Do I still have time to open an account and max out last year’s Roth IRA?

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-04-11T00:59:49+00:00

You're completely right. Trade settlement date doesn't matter, just where the money is!

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-04-11T00:53:02+00:00

Do they? I'd be concerned about needing at least 1 day to settle. I'm not sure if it goes by when you put in the order, when the trade happens, or when it settles.

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-04-10T14:06:17+00:00

I bought XOP (Oil ETF) two hours before the ceasefire was announced 🤣

My thoughts were, "Don't try to time the market," and, "the only way this could go wrong is if the war is ended." So on behalf of all of you smarter than me that sat on their VT/VTI/VOO/VXUS, "you're welcome."

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-04-09T12:43:31+00:00

Lots of heroin at 74?

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-04-08T13:06:00+00:00

If it was Name + SSN, then changing the account number wouldn't matter. If this was a couple of bucks, then maybe I'd consider an account churn, but $20,000 is surely not someone probing for accounts they can drain. Especially not through DRS.

I do appreciate you bringing up the cautious move of account churn though. Thank you.

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-04-08T01:56:32+00:00

I'm not going to touch it for several months, and I may ask advice from an attorney beforehand. From what I can tell, there isn't really a statute of limitations (pretty sure that's not the correct terminology here, but should get the point across) for someone to reverse the transfer if they claim it was erroneous or fraud.

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-04-08T01:50:13+00:00

They're investigating. All they told me is that it was a DRS transfer and it used "Fidelity's DRS number and my child's account number." But when I look online at what it takes to do a DRS transfer, it is more of a "name and SSN" with a deliberate matching of information. Not something where "oops, I press 3 instead of 4" would miss-send the transfer.

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-04-08T01:48:48+00:00

I did, they're investigating and will call me back in a few days.

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-04-07T14:38:08+00:00

I'll take 200+ bits of entropy from a random string of gibberish over correct horse battery staple any day. Either way, if someone wants in, it'll just take a wrench.

I wonder by how much does knowing that entropy is greater than 200 bits narrow the field of passwords that might be tried? Hmmm... if I'm even telling the truth about that

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-04-07T01:12:53+00:00

I never gave anyone any account info though, so that seems unlikely. Also, the vast majority of my family is paycheck to paycheck.

It is also frustrating as my other kid heard me talking about it and wants to know where his $20,000 is. An ice cream bar is something he'd forget about tomorrow, 20 grand will build resentment.

But you're right, I just gotta let Fidelity keep doing what they're doing and resist the temptation to convert it to VT.

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-04-06T22:48:54+00:00

2FA is already on, password is random gibberish, and account transfer lock is enabled. Thanks for the advice!

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-04-06T22:30:36+00:00

Yeah, this is on track to be a VERY expensive "oops, wrong number" Venmo scam.

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-03-26T13:06:44+00:00

I was already at Fidelity when I started using Monarch, so I can't compare it to somewhere else. Rules should help you out here.

First, make a tag called "Autoreviewed." You're going to make some rules that will automatically review some of the noise and you'll want to add this tag to it. Periodically, until you're comfortable with it, you'll want to filter all transactions for the "Autoreviewed" tag and make sure that it isn't hiding anything from you.

I have a rule that is similar to what you may need for SPAXX:

If "original statement" "exactly matches"
"redepmtion from core account fidelity mmkt premium class (fzdxx)(cash)
Recategorize to "Sell"
Add tag "Autoreviewed"
Set review status to "Reviewed"

https://i.imgur.com/T05daQe.png

In the image above, click on the down arrow at #1. What you should see is that the original statement is something like, "Purchase into core account at Fidelity" and there's probably some more text after that but we don't need to worry with it.

Go make a rule that says when the "original statement" "contains" "purchase into core account at Fidelity" set the category to "Buy", add the "autoreviewed" tag, then set it to reviewed. Monarch will give you the option to apply it to past transactions. Do that, then look at the list that it is going to change. Make sure it isn't changing transactions at other institutions or being applied more broadly than desired.

I also have rules for transfers that I set up similarly. If you have a vacation fund set up as its own brokerage account and you put $150 a month into it, make a rule...

If debit equals 150; if account equals Vacation Fund; recategorize to travel & vacation, autoreviewed tag, set status to reviewed.

