Thanks. Yeah, I know Vanguard is cheaper, and I know TIAA-CREF is still a very good value by industry standards. Besides the cheaper part, Vanguard offers a lot more index fund options, which appeals to me. Also, the TIAA-CREF webpage has only recently become tolerably decent, though even now it’s no more than that, though I don’t know how Vanguard’s compares.
August 15, 2011 at 11:21 am
Strangely, #2 has actually found the TIAA-CREF website and forms *easier* to deal with than Vanguard. Well actually I haven’t used either one’s website that much, but maybe I’m just more familiar with one than the other.
August 15, 2011 at 11:49 am
Oh, the joys of getting up to speed in the American system… Everything you are talking about is completely unheard of in Argentina. What you have there is basically a social security system that pays pretty poorly. If you have accumulated any wealth, you buy apartments and then rent them. For example, my parents, who are upper middle class, own 3 apartments. They are also still working. Now, to buy apartments, you need to buy in cash. Long term credit is almost non-existent. And when I say cash, I am being literal. I am sure that you can do electronic transfers now, but 13 years ago, I was present when my father bought an apartment for around $100K. The seller and the real estate agent were there. He open the briefcase with the money, and they counted it. I really felt like a drug transaction.
So back to America. My husband was a bohemian until he met me, so no money there. I only have my social security contributions and the 403 (b) from my current job (incidentally, I started contributing to it on September 15th, 2008, the day Lehman Brothers crashed. Quite an introduction). We also have an ING savings account with around 5K in it, as emergency savings. I also have an apartment in Buenos Aires that I could sell if I wanted, but I won’t. It gives me the feeling that if something goes wrong in the United States, I have a place to return to. To sum up, I probably don’t have anywhere near enough, but it would probably be enough to retire in Buenos Aires. We’ll see.
August 15, 2011 at 12:15 pm
There was a House Hunters International episode, in which an American couple bought an apartment with cash. When they went to make the transaction, they had to strip large bundles of American money to themselves.
August 15, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Yep, taking the money out of a safe deposit, strapping into yourself, and then walking like 20 blocks (because it is safer than taking a taxi). Fun times!
August 15, 2011 at 12:12 pm
Mine’s pretty simple too I guess. Retirement is at Fidelity. I have a traditional IRA and my 403-b from my current employer. Dumb luck they were both with Fidelity.
I have checking and savings with a credit union and ING.
What’s getting a little crazy is the kids’ stuff. I have their 529′s with Upromise but I was looking into it after seeing mention here and am not impressed with how expensive it is. But at the same time, I’m at a loss on how to move it.
I also just found out there was a savings account I’d opened with Washington Mutual for Eldest years ago I’d forgotten about and is now at Chase. It only has like $50 in it. However, during his birthday he got a couple of checks made out to him personally. I was thinking of opening an account for him at my credit union and then liquidating Chase and dumping it in there.
August 15, 2011 at 2:14 pm
My UPromise account dumps directly into our Vanguard 529s. I remember the UPromise side of that being very confusing to set up. Call Vanguard. They’ll help you with it.
August 15, 2011 at 3:12 pm
I have some individual stocks at Schwab that I would like to move to an index fund at Vanguard. Is it easier to just use Schwab’s EFT to my checking account and then Vanguard’s EFT from my checking account than to transfer the funds directly from a money-market fund at Schwab to Vanguard?
August 15, 2011 at 3:26 pm
That’s up to you! It will probably take you less time to do it that way because Vanguard doesn’t have to communicate with Schwab before funds can be transferred. I also don’t know how much of a hassle it is to close out a Schwab account without having Vanguard doing it for you.
With IRAs I definitely think it’s easier to have a company to company transfer, but with stocks that aren’t tax advantaged it probably is just as easy and faster to send to your checking account and then back out again.
August 15, 2011 at 3:56 pm
I’m with you on the IRAs, but I think it would be easiest for normal stocks to send to/from my checking account since that only takes a day on either end. I can’t close out the account completely since that’s where my employer gives me stocks, so that’s a moot point for me.
Thanks! :)
August 15, 2011 at 6:37 pm
You ask, “Do you have lots of disparate investment accounts? Or are you totally organized and on top of things? (And if so, what’s your secret?)”
I am somewhat organized and on top of things. The main key to my being organized is probably that I’ve been with the same employer most of the time I’ve been investing. (The whole time except for one 8-month period in the middle.)
But nevertheless I feel like I have lots of disparate investment accounts, though not as many as I could have because I have done some consolidating:
* Old 403(b) with some environmentally conscious company with relatively high fees (my first account) – why, oh, why didn’t I roll this into an IRA when I had the chance (while I was at that 8-month job)? I don’t feel like switching this small investment to something better because it will still be separate–can’t roll into into anything I already have. And it is a little nice to give this company some of my stock ownership power to back them up when they ask big companies to do things like quit advertising that powdered formula is better for babies than breastmilk, etc.
* Roth IRA with Vanguard – most of my non-pension retirement savings are here.
* New Roth 403(b) – started with TIAA-CREF, then switched to Fidelity after reading your plan. I only moved the monthly deposits–I still need to transfer the old money.
* pension (okay, this is really my first investment) – I actually had another educational job but cashed out that money, but then I re-bought that experience as soon as I could. Yea for me!
* Okay, I guess Social Security was REALLY my first investment.
I also have some non-retirement stuff:
* My house – sort of counts like an investment–especially since it’s paid off, so now my housing costs are “only” taxes, insurance, repairs, utilities. (My state has high property taxes.)
* Savings account at the local credit union (0.35% interest) – this has $500 that is easily accessible (can be transferred to my account in basically one second so long as everyone’s internet is working).
* Savings account at ING Direct (1.0%) – this has most of my liquid savings in it. I tried rate chasing, but it got depressing, so I closed the other accounts. Except for:
* SmartyPig (1.1%) – at first just for car insurance and flood insurance, but now also for property taxes, homeowner’s insurance, and my next car. Hmm, just realized I could also set up an account for my annual purchase of Tracfone minutes. But it’s kind of a pain for almost no extra interest. For a long, long time SmartyPig used to have significantly more interest than ING.
* Savings bonds – one EE bond that was a reward for something, a few fabulous old I-bonds from when the fixed interest was 3% which I am keeping long term, and one new I-bond with 0% fixed interest which I’m keeping short term (because worst-case scenario, I’ll still get a couple of percent out of it).
* Small account at Scottrade for stocks.
August 16, 2011 at 11:50 am
Wow, amazing! I don’t even know how you keep track of all that! That’s a lot of thingies. About once a year I keep track of everything and curse the fact I have so many different things (that once a year being sometime around taxes) — which is why I would like to consolidate.
August 16, 2011 at 3:38 pm
How I keep track:
I have a spreadsheet with each thing and how much it is which I update every month. (Well, I don’t update Social Security, and I just use an estimate for the pension until I get the annual update.)
As far as all the stinking account numbers and passwords, I keep track of them the same way as I do all the other ones. In a dedicated address book. Yes a thief could take it, but not from some other location by breaking into my computer.
I’m not like people who switch employers every few years and don’t do anything to all their old 401K accounts. Scary!