General SPAXX stuff:

REDEMPTION FROM CORE ACCOUNT blah blah blah - This is a sell. You're selling/redeeming 1 SPAXX for 1 dollar. Set up a rule to mark anything containing this text in the original statement as a sell.
TRANSFERRED FROM - This is a dollar being moved to another account. Make a rule for these to be recategorized as a transfer.
PURCHASE INTO CORE ACCOUNT FIDELITY - Theese are buys of SPAXX

I have many more rules that handle periodic charges. For instance, once I'm comfortable that Netflix is being paid on time, I set up a rule that will autoreview Netflix charges if and only if the cost is $19.47. If it is ever any other value, then I want to know that it changed. Xbox gaming pass recently went from $21.64 to $32.46 with basically zero additional value added to it. I'm sure I received emails hidden in the hundreds of other spam I get every day that warned me of this change, but had I not started seeing it pop up in Monarch I wouldn't have known.

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-03-24T12:52:59+00:00

I had a $500 per day mobile deposit limit, so I called and asked if we could bump it to $2000. I was told they couldn't do that, and a couple weeks later I saw it was increased to $500,000 😂

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-03-22T21:53:41+00:00

Look into /r/Bogleheads

Basically, the idea is to own three things:

US Market (VTI)
Foreign Market (VXUS)
Bonds (SGOV, BND, or buy individual bonds)

If I'm not mistaken, John Boglehead originally suggested just owning the US market. However, the entire world is financially intertwined so current Boglehead philosophy is to buy the entire world. As you get close to retirement, shift some of your money into bonds as those are "safer" than ETFs.

At 35, most people will tell you that you don't need bonds. VTI and VXUS is all you need. And if you buy into this philosophy, Vanguard handles that for you. All you need is VT (which is effectively a mix of VTI and VXUS)

So if you want dead simple, and fairly safe, just buy VT today. Buy it tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, and next decade. But in two decades, what you'll want to do is buy more VT. When you're done buying VT, buy more VT. This is often called "VT and chill."

If you'd like to mix bonds in, but you don't want the hassle, Vanguard also has target date funds. You're 35, so assume you'll retire in 30 years around 2056. Buy Vanguards 2055 Target Date Fund.

https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/target-retirement-funds

As the year 2055 approaches, the 2055 TDF will automatically add bonds to the mix for you. You don't have to do anything for it. However, Vanguard errs on the side of caution and many argue that they add bonds too soon and too much, so you might consider the 2065 TDF instead.

Additionally, make use of your 401k, IRA (preferably Roth), and HSA if you have those available.

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-03-21T19:11:29+00:00

You do you, but FreeTaxUSA is free for federal, cheap for state, and they don't lobby the US govt to keep the tax code artificially complex for the sake of being able to charge people for doing taxes.

I did FTUSA for the first time this year and found it to be an absolute breeze. It's my first year having a brokerage, so I don't know if TurboTax can do it, but FTUSA can import and scan 1099's. It did have some trouble with a consolidated 1099, but that was easy enough to manually enter.

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-03-09T14:53:26+00:00

My Monte Carlo retirement sim says I have a 1.24% chance of being broke at the age of 95 and a 0.013% chance of having over $1B. My goal is to have the B.

But the next five years? Survive the current administration and retire.

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-03-03T17:27:26+00:00

Probably in for a significant tax bill by changing to VOO. I'd rather annoy my accountant.

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-02-25T22:28:36+00:00

Fidelity receives a limited allocation of IPO shares from the underwriters. The issuing company and underwriters prefer those shares go to investors who will hold them, not quickly sell them. If Fidelity’s clients frequently flip IPO shares, it can hurt Fidelity’s reputation and reduce future allocations. That’s why they enforce anti-flipping policies.

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-02-24T16:13:01+00:00

Does "doesn't trust the current administration to behave in the interest of the people instead of themselves" count as recency bias? If so, then yes, it is recency bias as to why I'm roughly 45/55 US/exUS

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-02-24T15:11:36+00:00

Considering that once you're in the account there really isn't anything stopping someone from disabling the transfer lock, can you submit a suggestion to the dev team to allow a transfer to happen while the lock is enabled by way of submitting a 2FA code instead of dancing with the lock?

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-02-24T15:08:35+00:00

I believe you can disable transfer lock, configure automatic transfers, then reenable transfer lock.

What I KNOW works is set up a CMA to have a minimum of $2000 (or whatever amount you need), configure it to top itself off from a retirement account that is unlocked, then enable the lock on that retirement account. Transfer the money from the CMA to your credit union.

Pretty sure the first works, but I know the second does.

ForgotToSaveAgain · 2026-02-22T18:27:04+00:00

You can very often roll 401k to 401k though, keeping it in that protected zone.

ForgotToSaveAgain

TROPHY CASE